I have been looking to get this game for my 15 yearold son and was wondering if it a good game or not. How involved is it? After reading the rules online it looked to be very complicated. I just do not want to get bogged down in to many rules, but I want a game with more complexity and strategey than risk. We love miniture gaming such as X wing , Star Wars minis and Games Workshops Lord of the Rings. Please let me know what you think. Is this a game for us?

Thanks

If you want a good starter set of plastic miniatures and nice selection of a variety of terrain boards and accessories hex tiles, with the idea of designing your own tactical minatures game, then this is not a bad choice.

If you are used to tactical level wargames that have realistic rules, and a logical structure, based on measureable data, like scale of hex, range of weapon vs movement value ratio that reflects firepower capability of weapon type, in a measured segment of time, then.. you will be disappointed.

chris cook said:

Compared to risk and Stratego it's very complicated. It's also somewhat more complicated than memoir 44 although the playing field becomes a lot more level if you also include all the expansions of memoir into the equasion. Once you get the rules down they should all fall into place relatively easily, with the possible exception of assault attacks which are explained in a rather cumbersome way unfortunately. A major problem with the game is the imbalance of many scenarios. There are many good ones out there too, but you need to really know which they are if you want to avoid a major disappointnent by finding out the scenario you've just spent an hour on to set up is lousy.

It's a great game system with gorgeous looking miniatures, boards and basically every single other component, but FFG should support it a lot more.

It is a nicely designed boardgame but if you have never handled miniatures before, you will most likely be frustrated with ToI. One, it is tedious putting individual troops onto the base. It can turn out to be frustrating and if not careful you can snap the peg. I never allow a newbie to handle the troop building part because of this problem. Thankfully, I play mostly with friends who are into miniatures game.

The scenarios that come with the game are more often than not, unbalanced. If you can find the ToI map editor, there are many fan made scenarios that are better designed.

Setup takes a looong time. There are tons of fiddly bits

Those are the negatives. The game is best for intermediate level. The rules are not overwhelming but not simple either. For example, there is no facing but there is the concept of line of sight. The components are beautiful and there are a ton of bits that help keep track of effects and such. The game is highly customizable. You can create your own platoons within the confines of the scenario. The cards enhance gameplay but does not run the game.

Overall, I like it especially with the Fox expansion and the scenario book.