HBG WW1 Set

The most important task of French transports during WWI was to ship French soldiers from the North African colonies to France, Gallipoli and Greece.

Here is the most prominent:
Provence II:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Provence_(1906) (unfortunately the English article is really short and w/o pics)
http://www.uboat.net/wwi/ships_hit/3447.html
http://www.greatships.net/provence.html
http://pages14-18.mesdiscussions.net/pages1418/Forum-Pages-d-Histoire-aviation-marine/marine-1914-1918/provence-compagnie-transatlantique-sujet_145_1.htm (pictures; article in French)

Bouclier class destroyer:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouclier-class_destroyer
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/Bouclier-Marius_Bar.jpg

The Light Blue colour of this HBG set is (almost) perfect for the French WWI set! Very, very close to the Horizon Blue of the French Army:
http://www.historicalboardgaming.com/HBG-Battle-Pieces–Allies-Supplement-set-Light-Blue_p_1132.html

The Light Blue of the HBG Neutrals set on the other hand looks far too turquoise:
http://www.historicalboardgaming.com/HBG-Battle-Pieces--WW2-Neutrals-Basic-Set-Light-Blue_p_717.html

Please make sure you get the colour right!

I’ve bought both sets and they are the same color.

Is it a glitch that the second picture looks darker and relatively turquoise?
Is it really a clear LIGHT BLUE as in the first picture?

I mean the WWI French are supposed to be Horizon Blue!
So if you do not want to aim matching it perfectly - regarding costs for an additional, but only slightly different colour maybe - the light blue in the first picture would do fine enough!

I recently bought (and received last week) several sets of the Allied supplement pieces in French Blue…

http://www.historicalboardgaming.com/HBG-Battle-Pieces--Allies-Supplement-set-French-Blue_p_1382.html

…and the colour is identical to the OOB French pieces from Europe 1940.  I also own a set of the Light Blue pieces, but their colour is quite distinct from the French Blue ones and it was never intended to match the OOB French colour.

@CWO:

I recently bought (and received last week) several sets of the Allied supplement pieces in French Blue…

http://www.historicalboardgaming.com/HBG-Battle-Pieces--Allies-Supplement-set-French-Blue_p_1382.html

…and the colour is identical to the OOB French pieces from Europe 1940.  I also own a set of the Light Blue pieces, but their colour is quite distinct from the French Blue ones and it was never intended to match the OOB French colour.

ROFL! I just bought the same stuff! I know it’s good stuff just figuring out what I’ll use it for now.

@toblerone77:

ROFL! I just bought the same stuff! I know it’s good stuff just figuring out what I’ll use it for now.

I bought one set of the light blue pieces last year on an experimental basis, but I didn’t really use them because the pale blue shade wasn’t really to my liking.  In the past few weeks, however, the A&A 1914 game and HBG’s French Blue pieces appeared almost back-to-back, which was great timing.  The A&A 1914 French pieces are a dark shade of blue which is different enough from the Europe 1940 French pieces to be distinctive, yet also close enough to look related, so I’m using the 1914 troop and equipments sculpts as Free French forces, with the equipment pieces from HBG’s French Blue Allied supplemental set (five sets purchased) added to them as extra (and more modern) units.  (Having the FF flying just WWI biplanes against Vichy Franco-Russian Yaks seemed a little unfair, after all.)

I am a little confused now!

Am I correct that there are actually 2 blue colours from HBG?

First OOB Blue:
http://www.historicalboardgaming.com/HBG-Battle-Pieces–Allies-Supplement-set-French-Blue_p_1382.html

So this would be one of the 9 colours for playing with 1914 OOB pieces.

AND

Light Blue:
http://www.historicalboardgaming.com/HBG-Battle-Pieces--Allies-Supplement-set-Light-Blue_p_1132.html

This should be the 2nd of the 9 colours for complete replacement for more historical feel!

Can someone who bought the set can confirm that the set indeed looks like pictured in the link above and NOT relatively turquoise like in this picture:
http://www.historicalboardgaming.com/HBG-Battle-Pieces–WW2-Neutrals-Basic-Set-Light-Blue_p_717.html

It would be really nice to have this clarified!

You really think this is complicated?

1. There is “OOB blue”, which replicates the AAGlobal color for French pieces.
2. There is HBG’s own “light blue”, which offers another shade of blue.
Despite whatever you perceive on your computer screen, those two shades are distinctive enough to use both on a gameboard and NEVER confuse them. I think the typical plan is to use one shade for Vichy troops, one for Free French.

3. The AA14 shade of blue is somewhat darker than AAGlobal. Obvious at a glance, but not enough that you could put both shades on a gameboard and call them different armies. Not unlike like difference between AAGlobalv1 Italian and Russian pieces. Even among my AA14 French set, the cruisers are notably lighter than the rest of the pieces, though still not the same shade as AAGlobal French.

Can anybody please answer to my post directly and specifically say:

The HBG Light Blue set in reality looks like in the link under “Light Blue” in my previous post and not the one under the bold sentence?

That would easily clear the issue!
Thx in advance!

I don’t understand what you’re asking. The light blue Neutral pieces match the light blue Allied Supplent pieces so you basically can build a light blue colored army from scratch. I own them they don’t look bad at all.

If you’re asking if these are supposed to be directly used with 1914 the answer is no.

@xxstefanx:

Can anybody please answer to my post directly and specifically say:

The HBG Light Blue set in reality looks like in the link under “Light Blue” in my previous post and not the one under the bold sentence?

That would easily clear the issue!
Thx in advance!

Yes, the HBG Light Blue set is definitely Light Blue. They are NOT turquoise. That was a result of bad lighting when the picture was taken.

Thx for clarifying!
This definately adds even more flavour to the coming set! :-)

I use standard AA pieces and colors for this game but I am happy to see them expand into this game.

On that note I do use the Ottoman pieces and would like to see a few new pieces in that color.

@toblerone77:

I don’t understand what you’re asking. The light blue Neutral pieces match the light blue Allied Supplent pieces so you basically can build a light blue colored army from scratch. I own them they don’t look bad at all.

If you’re asking if these are supposed to be directly used with 1914 the answer is no.

The two things that are missing to create a complete army out the color is a submarine and a fleet carrier (only have the escort carrier).  :cry:

@Orizen:

@toblerone77:

I don’t understand what you’re asking. The light blue Neutral pieces match the light blue Allied Supplent pieces so you basically can build a light blue colored army from scratch. I own them they don’t look bad at all.

If you’re asking if these are supposed to be directly used with 1914 the answer is no.

The two things that are missing to create a complete army out the color is a submarine and a fleet carrier (only have the escort carrier).   :cry:

Yeah I know but for what I use the neutrals for it works out fine. You can always buy some of the sale pieces at HBG like the Russian carrier for example, and with a little paint you might have what you need.

As there will be a new specifically designed French set for WWI simply make it perfect! :-D
This way there will be no need for improvisation!

I own some of HBG’s Light Blue pieces, and I’d say this picture…

http://www.historicalboardgaming.com/HBG-Battle-Pieces--Allies-Supplement-set-Light-Blue_p_1132.html

…represents their shade a little more accurately than this picture…

http://www.historicalboardgaming.com/HBG-Battle-Pieces--WW2-Neutrals-Basic-Set-Light-Blue_p_717.html

…in which they look a little darker than reality.  But whichever picture you look at, HBG’s Light Blue pieces (which I also think of as baby blue or powder blue or pastel blue) are a very different shade from HBG’s French Blue pieces (which are a rich medium blue, essentially identical to the OOB French pieces from Europe 1940).  As Redking said, there’s no way that the Light Blue and French Blue units could ever be confused with each other on the game board.  The OOB 1940 French pieces and the HBG French Blue pieces are close in shade to the OOB 1914 French pieces (which are a little darker), but still distinctive. So depending on your requirements, you can treat those two sets of pieces as representing either units of the same country or units of different countries; the difference in shade lends itself to either one of those two interpretations, which is something I like about them because it gives flexibility.