What a fantastic addition this was to the ToI game, and just a super book to have by anyone who is a wargame fan. Every so often I get caught up reading through this when I just wanted to look at or for a particular scenario.

I find reading about the particular designers and the notes they included in the book to be sometimes of greater interest than the scenarios themselves! Having been a longtime subscriber to The General in the days of my youth, this Designer Scenario book sometimes reminds me of that magazine from days gone by.

Don't get me wrong though, the book is packed full of super scenarios, and is a must have for any ToI fan. But you don't find projects like this one very often in the wargame world. It gives one a small background to each of the game designers, a bit of their past, their game design philosophy, the companies they've worked for or run, and just all sorts of intersting tidbits concerning the wargame hobby.

Its as much a snapshot of the hobby as a whole as it is just a scenario book for ToI. I mean, you just don't see things like this very often. The past couple days I found myself looking through this book, and it really struck me just how special a project it really was and is.

Of course, I think we'd all love to see a Volume two, and I think that kinda goes without saying. Hell, right now, we'd love to see a second preview for FotB, but if ToI manages to do well for FFG, a Designer Series Volume Two would be something special!

Anyway, I just had to stop and take a minute to say what a super item the Designer Series Volume One really is, I think it sometimes gets overlooked, especially in light of the upcoming FotB release.

I wanna say that in the opening comments of the book, it is revealed that Christian T. Peterson is the fellow who brought the idea up originally, and then Dana Lombardy who was the driving force that brought the project to reality. What a truely special project it turned out to be.

I agree with you wholeheartedly on this. While I have both DOTF and Normandy, I have found myself largely appreciating those for the additional rules, strategy cards, components and maps. But when I have the itch to play a scenario that I have not tried before it is always the Designer Series I go to first.

In spite of the attention that each boxed expansion recieves, this book has so far, for me, been the highlight of my TOI gaming experience thus far. The scenarios are very well thought out and contain a real depth to them.

I commend FFG and the designers involved, and a Vol 2 would be most welcome.

nath: said:

It's a great example of what this game has to offer, and when they add the "tools" for allowing players to move to the Eastern Front, I think ToI is going to experience a renewal in the wargame market.

Dana Lombardy makes the comment himself in the Designer Series opening pages, that he is anticipating the addition of the Eastern Front to the game.

Maybe we'll be lucky enough to see a Designer Series Volume Two some time after Fury of the Bear? (I hope, I hope)

Agreed, it would be nice to have volume two include Normandy and Fotb. The one thing I would change about Volume 1 is to have the Current Normandy scenarios work with the Normandy expansion a little better.

The typos and some unanswered question on some of the scenarios irritates me.

For example the scenario called 'ring around aachen' has obviusly been played and designed slightly differently from the published version. Spesificly, the US can simply walk into all three objectives first round and win, and the germans does not have room to place all units on the board. I guess that the germans are supposed to be able to set up some troops around the objective at 3A also, but I realy want to confirm this. Without some clearification I dont think this one is playable at all. And that is somewhat sad, since it most probably is just a minor typo or something somewhere.

Another typo which is less critical because its so extremly obvius that there is an type, can be found in the night hunt scenario: US tanks are supposed to be placed in town, ie in the hexes 1a, 7a, 9a! Not the infanteri in division 2! If played correctly, night hunt is an excelent scenario which is just amaisingly fun. However if you play it as it stands, it is a completly different scenario, and I would suppose it is just borring. Therefore this typo should be added in the FAQ.

But, the good scenarios in this book are great and adds a lot to the game, so I second that the Designer Series is a good product and I realy hope for more product of this types.

Yes, the typos were a little off putting.

I have not played either of those two scenarios, but you have me very interested in the 'night hunt' one now. I will have to check it out.