Re: Field Marshal Games Pieces Project Discussion thread

@SuperbattleshipYamato I fixed it now! :) Should be good to go!

@knp7765:

@CWO:

It would have been a nice touch to rename the jail square “in the brig”.

HA! Good one. Another possibility would be “the Stockade”.

And the picture of the “Go To Jail” policeman with the whistle could be replaced by a picture of an M.P. or Shore Patrol guy.

Cannot find many threads that really get into this version of the game in great detail. Played 1 full game of it so far, and love it. (I was originally a Classic player all the way.)

Anyway, few questions to maybe spark some discussion on this:

Which official version is this map closest to? Also which “official” rule set does this variant use? Spring 1942 edition?

Bidding: on the few posts I found on the topic, it seems people think this map favors the Axis and they actually bid allies. Either I am reading posts on a different version or I just suck, because it seems like the Allies are in pretty good shape in this map from the beginning and they can do some things right out of the gate to slow what needs to be a rapid Axis assault. E.g. China being a distraction and the UK being able to defend most of its colonies for at least 3 turns.

I am still not entirely sure what the best opening moves are for the Axis, which is what I would really like to discuss in depth here if other folks have some more experience with this game. For instance, what odds should the German player take to try and take Leningrad first turn? It seems like their Northern fleet cannot last more than a turn against a good UK player, so should you just sacrifice it and take worse odds on a Leningrad assault if the Soviet player leaves you, say, a 70% chance? (I am usually the kind of player that only attacks with overwhelming odds, e.g., 90% and above. Even 85% makes me nervous…) How can the Germans ever keep their Northern fleet alive? Do they need to? (It seems like the English can kill it turn 1 no matter what the Germans do.) If you cannot take Leningrad T1, is it better to instead focus like a laser on a later round (T4 or 5) take over of Stalingrad with a huge mass of tanks and infantry that you slowly plod over there?

Is a rapid take over of Africa impossible against a UK player who adequately defends Syria and Egypt T1 and who rapidly stacks Gibraltar with numerous planes and troops? Should the Italians forego Africa and put everything into a Russian assault? Is Western Turkey a viable take-over to open up another avenue for Italian ships and/or tanks into Russia or Africa?

Do the Japanese sacrifice their fleet to kill the US at Midway or do they ignore them entirely and focus everything on India? It seems like focusing on anything else is ultimately a mistake, at least thats how my last game played out.

So many questions! What do you guys think is the optimum opening Axis move?

Those are bleachers (houses) from NFL Monopoly. I glued short dowels to the back and painted them brick red to use as minor factories.

DFWSupertrooper,

Obviously with my Color mapboard being 4’ x 9’ and in two pieces I had planned for my “Gaming Table” to also be in TWO PIECES that could be combined,…or FOLDABLE for transport purposes.

@Tall:

My “A&A Gang” currently are using our 48" x 108" Black & White map mounted on gator-board and laid onto the tops of two tables.

On my version I planned on having a solid 1/2" A/C plywood base that has 1" x 2" lateral and longitudinal wood braces underneath w/furniture grade wood framing around everything and a glass top over the map.  On the bottom I planned to include mounts for detatchable legs to make it versatile.  These are my interests and I’d be interested in your opinions or options for building this for me.  Thanks for your time.

I just wanted to let you know I’d possibly be interested in a two-piece board that could be folded up for transport purposes.  Obviously the glass on top of each mapboard would also be in two pieces.  Let me know of any ideas/opinions you may have on this subject.

“Tall Paul”

Here is a tactical level WWI game I have been working on.  I play it on the original maps from the A&A Miniatures game (2" hexes) and use the roads as trench lines or mark my laminated maps with a dry erase marker to indicate trench lines.  I have only been playing offense/defense type games where the ratio of offense army points to defense army points is 3:2 and the offense has to capture an objective behind the defense’s trench line or has to open a 3 adjacent hex gap in the defense’s trench line after 10-15 turns.  A 100-120 points for the offense makes for a reasonable sized army.
I bought soft plastic English, French and German HO scale WWI soldiers from the Toy Soldier Company and use cannons from Risk and Micro Machines biplanes.  I also bought machine gun/artillery hard plastic sets from the Toy Soldier Co for the heavy artillery & machine guns that were so devastating in the trench warfare.  I suppose you could use pieces from the A&A Miniatures for the infantry, machine guns, artillery, etc., if you want to try this before investing in the WWI pieces which are about $8/set.
I have play-tested this game several times and revised the rules at least 6 times.  If you give it a try I would appreciate your feeback so that I can continue to improve the game.
Let me know if you can’t open the MS Word rules file.
World War I.doc