Yes I have designed ships and carriers of different sizes that hold from 1 to 4 planes. Everything so far has been WWII.
When I produced modern pieces they didn’t sell half as good as the WWII products. It is much tougher to justify building mold for modern units.
Changing a color is not that hard but you first have to purchase concentrate to blend with the plastic. The cost of 50 pounds is $500 and you still have to pay for plastic and machine time. If I can see breaking even I would spend the money. Once I get the 8 countries completed ( that will be about 60 to 75 days) then I can run a different color of any country and have it ready in 2 days.
Color is less important than the size issue. Of course the sales will seed one then the other idea, but first you got to get the ducks in a row and get the size reconfigured.
The types of tanks you selected are easily identifiable not by size but by form. The size issue is of crucial importance because the map does not support the larger sized pieces.
A tiger tank will always be a tiger tank. it does not need to be larger.
@Imperious:
The correct move would have been to make halftrack, tank, heavy tank, tank destroyer and selfpropelled artillery.
I think so too except the last two are really the same thing.
I see it as:
early war tank ( light)
midwar tank ( medium)
late war tank ( heavy)
SPA
Halftrackjack:
I swear to god you don’t realize the potential you got… Just make the tanks smaller and in colors to match axis and allies and you will triple the sales. 100%
If you do that and possibly sell the tanks separately from the infantry same price just more tanks…
Then you will have the money to seed all your other ideas… Also not sure what is holding up the Russians and Japanese?
Once you got the armor down, then rework the infantry and make actual toy soldiers… or if your idea is to make pieces that are not already axis and allies then make items like fortifications, rocket ( v2 sites, heavy bombers, airborne infantry ( not gun but soldier with gun) etc…
Thats the niche you created over the years and you should be true to that if it got you to this point. Make the pieces that AA does not cover.
Or perhaps just start a world war I line of pieces which have never been tried. :wink:
Much easier said then done. Requires many dollars and much planning.
I gotta go and take that picture and reply to the email that have already arrived.
Exactly what Imperious Leader said - you can have “slight” differentions in size (i.e. the Japanese tank is a hair smaller than the Sherman), but your pieces have good enough detail that we can tell what is what. Just make sure that no tank is bigger than the current A&A Panther!
I hope your Hotchkiss is a small (A&A sized) tank… fingers crossed!
If everyone is worried about the size of the sculpts, the easy solution is to download one of IL’s maps and blow it up a bit. My buddy has some of Table Tactics pieces and we have some house rules with “Heavy Tanks” and use his bigger pieces for them.
FYI, They look much more out of wack until you get them in your hands and realize, “That’s not that big!” :evil:
Brian
I really like the detail of the various tank models. And as I said I boardgamegeek, I’ll use the infantry pieces in my Memoir '44 game as Special Weapons Assets.
The map could be larger, but the relationship between AA pieces and these larger tank units is off-putting. I have tried to use World War Two: The Game pieces but they are too large and look ridiculous. Of course i will buy them all anyway, but the point is to give jack the information and opinions so he can make better use of his investment to possibly add to sales. The pieces he had before were very compatible and its not clear why that changed when he made these new pieces.
I do wish people BEFORE they decide to make anything try to get the input from potential customers so that they can make the most informed decision.
FMG knows this very well and made the best use of this idea.
On the other hand the guy who made that WW3 game with AA type bits ( forgot the name of that game but i did buy 4 copies)…. i feel very sorry for him. He didn’t prepare any amount of research to get feedback from the public… He just released a game and is stuck with probably thousands of these games. All because he didn’t do his homework.
Imperious Leader - the game you are talking about is “Superpowers”
Very sad to see what happened to him - it is so easy to do customer research nowadays, and I am glad to see FMG making sure he listens to his audience.
Jack, could you possibly show the Italian armored units next to the A&A lineup (the colored tanks in your US photo)? I want to see how close they are in size - I might want a few extra orders from Fairplay if they are.
Imperious Leader - the game you are talking about is “Superpowers”
Very sad to see what happened to him - it is so easy to do customer research nowadays, and I am glad to see FMG making sure he listens to his audience.
Yes it is very sad. I really feel that mans pain in that he spend what is probably alot of money and is now stuck with that game. I bought 4 copies really just to help him out. I have not used or played them but did open one set.
I wish he will learn from mistakes and just find a way to break even and start again with a new approach. He made so many mistakes because he never once considered his audience. Even the chips could not be used. Only thing i think may be of use was his ‘rockets’ for AA tech pieces.
Jack says the Americans should be up for sale tomorrow at that playfairgames.com site.
I wish he will learn from mistakes and just find a way to break even and start again with a new approach. He made so many mistakes because he never once considered his audience. Even the chips could not be used. Only thing i think may be of use was his ‘rockets’ for AA tech pieces.
I found that the plastic trays from the “Superpowers” game fit perfectly into the boxes that hold the units from Pacific 40! so i got SOME use from it! bought two copies to do my part too.
doing your homework always pays off.
Yes the new units from Table Tactics are “offsetting” in size, but not as bad as “The War Game” and can be used in “The War Game” to give us a few country specific units and they are of superior quality compared to other pieces out there.
Thoes426 :evil:
@thoes426:
I found that the plastic trays from the “Superpowers” game fit perfectly into the boxes that hold the units from Pacific 40!
Can anyone upload an photo of these trays inside the pacific 40 box? Do these trays fit inside the nation specific boxes in pacific 1940?
Thanks
The “SuperPowers” guy on his website is selling the game for $25 right now. He’s also selling the pieces separately as well for only $10. I bought a set of the pieces just to have. I’ll eventually end up painting a set for my Axis and Allies setup that I am making.
@Imperious:
[ Only thing i think may be of use was his ‘rockets’ for AA tech pieces. [/quote]
One way I’ve used those missile pieces from Superpowers is to convert them to atomic bombs by mounting them horizontally (using one of the tail fins as a connector) on the clear plastic unit stands from the “War to End All Wars” game published by Guild of Blades. The rocket pieces made by Rolco Games work even better in this role, since their tail fins clip more solidly into the unit stands than the Superpowers ones. (The Rolco rockets come in multiple colours, but the white ones work fine as neutral-coloured pieces usable by all countries.)
OK guys lets get something straight here. The A&A tanks have no scale and are not correct in length to width ratio.
When designing I even made a cad model of a hand to use in picking up the units. I recall having dropped pieces on the board when I was moving them and knocking other pieces out of place. Making the tanks smaller required the fingers to start bending and taking up more room on the board. I only used my hand as a model and it will be different for other with larger or smaller hands. And Yes I could stand to lose some weight but I think I’m in the majority.
On a lighter note Lt. Hanley tell me that Chip (Sgt. Saunders) sometimes looses his head and really should like the Thompson machine gun. Kirby thinks the BAR is great.
Now for the request an Italian unit picture. The have a tank and tank destroyer along with some Panther tanks loaned to them by Rommel.
Hope the picture is added to this posting. Still not sure how to do this even after the Sgt. gave me directions.
Do these trays fit inside the nation specific boxes in pacific 1940?
yes, they do! i do not have a way of posting a picture, but i assure you that they do.
Thoes426 :evil:
Awesome! Thanks Jack! 4 orders coming up.
I can use those for my A&A Anniversary set.
One thing about A&A is that pieces are not really to scale with each other - that is fine. as long as they are close in size to each other is what really counts.
Planes are a good example of this - the B-17 dwarfs most other planes, but they are all relatively close. Ships classes are the same - all transports/subs/destroyers are roughly the same size, regardless of what they are in real life.
Makes it easier for the players. BTW, I disagree with your “hand” theory - if we can fit fighters on carriers, we have enough hand-eye coordination to place tanks that are 1-2mm smaller than normal.
Thought you guys would appreciate a roughly-to-scale comparison shot of Italian tanks:
Jack:
We fully understand that AA pieces are not in scale to each other. The idea is the map does not allow large pieces to fit so scale has been compromised.
If naval, air and land were all in scale to each other… the game would be unplayable. Infantry would be really small and ships would be huge. The size just makes it look aesthetically appealing that are more or less the same.
