The “Heavy” armor piece from FMG was originally listed as the Semovente 75/18, which I believe is what it is.

At some point, someone put a post saying “the gun barrel was such-n-such long” and “the body was so-n-so wide” so it MUST be a 105/25. I imagine that is where HBG’s confusion lies. Coach must have seen that post and it stuck in his head so he put it on his site as such.

@DrLarsen:

though the EotH destroyer is my favorite of the three, though it is just a bit too big.  I’m not sure what you’re talking about in terms of an EotH "cruiser."  If you mean by this the destroyer, I can’t agree that it makes a good heavy cruiser; maybe light cruiser, but definitely not a heavy cruiser.  (But perhaps there’s some other EotH set that I’ve never heard of…)

Sorry, I meant the EotH destroyer.  I called it a cruiser because that’s how I tend to use it because, as you mention, it’s rather big relative to the A&A destroyers.

That sounds kind of fun and interesting, but it also supposes a Japanese invasion of Hawaii which wasn’t their intent. The attack on Pearl Harbor was only an air strike against US Air Bases and the Pacific Fleet. Japan had no plans for actually invading Hawaii, at least not at that point. Still an interesting idea.

What about a WW2 style Fortress America game? You could have Japan be the Western Invader, Germany the Eastern Invader and Italy the Southern Invader. Make it just like Fortress America where each player gets 60 units split up between Infantry, Artillery, Mech Inf, Tanks, Fighters, Tac Bombers and Bombers. America would also get Partisan reinforcements, perhaps represented by HBG Marine Infantry units, or the Marine Infantry from the old Pacific game if you have them. Heck, they could even be represented by the Light Grey Axis Minor Infantry since Partisan units in the new Fortress America game are grey. Another idea would be to use the Light Green Neutral Infantry from HBG. Even Chinese Infantry would work in a pinch.
Perhaps the Laser Complexes could be replaced by Atom Bombs. USA gets some sort of marker to represent an Atom Bomb base each turn, placed in a US controlled city, and they get so many Atom Bomb strikes per turn, depending on how many Atom Bomb Bases they have. When Invaders capture cities with A Bomb Bases, they destroy them immediately. A low-yield Atom Bomb would be enough to destroy 1 military unit and could possibly fail, thus the roll of the dice.
Perhaps the USA should also get AA Guns for defense. A certain number of AA guns in each city and only in cities and don’t count toward the 5 unit per territory limit. They act as normal AA guns in Global, up to 3 shots per gun or 1 shot per attacking aircraft, whichever is lower, and can be taken as casualties in defense. If you don’t like the Atom Bomb idea, perhaps AA guns could be the extra defense ability for USA. Each city starts with a certain number of AA guns, maybe 2, and each round USA gets a new AA gun to place in any city they still control. Again, AA guns would not count toward the 5 unit per territory limit.

“Build” is misspelled in the Russian box.  Just in case it got missed and/or has not gone to print yet.

Got my set!  They are great!!!

Thanks

@Gargantua:

Does anyone have a copy of the map?

I would also like to have a copy. Anyone?

In the 90’, I played a couple of Xeno game and with and without gamerparadise rules.
It was well balanced but not enough for me.
The rules are not bad but the gameboard is ugly.
Over the year me and my friend changes the rules and created our own map.

Thanks Radar.  I don’t know what happened there but it won’t even let me modify it.  :(

Link fixed

@Variable:

Neutrals are now available by the piece!

awesome I’ve been waiting for this for awhile now thank you.

I’ve got Memoir '44 but only played it twice, not my cup of tea really. I should sell it on eBay I guess.

The running infantry looks really neato!  I always like action poses.

You can gauge the size of pieces against the infantry. There is a good set of pics at BoardGameGeek.

it would be really funny to see them putting training wheels on the Bicycles just so the molds stand up on there own.

I was refering to fitting them into G40. � I need to pick up G39 from HBG.

Forgot to add that that during setup, the German units in Hungary and Romania should be switched to minors.

The controlling axis players may purchase only their own units in the purchase phase, if they wish.  They can decide in the Place New Units Phase which ones the minors will get.

As an afterthought, Hungary and Romania were larger contributers.  Maybe they can build 2 units per turn as long as at least one is an infantry.

And for the rule lawyers:  If the minor is building in a factory outside its home territory, their home territory must have been friendly at the start of the player turn. � I.e. , no building Bulgarian units in Romania if Bulgaria is held by the allies. Bessarabia and Vyborg do not count as home territories of Romania and Finland for this rule.

Thanks for the kind words guys.  :-)

Was wondering if the customizers might be doing some oddball ships like cruise ships, hospital ships, ore carriers, and tanker ships, with errata to make them playable like hospital ships can add infantry units at various points to a side, and oilers and ore carriers can add artillery and mobile units at certain points?

IL is right. Got all my maps 3 x 6, 4 x 8 printed on vinyl. Banner Material. Cost of 3 x 6 map $75.00 and 4 x 8 map $107.00. They also can format it so you don’t lose any territories. They once forgot to shrink whole map to 3 x 6 when I had a 4 x 8 foot map in that size file. Lost a bunch of territoies because they didn’t shrink file. It was  Tigerman’s old map.

is there any chance of getting a jet for each nation? I for some reason would love to see a MiG-15 piece, and I know it’s not a WW2 plane

Hey All,
I’ve had time to play a couple of games of the new Fortress America. Aside from the new pieces, the game is pretty much the same as the older version. Here are the most noteable differences:

The USA’s Partisan cards are spelled out quite a bit clearer than the old ones. These tell you EXACTLY what territories, units and actions are involved. Most of the cards are really the same as in the old deck, except of course one that deals with Colorado Springs, which wasn’t in the old game, but the new cards seem to spell out what you are supposed to do in more detail. They even tell you to discard the card after you are done.
After I compared the new and old cards, I can see that some of the old cards could have been misread. Specifically, the MAJOR AIRLIFT card. With the old game, I always played it by taking ALL US units anywhere on the board and moving them as I wished. The new MAJOR AIRLIFT card specifically says that you pick ONE territory and can move the units from that territory to anywhere on the board that doesn’t have enemy units (even enemy controlled, unoccupied city territories). So, the USA player is basically limited to a maximum of 5 military units that he/she can move around like this. While this can still be a big plus for the US, especially if the invaders have left a lot of cities unoccupied, it isn’t so devastating to the invaders that it might be a game ender. Since then, I have gone back and re-read the MAJOR AIRLIFT card in the old deck and realized that I think I have mis-played it all this time. I think it might have ALWAYS been just one territory of units, not ALL US units. The way it is worded could go either way.

Another big difference is that the Mobile Units are much more useful now. If you have a Mobile Unit and an Infantry (or Partisan for the US) in the same territory, that Mobile Unit can transport that Infantry/Partisan with it in the Maneuvers phase (normally Infantry/Partisans have no movement in the Maneuvers phase). This happens on a 1:1 ratio. So if you have 2 Infantry and 1 Mobile Unit, then only 1 Infantry may travel with the Mobile Unit. That makes Mobile Units much more valuable now. In the old game, they were more or less mobile cannon fodder to me.

Finally, the biggest difference is that now there are cards for the Invaders. Each Invader has a deck of 8 cards that can give them certain advantages if certain conditions are met. During the reinforcement phase, each Invader must decide to get 8 new units or get only 5 new units and draw a card. Each card has certain advantages which could boost their forces’ movement or attacking power or cause a detriment to the US’s abilities (like depriving them of the laser attacks for a round). To gain these advantages, certain conditions must be met, like holding certain cities, or simply a certain number of cities and/or holding certain resource territories (agriculture, mineral, oil). Some cards are one time use and others are “Remain In Play” which the invader that holds that card can use even if the original conditions are no longer met. For example: Say the Western Invader draws a “Remain In Play” card and the conditions are that he has to own Los Angeles, 2 Agricultures and 1 Mineral. Then later on he loses one of the Agricultures, or the Mineral, or even Los Angeles, he can STILL PLAY THAT CARD. Also, even once the Invader’s reserves are depleted, they can still draw cards during the reinforcements phase. If you get a card for which you haven’t met the conditions yet, you simply keep it face down in front of you until you can use it. So, theoretically, Invaders could possibly use several cards in the same turn, provided all the conditions are met for each card.
Frankly, while some of the advantages in the cards are pretty good, I think overall they are more of a detriment to the invaders as well as the overall game experience. As an invader, you might end up becoming too fixated on trying to accomplish the conditions on a card so that you can gain that advantage that you end up not doing other things that would better defeat the USA forces. As for the game, it really takes more time for the invaders to keep checking their cards to see if they meed the requirements. Also, losing that 3 extra pieces each turn so you can draw a card may not seem like a lot, but I think it could be just enough for the USA player to get just enough of an edge that they don’t lose all 18 cities. The longer this game goes, the more forces the US will have and the less the Invaders will have, thus it will be that much harder to gain the 18 cities and defeat the US. Plus if you keep getting cards that you can’t use, then is it really worth losing those extra 3 units each turn. It seems to me like a lot of the conditions, while not impossible, are pretty hard for the Invaders to accomplish. For Example: there are two or three cards for the Eastern Invader where one of the conditions is an Oil Resource. The nearest one for them is clear over by Memphis. That’s a lot of territory to conquer.

Well, there is my report. It’s a pretty cool game, but VERY similar to the old game. If you have the original, unless you just really want the new pieces and map or really want to try out the new Invader cards, I would say save your money and play the original some more becasue except for the few points above, they are basically the same game.

have you played it yet? was it any good?

@Yavid:

nations with an “old bb” piece from HBG I’ve replaced improved mech inf. tech with heavy battleship tech. HBG become the standard BB and used at set up and can be purchased until you get the tech. After you get the tech you can buy the OOB battleships as heavy battleships. These Heavy Battleships are 4/4/2/20 units just like standard but take 3 hits to sink and roll two dice in combat taking the best roll and using it.

Interesting idea, though I’m not sure if I want to make it a “tech” thing, especially since all the nations had new BB’s already in production before the war started.  I’d be more inclined to make it a “tech” ability to create a TRUE SBB along the lines of Yamato, Montana or H-class (and perhaps Sovietsky Soyuz, and, perhaps even more arguably Iowa, Vanguard and Lion), of which the Yamato is the only one we’re likely to have a piece for any time soon (and of which only the Yamato was ever actually built)… I might try something along these lines, along with maybe a “super-cruiser” and/or “super-carrier” tech if and when I ever decide to try using some of my painted NAVWAR or Panzerschiffe pieces on a very big map like GW1939… but I don’t see the likelihood of having AA-scale pieces of any of the other true SBB’s any time soon.

Another idea: perhaps old BB’s could be a 3/4/2 unit or a 4/3/2 unit; the rationale here is that the “real world” speed difference may not be enough to make a difference in the category of strategic mobility (which is what speed really represents in game terms, and most especially on the smaller board versions) but rather that the old/new speed difference should be understood as more an issue of “tactical” mobility which could put old BB’s in a combat disadvantage on either defense or offense?  If so, though, in which of the two would the lack of tactical mobility be more important?  I’m leaning toward it being a bigger disadvantage on offense, but I’d be interested in hearing other opinions.

In any case, keep in mind, for all of you out there who plan to use some sort of “old BB” house rules, that classic BB pieces are about perfect for this while we’re waiting for HBG to get to all of the nations’ version of one.  Similarly, the classic version’s carriers are almost perfect for generic CVE’s.  Variable or Coach, do you guys have classic pieces available for these two unit types for most of the relevant nations for those who don’t have oodles of them lying around?