Posts made by CWO Marc

@FieldMarshalGames:

In the end we will be vindicated!

Well spoken, Jeremy.  Churchill spent much of WWII saying pretty much the same thing to the British people, and in the end he was proven correct.

What you said about your frustration with these unexpected developments (which we share and understand) reminds of something I read recently about another British Prime Minister who, after he was out of office, was asked what he had found to be the most difficult thing to deal with during his term of service.  He answered, “Events, dear boy, events.”

I like Larry’s post.  One way to look at the game is to see both the chronological and spatial elements as being elastic (or, to put it another way, as artistic interpretations) : they’re modeled on the real historical timeline and on real geography, and they correspond reasonably well to both, but each has had some adjustments made for the sake of playability.

For the chronological aspect, the timeline is adjusted in the way Larry describes.  For the spatial elements, the map uses variable scales.  Some areas of the board are larger than in reality because major battles of WWII took place there, and the map needs to provide enough space to replicate them.  Other areas of the board (like parts of the Pacific Ocean) are smaller than in reality because nothing much happened there; by making these areas smaller, the map saves space that can be used to make more important areas larger.  It’s a good trade-off.

@Gargantua:

The question is then,  learning from WWII, is the science of Eugenics WRONG/BAD Science?  Or is the science legitimate, but leads to VERY slippery slopes…  What are your thoughts and experiences?  And lessons learned from your WWII readings…

The slippery slope issue you mention is a major part of the problem.  Some of the early theorists of eugenics had ideas which seemed harmless enough, though they were a bit bizarre from today’s perspective – for instance the goal of encouraging members of the (presumably superior) upper classes to have more children so that they wouldn’t be outnumbered by members of the (presumably inferior) lower classes.  Eugenics soon became entangled, however, with other late-nineteeth century concepts like Social Darwinism (the application of Darwin’s biological concept of survival of the fittest to ethnic groups and societies and countries) and geopolitics (the study of the relationship between political power and the control of global territory).  The result was a toxic brew that was seized upon by various ideological movements (notably Nazism) to “justify” things like genocide and wars of conquest.

I haven’t checked their website but the Hellenic Military Geographical Service (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellenic_Military_Geographical_Service) might have something useful.

@FieldMarshalGames:

Yes, Germany sculpts are done.  The ball is rolling now.

You can only use the AAA.org link to get the FREE DICE if you pre-order BEFORE they are released.

Does this mean the German pieces can now be pre-ordered using the same kind of AAA.org special link that was made available for Italy?

Korea and Manchuria didn’t have the resources which Japan needed most, especially oil, so stopping there wouldn’t have solved Japan’s economic problems.  On the other hand, some of those problems were caused by the oil embargo which the U.S. slapped on Japan after the start of the invasion of China proper in 1937, so if Japan had been satisfied with acquiring Manchuria and Jehol it would not have been in as critical a position as it was after its invasion of China led to the oil embargo.  Japan did, however, also have the purely domestic problem of having a rapidly growing population being supported on too little land, which was another motive for acquiring new territory, even when oil is left out of the equation.

@FieldMarshalGames:

Italy mould will be finished on JAN 5th!!!

They will be shipping this month!

Hurrah!

For a pocket-sized campaign-style game, you might want to use the British-Italian conflict in East Africa ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_African_Campaign_(World_War_II) ).

For a more tactically-oriented game, the Battle of Greece (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Greece) might be the right size.

New link added:

Docfav7’s Global Table
          (Picture located on page 1 of the Securing Boards Together thread)
          http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=21687.0

This might be what you’re referring to:

http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=12490.0

One way to provide an alternate-history explanation for the switch of French units to the Axis side after the fall of France would be to assume that Vichy France declared war on Britain after the British attack against the French fleet at Mers-el-Kébir on July 3, 1940, in which about 1,300 French sailors were killed.  France didn’t do so in the real historical timeline, but the attack did put severe strain on relations between the two countries for a while.

Nice work!  Keeping the round base of the troop pieces in the original colours while painting the rest of the sculpt was a great idea, since it keeps the pieces connected to the original colour-coding schemes.

One of the Russian songs I like best from this era is “Moscow in May” (http://www.sovmusic.ru/english/text.php?fname=moscmay3).  Very catchy tune, even if you don’t understand any Russian (which I don’t).

It’s slightly pre-war (1937) and it’s patriotic rather than military, but it shows up in an early sequence of The Battle of Russia, Part 1", one of Frank Capra’s “Why We Fight” series of films, accompanied by shots of a huge parade through Red Square (it starts at 8:50 in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Q1OKMlhRXQ).

@inverted:

Or, if you want to keep it at $25 keep including the dice for the AAA.org pre-order, just please give us the option of paying up front. I’m sorry if it comes off as rude or if it seems that I’m trying to haggle openly, I just feel this approach is better for everyone including FMG.

I’ve been looking at your various posts on the subject of pre-ordering to try to make sure I understand the financial model you’re proposing.  I think I see what you’re suggesting, but it raises a number of questions.

At the moment, one national set is being offered on pre-order, before it’s in stock.  Once it’s in stock, it will be available by conventional order.  Presumably the same will happen as each subsequent set is produced, with each set becoming available for purchase and delivery individually.  (How long it will take to get to the completion of the last set is unclear at this point, but that’s a different issue.)

If I understand your posts correctly, the alternative model you’re proposing assumes that once all the sets are finished, FMG will offer an alternate option to purchase all the sets as a single package at a discounted price.  Where does that assumption come from?  Did Jeremy mention something along these lines at some point?  (I don’t recall his doing so, but I may have missed it.)

Let’s say for the moment, however, that Jeremy does plan to offer all the sets as a single discounted package once all the sets are available.  Your post which says “Why not charge once then ship once when the collection is complete?” seems to indicate that you don’t expect to receive the package until all the sets are complete.  In other words, regardless of whether you pre-order a whole package now or whether you wait until all the sets are ready (at which point, under your assumption, Jeremy will offer a package-deal purchase option), you’ll still have to wait until all the sets are complete before you receive anything.  So I don’t understand what difference it would make to pre-order a full package now as opposed to ordering it later.  The only possible advantage – and I think this is perhaps the real point of your model – would be if people who pre-ordered a full package now would be charged a lot less money than the people who waited until all the sets were completed before ordering a full package.  In other words: if we regard the current option of ordering the sets individually as the standard price, and if we assume that there will be an option to order a full package at the time of completion at a discounted price, what you seem to be proposing is that an additional discount (a discount on the already-discounted full package) should be offered to people who pre-order the full package right now.  Is that the case?

@calvinhobbesliker:

Marc, you should vote “it’s complicated.”

Done.

“Great powers” (see The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict From 1500 to 2000, by Paul Kennedy, for more on this topic) can arguably be defined as nations whose economic, military and political strength allows them to exert their influence on  a global scale.  A “superpower” can (also arguably) be defined as a nation considered to be one step above a “great power” – one which possesses the same kind of influence as a great power, but to an overwhelming degree.

The term “superpower” was invented in 1944, so strictly speaking the word itself has no pre-WWII application. There were certainly a number of great powers before the Second World War, but whether the U.S. or any other country can be regarded as having been a superpower before the Second World War depends on where you put the dividing line between great powers and superpowers.

@GrayBlaZe:

Thanks for the typo error, been there for a year and I never caught it.

“Onterio” would also need to be changed to “Ontario”.

At the bottom of the posting screen, click “Additional Options…”.  Use the “Browse” button next to the Attach window to find in your computer’s file directory the picture you want to load.  Click on “(more attachments)” if you want to load more than one picture.  Maximum attachment size allowed: 256 KB, per post: 3.

@Daedelus:

Maybe this would unbalance the game, but Franco’s Spain had been a close ally of Germany in the 1930’s and this could represent Germany’s constant nagging to repay the favor.
[…]
Thoughts?

It could be an interesting game option.  Historically, though, Hitler did try nagging Franco but got nowhere with him, for instance in the discussions over the projected Operation Felix (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Felix).

@AG124:

‘ROMMEL’ discount code didn’t work for me though (I did enter it using all capital letters). :cry:

It didn’t work for me at first when I was filling out the form, but then I noticed that you need to click the button next to the discount code entry box that says “Apply” (or whatever – I can’t recall the exact phrasing).  The cost total will then recompute itself and display the new figure.