French Set…need help to finalize set.

@knp7765:

What I’m afraid of after seeing pics of 1941 is that when they reprint Europe 1940 they will do the same thing…all Allies get the same sculpts and all Axis get the same sculpts. So France will get HMS Hood battleships and IS-2 tanks while Italy gets Kongo battleships and Tiger tanks.

Now gentlemen, that would really drive their sales into the sewer and prove what we on this forum have known all along, Wizards of The Coast Avlon Hill doesn’t care about quality or iconic.  It all about the bottom line greenbacks!  Let get real Tigers and JS IIs in 1940 or 1941 how stupid can you get!

The French need a Full land, Air and Naval set just as the Japanese are receiving.  Think about it, the French Army was one of largest in the world before WWII and their Navy was larger than any Axis accept the IJN!
The French had more different types of tanks then the entire German, Italian and Japanese Armies combined.
From their small calvary tanks to their 10 each massive Char 2C monsters built by FMC.

WARRIOR888

I agree I would like the French set to be the 3 set combo Japan is getting

The following is pure speculation on my part:

I don’t know that every nation will need 3 sets. Certainly Japan, US (not including Marines), UK and Germany. Russia is heavily land based and would not require the extensive navy that Japan will get, but does need enough equipment to keep up with the Germans. We may be able to fit them into 2. We will have to wait and see on that. It’s a long way away right now! The Italians and French could probably be fit into 2 sets each as well. Keep in mind there are Axis Minors is brown and neutrals in blue. No fear though, I know Coach plans to do justice to the French and give them a great set.

IMO the only way to give them justice is giving them all there own units so we can play france with zero blue russians

Yeah, we all hate the blue Russians…

i’ll take that as good new for france  :-D

well if its true that reprint of 1940 is coming out this 4th quarter than i say might as well wait until it comes out to see if OOB made anything new

@Lunarwolf:

well if its true that reprint of 1940 is coming out this 4th quarter than i say might as well wait until it comes out to see if OOB made anything new

New pieces in a reprint for the French are unlikely IMO.

I would rather get one French set, then focus on other nations, because as much as we need new pieces… the French are on the board for 1-2 turns. However, I know they may be necessary for the 1939 game (which I would buy if I had the time or pieces to play  :-o)

@Spitfire38:

@Lunarwolf:

well if its true that reprint of 1940 is coming out this 4th quarter than i say might as well wait until it comes out to see if OOB made anything new

New pieces in a reprint for the French are unlikely IMO.

I would rather get one French set, then focus on other nations, because as much as we need new pieces… the French are on the board for 1-2 turns. However, I know they may be necessary for the 1939 game (which I would buy if I had the time or pieces to play  :-o)

IMO the French could be done in one set if and only if it has a full range of naval units, which for me means at least one of each the current ship types, and preferably a couple of “tweeners” too (i.e. a CB or old BB and a contre-torpilleur or light cruiser) because I want the diplomatic maneuvers over the French Fleet to be an important part of my GW1939 set-up.

lol and that’s the problem because in my opinion France can be done in one set as long as includes a French version of everything that’s on the game board at set up. So no French BB or CV but we would get french tanks and planes. Seems people are split on the issue some want the set to be strong navy others want only what is needed to put french units on the board.

@Yavid:

lol and that’s the problem because in my opinion France can be done in one set as long as includes a French version of everything that’s on the game board at set up. So no French BB or CV but we would get french tanks and planes. Seems people are split on the issue some want the set to be strong navy others want only what is needed to put french units on the board.

But if that’s all you want then there’s no problem with oob, since it won’t be on the board long anyway… I want French units so I can experiment with set-ups DIFFERENT from oob scenerios, especially because one major thing that I use war-games for is as teaching tools for my students.

oh no I hate blue russians. makes me think the purges depressed the russians and to get away they ran to paris to defend the place from the germans.

@Yavid:

oh no I hate blue russians. makes me think the purges depressed the russians and to get away they ran to paris to defend the place from the germans.

Well, at this scale a T-34/76 could pass for a Somua S-35, a Yak-1 or a MiG-3 could pass for an M.S. 406, or, for that matter a D. 520 (which had its cockpit further back like the MiG, but was said to be so similar to the Yak-1 in flying characteristics that Free French pilots trained on it in England to get ready to fly Yaks in Russia…) � The artillery is really a US 105 mm, which has a fairly generic Field Artillery look in any case, and they don’t start a out with any Mechs anyway, so what’s the big deal with the land units? � It’s the naval units where France was most distinctive (and formidable, actually) and it is where using Soviet units most short-changes them!

@DrLarsen:

@Yavid:

oh no I hate blue russians. makes me think the purges depressed the russians and to get away they ran to paris to defend the place from the germans.

Well, at this scale a T-34/76 could pass for a Somua S-35, a Yak-1 could pass for an M.S. 406, or, for that matter a D. 520 (which had its cockpit further back like the MiG but was said to be so similar in flying characteristics to the Yak-1 that Free French pilots trained on it in England to get ready to fly Yaks in Russia…)�  The artillery is really a US 105 mm, which has a fairly generic Field Artillery look in any case, and they don’t start a out with any Mechs anyway, so what’s the big deal with the land units?�  It’s the naval units where France was most distinctive (and formidable, actually) and it is where using Soviet units most short-changes them!

Oh, and keeping in mind that they do have an oob Infantry that looks pretty good imho.

@DrLarsen:

@DrLarsen:

@Yavid:

oh no I hate blue russians. makes me think the purges depressed the russians and to get away they ran to paris to defend the place from the germans.

Well, at this scale a T-34/76 could pass for a Somua S-35, a Yak-1 could pass for an M.S. 406, or, for that matter a D. 520 (which had its cockpit further back like the MiG but was said to be so similar in flying characteristics to the Yak-1 that Free French pilots trained on it in England to get ready to fly Yaks in Russia…)� � The artillery is really a US 105 mm, which has a fairly generic Field Artillery look in any case, and they don’t start a out with any Mechs anyway, so what’s the big deal with the land units?� � It’s the naval units where France was most distinctive (and formidable, actually) and it is where using Soviet units most short-changes them!

Oh, and keeping in mind that they do have an oob Infantry that looks pretty good imho.

Yeah, the OOB infantry is nice… maybe an action pose would be better, but they’re not bad!

I think there clearly is a divide here haha. There are many naval pieces that stay on the board, as there are infantry pieces. So a whole set would be nice, but I think at bare minimum there needs to be a new tank sculpt, a new artillery sculpt, a new fighter sculpt, and a new cruiser and destroyer.

I want a top to bottom redesign of french units. That means making so there are ZERO blue russians. But if forced to scale back for whatever reason then I think it should be just what is put on the board at set up. I would be fine with the small set i’m talking about. I would be OMG excited for a complete set.

Now that 2nd edition is going to be released in a few weeks. And again we are stuck with blue russians. Am I the only one that is now more excited for HBG’s french set than I was before?

@Yavid:

Now that 2nd edition is going to be released in a few weeks. And again we are stuck with blue russians. Am I the only one that is now more excited for HBG’s french set than I was before?

You’re certainly not alone.  My plastic storage box for France has got empty compartments already reserved for HBG’s French pieces when they eventually appear.

lol my storage boxes get setup for the new HBG pieces as soon as they are ancounced.