HBG US Sculpts

@phd_angel This is not the expansion set for Global War, but a stand alone game. You get the rules and setup charts when you purchase the map.

It makes sense, to me at least.

Also from a collecting standpoint, I think even a good set of Generics or Generics by side can be desirable. It was rather novel for example in 1941 how the sets were done, because many people have uses for certain units in certain colors which might not come standard in other national sets. For special forces units, or a lend lease feel, or to include minor nations somewhere. In the same way that some people enjoy getting their hands on Lime Green Brits, or the nice cool Grey germans from Revised, because they have a color scheme that works for whatever purpose; similarly, the units from 1941, because they are generics, could potentially be included in other scenarios.  Basically 41 gives you an incentive to pick it up just to grab a few of those special units for the arsenal in a nice color spread. The Japanese Tigers for example, or the nice Warhawks.

What you are discussing with ships is exactly on point. The sort of confusion that arises between cruisers destroyers and the like, because of the shapes/sizes used by different nations for the same basic type. I think you could do a lot just with size on the length dimension.

If for example all destroyers were exactly the same length, and there was a reasonable spread between the length of the types. For example, start with the cheapest combat capable units and develop some exact ratio that is consistent for all nations.

So, using normal A&A size units, maybe something like…

Subs are 1 inch
Destroyers 1 inch and a third
Cruisers 1 inch and two thirds
Carriers 2 inches
Battleships 2 inches, since its fairly easy to distinguish between the carrier and battleship by shape.

So the sub is the baseline (whatever its length is determined to be) and all other warships build off that.
Sub x 1, x 1.333, x 1.666, x 2 etc to keep it all visually simple and immediately recognizable.

Or in the case of micro, you could make the base sub length smaller by 25% or 33% or whatever seems to make it feel visibly more micro, when compared with the normal scale A&A. With the ships listed above, plugged into set length ratios by type, I think it would be pretty easy to tell them apart, whether generic or national in shape. I do agree, squared vs rounded is very important for differentiation of units (more than width in many cases) so I would try to use that to differentiate if I could. Likewise height features also help to differentiate units provided they are markedly different.

That just leaves you with the Transport unit, which should be generic for all players, and (critically!) should be able to “seat” any land unit capable of being transported. In other words the ship should break relative scale to be more in line with the land units it transports rather than other ships. Because this requires a flat topped transport (no smoke stacks!) I would suggest a very different visual shape from the carrier deck. So elliptical transports and squared carriers for example. The transport should likewise have a well balanced and flat bottom so that it “slides” easily with units aboard, or stacks well atop a chip in the case of large unloaded transport stacks. The Transport unit is highly abstract to begin with, and so I think its sculpt should be more functional rather than decorative.

Carriers, Transports, or any unit on which another unit can can be loaded or “parked”, should have a good center of gravity, flat bottom, and no wobble. Likewise, any unit which can rest on other units should have a good center of gravity and a flat bottom to minimize wobble while atop the other unit.

It would be nice for example if units like Mech, or Artillery were designed to sit more snugly on top, or alongside of units they are paired with. I think micro has the potential to do this, and provides a nice opportunity, since you’d have smaller infantry and fighters etc, but by introducing a really strong relative scale by ship type, you could still have pretty large Carriers and Transports. I think that with Tanks, as long as they were paired exactly by size, you could probably find a nice way to scale it using Nationals. But I do agree that if you wanted to do generic by side, the models knp mentioned sound pretty solid to me. I think I’d be happy with those.

The only unit that seems to really call out for Nationals is infantry, but this also has to do with how large the infantry currently are. At a smaller size helmet differentiation becomes a little less significant, and that is the main distinguishing characteristic of infantry. If you did do generic by side even for infantry, I think I would more readily accept German helmets on the Japanese, than I would all the same helmets for the Allies. You have to go down pretty small before the differences become negligible, I’d say something along the lines of the 40th anniversary Risk units, before people wouldn’t be all sad that the Brits and Americans and Russians look too similar with their helmets.

I played my first game of Amerika last night. It was pretty easy to learn once I was finally able to remember which sculpts were the self propelled anti-aircraft units and and which ones were the self propelled artillery units. It took awhile to play because I was carefully going through every step and double checking to make sure I didn’t develop any bad habits as far as the rules go. I can see being able to play a game in under 2 hours including setup if you had 2 or 3 players who already knew how to play. That would be perfect for the lake in the summer when you go into the cabin to wait out a rainstorm. A&A on the other hand would be more of a whole day this is never going to clear up type of game.

It’s a good game and very well made. I picked up the Strategic Markers expansion set with the game but didn’t use any of the extra rules that come with the pieces so I could learn the game first and decide which rules and extra pieces would be appropriate to make it a better game. I did find the map a little small so I am going to get a bigger one for use at home on the big table. I like lots of elbow room and space to line up my tanks without using chips. In the game the Japanese got bogged down in the northwest with the allies holding the line at Hanford Nuclear Research Facility. They had better luck in the south moving inland and taking out Los Alamos NRF. The Germans made it as far as Detroit in the north and Nashville in the south but couldn’t capture Oak Ridge NRF. On the fifth turn the allies were lucky enough to roll big and go first, which meant that they had 2 turns in a row and were able to take back Los Alamos and 3 cities and accumulating enough points to win the game. If the axis would’ve went first on the fifth turn it would have been a different outcome and they might have won on the fifth or sixth turn. It all came down to that one roll…

Had a few questions regarding this game.

It says AA guns, supplies and trains are destroyed if targeted by SBR and hit. Was curious if 1 hit destroys all supplies/AA guns/or trains in a targeted zone or just 1 of them? The way it describes them in plural terms throws me off.

What happens when multiple generals meet in battle? For example 2 Russian generals meet 2 German generals in a battle, do you add their skill levels and roll ? Or do u only use the highest skill level and roll? And how is it decided which attribute is used or is the winner of roll able to use multiple attributes?

What are considered vehicles? For times when vehicles get a modifier to their roll. I was thinking vehicles would be all armor, mechs, SP artillery, and maybe tank destroyers but wasn’t sure. I figured SS grenadiers would be considered infantry since their counterparts for Russia are Guard Rifles.

I understand that all units being used for combat are moved in the combat move phase and then all units can be moved in the non combat phase, even those used in combat. However it specifically mentions aircraft are able to move up to their move limit during combat move and then must land in a tt that has been friendly since beginning of the turn. My question is : Are aircraft able to move in the combat move phase even if they aren’t going into combat and then land in the non-combat phase and if so do they need a supply to be used each time like other units?

I wasn’t sure about this since it seemed strange that aircraft could move their limit in combat move and then again in non combat move, but only if they are going into combat.

Any help or info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

@Variable:

LHoffman-

Feel free to use the stickied HBG thread for this. I think it’s a good place. We read it daily.

Ah, did not know that was its purpose… thank you Variable.

hehehe… just when I thought I was towing the line, Paul walks over it.  8-)

I will start refunding this week. If you have not been refunded by Sunday, please email me.
Thanks for your support, maybe next time!

@knp7765:

Well, we have to get the FMG Tigers first. There was a pic of two of the prototype FMG King Tigers with an OOB Panther to give you some idea of size comparison.
The HBG Shermans are a bit smaller than the OOB Shermans, which I think makes them look more realistic compared to the OOB Panthers. The OOB Shermans were a little too large in my opinion. The Panther was a pretty big tank.
However, I think WOTC made the Shermans this way because all OOB pieces seem to be within a certain range for each different type of unit. For Example, all Aircraft Carriers are 64mm long, all battleships are between 58 and 62 mm long, and so on. I think all the tanks were between 20 and 22 mm long. I think this was WOTC’s way of keeping some sort of continuity between sculpts. So while the Panthers and Tigers look okay, Shermans look a little too big. That’s especially true with Japan’s Type 95. On the board, it’s as big as a Sherman yet in real life, the Type 95 was a tiny tank. Not nearly as big as a Sherman and not even close to the size of a Panther. I think if a Type 95 was made to the same scale as the Panther, the piece would be around 13-15mm in length and end up looking like the tiny mech inf units.

Hey KNP, the OOB Sherman in the AA50 is smaller and pretty much the same size as the HBG Sherman (btw).