hi folks,

i just checked out boardgamegeek.com and noticed that a new pic was uploadaded to the "fury of the bear"-section of toi (sorry, i could`t link it). you get a very first impression of the winter boards (which look sweet) and the new figs for the russians. no new german armor so far. seems to me like the phantom of the bear menace, hehe....

greetz from germany!

Cipheron said:

Sounds good! What is the source of those pics on BGG?

hm, as far as i can remember, the pic is taken from the latest ffg catalogue spring 2010. fotb is slated there for a summer 2010 release, hehe...:-)

We're switiching to Flames of War. No one around here wants to play TOI anymore with no new stuff for so long. Maybe if they release some new stuff this will change.

Cyscott1 said:

I tried FoW once. The rules are sort of OK, but I do not like the I-go-you-go format. Too much player downtime, too little interaction. I dislike games where you watch your opponent's entire army move, shoot and assault before you can do anything but roll saves. Activating platoons in alternate sequence, or first one player moves, then the other, one shoots then the other etc., I would have preferred something like that.

I like the fact that the probability to score a hit is based on the training of the target and not the shooter. I also like the two quality levels, morale and training.

FoW does have very well researched stats, special rules and orders of battle.

Cipheron said:

Crap... they're winter boards? Contrary to popular belief, most battles and smaller actions on the Russian Front did not take place on snow covered ground. Snow made things difficult going and it was cold. This is why almost every major offensive took place when there was no snow, like Kursk for example, which was one of the biggest tank battle of World War 2. But not all is lost, because when you think about it, the snow boards give you more visual options for playing "Tide of Iron". Heck, you can even use the snow boards to create a Battle of the Bulge scenario (hint, hint). If you wanted to have a Russian Front action over nice green fields, I guess that is where the other boards come in as well as the Extra Map Pack.

In short, snow boarding is good... LOL

You will find this comment on BGG as well. I posted it there first before I ready this thread.

RayGuns said:

I agree, RayGuns. If we're getting winter boards, I'd prefer they'd be more like the Lock 'n Load: Noville board. That board is mostly barren, with a scattering of snow, and not completely snow covered.

I sure hope the boards aren't snow covered on both sides, but I'd guess they are. I'd prefer some mixed winter/city boards for the Eastern Front.

Looks like they are all snow covered all right. My main issue with this is something that I read about the days of the Fox expansion. I read someone from FFG saying that one of the things the designers of Days of the Fox did not like was the fact that you could not use the boards with that expansion with the boards from the main game. They seemed to have fixed the issuew with the Normandy expansion. But now looks like they are doing the same thing with Fury of the Bear that they did with Days of Fox. You'd think FFG would have learned. But looks like they making the same mistake. I would have done snow overlays.

hey my memory is based on the playtest maps, but they where both green and winter and i belive i was allowed to use TOI maps. but that's only by memory not official of what FFG has done

BJaffe01

BJaffe01 said:

This is also what I recall reading somewhere previously. Besides, there are quite a few green boards and overlays available already, so even IF all of them were snow maps, I wouldn't mind!

Kingtiger said:

Ah, heck, I guess I don't care what it has in it—at this point I just want the damned thing!

My current TOI Christmas wish is for another update—how sad is that?!

Kingtiger said:

I always thought that the map expansion was somehow to help provide the green maps for the eastern front, so that expansion could go all winter maps.

I'm still trying to figure out the map expansion though...never really made much sense...yet I bought it.

Well, I can only imagine they thought it would come in handy for folks doing DYO scenarios.

kaufschtick said:

That they do.

Well, so far as I have seen, the game box, the cards, and the plastic pieces look OK, EXCEPT for that T-34, which has a turret not even close to what the actual turret looked like. This may not be that important to anyone else, but for me, since the T-34 is such an iconic tank and will be the main tank on the board, its my opinion that it should look right. I can only hope that FFG will read some on this and consider finding another model with the more well known turret version of the later 42/43 model T-34.

Again, here is a photo of what the turret looks like, from a 144th scale model, which is shown approximately the actual size (slightly larger than TOI), but looks pretty good on the board hexes:

I know this is probably asking too much from FFG developers, and they probably know I will just buy the game anyway, but it would be nice to see some concern about getting this particular model right. Otherwise, I guess I will just have to buy my own models from the site where that photo came from.

In my opinion winter boards are just fine. We are only getting 9 of those (at least to my understanding), but we have 12 original green boards that we can use for any non-winter scenarios we want to make.

I would also geuss that there are winterboards on one side, and green boards on the other side.

Grand Stone said:

Considering the map expansion is available for "green" maps, I'd kinda hope that the FotB maps are winter on both sides. With only 9 boards, which is pretty good BTW; having winter on both sides would provide a nice bit of variety.