My copy took over 3 months to get here, among otehr things all copies in NZ sold out quickly, and the supplier had to go to Australia, with no luck.
Eventually it was shipped from the US to here.
I was told there were real supply issues and shortages.
Painting has begun!
I have setup my painting table in our TV room so i can paint while the TV is on.
I’m planning on doing each nation at a time, giving myself a month for each one.
Infantry in week 1
Tanks and Artillery in week 2
Aircraft and carriers in week 3
Fleet in week 4.
Painting nations in 1941 Turn order
6 months to complete!
Fleet will take the longest, but I imagine i’ll be ahead of the targets each week, so thats all good.
Will post pics this weekend of finished German infantry :-D
This is exactly why I don’t like an Austalian IC - the shipping routes take way too long! :lol:
Nice!
Seriously, I dont think some of the American and European boardgamers out there realise how lucky they are not living at the bottom of the A&A map. At least i’m in the North Island. The South Island of NZ has dropped mostly off the edge of the world.
As Im painting the set I am thinking about taking 2 german cruisers and 1 japanese battleship and painting them Italian. I think 2 italian cruisers is too few (PLayed a bit of the PC version someone did).
Any thoughts on that?
After 3 months of waiting, my copy of AA50 has finally arrived
Long shipping from the US, to Australia and then to New Zealand, the game was then held in customs on a routine “hold and search” for over 2 weeks.
I picked up my copy at 4pm, but had an evening planned out with my partner dinner and a movie, so i had to lug the game around with me (luckily shes a gamer as well, and knew I had been waiting for months so wasn’t bothered)
5 hours later I got home and finally got to open the game!
My plan is to paint the entire set over the next few months. I’ll set up a thread later and post links to photobucket to show my progress. Now that the game has arrived, i’m already getting ready to pimp it up.
Now to entrap my group of players!
Well done, you have shown me that people did go to Iran
That doesn’t mean it was a wise or clever decision considering the political situation at the time.
Well 2 millionish ( and i was staggered it had such a level of toursim) went and thought it wise or unwise for them to do so, but i acept that they are free to make that choice for themselves, do you believe they are free to make that determination nof follow your choice for them as to its wisdom?.
I must have missed the news of any of them comming to harm, or any politcal action taken towards or against them, so perhaps you can explain the unwisdom or lack of cleverness your thinking off?.
You were the one who raised the point about the US visitors to Japan and their rather unpleasant fate. I was merely commenting that people make unwise and poor decisions about travel even when they are well informed of the consequences. I admit, the loss of lives in WWII of tourists in Japan was lamentable, and most certainly a war crime.
I do think however that people should take responsibility for their actions and ensure their well being where possible. That means not being in a nation where conflict is likely to erupt, especially if those hostilities will be directed at your nation of origin.
Common sense prevails.
Well done, you have shown me that people did go to Iran
That doesn’t mean it was a wise or clever decision considering the political situation at the time.
Sometimes we’ll put a movie on in the background…
U-571
Oh please NO!!!
I know A&A isn’t a historically accurate board game, but that film is so bogus
It was British personnel from HMS Bulldog who first captured a naval Enigma machine, from U-110 in the North Atlantic May 1941, before the United States entered the war. The british government even issued a statement condemming the film.
Imagine, if you would British Soliders raising the flag on Iwa Jima in a film?
Anyways, I would put a documentary series on. I prefer a good war doco to most war films, as historically inaccuarcy makes the history teacher in me rage :-D
Yeah, we had a Japanese Sub in Wellington Harbour at one point.
Gutsy submarineers the Japanese.
Ok, how about the 3000 US citizens in Japn at the outbreak of war, including those of holiday, held in an internment camp in Hiroshima and all died from the atomic attack, also victims of stupidity?.
While Pearl Harbour was a surprise attack, it wasn’t a complete surprise that Japan declared war.
It would be comparable to being a US tourist in Iran last year. You knew things between Iran and the US were tense, just as people in 1941 knew things between Japan and the US were tense.
While i’m not saying those people deserved to die (no one deserves to die), people must take responsibility for ensuring their own safety.
Would you take a holiday to Baghdad today?
I agree that the US did manufacture some fine pieces of kits during the war. By 1945 they had the best air and sea power in the world and the 2nd strongest land forces.
However, the US started behind in many areas at the start of the war.
Rolling into WWII they had the Grant Tank, which was not the best design (originally had a small turret gun 37mm if i recall, but hasetley upgraded to carry a 75mm in a front mount with poor traverse)
The Sherman started off rough, but once they switched to diesal engines it didnt erupt into flames as readily as the first run petrol engine Shermans.
The Sherman was a fine medium tank, and thats probably where people get the misconception that it was a poor tank. It was never intended for the heavy tank role (The Pershing, which arrived too late to make a huge impact was in that role). All the anecdotes and accounts of Tiger tanks slaughtering Shermans is due to a mismatch of Heavy vs Medium tank.
If you put the Sherman against its equivalents on the Russian and German sides (The t-34 and PZIV) its compares favourably. Probably not as good in a stand up fight as either of those two tanks, but quite agile and had good operating range.
Defensive warfare favoured the German Heavy Tanks, they could sit in a covered position and wait for the Shermans to come to them. However, as the Battle of the Bulge showed the German Heavy tanks were limited in offensive operations due to slow land speed and high fuel consumption.
The Sherman was a great infantry support tank and mobile fire unit. They could be rapidly deployed and filled a myriad of operational requirements.
It is that flexibility of operational deployment that makes me think they are a good tank.
PS. The fighter you referred to was the P-51 Mustang, and it was a beast of a fighter, argueably the best propeller fighter in WWII. While very good it was numbers that held the sky over Germany in the later war as the Germans never fell behind in fighter technology, what they lost were skilled pilots and the ability to manufacture enough planes.
@Subotai:
I think the Sherman deserves to be rated as a “crappy piece of metal”, “armored coffins”, and “firetraps”, because the US was very good in designing war machines in almost every other aspect, although some units were only slightly better than the units of other allies and axis powers of WW2. It’s a matter of prioritizing, American engineers could easily made something much better, the just needed a year of trying and failing, after that the US could have 30.000 “equivalent” US “panthers” instead of 50.000 Shermans.
It was not only until the end of the war that Germany made ME 262 which the US couldn’t match, eventually until aircraft designers was handed over some captured fighters, they would copy the jet tech and make even better fighters than the Germans.
Um what?
I think you are undervaluing the technical experitise and weapon design skills of every nation other than the US in your post.
The US did excel in some areas, Carrier development, Naval Aircraft and Heavy bombers immediately spring to mind. But they were behind other nations in other fields, Self propelled guns, Tanks and Anti Tank guns for example.
You mention the ME262 as the only time someone was ahead of the US in technology during the war, this is patently untrue. What did the US have in 1942 that out performed a FW190?
And as for American jets exceeding the ME262, that took time and didn’t happen until long after the war. Unless you consider the f-80 a roaring success (And many would not)
@ABWorsham:
I have made plans to visit the Battleship Alabama this spring break.
Nice one, when I was in the US I had a good look around the USS Salem in South Boston. Even though thats only a heavy cruiser (i think) it was still awesome in size.
It was the perfect tank for the Americans
pretty fast, reasonably armed and armored, and produced in the thousands.
Sure a King Tiger alone against a group of Shermans was like a Lion being attacked by stray dogs, but the Sherman was a solid medium tank.
I think I would say that once Japan attacked the US at Pearl Harbour that the US declaring war on Germany would have been a very remote possibility.
Declaring War on the USA was one of the dumbest things Germany did. The American public welcomed war against Japan only because they were attacked, convincing them to go after Germany, while a clear and present danger existed in Japan would have been difficult to say the least.
While RADAR was an invaluable tool, it was still relatively slow and unreliable.
What it was however, was an excellent complement to the land and sea based Royal Corp of Observers.
People always forget about the spotters with radios and telescopes, but they did a great job and get a bit overlooked due to the successes of RADAR.
RADAR alone couldn’t have done it.
Turkey without a doubt
Spain contributes little strategically that France or Italy Doesn’t.
Turkey opens a second flank on Russia, pressures the middle east and North Africa.
It’s not even close.
Russia was saved by vast distances, cold winter and terrain with forest’s, swamps and marshes. All factors that favour the defender.
The term you are looking for is Strategic Depth.
The Soviet Union had more Strategic depth than any other nation in history, so much space. So far to fall back and regroup.
Israel, for example, has the opposite. No strategic depth at all, hence the six day war.
The Achilles!
Involved in the battle of the river plate against the Graf Spee.
It’s main guns are a monument in Auckland these days and I remember seeing them when I was about 5 and thinking they were just the most awesome things ever!
So not for combat record, but for childhood memories.
The NZ government issues a list of countries that citizens should avoid at all costs.
I would never, ever go to one of those places unless posted by work.
We had a break in at the New Zealand War Museum a while back and several Victoria Crosses were stolen for sale on the black market.
The nation was not impressed.
Fortunately the crooks released that there was no way to shift the stolen medals and returned them.
Cue national day of celebration.
The Victoria Cross is the most valuable single medal in the world that is still being awarded, the last one up for auction went for nearly 1 million US.