Plastic Playing Pieces

[TG Moses VI]

Gallo Rojo,

what naval, air, and land units does AA Pacific, Europe, Guadalcanal, D-Day, and Battle of the Bugle represent? Is there much change?

I don’t own any of those games, but I don’t think it makes much of a difference.  I realize now option b) is flawed because we don’t have Italian pieces (as you mentioned) and neither of those games offer cruisers.  So we’re still stuck using SOME gummy pieces.

I’m fro :mrgreen: Argentina, so you couldn’t buy the game when it first come out (I’m talking about AA Classic).
So here is what a group of friends and I did:
we built our own really huge map
we buy a bunch of small scale models, we built and paint them…

Pictures or it didn’t happen.

IL,

Somebody draft a letter and ill help get it signed by others.

I’m an engineer, which naturally precludes me from knowing anything about writing. ;)

toblerone77,

actually, if memory serves me. you might be able to get generic equivalents from tabletactics.com. the pieces are very high quality and they’re the only place i’ve seen where you can get these parts.

Thanks toblerone, we may be getting somewhere.  I looked at the site and discovered:

1.  These pieces are only meant as “bonus” units to the game.  You get some wild stuff like V2 rockets, jeeps, and amphibious assualt craft.  In short, it’s everything we don’t need.

2.  You get 4 colors (295 pieces total)

3.  The cost is $26, meaning you’re still better off buying the A&A expansion sets.

[Gallo Rojo]

@TG:

I’m fro :mrgreen: Argentina, so you couldn’t buy the game when it first come out (I’m talking about AA Classic).
So here is what a group of friends and I did:
we built our own really huge map
we buy a bunch of small scale models, we built and paint them…

Pictures or it didn’t happen.

That was about ten years ago (boy, I’m getting older…)
And I’m not living in Argentina anymore.
Maybe some of my friends still have the game

[MP84]

While I agree the figures are a bit lacking, they don’t seem any different to the Classic figures i’ve had for ages. Is there any newer iteration of AA that people felt had better pieces than AA:50?

[toblerone77]

AAE and AAP had good pieces.

[Constantinople]

The pieces in AA50 are fine, my goodness!

OK so the colors may be too similar, I know that myself becz I have

trouble with colors, but other than that the units are fine.

Not just OK but fine for this game.

Why all this drumbeating about the “alleged” deficits of this game!

I’ve played it and it is fun with 5 players!!

Italy is great as a spoiler.

Can’t wait for the 2d game to try all these new ideas about how best to play

this brand new exciting game with a great map and a ton of plastic tanks battleships

cruisers etc

It is a great value for less than $100 and the replay value is even higher!!

You’ll make money if you keep replaying it!! :lol:

So relax and just play it and enjoy it!!

[MP84]

@Constantinople:

The pieces in AA50 are fine, my goodness!

OK so the colors may be too similar, I know that myself becz I have

trouble with colors, but other than that the units are fine.

Not just OK but fine for this game.

Why all this drumbeating about the “alleged” deficits of this game!

I’ve played it and it is fun with 5 players!!

Italy is great as a spoiler.

Can’t wait for the 2d game to try all these new ideas about how best to play

this brand new exciting game with a great map and a ton of plastic tanks battleships

cruisers etc

It is a great value for less than $100 and the replay value is even higher!!

You’ll make money if you keep replaying it!! :lol:

So relax and just play it and enjoy it!!

Testify!  :-D

[Woodstock]

@Gallo:

@TG:

I’m fro :mrgreen: Argentina, so you couldn’t buy the game when it first come out (I’m talking about AA Classic).
So here is what a group of friends and I did:
we built our own really huge map
we buy a bunch of small scale models, we built and paint them…

Pictures or it didn’t happen.

That was about ten years ago (boy, I’m getting older…)
And I’m not living in Argentina anymore.
Maybe some of my friends still have the game

That is by far the most coolest thing Ive read so far (if it’s true ;-) )
I might try and convince my girlfriend in designing the entire garden into a AA50 map, and have my whacko dad in law create tin scale models  :-D

[Adlertag]

@toblerone77:

AAE and AAP had good pieces.

I loved the pieces from Europe and Pacific.

Look at the fat tanks in this pic :

This I call real tanks. But then some wiseguy from WOTC figured that this great tanks was too big for the map, so they startet to make skinny tanks. Be my guest. Bottom line is, now we got skinny Shermans and skinny T34’s, and the japanese and Italian light-tanks are actually bigger than the Shermans and T 34’s. Go figure.

[TG Moses VI]

That’s pretty incredible.  Yes, it makes a big difference.  I hadn’t seen AAE and AAP pieces before, so thanks for the update.  I’m amazed by the amount of detail they put on the T-34.  It actually looks like it has a movable turret.

Has anyone tried called calling Wizards and requesting new sets of playing pieces for AAE or AAP?  Because that’s what I’m prepared to do.  That is if Wizards is still printing both games.  It may be the cheapest alternative.

[Imperious Leader]

Call them let us know what lies they tell you… I have called them lots of times as well as others.  They always have the same stock answer… which is:  “we are working on this problem…blah blah blah… i will check to see if anything can be done… yada yada yada…”

[Krupp Steel]

I don’t like the length of the new Panther’s barrel, I have too many of them that I got OOB that were bent to hell.

I even got a deformd midget Russian Bomber.Looks like someone took a modeling knife to it. :-P

[Guest]

What’s wrong with the pieces in your opinions?  I didn’t get it yet.

[tin_snips]

i don’t think the pieces are overly bad …

but this is supposed to be a special 50th anniversary edition. you’d think they could at least make the detail on the moulds as reasonable as the last few releases, or maybe something new and better

obtaining some metal pieces would definitely take the game to another level of awesome  8-)

[toblerone77]

oh god i complained about this a thousand times.

i’m not just bitching about this.

the last two aa games i’ve purchased aar and aa50 have had pieces that i’ve had to shave, heat’n’bend, and wings bend so bad they could’ve been worn like a halloween/novelty ring. i’m here to play aa not decorate f*****g cupcakes!!!

Whew where’s the tylenol?

This game is awsome but i want parts that dont have to lean on an idustrial complex to stand up.

[Weekend Gamer]

To repeat my original complaint, $100 should NOT = crappy plastic pieces.  If they’d at least provided the quality of AAR, I’d have been OKAY with it, if not thrilled.  But these pieces suck worse than AAR pieces, and that’s saying something, since AAR pieces were definitely a downgrade from AAE and AAP.  If it’s a 50th Anniversary Edition (50th anniversary of the founding of Avalon Hill, by the way), why should I care if the quality is the WORST it’s been in those 50 years?

[General Di Caro]

TG Moses VI…  waited your life for the game?

There are 600 or so pieces.  If they were made out of a more expensive material, the game would have cost much more.

The game is great as is.

[losttribe04]

My biggest gripes about the cheapness is that in the cover of the OOB rules it goes on and on about how they wanted a game that would be the cats meow.

In Pacific the US had Hellcats and P-38’s for fighters out of the box.  The only thing that sets these pieces apart is light brown, moderate brown, heavy brown and burnt brown.

@Gamer:

To repeat my original complaint, $100 should NOT = crappy plastic pieces.  If they’d at least provided the quality of AAR, I’d have been OKAY with it, if not thrilled.  But these pieces suck worse that AAR pieces, and that’s saying something, since AAR pieces were definitely a downgrade from AAE and AAP.  If it’s a 50th Anniversary Edition (50th anniversary of the founding of Avalon Hill, by the way), why should I care if the quality is the WORST it’s been in those 50 years?

I agree “the quality is the WORST it’s been in those 50 years!”

[warrafael]

@Gallo:

uhm… I’m just curious:

what naval, air, and land units does AA Pacific, Europe, Guadalcanal, D-Day, and Battle of the Bugle represent? Is there much change?

I know that US fighters for AA Pacific are Hellcats (or maybe Wildcats?).

German bomber ( only 1 ! ) from the Bulge is a Ju88, in AA50 bombers’ type is Heinkel 111

[TG Moses VI]

I think we all would’ve accepted the crappy pieces if this was just another A&A game and NOT the end-all-be-all version of the original game we had heard about.  But when you advertise the words “deluxe, anniversary, special collectors edition” – then yes, we do expect something a cut above.

General Di Caro,

TG Moses VI…  waited your life for the game?

There are 600 or so pieces.  If they were made out of a more expensive material, the game would have cost much more.

The game is great as is.

Lets just say if A&A:50 hadn’t come out, I would still be playing the original A&A:1984.  The other expansions were not on a global enough scale for me and A&A:R was not a large enough change to be worth buying.

I got my copy of a&A:50 for $60.  Which means Wizards is selling the game direct to retailers for ~$50.  The game costs less than that to make for there to be a profit.  I’m positive Wizards could’ve spent a few extra dollars per game making sure the pieces weren’t bent out of shape and using a bit more plastic in the molds, while still making a steady, albeit lesser profit.

Hearing the horror stories swirling around these pieces makes me inclined to believe Wizards is taking advantage of our good faith.

[Guest]

@Gamer:

To repeat my original complaint, $100 should NOT = crappy plastic pieces.  If they’d at least provided the quality of AAR, I’d have been OKAY with it, if not thrilled.  But these pieces suck worse that AAR pieces, and that’s saying something, since AAR pieces were definitely a downgrade from AAE and AAP.  If it’s a 50th Anniversary Edition (50th anniversary of the founding of Avalon Hill, by the way), why should I care if the quality is the WORST it’s been in those 50 years?

I repeat my question… what sucks about the pieces?  I didn’t get my copy…