001 At The Breaking Point

Scenario Overview by Evil Knivel @ BGG
boardgamegeek.com/filepage/64961/toi-scenario-overview

"Works well as an introduction for new players."
Favors: Americans+
Fixes:
(a) Let the newcomer play the Yanks.
(b) Get rid of the American reinforcement deck.
(c) Shorten the number of rounds.

It's been awhile since I've played this one (before this website was set-up), but I played this a couple times--analog--with Scubaseth. This was years ago, back when our experience with the game was more equal (I've since been able to play it a lot more).

My recollection was that it was that the NW version (_not_ the FFG version) was relatively balanced. I won as the Germans, and then I also won as the Americans. Scubaseth played the Americans first, and thus saw what the Germans did to win, and then he still lost as the Germans, but it was close (as I recall).

Jarod wrote:

Not an easy task for the Germans player. Need a lot of lucky

You are right Jarod.
Did you use the updated "Next Wave" version of the scenario? Or the original FFG one?

Not a large statistic sample but on the website I can see a 50% Usa / German victories.
It would be interesting to hear some comments from German victorous players.
 

Not an easy task for the Germans player. Need a lot of lucky

Posting here some comments found online.
boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/43192/tide-ir...yer-comments-balance

• It is a no-win scenario for the Germans (or at least about 1 out of every 5). They need both luck and score an early win.
• Once the American reinforcement kick in for a couple turns, the Germans are done.
• Possible fixes: Get rid of the American reinforcement deck. Shorten the number of rounds.
• This works well as an introduction to ToI for new players, let the newcomer play the Yanks.
• The Germans have some really useless cards like the one that allows an attack on a heavy vehicle.
• A relatively easy potential fix would be to starve the US of Command Points. Remove the two US Command Objectives from the entrenchment hexes (they're valuable enough on their own), and turn the generic Command Objective in the building behind the line to a 2-CP or even 1-CP objective. That would limit the US to between 1 and 3 CP per turn, assuming they venture out to hold the hill in the bottom-left corner. They wouldn't easily get a squad every turn, and might even be encouraged to draw more from the Ground Support deck instead since it has cheaper cards. It'd still probably be pretty tough for the Germans, but might at least be an interesting puzzle.

This version of the scenario "At The Breaking Point" is the updated version of the scenario. It fixes some of the play balance issues. It is from the "New Wave" version of the "Tide of Iron".