I have just finished playing through the whole Normandy campaign for the first time, and I have to say: Well done! It was a lot of fun, and some very close-run battles were fought. Because of a tactical error during setup, the first scenario went to the Americans, although the Germans have very good chances of winning this. The next two battles could have gone either way, but the US pulled off victories both times. The last scenario was won by the Americans by a wider margin, the German troops being wiped out during turn 10. Weather played a big part in the two scenarios that used it.

On the whole, this campaign is among the best the game has to offer so far. I like the way growing experience is handled and its effects. I hope to see more campaigns using these rules.

The one thing that was missing was AT guns. The Germans absolutely needed them in scenario 4. I understand designing expansions so that they can be played with the base game alone, but then the AT guns should have been in the base game, with additional ones and variations in the expansions. They are just plain missing in Normandy.

Here are the survivors of the hero company from the 29th:

Really interesting, this campaign aspect of TOI. I don't own Normandy. I expect being able to play campaigns on russian ground in the near future. (In this life, this reality, this universe.) Can Normandy campaign rules be easily transposed to other theaters? (I'm thinking about the North African one. And FoB, of course.)

Meta Baston said:

Sure, it is an easy system for andvancing surviving squads after a won battle.

Klaus glad you enjoyed the campaign. The last scenario was a challenge to balance so i'm not surprised the Germans got killed at the end.

BJaffe01

I haven't actually had time to play the campaign jet, but for my point of view it seems the campain is all about playing the US. Ie, it would work well if the german played the game as an GM plays the game in a roleplaying game. Ie, if the GM is supposed to loose, but give the players some challenge. However in a one versus one or 2 versus 2 game, I realy miss something for the germans. Something which makes it as fun playing germans as the US.

KlausFritsch said:

If thats the only thing the germans need it couldnt be too hard to incorporate some to make it even. Maybe with even with no modification the american side.

Pilot17 said:

Two or three 88s would go a long way towards balancing out the weight of the US armor. I would probably start with two, one on each flank.

Definitively agree with you on the AT guns. The reason why they were not added is because they did not want to requier the days of the fox expansion to play normandy. I do like that policy, but I also miss the AT guns...

AT guns should have came out in the base set. It really stinks that they didnt. Since when were bazookas the primary way for a force with no armor to take out a tank?

I totaly agree. The AT gun is the most important component missing in the basic TOI game.

You will still have the same instricting problem. If you include a nice fun unit in expansion X, you do want to use it in expansion Y. But on the other hand, you dont want to force people to buy expansion X to play expansion Y. But I'm basicly happy about the generall policy regarding this issue here.

I'm kind of currius on what german tanks are available at the eastern front. I would be realy suppriced if the panther was not included. I'm not entirely sure about which years are modeled, so I'm not sure about the panzer III, but would not be suppriced about that eitther. Since the russian are getting an AT gun it would be strange if the german did not have one. I'm not entriely sure about the stug, as it gamewice is identical to the panzer IV (if not changed with a 'no fire and movement rule'), but still the odds are that most of the german tanks will be reprints.

I think it might be the early part of the war, just judging by the style of the T-34. If im correct i belive the latter versions had a larger turret in contrast to the body and the tanks body was a little bit more rounded.

one thing to know is the soviets produced T-34 in numerous plants and each plant had some production quirks so the narrow turret actually was available all through the war. i so love books from Poland that have such great info i wish more of it was in English but enough of it is to help me.

Shermans had the same phenomenon as well.

BJaffe01

I'm happy that scenerios in an expansion only corrospond to the figures for that expansion only.

Scenerios incorporating multiple expansions should go in the hardcover scenario books. I wonder when the next one will come out...

I mentioned this in the other thread also, but, how about a 'fan' based hard cover book...