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Dear all,
Am new to boardgaming and find myself drawn into wargaming, more specifically to WW2 genre. I've recently acquired Memoir '44 and enjoyed it. I'm looking for a slightly more heavier version and I'm currently looking at Tides of Iron and Conflict of Heroes. Not too sure which to get. Can some kind BGG folk who has experience on both of them share your valued experience with me?
Lastly, a happy new year to you all!
D
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dustin boggs
Canada
Victoria
BC
these are my overtexts and
now I am without geek gold :(
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Tide of Iron has loads of pieces, figures and pretty bits. If you are wanting pieces this is the way to go.
Conflict of Heroes gameplay lies in management of action points. They are on par in complexity I think.
I was in a similar position as you last year and I went with Conflict of Heroes. It didnt go over to well with my partner because everything was too open and there wasnt much guidance in what you could/should do. If your not very strategic and thinking like how a soldier may complete its missions than it may be a problem.
Thanks to wargame secret santa I now have Tide of Iron as well as Combat commander. I was a huge supporter of Conflict of Heroes but I now think that I prefer Combat Commander due to its extremely well written rule book and I like the way the cards work with the game and dice rolls are randomized in a complete deck.
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Ron Chapman
United States
Hampton
Virginia
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Yeah, I've gotta say that Combat Commander is the way to go, for me at least. I own all three games, along with quite a few other wargames. Of those three (and Memoir '44), Combat Commander had enough complexity and interaction that kept me interested, even after several plays.
- Chap
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eryn roston
United Kingdom
London
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I think Tide of Iron is good, but Conflict of Heroes is very good. I've not played Combat Commander yet but I hear its quite good. I chose CoH because I wanted to be able to incorporate vehicles into my scenarios (which combat commander doesnt have). I like it better than ToI because of the facing rules that are in CoH (ToI has no facing).
I find that the facing rules are extremely important to encourage interesting opportunities of maneuvering, where TOI can sometimes end up feeling a lil static.
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Brandon Minton
United States
St Petersburg
Florida
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Can't help with the choice between those two games but I recently started playing ASL - Advanced Squad Leader and that is a game you should look into also if you haven't already. The bonus is that you can play it over the internet for free (on www.vasl.org, once you have purchased the game) if you are unable to find people in your area to play face to face. Check out a description here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Squad_Leader
The full game is very in depth but they make a series called Started Kits that is perfect for someone who doesn't want to put a lot of time into learning the full rules. However, once the bug has bitten, full ASL in too tempting to ignore. It is considered the ultimate in WWII gaming by many people and the best part is it's flexibility. They make so many maps and have so many scenarios that you could play for 20 years and never have to play the same one twice. I made the jump from Axis and Allies to this and I am blown away but how great it is.
The ASL community is very helpful to new players and the game is well supported though forums. There is also an enjoyable podcast dedicated to it called, "The Two Half Squads."
It's not just a game, it's a full on hobby! If you really love WWII, this is a great way to go. : )
Have an enjoyable wargaming New Year no matter which game you choose!
-Brandon
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john f stup
United States
damascus
Maryland
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both are good and step or two up from Memoir'44. cards don't control the games like M'44 and both are pulse oriented whereas you can move what units you want up to certain limits thus you have more control. TOI has nice plastic pieces where COH has very nice cardboard pieces. but COH has a more definite scale than TOI. i like both but i like the feel and the aesthetics TOI better.
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Wow, thanks for the nice replies. I've learned a few things from your kind insights.
I'm somehow more interested in the gameplay then aesthetics. I saw Flames of War and somehow don't see myself sitting down painting miniatures. 
COH seems to be the right direction from me. Like the point about facing rules, it does and will force you to think about maneuvers.
As for ASL, you can see from my wish list that its a 'Must Have' for me. However, being new to board gaming, I wanted to 'scale up' before I reach ASL. Also the fact that ASL is not available locally for me and shipment from the States is quite high. Have installed VASL but have some problems getting it to work right, will have to sort that out in order to observe the matches online. And yes, the ASL community folks, like BGG folks, has been very kind and helpful.
Thanks all! 
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M C
United States
Orem
Utah
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Conflict of Heroes: Storms of Steel! Kursk 1943!!!
Although I'm not knocking the other two choices, and the scenario book for ToI is supposed to improve the game.
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David Bohnenberger
United States
Swarthmore
Pennsylvania
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If forced to choose between the two, I think CoH is a better choice. ToI is just a pain to set up and play, dealing with all those plastic bases and minis.
I just wanted to add that I'm not sure "facing" is always such point of realism in WWII tactical games. While vehicle and gun facing is very common in tactical games, CoH is the only one I know of in which infantry platoons have "facing". Maybe this means CoH is the only "realistic" game of the bunch, or maybe not.
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Doug Palmer
United States
Birmingham
Michigan
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Figured I'd toss in my 2 cents worth.
My co-worker and I have been playing both ToI and CoH for the past 3 months during lunch and breaks. We started with ToI, playing through all of the scenarios in the base set, the Days of the Fox expansion and then Normandy. We played them twice each, taking each side as we played. After having exhausted ToI, I introduced him to CoH. We're now nearly done with the CoH scenarios and I'm ready to buy the next set so that we can do more with the series. Here's what we've found:
ToI is a great beer and pretzels type war game. Fiddly to set up? Maybe, but it's not THAT bad. It's great to look at though. Nice bits. Rules aren't horrible, but there are some that are just so anti-intuitive. The biggest knock that I have against ToI is that the scenarios are, on average, VERY unbalanced.
CoH seems to have better gameplay. The scenarios play quicker, are much more balanced and you have more decision making to do. Is it "deeper" than ToI? Maybe slightly, but in a differnet way. ToI offers more scenarios and flexibility (for now), but CoH is still going strong with more and more expansions in the pipeline.
Just my 2 cents
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uwe eickert
United States
Helena
Ohio
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Hello Jamieson,
I like TOI, a fun game, but you know where my preference lays! LOL
We will be posting a video online this coming week teaching Conflict of Heroes. Gunter and I will also post another video in which we played through a firefight to show the game flow and our decision making. We actually played most of the Courrier firefight in under 10 minutes! (We do not recommend you to do this at home!!) 
I also highly recommend ASL and Combat Commander. Both are fun systems that offer different experiences. That is the great thing about our hobby. Once you start to play one game system, you can't quit!
Uwe Eickert
Academy-Games
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Wow the man himself speaks!
Thanks loads Uwe, can't wait to see your tutorials!
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Elo Uwe,
I just received my copy of Conflict of Heroes.
Quality is good! Can't wait to start learning it.
Thanks,
D
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uwe eickert
United States
Helena
Ohio
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Thanks Jamieson, enjoy. Uwe
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Shawn Woods
Canada
Halifax
Nova Scotia
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I know this may not be much of a useful addition, but here is a session report for the Solo game in Conflict of Heroes: Storms of Steel. It is only the first mission, so it is pretty simple, but it may give you a little visual idea of how the gameplay is.
http://boardgame.geekdo.com/thread/458884/storms-of-steel-ku...-
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Ian Scrivins
United Kingdom
Brighton
Sussex
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I have both and while I slightly prefer Tide of Iron for its visual appeal and overall sense of being slightly more 'fun', there's not much wrong with Conflict of Heroes.
One important point though: if you go CoH then get Storms of Steel, it includes some subtle, but important rule changes that substantially increase the realism.
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Thanks Ian and Shawn,
Have played a couple of rounds of CoH:AtB and love it.
Had just placed an order for CoH:SoS. Ian's solo AAR is lovely and the suggestions of strategy is something I eagerly await to try
D
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