HBG US Sculpts

A HUGE thanks to everyone here for your support over the years and to HBG for their efforts to aid us during this difficult period.

Thank you

Jeremy

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…

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

I loved everything about the pieces and I like HBGs inf size more than FMGs which I believe is a little too small.

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

Hey All,

Our group has gotten a chance to play several rounds of this game now and I have to say that this a GREAT GAME!!  In soo many of the games Italy gets a pretty glossed over look, whether you talk about Italy as a power or just that section of the map, but here, now, finally we have a game that really shows the scope, scale, and desperation that not only the Allies fought for, but that the Axis did as well, determined to keep Italy from being the ‘soft-underbelly’.  Special units, from Tigers to the dreaded Fallschirmjager and the good old American Airborne all are pitted together in a desperate struggle for Italy.

We are working on a bit more detailed review to share here, but we quite enjoyed it.  It blends the classic AA style with special units, territory details, and supply correlation at a scale that is useful for it (read- makes sense) and works for play.  Patton or Smiling Albert, bring on the FMG Italy units and Italy is the battle ground!

@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).

Okay enough already with the awesome pieces. i use the ones that come with the game.