by parduz
I don't own TOI but i played it 3-4 times, and the same is valid for Battlelore. I own M44 and BOW and i agree that BOW is "superior" to vanilla M44. I did'nt like Battlelore so much 'cause I feel it "slow". What make M44 great is the Overlord expansion (which is new deck of card and carboard chits for additional units).The new decks makes M44 going fast no matter the number of players (Overlord is supposed to be to play with more than 2 players) so i sealed the original M44 decks and never touched them anymore.
TOI is much more deep, as mentioned, but in the end it drags a bit too much. Also, the scenarios can be historically accurate, but histerically unbalanced.
Back to BOW, it does'nt need new decks 'cause the new activation mechanics is just great: the game move fast, and the commanders abilities and the combat rules gives me the exact amount of "deep" i want.