TIDE OF IRON BOARD GAME

1 Rulebook
- 12 American Elite Infantry
- 54 American Regular Infantry
- 12 American Elite Infantry
- 6 American Officers
- 6 American Mortar Crews
- 6 American Machine Gun Crews
- 12 M4A1 Sherman Tanks
- 6 M3A1 Half-Tracks
- 6 GMC CCKW 353 Transport Trucks
- 54 German Regular Infantry
- 12 German Elite Infantry
- 6 German Infantry Officers
- 6 German Mortar Crews
- 6 German Machine Gun Crews
- 6 Panzer IV Tanks
- 6 SdKfz 251 Half-Tracks
- 6 Opel Blitz Transport Trucks
- 12 each dark & Light Grey German Bases
- 12 each dark & Light Green American Bases
• 23 Map Overlay Pieces
• 14 Black Attack Dice
• 6 Red Defense Dice
• 1 Round Track
• 1 Round Marker
• 1 American Victory Point Marker
• 1 German Victory Point Marker
• 110 Cards, consisting of:
- 90 Strategy Cards
- 18 Operations Cards
- 1 American Initiative Card
- 1 German Initiative Card
• 1 Initiative Token
• 88 Activation Tokens
• 32 Damage Tokens
• 36 Condition Tokens
• 6 Anti-Tank Specialization Tokens
• 6 Engineer Specialization Tokens
• 6 Flamethrower Specialization Tokens
• 6 Medic Specialization Tokens
• 6 Victory Objective Markers
• 8 American Command Objective Markers (various values)
• 8 German Command Objective Markers (various values)
• 8 Neutral Command Objective Markers (various values)
• 8 American Control Markers
• 8 German Control Markers
• 51 Command Tokens (in 1s and 5s)
• 4 American Concealed Squad Markers
• 4 German Concealed Squad Markers
• 8 American Transport Markers
• 8 German Transport Markers
• 8 American Off-Board Indicator Tokens (numbered 1-8)
• 8 German Off-Board Indicator Tokens (numbered 1-8)
• 38 Fortification, Obstacle, and Cover Markers, consisting of:
- 12 Double-Sided Pillbox/Entrenchment Markers
- 14 Double-Sided Tank Trap/Razor Wire Markers
- 6 Smoke Markers
- 6 Minefield Markers
• 1 Target Token
• 1 North Directional Marker
• 2 Player Reference Sheets
• 1 Scenario Guide
• 12 Map Boards

TIDE OF IRON is the definitive board game of WWII squad-level combat, for 2-4 players. With streamlined, scenario-driven gameplay and an attention to historic detail, TIDE OF IRON is sure to delight every fan of tactical, historical wargaming.

This TIDE OF IRON base game focuses on the American and German armies in Northern Europe in the years 1944 and 1945. Each game is played as a single scenario, either chosen from the included scenario guide or created by the players themselves, over a map constructed from modular, double-sided game boards and terrain overlays. The game play is fast-paced, smooth, and surprisingly deep, as players must take and hold vital objectives on the game board and decide how best to use each and every unit under their command.

FROM THE WEBSITE OF THE MANUFACTURER:

June 6th, 1944. D-Day was heralded as the longest day of the war, yet it was but the opening salvo for the Allied offensive into western Europe, an offensive that would last for almost a year before the Allies could declare victory in the European theater.:

The objective of the invasion: to dismantle Hitler's Wehrmacht the once-mighty German armed forces; liberate the occupied countries of western Europe, and ultimately to subdue the threat from Germany and the Nazi regime that ruled it.:

Although bludgeoned by defeats in Russia and Africa and systematically weakened by Allied bombing of its supply and production infrastructure, the German army remained a formidable foe. The soldiers and officers of Hitler's army were well trained, battle hardened, and in possession of some of the finest and most lethal equipment of the war.:

Over the course of the Allied offensive, American forces would undertake the brunt of the fighting in northern France and Belgium, while their British allies would concentrate on the Netherlands and the liberation of the Scandinavian countries.:

The American and British forces slowly but surely advanced towards Germany, yet not without problems. In Arnhem, a daring joint offensive by the Allies was struck down by German defenses, and Nazi forces nearly broke the American lines during the last major German offensive in the Ardennes forest.

GAMEPLAY TIDE OF IRON is played over a series of turns; how many turns is determined by the scenario. Each turn is divided up into three main phases. .

The Action Phase Predictably, this is where the bulk of the action of TIDE OF IRON takes place. Players each take action turns, with each action turn including a number of actions specified by the scenario. .

These are some of the actions available to players: .
Prepare Op Fire: Places a unit into Opportunity Fire mode, where it can fire on moving units during enemy actions. .
Concentrated Fire: Activates a unit to fire on the opposing forces, potentially with the combined fire support of several other units. .
Advance: Moving units a distance determined by the unit's movement speed and accounting for various terrain features. .
Fire and Movement: Allows a unit to move some portion of its speed and to make an attack at reduced strength in the same action. .
Assault: Assaulting units may attack only adjacent hexes, but they receive several powerful bonuses to their attack as compared to Concentrated Fire. .
Activate Strategy Card: Many Strategy Cards are activated during the Action Phase and count as an action. .
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Each unit, once it is activated by an action, is fatigued and is unavailable for future actions. Once both players have activated all of their units, the Action Phase is over. .
The Command Phase During the Command Phase, overall control of the board and the battle are determined and influenced by each player. The various objectives (on- or off-board) determined by the scenario may generate victory points during this phase, as well as a resource called Command. In turn, players will spend this Command to either power their strategy cards or to increase their Initiative value. .

Strategy Cards Each player will have access to one or more Strategy decks as determined by the scenario. From these decks, commanders will draw cards with a wide variety of useful abilities. Some may represent calling in air support, while others may indicate increased morale or training for your infantry. .

Some Strategy cards are played during the Action phase as an action. Others may be triggered during the Command phase. In each case, Strategy cards cost Command to activate, and so Command objectives will be particularly desireable locations on the board to hold, wheth er or not they are associated with victory points. .

Strategy cards are held face up in their owner's HQ area, so while which strategies your opponent draws may be a surprise a clever commander will always know what tricks the enemy has up his sleeve. .

The Status Phase During this phase, players draw strategy cards, refresh their units, place units in Op Fire mode to prepare for the upcoming Action phase, transfer soldiers between squads, and generally perform the clean-up to prepare for the next turn. This is an excellent time to re-evaluate your strategy and plan your moves for the coming turn. .

COMBAT Eventually, some of your soldiers are going to shoot at some of your opponent's soldiers. At this point, TIDE OF IRON's simple but satisfyingly deep combat system is employed. .

TIDE OF IRON uses a single roll of the dice to resolve each attack. Once the Firepower and Cover or Armor of the units involved has been determined, the attacking player picks up one black die per point of firepower and one red die per point of armor or cover, then rolls them all together. Red dice score hits on fives or sixes, and the black dice score hits on either fours or better (for close range), fives and sixes (for normal range), or sixes only (for long range). Red successes cancel out black hits, and any remaining black dice that score hits inflict damage on their target (either removing individual soldiers from squads or lightly damaging, heavily damaging, or destroying vehicles, as appropriate). .

For attacks against squads, players have the option of making a suppressive attack. Rather than dealing damage, these attacks can pin, disrupt, our outright rout a squad. While not killing soldiers, suppressive attacks have the potential to more seriously disrupt the squad's ability to contribute to your opponent's battle plan than many normal attacks. Squads with officers are more resistant to being pinned, disrupted, and routed. .

Of course, certain units feature a variety of special rules - whether it's a mortar crew's ability to launch indirect fire without tracing line of sight or the additional boost granted by anti-tank capability to a squad, the streamlined combat system of TIDE OF IRON strives to faithfully replicate the actual soldiers and weapons of World War II. .

VICTORY! Each scenario will have its own victory conditions, whether it's a race to a certain victory point total, a check for victory after a certain number of turns, or a specific objective-based victory condition inherent in the scenario. TIDE OF IRON's scenarios are so varied and so flexible, it's almost like a new game each time! .
PLEASE NOTE THIS IS A LARGE AND HAVEY GAME AND FLAT RATES FEE MAY NOT COVER SHIPPING TO REMOTE AREAS, ONTARIO AND LOCATIONS EAST OF ONTARIO. IF THE SHIPPING IS HIGHER WILL WILL CONTACT YOU BEFORE PROCESSING YOUR ORDER.