hi folks,

i just recreived my terrain pack 1. the new map boards and overlays are magnificent, yet darker than the older ones found in the base game. they match almost perfectly with the new boards found in the normandy expansion. i tried the "red devils"-scenario and the combined boards looked cool.

honestly, i was quite unhappy to see that the original boards and the normandy boards didn`t match colour-wise, it looked ...ahm... apart. :-) (the original boards have a much "lighter" green-tone than the normandy boards...)

there are no new tank traps tokens, minefield tokens etc., just enhanced map overlays and (the original) twelve map boards.

i am really looking forward to play with the enhanced boards in the future.

in the course of just app. 2 years, we received a wonderful base game and 4 expansions. great times to be a wargamer, hehe...:-)

cipheron sez bye!!!

Definitely good times. I'm really looking forward to those maps boards because the color difference doesn't bother me and I want to create a massive setup for some friends to just slug it out. Heck...we may even throw in some desert boards if it's not massive enough with the 24 original and revised boards + the 9 from Normandy!

kmedlinnc said:

hope you`ll have no problems checking line of sight with a range over 12+ boards, hehe...:-) (i use a expendable rubber band to check for line of sight, we had alway problems checking for los while playing without this helpful item...:-) )

I used to be miniatures gamer so I've got a massive tape measure for the task! I'll have to post pictures after I do it at some point.

kmedlinnc said:

Yeah, you're right, the slight color difference from the base game is just not that big of a deal, I mean, all of the boards are superb.

I can't help thinking to myself that the stage is really set for ToI to move into the Eastern Front for it's next move. The British army figures are fairly well fleshed out, and the German army figures are as well with what we have now. With these maps here, the tools are in hand for some truely titanic maps like you'd expect to see in an Eastern Front game.

I absolutely agree. I'd love to see an Eastern Front game that featured maybe 6 boards, but had 4 or 5 sheets of terrain so that it'd be easy to create a whole Stalingrad series.

What exactly is in the map pack? Is it just duplicates of the boards from the original game, or does it include new, previously un-released boards with varrying terrain? Thanks!

kmedlinnc said:

We have many " green" boards now

Also desert terrain...

So for the Russian front what I'm really looking forward to is seeing some snow-covered terrain! Snow maps; bring ' em on!

Oh no don't tell me we are going to have another "cry foul" over tiles being a bit different? I seem to remember the same whine (with cheese) happen with Flying Frog Production's Last Night on Earth supplement Growing Hunger. Personally a little colour change in pigment or whatever doesn't affect me playing a game whatsoever. But I will have these on Monday so I will make more of a comment then. But honestly there are more important things for people to be concerned about than a slight difference in how lighter or darker their cardboard game tiles are.

CanadianPittbull said:

You're dead right about the boards being a little lighter in color. I thought for a moment that I might "retire" the original boards, but there is no good reason to do so and every reason to add them all together for really large battlefields.

In some respects, I kinda like the artwork better on the original boards, aside from them being a lighter shade of green.

Snow maps would be great actually. Maybe they'd do the normal 9 board big box expansion with double-sided snow maps & more East Front appropriate green maps too. Right now the green maps are very Western Europe centric.

I would LOVE to see some winter map packs get released as well. Worst case scenario is to just get some white flock/fake snow and sprinkle some of that over your game board.

According to the FFG site-

The Tide of Iron Map Upgrade pack lets players update their original map boards with brand new artwork and enhanced colors. Players can also use these with their existing Tide of Iron boards to create epic level battles.

Also included is the cardboard from the base game with upgraded obstacles such as tank traps, bunkers, and hills, giving players much more flexibility when creating custom scenarios and recreating famous battles.

There where no tank traps or bunkers in my map pack. Did I get ripped or is this a typo?

Most likely a typo since it's the overlays, etc. from the base game.

There are so many boards now with this pack you can almost build a continent.

Dembones2 said:

LOL!!!

I think I measured the individual panels and figured that with 24 panels, the map for the 2 on 2 mega map in the scenario book that uses all 24; the whole map would be like, very close to 4 feet by 4 feet! Awsome.

I still think this should be labelled as an Upgrade rather than as an Expansion, as it doesn't really add anything new to the game.

Oh well - I'll be more interested to see what "Map Pack 2" contains.

TeufelHund said:

Yes, map pack two will be interesting to see...

kaufschtick said:

Unless of course, it's the Normandy boards redone by the artist who did the original TOI boards...