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The commented ease of play, an art of war badly needing game coverage and promise of historicity sold me [;)]

Just downloaded the game without a hitch no-restarts of the digital download system needed this time! Game loaded without a hitch including iNet and the new Dx management files as well.

Fired up perfectly, just looked around the Thebes battlefield, moved a unit, the entire AI swarmed at me and I exited out and came here to post, it being much safer [:D]

Some great things to note that just haven't been mentioned yet:

1. Full mouse wheel zoom included - great stuff! This should be lauded. You can zoom in extremely close to the units for detail and art appreciation and liklewise zoom out for a very comfortable operational/grand tactical playable display of all the action - no squinting necessary or wasted real estate to be had here... Dare I say a "god's eye" view [:)]

2. The map of Thebes whilst looking small on the screenshots accompanying the game site, really is much bigger in play. I'd say although 6 epic battles are included there promises to be plenty of room for experimentation in each.

3. Music and map coloring are very mood inspiring. I am very much looking forward to getting into the rules and playing a few turns side by side alternating with Normandy! Hey with digital download, no disc swapping needed.

4. Love the menu layout, the interface looks very intuitive with click and drop orders. Footprints for movement, swords for melee etc., all ending with order lines from target location to executing unit.

Koios Works - definitely do provide a scenario expansion pack for Christmas and do take this series further (this on first impressions alone). "Out of the box" Tin Soldiers looks like a hoot of fun to be had.

For those contemplating buying Tin Soldiers or Rome Total War. Look no further, get this game. RTW offers an unstable fare of disconnected effort. Activision messed with what should have been a solid successor to Medievil Total War and as a result, has totally changed the feel and play of the series to its detriment. Already Tin Soldiers looks and feels like a war game - a very mature successor to Great Battles in presentation and handling - again all on a quick first perception. It stands out thusly.

Matrix - you've two worthy potential classics on your hands with Tin Soldiers and Battles in Normandy.

Keep these two series coming!
Adam.

2. The map of Thebes whilst looking small on the screenshots accompanying the game site, really is much bigger in play. I'd say although 6 epic battles are included there promises to be plenty of room for experimentation in each.

Adam, Thanks for the compliments on the game. I wanted to mention that there are actually 8 battles (2 get unlocked after you finish the campaign as a reward). Also, the maps get about 4 times bigger than the Thebes map in the later 'bigger' battles so you have some more to look forward to [8D]

I'm also very pleased, the quality of the package is outstanding. No problems purchasing and downloading the game. (I had to reinstall the game however because I refused to accept the pointnet framework the first time - I thought it was only needed for multiplayer and feared firewall issues. I understand that the nature of your contract with Microsoft must oblige Koios/Matrix to offer the customer a choice to refuse the installation - maybe a warning screen would be useful...) The game is perfectly stable, and the only bug I've seen is quite minor. (When I decided to exit the game while the cards screen was open, the program froze - apparently one must not quit the game while the cards screen is open.)

Visually the game is quite attractive, I'm somewhat puzzled about some of the complaints about it. I can only assume that some people have monitor issues. Everything is crisp and clear on my LCD which has a fixed 1024X768 resolution. The table top miniatures effect is very well done - with the added benefit of fog of war, which makes the battles much more interesting. Even the music is good !

A clean interface, very intuitive and easy to learn, but the game is much deeper than the Imagic Great Battles series ever was. I really liked that series - I've had one of those games on my system for the last 6 years, still do - but the gameplay was pretty simplistic, some awful bugs were never worked out and the IA routines were quite dense. The battles in Tin Soldiers are much longer than those in the Great Battles series and much more complex, even though one controls many fewer units.

I've replayed the Thebes scenario 4 times - with different results each time (2 victories, 2 defeats : two of those results were very close and could have gone either way). I'll be playing it again. On the Granicus scenario, I defeated the IA on the first try, but since Alexander was killed, I had to try again... The second time around I was soundly trounced. When my flank attack was stalled, I lost patience and tried a frontal assault on the main Persian position, with disastrous results.

My only complaints are that there is no option to play head to head on the same computer - something which I like to do, and that one cannot play the Persians against the artificial intelligence, which would add a great deal of replay value. Maybe the manual - which is quite well done, could also be more detailed about the combat mechanisms and the way odds are calculated.

I was looking forward to this game and am more than satisfied. I can only recommend it to anyone who likes ancient history, miniatures and challenging war games.

Cheers

A head to head option would be really good. Also, a PBEM version.

I'd love to try this one online at some point.

ORIGINAL: koiosworks
... Also, the maps get about 4 times bigger than the Thebes map in the later 'bigger' battles so you have some more to look forward to [8D]

[X(]

I've just printed the rulebook, only 38 A4 pages in full color, nicely bound in a sprial plastic sleeve binder costing AUD $2.50! Still have plenty of colored ink left too [;)]

Also I picked up what looks to be a great book: "Alexander" by Theodore Dodge. A very affordable 680 page paperback using the writings of Arrian as its impetus and copiously diagramming everything from a sandle through to the tactical battle dispositions of the campaign to the discussion of strategic, operational and tactical theory covering centuries of contemporary warfare. Can't wait to get into it.

Finally created a Matrix membership too and registered my games. The only way I found links to register Normandy and Tin Soldiers though was to scroll through relevant game titles using the Star Shatter registration link. ie: Neither BiN or TSA showed as available titles initially. Having now registered them, both games do now show on my Matrix member area list.

Adam.