The two prizes - a special “Winter edition” of our Campaign Bag -, one for the best English-speaking contributor, the other for the best French-speaking one, go to:

- Jesse Rasmussen, aka Rasmussen81, whose user page is a real treasure trove of resources for the Memoir ‘44 player, and whose efforts to teach Memoir ‘44 to young players especially caught our attention.

Rasmussen81 with his prize: a special Winter Edition Campaign Bag

and to

- Jacques David, aka jdRommel, whose encyclopedic knowledge of even the most minute WWII firefight and constant dedication to creating new scenarios out of that knowledge continues to delight Memoir ‘44 players who visit his user page ; his Breakthrough format contribution to the game is also especially dear to our heart.

Our second Winner: jdrommel

If you haven’t visited either of these User Pages - and the countless other ones that make Memoir ‘44 online community such a success - we encourage you to do so. And if you did one, but haven’t won anything yet, you might want to keep trying. You never know when we might declare some new winners, as we’re always on the look-out for exciting new pages and contributions to the game.

The Memoir ‘44 High Command Staff

These are web pages created by you and other Days of Wonder fans that can include: personal articles on your gaming experiences; house rules variants; tips and tricks; uploaded photos and files; online gaming stats, and custom Memoir ‘44 scenarios that you may want to share.

The User Pages section can be accessed from any Days of Wonder web page by clicking on the “User Pages” item in the top menu bar. The main page will show the most recent activity, the most viewed and best rated User Pages, etc. You will also see information related to your own use, such as User Pages of your buddies, and your favorite pages.

Memoir ‘44 User Pages

As you will see, the first release of the User Pages is focused on the Memoir ‘44 community and uses Memoir design elements. We will implement new templates for BattleLore and Ticket to Ride in the coming months, using the feedback we get from the initial Memoir ‘44 users.

The Memoir ‘44 User Page automatically includes information from other areas, such as the Scenarios from the Front. It also features sections that allow you to write articles, post files for download by other players, and more. There is even an Image Gallery, where you can showcase your latest painted miniatures or pics from your latest battles.

In addition to your own pages, the Memoir ‘44 Center acts as a portal into Memoir ‘44 activity from other users. Found in the Main Directories section, it displays preferred scenarios, best contributors, etc.

Getting Started and Creating Your First User Page

We suggest you browse the main page, the Memoir ‘44 Center and a few User Pages, to get a feel for how they work. Then read the very short “Getting Started with User Pages” explanation, and click on the big “Go to My User Pages” button. A new page will be created and displayed for you automatically.

As you will see, the features are very easy to use. No technical knowledge is needed as text entry is done directly inside the page. We put a lot of effort into the User Pages interface to clear away the usual technical roadblocks that make web publishing so painful. So create, write, browse and have fun with these new User Pages!

For feed-back and discussions, visit the User Pages forum thread.

Today, the first visible step is becoming visible on the Scenarios from the Front page on Memoir ‘44 website.

Memoir ‘44 scenarios will now all conform to the data model briefly hinted at on the “Naming conventions for M44 scenario titles” thread on Memoir ‘44 forum.

Changes have been made in the editor itself, to help scenario designers conform to the standards introduced in the Air Pack scenario booklet, and on all the pages that contain lists of scenarios (Official Scenarios, Scenarios from the Front, etc…)

The most visible and immediate change is the interactive preview you will now notice if you let your mouse hover over any of the scenarios in a list; the next change you will likely notice is the new wealth of filters and search tools available to help you locate the very scenario you were looking for.

But these changes also go beyond skin-deep. Inside the scenario editor itself, you will now find a bevy of new data fields, some of which warrant more explanations:

• The Front pop-up menu, at the top of the Battle Info pane in your editor, is used to select the Front most appropriate for your scenario, based on geographical location and using the same nomenclature (Western Front, Eastern Front, Pacific Theater and Mediterranean Theater) first introduced in the Air Pack booklet.
• The Operation pop-up displays a list of all officially approved Operations to date. This list is currently limited to the Operations featured in the official scenarios (ie those listed in the Air Pack) but will progressively increase over time to encompass all known Operations for WW II.
  If your scenario belongs to an already featured Operation, please select it from that list; if your scenario is about an Operation that does not appear in the list yet, please click on the “Submit an Operation” link in the editor to submit your operation name for approval and addition to the official list.
  Please make sure to use the proper naming conventions outlined on the “Naming conventions for M44 scenario titles” thread on Memoir ‘44 forum.
  Note that this field should only be used to list an Operation, not to list a battle, geographical information, etc.. as was sometimes done in earlier scenarios. If your particular scenario was not part of a well known Operation, this field should be left empty - and you may use the Sub-title field instead, to note additional information you deem relevant.
• The Start date is the date upon which your scenario started, in history. Unless it lasted over several days, you should leave the End date empty.
• The Type should be left as Historical by default.
• In the Game Info pane, a distinction is now made between the Sides you play from, and the actual Country forces in play.

Because all of the scenarios produced to date (yours and ours) have been conforted to this new data format, it is important that you verify no anomaly was introduced in error; specifically, that a Start Date is indeed specified; that the Countries involved are properly spelled out; the more data you input, the more useful and accessible your scenarios will be to fellow users using our new Search tools and filters; so please take a few minutes to verify your prior work is conforming to the above specs and new format.

We hope you enjoy all of the above, as a teaser of things to come. Additional improvements for BattleLore adventures, and significant upgrades to the editors for both games, will follow in the months to come.

The Coding Headquarters at DoW

To celebrate this milestone, we are awarding all the players who participate in the 10 Millionth game with a free copy of every version of Ticket to Ride, plus their choice of any other (currently available) Days of Wonder game.

Every registered player or guest is eligible and while it will take a lot of luck, the only thing you need to do to have a chance to win is to play any of your favorite Days of Wonder Online games including any of the Ticket to Ride games, Gang of Four, Fist of Dragonstones or Queen’s Necklace.

To be eligible to win, your game can only include “live” players, either registered players or guests (no games with bots will count) and your game must be completed.

We’ll contact the lucky winners via email after the 10 Millionth game is completed.

Note: Because of the high volume of online games played and the varying speeds of web page updates, it’s highly unlikely that the online game counter on the home page will exactly reflect the current game being started. So trying to time your game exactly is probably not an effective strategy. Just keep playing and good luck!

The Online Team at Days of Wonder

Read the complete contest rules here

- The Memoir ‘44 Air Pack expansions have arrived in the US and are en route to our distributors and retailers in North America. Copies are expected to begin showing up in stores next week. All of the Air Pack pre-orders from the Days of Wonder online store have also shipped. In both cases however, nasty weather around the country may cause some shipping delays that are beyond anyone’s control, so we ask you to be a little patient if you are not able to get your copy right away.

- The Memoir ‘44 Card Compendium is now posted and available.

- Overlord Airpack Rules are now posted on the Overlord page

- We’ve posted the Air Pack Expansion FAQ.

- We’ve added a German translation of the Summary cards from the core game to the rules page (Thanks to Marc Koch for this contribution).

We all hope you have a great holiday seasons!

– The Days of Wonder Platoon