Tac Bombers and Mech units?

@Der:

I’m just a little frustrated that I can now find obscure things like Italian panzerfaust troops and hungarian self propelled artillery when the basic staple units needed to run the game (mech and tac)  continue to be sold out or priced at $2.50 each. :(

Yes, many people feel the same way.  For example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmBo8q0akGo&feature=related

For me it’s still the blue Russian naval units that are MY biggest pet peeve.  The Russian tanks, mechs, and planes (except for the Pe-8) are similar-looking enough to what true French pieces would look like from a distance at this scale, that it doesn’t bother me much… but those Russian naval units in French blue just never cease to irritate me with their jarring “out-of-placeness” (I know, its not a real word, but I couldn’t think of a better one tonight…)

The video was funny as hell.

Blue Russians make me sad. It’s might be the worse thing WotC has done to the game. Please please please can we get a fix for it. Blue Brits, Blue Americans would be better than Blue Russians

@Der:

@Yavid:

Blue Brits, Blue Americans would be better than Blue Russians

I dunno -it does get pretty cold in Russia.

See and I was thinking that the Purges had to be depressing. And don’t forget in Russia we tell you when it’s winter (joke on Revised NA Russian player picks when it’s winter)

@Der:

Heh heh - I was never familiar with NAs - now I’m glad. Since we got off on colors, I always thought yellow Japanese was a bit racist.Â

I read somewhere that larry said he thought the yellow japanese was abit racist it’s why he changed it.

1. Russian Winter
Russia’s greatest ally was its winter cold. Germany’s invasion stopped dead as the snows came down.
Once during the game in your collect income phase, you can declare a severe winter. Until the start of your
next turn, your infantry defend on a 3.

In Russia we tell you when it’s winter.

@Yavid:

I read somewhere that larry said he thought the yellow japanese was abit racist it’s why he changed it.

Well, actually in the Far East, yellow is considered the traditional color of royalty, just as purple is in the West.  It goes back to very ancient Chinese tradition (which has been a huge influence on Japan, which by WW2 was the only remaining Asian “imperial power” in both the sense of still having an ancient imperial line and the sense of having aspirations of empire beyond its traditional borders.)  So I’d think that yellow would be a perfect color for Japan, especially as their infantry uniform color was too close to US OD green to use.  The only other [basic] color to make any sense at all would be red, which is prominent in the various Japanese flags; but note the prominent yellow in the imperial crysanthimum seal… plus red makes more sense as a color for the commies (who also had a uniform color too close to US OD green…)

So I don’t think using yellow is a racist color for the Japanese at all; of the basic primary & secondary color options, it’s clearly the logical choice.  I guess the burnt orange is OK, but yellow would be better, I think.

I like the burnt orange (current) over the yellow but that might be just me, Clown Nose Red was Horrible. My complaint is from Yellow to Red to Burnt Orange. can we pick one and stick with it please? Same goes for USSR and UK to a lesser degree.

@Yavid:

I like the burnt orange (current) over the yellow but that might be just me, Clown Nose Red was Horrible. My complaint is from Yellow to Red to Burnt Orange. can we pick one and stick with it please? Same goes for USSR and UK to a lesser degree.

Well, given that HBG is planning a very full line-up of Japanese pieces in all three colors, it looks to me like we’re all going to get our wish!  I’ll probably buy several sets in all three, just as I have pre-ordered several sets of all four colors of his upcoming EW Soviets.  I hope he does an equally good line-up of French units (INCLUDING NAVAL UNITS AT LAST!), and then some great sets of UK units in an equally wide range of colors… followed by some late-war Soviets in all four colors and late-war Americans in at least two… Then we’ll finally have the full range of options. But that seems to be his plan, near as I can figure.  If so, in another year or two we’ll be there at last!  After waiting 20 years for such options, a couple more years isn’t so bad a time to wait.  Go HBG!

Meanwhile, whatever happened to FMG?  I wish FMG and HBG would coordinate better.  Looks like they’re both doing a Tiger I, right after AH finally did one, while neither is doing a Panther.  And why is FMG doing both Tiger I and Tiger II?  I thought they were going to do a “heavy” and a “light” for each country?  Seeing as HBG is doing Panzer IV and Tiger, it would make so much more sense for FMG to do Panther and Tiger II!

@Yavid:

I like the burnt orange (current) over the yellow but that might be just me, Clown Nose Red was Horrible. My complaint is from Yellow to Red to Burnt Orange. can we pick one and stick with it please?

I’m glad that WotC has finally been staying consistent with its colours for the last several games.  I always think of those Japanese pieces from Pacific as being Cherry Red, which connects them with Japanese cherry blossoms, so they don’t bother me too much.  The red infantry pieces are useful as Special Naval Landing Force troop units.

@CWO:

@Yavid:

I like the burnt orange (current) over the yellow but that might be just me, Clown Nose Red was Horrible. My complaint is from Yellow to Red to Burnt Orange. can we pick one and stick with it please?

I’m glad that WotC has finally been staying consistent with its colours for the last several games.  I always think of those Japanese pieces from Pacific as being Cherry Red, which connects them with Japanese cherry blossoms, so they don’t bother me too much.  The red infantry pieces are useful as Special Naval Landing Force troop units.

Ive been thinking about using clown nose red japanese as communist china. I never liked one country having two different color units (old pacific marines come to mind). To me color of the unit is the Number 1 way of telling nations apart. What the piece is shaped like should tell you what type of unit it is. And never between the two shall meet. I use HBG inf. with the flamethrower in OOB American Green as my marines.

@Yavid:

Ive been thinking about using clown nose red japanese as communist china. I never liked one country having two different color units (old pacific marines come to mind). To me color of the unit is the Number 1 way of telling nations apart. What the piece is shaped like should tell you what type of unit it is. And never between the two shall meet. I use HBG inf. with the flamethrower in OOB American Green as my marines.

If shape is important to you as a delineator, I can’t understand why you’d use Japanese infantry as Chinese infantry.

As for me, I don’t mind having 2 colors for the “major powers,” 1 for standard troops and 1 for elites.  Thus, I rather like using the black Germans as elites and the HBG “early war” Germans and the classic MB/ EotC piece set in dark grey as standards, as well as having 2 shades of green for the US, tan for the UK, and red/ brown for USSR, etc.  I still haven’t decided whether I’m going to keep using red for Japanese elites or switch to yellow when HBG makes that an option.  (In my recent tournament, one student expressed that it was confusing to him that both the Russians and the Japanese were using red elite infantry.) …In any case I’m quite happy that HBG’s planning on giving us those options.

For me, these pieces are so small that depending entirely on shape to distinguish pieces that are at all similar-shaped is not ideal.  This isn’t a problem when distinguishing a tank from an infantryman or fighter, of course… but certainly can be when distinguishing 2 infantryman or 2 tanks or 2 fighters from each other.  For the minors, this isn’t much of an issue, but for the majors, this becomes an issue the moment you have any sort of elite or special unit.  (Perhaps this is especially true for me, since I often play with beginners.)

HAHAHA!

I really enjoyed seeing the above video. I could empathize with him, grin.

“Tall Paul”

@DrLarsen:

@Yavid:

Ive been thinking about using clown nose red japanese as communist china. I never liked one country having two different color units (old pacific marines come to mind). To me color of the unit is the Number 1 way of telling nations apart. What the piece is shaped like should tell you what type of unit it is. And never between the two shall meet. I use HBG inf. with the flamethrower in OOB American Green as my marines.

If shape is important to you as a delineator, I can’t understand why you’d use Japanese infantry as Chinese infantry.

As for me, I don’t mind having 2 colors for the “major powers,” 1 for standard troops and 1 for elites.  Thus, I rather like using the black Germans as elites and the HBG “early war” Germans and the classic MB/ EotC piece set in dark grey as standards, as well as having 2 shades of green for the US, tan for the UK, and red/ brown for USSR, etc.  I still haven’t decided whether I’m going to keep using red for Japanese elites or switch to yellow when HBG makes that an option.  (In my recent tournament, one student expressed that it was confusing to him that both the Russians and the Japanese were using red elite infantry.) …In any case I’m quite happy that HBG’s planning on giving us those options.Â

For me, these pieces are so small that depending entirely on shape to distinguish pieces that are at all similar-shaped is not ideal.  This isn’t a problem when distinguishing a tank from an infantryman or fighter, of course… but certainly can be when distinguishing 2 infantryman or 2 tanks or 2 fighters from each other.  For the minors, this isn’t much of an issue, but for the majors, this becomes an issue the moment you have any sort of elite or special unit.  (Perhaps this is especially true for me, since I often play with beginners.)

I used to play classic and color was the only way to tell one nation from another. And when standing back looking at the map the color of the units is the fastest way to see one nation from another. That’s why I would use Red Japanese for Communist China. Americans with flamethrowers makes it really easy to see it’s a different unit.