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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ninjayeti" data-source="post: 6651021" data-attributes="member: 6789120">I have used both though I have mostly gamed using minis/tokens/digital maps going back to 1E.  Like KarinsDad I find that TotM is often the harder to pull off for any combat more complex than a big melee scrum.  I am not a fan of uber tactical play (yes, I am looking at you 4E), but minis on a map are worth the proverbial "thousand words" in conveying the situation to players and avoiding confusion in the middle of the fight about who is where.  In particular AoE effects are often tough to adjudicate accurately in TotM.  I ran a combat recently with a bunch of hell hounds attacking the party from different directions and it would have been problematic without a tactical map.  Sure, I could have used some abstract system to determine who was being hit, but that would have eliminated what made that fight distinctive and interesting.  I also find that players tend to be more engaged in the fights using tactical maps, and more likely to take actions beyond hacking away with their main attack at the guy in front of them.  Without minis it is easy for combat to feel like the same thing over and over again.  So while both styles work fine, I find minis make things easier to run and keep fights more interesting.</blockquote>