I’m mostly a miniatures wargamer. My main games have been Battletech, X-Wing, Infinity, and Star Wars Legion. I’ve also played most other Star Wars miniatures games: the West End Games Star Wars Miniatures Battles, Imperial Assault, and Armada. I also have my share of experience with traditional hex-and-counter boardwargames. Battle of Hoth is my first contact with the Memoir ’44/Command & Colors system.

The main question that I want to answer in this review is whether Battle of Hoth is enjoyable for a wargamer.

Many miniature and board wargames feature a relatively high complexity, regardless of the scope of the battles being simulated. Tactical/skirmish games can go into extreme detail, in some cases individually modelling each soldier and weapon. Those operating at a higher level often add complexity by modelling (important) factors such as logistics. Battle of Hoth abstracts most detail away, leading to a game that has quite simple rules that fit on a few manual pages.

Abstraction does not have to be an issue. To me, other things than detail are more important:

1. Can I as player make meaningful decisions, i.e. do I have player agency? I’ve seen plenty of miniature wargames where gameplay is essentially reduced to two armies advancing towards each other, rolling dice until one side is eliminated, with no real room for tactical decision making. The outcome is either pre-determined by the composition of the two armies, or a result of the dice rolls. This is not what I consider enjoyable.
2. Are the mechanics plausible? Some games fail to simulate morale, meaning that all units always fight to the death. Others have trouble with properly representing terrain effects or properly balancing infantry and vehicles.
3. Does the game simulate friction? A game where the player is always in full control of each minute detail and has perfect knowledge of the situation takes away much of what real combat is about.

To me, Battle of Hoth succeeds for all three items.

1. There are plenty of meaningful choices to be made. Which command card do I play? Do I stay within cover, or advance for doing more damage, but expose my units in return? Do I focus on one unit or spread my fire?
2. Terrain provides cover, height provides an advantage. Vehicles suffer more from dense terrain than infantry. Units may need to retreat, and suffer losses or even destruction if unable to do so.
3. There is no fog of war, so the main friction element comes from the command cards. You are usually very limited with regard to unit activation.

This means that, to me, Battle of Hoth is an enjoyable wargame. Thanks to its abstractions, it is both accessible and quick to play. As a result, playing the campaigns is very much feasible, as is playing all scenarios with players switching sides. There is no bookkeeping, table lookup, or math required.

There are also two points of criticism that I’ve seen voiced:

1. Losses do not affect the offensive power of units. I think this is a necessary abstraction. Losses do not necessarily mean actual manpower losses, but simply attrition that eventually results in the unit being rendered unable to fight. One could house-rule this to remove attack dice, but this would probably upset the game balance.
2. The board is a bit small. This is true, and there’s not really space to attempt an enveloping maneuver. On the other side, it fits with how the Battle of Hoth is displayed in The Empire Strikes Back, being a head-on affair between advancing AT-ATs and dug-in Rebel troops.

To sum it up, I can recommend Battle of Hoth even to the hardcore wargamer. I think the game system’s mechanics that favour playability over complexity are worth experiencing for all wargamers. I, in any case, am seriously considering getting the refreshed edition of Memoir ’44.

The remaining question is, what future expansions will we get? The original Star Wars trilogy doesn’t feature many ground battles – the only other one is the ground part of the Battle of Endor. It could be done, but would then have to model a smaller scale of battle. I don’t care about the Clone Wars, so it remains to be seen whether we’ll see a Rebellion-era expansion.