We were playing 'Twin Villages' from the designer's series last night, when a question came up during setup:

The Americans start the game with 4 concealment markers. Can these be used to conceal squads on victory/objective hexes within their setup zone? The rules state that concealed units become revealed when they move into an objective/victory hex. Nothing is said about setup, however.

So which of the following interpretations do you think is correct?:

1. The rule should be interpreted literally, meaning squads can be set up concealed in victory/objective hexes (as long as they don't move into them once the game starts).

2. The rule was poorly worded, but intends that squads cannot be concealed in victory/objective hexes, not even during setup.

3. "2." is correct, but the scenario designer (Mike Bennighof) assumed or intended "1." to be correct, at least in this scenario (In which case a scenario special rule should be provided.)

Many thanks for your input!

To get on with the game, we decided to roll a die to decide between options 1 and 2, resulting in option 2 and a rather swift American defeat. (As it proved almost impossible to hold on to the American objective hex already from the first round, which in turn severely impeded the intervention of the American artillery). I was undecided on the interpretation when we rolled for it, but after playing the scenario I tend towards option 1, or maybe 3...

Your thoughts?

Sounds like a spot for a "friendly rule" until an official errata can be produced to address it. Nice find though.

Bayard said:

This has been kinda "officially" answered by Mike Z over at the Geek . It's probably still debatable from this answer if one really wants to stress it any further, but the point "No concealed squads in objective hexes under any circumstances" is sorta obvious (and the reasons for that too).

Have a look at the "inofficial" FAQ collecting questions and answers posted on BGG, including this one. Might be useful?

CthIngo said:

Thanks.

I found the answer on boardgamegeek too in the meantime. It is now obvious the game developers didn't intend to allow concealed squads to set up in objective hexes.

The rule could have been written more clearly, however. Because I suspect (but am not quite sure) that the designer of the 'Twin Villages' scenario (Mike Bennighof, who is hasn't designed ToI, only written a scenario for it...) took the literal interpretation, thus allowing for concealed setup (option 3 in my original post). It would certainly balance the scenario somewhat. But unless he's active here or on BGG, I'm afraid we'll never know what his intention was...

In the meantime I'll either avoid the scenario, or propose a special rule allowing concealed setup on objective hexes for this scenario only, before sides are chosen.

If the concealed squads are not allowed to set up on the objectives the scenario is completely unbalanced and the Germans will completely overrun the position. This became obvious early during our first game. We tried it again in the second game with the same result. When we changed and allowed the concealed squad onto the objective the scenario played well.

Yeah I think FFG bailed on some special rules and rules exceptions when doing the TOI Designer Series books. Hopefully we'll see an FAQ update addressing everyone's concerns along with remaining issues from the Normandy expansion. The Quality Assurance on TOI seems to be pretty poor, so hopefully as a part of this FFG will start inviting gaming groups to become "test groups" for upcoming commercial releases.