Posts made by dinosaur

Guys,

I don’t know how many folks here scan all the boards, but there is a fellow that formed a company called Field Marshall Games, FMG for short.  He is making accessories for A&A and is about to release new pieces for the A&A games.  The first release will be a complete set of Italian pieces.  The other nations will follow and I think this is going to be a great thing.  If you have time, check out this thread.

http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=13894.0

It is already over 35 pages, so it will take a long time to read.  But the essence is he is about to take the next step and take pre-orders for the Italian pieces.  I bought a set of special dice from FMG and I am happy with them.  He is also selling a dice tower.  He plans to add other stuff.  I hope he gets plenty of support so he can fund the development of all his projects.  Take a look.

I’ll throw in my two cents here.

I don’t have the newest A&A game so I don’t know about the pieces, variety and quality.  I hear folks were dissappointed with the Italian pieces so I can understand bringing the Italians to market first.  In my opinion, the next pieces should be the Brits.  There are three reasons for this.  First, the Brits are in every game except for Guadalcanal, so everyone that plays the non-worldwide games will want to buy this set, regardless of whether it is AAP, AAE or BOTB.  Second, the original Brits share many duplicates with the Americans (same tank, same arty, same destroyer, same sub, same transport) so the new pieces will deliver the variety folks appreciate (eliminating the duplication with the Americans).  Third, delivering the Brits will provide an opportunity for folks like myself to use the old Brit pieces for the Aussies in AAP until a FMG set of Aussies comes to market.  This will deliver the biggest bang for the buck and will get more interest in the total project.  There are many WWII games that don’t include Italian units, but very few that don’t include British forces.

After delivering British pieces, I’d like to see the Americans because I play AAR, AAP and AAG.  Americans are in all the games so they will be in great demand.  After the Americans, I imagine everyone wants to see the Germans.  I would rather see the Japanese, but I can see that more probably want Germans.  As a matter of fact, I expect many will want to see the Germans before anything else, but I have given my reasons for the other priorities.  After the Germans we should see the Japanese, the Russians and then the Chinese.

Finally, I hope to see some FMG Aussies.  Maybe Neutrals could be substituted from one of the other nations the FMG pieces replace until true neutrals are developed.  I see developing neutrals as a difficult goal.  How do you decide what sculpts to use?  I would think French pieces would be ahead of neutrals.  Anything that brings the whole 7+ nations to market quickest would be great.

The very first post explains there will be a variety of pieces, including two infantry sculpts per nation.  In short, this will be the most complete set of pieces offered anywhere with six nations (to start with, but one nation released at a time) and the greatest variety of units.  FMG is also pursuing other projects including the dice project with seven specific nations, a dice tower, and sometime in the future an enhanced set of chips to represent stacks of units or special conditions such as damaged units.  Eventually we expect to see additional nations such as ANZAC represented.

I think the nature of naval combat is going to steer towards stacks.  There were reasons task groups were spread out historically, but these reasons can not be captured on a game where everyone sees all the pieces.  In naval warfare, you have to avoid the decisive engagement that can go against you.  One way to do this is to make sure you have the biggest dog on the block.

For my part, the important thing to know is that all the varieties of first-rate main battle tanks are on my side.

I still think the Abrams is the best.  I hope we never have to learn if it is better than a Leopard.

Why is this in WWII history?

One thing I can see that this 3d printer offers is that you could have a box full of different bombers instead of all similar pieces.  Imagine if instead of five B-17s, you had a B17, B25, B27, B29, …

That would be sweet.

I was at work on the second day at my new job.

I have three questions at this point.  First, when you sell the pieces, are you going to sell them by nations (e.g. American set = $15, British set = $15, …) or are you only going to sell them as a complete set of nations (Americans, British, Russians, Germans, Japanese, Italians = $80)?  I would like to see them offered by nations and have a discount for buying 4 sets, 5 sets or 6+ sets.  In this way, folks that play Pacific could buy the sets they want without paying for Italians and Germans.  Also folks could buy one set at a time if they were on a tight budget.  Also 5 sets = Revised and 6 sets = AA50.

Second, what price level are you kicking around right now?

Third, when do you see this coming to market?  In time for Christmas?

As mentioned earlier, I would consider making some US pieces in UK colors and possiblt some German pieces in Italian colors.  This won’t matter to me because I paint mine anyway, but some may want to have these.  Maybe you could call them Allied cross dressers.  :-D

Should allies of the US have a sculpt for a generic transport, and Sherman tanks and basic arty as a potential lend-lease participant?  Could the US be configured in a variation where they actually have turns (pre 1941) where they start giving equipment away at some reduced IPC value (e.g. pre 1941 the US only generates 24 IPC of war materials and on their turn they are placed on the US East Coast in the allied players color for their use)?  I think this could have a lot of entertainment value.

Field Marshal,

I am very pleased to hear this announcement.  I hope I can afford two sets.

Where I am there are a large number of construction jobs in the summer along with park attendants.  The Christmas deal goes for about six weeks.  The construction deal goes all twelve weeks of summer vacation with several weeks before and after.

I could have gone the rest of my life without seeing that.

I don’t have a board set up.  Can Japan even reach Melbourne on the first turn?  If he makes a move in that direction, the Commonwealth may be in a position to buy infantry only on Melbourne with all the money they are allowed, and sub stall the northern cape to keep the IJN away for a second turn.

I would like to see a few trial games, but I’m not going to play IJN with it before I see if it can work with some chance exceeding 40%

There are two reasons I can think of for not changing.

First, I believe it costs more to air-condition a school than to heat it.

Second, teachers can get a Summer Job easier than they can get a Winter job.

I am not saying I think the proposal is a bad one.  I just don’t think it will get any traction.

Taking Melbourne would be sweet, but as the US player, I am usually bringing a lot of heat toward Austrailia right away.  One of my goals is to support the buildup of a UK fleet by protecting what the Aussies have at the beginning.

I suspect that AAP is popular among American (US) AA players, and the European theatre has a wider appeal.  The Pacific war is thought by many to be an American vs. Japanese thing, which is unfortunate because there are many other players that don’t receive their due.  There are also historical lessons concerning the buildup to the Pacific war that people will never learn.  The final tragedy is that it is a very fun game with a different feel than many other AA games, and many folks will miss out on that fun.

I was thinking the same thing about the Germans and the A-bomb.  I was wondering also, if we had bombed Berlin, would Japan have surrendered also?

You also need a reinforced airframe to take the stress at landing.  Tailhooks.  Maybe other things.

How about just making an announcement post in the other sections of this forum like AAG, AAR, AAE, AAP, …

Let’s start with that so everyone here knows about the new piece project.

Guys,

You’re not seriously going to have PT boats escorting convoys across the Atlantic and soaking up hits?  That’s just not right.  Now a PT boat counter for AAG would be nice.