Best posts made by knp7765

Hello All,  A while back, I posted a topic on how Axis & Allies pieces have changed over the years from game to game.  Well, I found out that I didn’t quite have a complete set and it was also pointed out that I missed a few crucial items from certain games.  Since then, I have gotten a few more pieces and I finally got around to lining them up and taking some pics.  I’m still not sure it’s 100% complete, but I know I’m a lot closer than before.  This time I put some labels on the table in front of the pieces so you all can better identify which game each style of pieces came from.
I am putting each country in a separate post with 3 pictures of each;  land, air and sea units.  I will give a brief description on how the pieces have changed and try to note any irregularities (such as mis-moulds).

As most A&A gamers know, the Classic version put out in 1984 had rather generic pieces and except for the infantry the only difference between each nations pieces was the color.  When Avalon Hill took over in the late 90s and put out Europe (1999), Pacific (2001) and Revised (2004), they made country specific pieces (Panther tanks for Germany, Shermans for US, T-34s for Russia, etc.).  However, they seemed to have a problem settling on colors for the different nations.  Britain in particular experienced a wide variety of color changes from game to game before they finally settled on the current tan color.

Well, here we go.

Okay, now we move on to United Kingdom.
In Classic, the pieces were a basic tan/beige color.
In Europe, they came out with an odd cream color.  Also, Britain used US sculpts for tanks, artillery, destroyers, subs and transports.
In Pacific, the Brits were a dark tan color, I think meant to represent the Australian forces.
In Revised, I have seen two versions of British units:  earlier versions had them in a sea-foam green color, later versions had them in a pinkish-tan or salmon color.
In D-Day, the Brits were a very light color, almost white.  I call it off-white and some refer to this color as blonde.  Only land and air units in this game, no ships.
In Anniversary and BOTB, the Brits came out in the current tan color but still used US Shermans.
Finally, in 1942 and both 1940 games, we have the current British army.  The Brits now have their own style tank, the Matilda II.  The Spitfire fighters are now flat across the bottom where earlier versions the wings were slightly curved upwards at the wingtips so the pieces sort of rocked side to side.  The Battleships are bigger, though still the Royal Oak class.  Also, the submarines are slightly different.  They are just a little bigger and the nose is thicker, where as on older versions the nose came to a point.  The British Tac Bomber is the Mosquito, a real British plane, but the British Mech Inf is simply a US M-5 Halftrack in tan.

AXIS & ALLIES GLOBAL 1940 2ND EDITION – Released September 2012
Finally, we have updates on the SUPERGAME of the Axis & Allies line. When Global 1940 first started being played after Europe 1940 was released in August 2010, gamers were finding there were problems with it. Basically, it was unbalanced. I believe most thought that the first version made it too hard for the Axis to win. So, Larry Harris came out with Alpha, the first revision of the setup and/or rules for Global 1940. While this fixed some problems, it didn’t fix all of them or new ones came up. Over the course of the next year or so, a number of revisions were put forth: Alpha, Alpha+, Alpha+1, Alpha+2… Some versions made it too hard on the Allies, others too hard on the Axis, so Larry kept tweaking it here and there. A couple of these Alphas actually had 2 or 3 versions under the same name. Finally came the version titled Alpha+3.9, which was considered as the final Alpha.
So, WOTC decided to put out a whole new version of Europe 1940 and Pacific 1940. This 2nd Edition would include the latest rule changes, a number of changes to the gameboard to correct issues found in the first edition and even more new sculpts. Besides working in the new sculpts from 1942 2E, Italy and ANZAC get ALL UNIQUE sculpts of their own. One minor disappointment is poor France which is still stuck with all Soviet sculpts with only the Infantry being uniquely French. However, since Russia got a number of new sculpts, in a way so do the French. They are just new Soviet pieces in blue.
ITALY: As stated, Italy got all Italian units now. Many of the sculpts are the same sculpts that were used by Field Marshal Games in their Italian set. While the WOTC pieces don’t look quite as nice as the FMG pieces, they are still nice and better than having German pieces in brown. Finally an Axis power gets a big, 4-engine bomber in the Piaggio P.108. They designated the SM.79 for the Italian Tac Bomber which seems like kind of a large plane for a Tac Bomber, but the piece looks really cool. Also, instead of a Halftrack for the mechanized infantry, they used a truck.
ANZAC: As for the ANZAC sculpts, there has been much discussion as to if these are proper units to represent ANZAC forces. For instance, the fighter and tank it has been said were actually used very little or not at all by Austalian forces. As far as I’m concerned, since they are uniquely Australian, they are good for this game. As for the capital ships, it has been said neither of these ships were even near Australian waters in WW 2. Personally, I think that is nit-picking. ANZAC didn’t really have any capital ships of their own in WW2 so I think using British models that weren’t already used for UK ships is just fine.
The only problem I have with ANY of the ANZAC sculpts would be the over-sized Infantry piece. I was at first excited that ANZAC was getting their own infantry piece until I got them and saw they were a full head bigger than any other infantry piece. I tried using them, but they just look weird on the board. I have went back to use the old ANZAC infantry with the new equipment sculpts.
So, there we are, up to date for now. I have heard there is a WW1 A&A game in the works. I guess that will require a new update. Hope everyone enjoys these pics.

I just put in my order for 5 sets.  These different ship classes will be very cool.

A couple of questions:
1 – Assuming this garners enough interest and we go forward with it, do you plan on doing naval supplements for other nations as well?

2 – What color will these ships be?  Olive drab or dark green?

I got my shipping notice too.  Really looking forward to getting them.

Also have my pre-order for Germany 3. I know we’ve got till April on those, but I’m excited for them anyway.

First, lets start with the good ole USA.
In Classic, US pieces were a dark green.  Some games had a mis-mould on the infantry and got US Infantry in German Grey.
In Europe, they came out in olive drab green and got artillery and destroyers.
In Pacific, the shading seemed somewhat lighter and in some cases the pieces almost looked translucent.  That may have just been a case of improper adding of the color to the base plastic.  The US also got a darker green Infantry unit to represent US Marines and a Navy F6F Hellcat fighter for use on carriers.
In Revised, the shading seemed somewhat darker but still basically olive drab.
When BOTB came out in 2006, GMC Trucks were added to the US inventory for transporting supplies to front line troops.
When Guadalcanal came out in 2007, the US had special green colored Anti-Aircraft guns.  Also, a number of Guadalcanal games were sent with mis-moulded cruisers in Japanese Orange color.
Cruisers were also included in the big 50th Anniversary game, but the pieces were very poorly moulded and a lot of them really looked bad.
When the 1942 game came out in 2009, WOTC apparently went with a new factory because the new moulds were very nice.  Also, they made the battleship pieces bigger.
Finally, we come to Pacific 1940 and Europe 1940, which introduced Mechanized Infantry and Tac Bombers to the lineup.  The color of the pieces is still olive but somewhat brighter shade from Revised.

I just checked out the latest Kickstarter update from HBG. Great pictures of the box and components. The outer box, storage boxes, game cards, roundels and map all look absolutely fantastic. Very professional job too. I will love to see this game on the shelves at my local game shop. Excellent job Coach and Variable!!

By the way Coach, do you know if Hobbytown USA here in Wichita will be stocking AMERIKA?

Hey All,
We just finished a game which ended up in an Axis Victory. Germany/Italy captured 8 victory cities on Round 6 and the Allies were in no position to take any of them back. This took 7 rounds.
It might have taken longer but our Allied players made a couple of blunders. Russia had a huge stack in Moscow and Germany had 3 army groups ready to invade (Vologda, Smolensk and Bryansk). I guess our Russia player got tired of playing defensive and wanted to go on the attack. Russia attacked the three German army groups but only succeeded in Bryansk with 2 artillery and 1 fighter surviving. The other two battles went very badly and ended up in Russian retreats back into Moscow. As a result, Russia lost it’s numerical advantage to the Germans and they attacked and took Moscow Round 6. Also, Germany had a sizable force in Rostov which was blocked from attacking Moscow by Russian units in Bryansk and Tambov, so that force took Stalingrad Round 6 as well.
The other blunder was by our UK player. He successfully defended Cairo from repeated attempts from Italy, so Italy took their transports and captured Gibraltar, Morocco and Algeria (the main point is the naval base at Gibraltar). I think the UK failed to realize those transports could make it to Egypt in one turn. As a result, UK thinned out the defenses in Egypt and started sending tanks and mechs from the IC they built in Egypt into the Middle East on their way to help Russia. Italy then hit Egypt with 3 transports full of men and equipment plus two strategic bombers, thus capturing the 8th victory city on the Europe board. ANZAC, while doing good to thwart Japan, was no help in Europe. On Germany’s next turn, they flew 3 fighters from W Germany to Egypt, thus dashing UK hopes at taking Egypt (Cairo) back.
Germany and the UK had been battling it out with subs (Germany) and destroyers (UK) so the UK had no real navy to launch an invasion anywhere in Europe. Italy controlled the Med. So Paris, Rome, Berlin and Warsaw was under no threat from the Allies. All three Russian cities were way deep behind German lines and in even less threat from the Allies. Finally, Cairo was heavily enough protected that the UK had no chance of taking it back.
Meanwhile, in the Pacific, Japan was beaten down. The US went 100% Pacific and went hard after Japan. This is why there was no US presence in Europe or the Atlantic. The US didn’t have anything over there until Round 5, when Japan was pretty much out of the picture. Japan was cornered on their island with US subs convoy raiding and US bombers SBRing them into near non-existence, although Japan was still holding out and hadn’t been invaded by the US just yet. So the US started building a presence in the Atlantic and even took Gibraltar back from the Italians round 7, but it looks like it was too little too late.

Okay, so the situation is this: Germany/Italy holds 8 Victory Cities on the Europe board. Germany controls all of Russia on the Europe board and was starting to advance into the Middle East. Europe is just one big Nazi camp now. Italy controls the Med, Egypt and roughly half of North Africa, while England has little chance of reinforcements. England has strong defenses in London (due to Sealion threats earlier) but no navy. On the other hand, Germany has started building a navy in SZ 112 and Sealion may be a possibility in 2-3 rounds.
The US has a strong presence in SZ 91 and recaptured Gibraltar. A US invasion of Japan would probably occur in the next round or two. Japan is almost non-existent. So US could start focusing all of it’s attention in the Atlantic. China will just keep building more and more guys so Germany would not likely get any Chinese territories, although their attention is more focused on going after England now. India could start sending resources west to probably contest the Middle East with Germany. ANZAC could also start sending stuff to back up India in the Middle East, although it would take them a few turns to get a sizable force in the area.
So, my question is, if this situation were to occur back in the 40s, do you think it would have been an actual win for Germany and Italy? Would the Allies had sued for peace with Germany or kept going?
I am thinking that the US and UK would keep going. The US already has a strong fleet in Gibraltar so Sealion can probably be prevented.
If Russia would have actually fallen during the war, would the Western Allies have sued for peace?
As far as this game is concerned, I think that if we kept playing this out the US would eventually win. As big as Germany is right now, it would still be hard for them to keep resisting the US advances and fend off forces from India and ANZAC. Then again, a strong Italy might make the difference.
So what do you guys think? Would this situation be an actual victory? OR, just a victory for game purposes?

Next we visit the great Soviet Union.
In Classic, Russian pieces were a dark brown color.
In Europe, they came out with a burgandy or dull red color.  All Russian naval pieces were copies of British ships and they also shared the US artillery piece.  Only infantry, tanks, fighters and bombers were uniquely Russian.
In Revised, the Russians came out in more of a maroon color.  This became pretty much the basic color for Russia through the Anniversary game.  Also, when they got cruisers, they were British style as well.
The 1942 game actually saw quite a bit of change for the Russians.  The piece color came out slightly darker but still the same basic maroon color.  Big change is they got some of their own naval pieces.  While the Russians still shared carriers, subs and transports with the British, they got their own Gangut class battleship, Kirov class cruisers and Gnevnyi class destroyers.  One other thing is the bombers.  Now they have flat wings.  Older versions were severely curved upward toward the tips.  Personally, I like the flat wings better.
The Europe 1940 game saw Russia getting ZIS-42 halftracks for Mech Inf and IL-2 Sturmoviks for Tac Bombers.

So you are suggesting a 20th century world war using 16th century weapons? This reminds me of a quote which I think was from Albert Einstein. “I don’t know how they will fight WWIII, but WWIV will be fought with sticks and stones.”

Okay, so I can understand that if USA goes 100% either way, it is usually doom for the Axis.  One side get’s smashed while the other side just can’t get enough VCs to win before all the Allies are bearing down on it.  This makes many of you feel that the game is imbalanced toward the Allies.  However, if we end up forcing USA to split their involvement over both theaters, which seems to me to be a losing proposition nearly every time, aren’t you then imbalancing the game toward the Axis?  As one who normally plays an Axis power, yeah I like to win it but I don’t want to win every time with almost no fear of losing the game.  Also, I know that historically the US did go both ways and we of course crushed the Axis.  I am not sure you could properly simulate that in this game unless you actually raised the US income.  There has been talk of changing certain NOs, particularly the one involving Mexico and the Carribbean, for something in the Atlantic, Africa or Europe itself.  Well, how about not changing ANY of the current NOs, but rather ADDING some new ones in the European theater.  Yes, it will make the US income even larger, but they will need more if they HAVE to invest in both theaters.

As a side note, before the US was actually in the war, Roosevelt and Churchill agreed that when the US was finally in the war, defeat of Germany would take precedence over Japan.  When war did come, and Hitler and Mussolini were stupid enough to declare war on the US, the majority of the funding did go toward the European theater.  As big as the operations might have been in the Pacific, as far as funding went it was almost like an afterthought compared to the preparations for the Atlantic side.  So, maybe having the US adopt a KGF strategy in the game would be more in line historically.

Now on to the Axis.  And who better to start with than GERMANY.
In Classic, the German pieces were a medium grey color.  Some games got a mis-moulded infantry in American green color.
In Europe and Revised, the Germans went through a range of shades from a medium grey, to very dark grey to almost black.  I think the lighter shades were earlier versions of the game and as they went on, they just kept getting darker.  Personally, I wish they would have stayed with the medium grey, but they didn’t ask me.  Also, the fighter piece they used for Germany is a little Stuka dive bomber rather than an actual fighter plane.  I guess they felt that the Stuka was a more iconic German WW2 plane.
In D-Day, the Germans only had land units;  Infantry, Artillery, Tanks and Blockhouses.  Blockhouses were a special piece that was set up on the coastline and could take pot-shots at Allied forces before they landed.  In earlier versions of D-Day, the German pieces were a dark grey with a distinct blue tint to them.  I’m not sure if you can tell this in the photo, but when you see the pieces side by side, you can certainly tell it.
In BOTB, The Germans also got the Opel Blitz cargo truck for carrying supplies to the front line troops.  Also, the fighter piece was changed to the Me 109.  Piece color was a very dark grey, nearly black.  Also, Panther tanks are bigger than earlier versions with a longer barrel.
In Anniversary, cruisers were introduced and the Germans got the Hipper class cruiser.  For some reason, they chopped off the aft end of the cruiser piece so they look odd.  Also, many artillery pieces in the Anniversary edition were not fully moulded so the base stands weren’t always complete.  Piece color now is black.
In the 1942 game, piece color settled to basic black.  Battleship piece is bigger.
In Europe 1940, the color is finally settled to basic black.  Mech Inf represented by the SdKfz 251 halftrack and Tac Bombers by the Stuka dive bomber.

They are still waiting on the plastic game pieces. From what I understand, they were finished at the Chinese factory and shipped to the US. The problem now is the dock worker problems with strikes and such. Once the union and management can come to some agreement, then our stuff will finally get trucked to HBG and they can put our games together and ship them to us.

@Commando:

JimmyHat, same question. You can move FTR’s & Tacs into SZ’s during the combat move phase, in the event your enemy possibly scrambles aircraft? Again, what happens if your enemy doesn’t scramble aircraft? Then there is no combat and the rules state there must be combat if you move units during the combat move phase.

While I don’t know the exact wording (no rulebook handy), I’m pretty sure that in the combat move, there just has to be the possibility of combat, like if an enemy scrambles (except when ships leave a hostile SZ to avoid combat).  However, if he doesn’t scramble, then that’s not your fault.  Your planes are simply wasted for any combat for that round.
It’s sort of like the rule for movement with fighters and tacs.  There has to be a possible landing space (ie. moving a carrier for them to land on.  However, if the planes are lost in battle, then you don’t have to move the carrier.)

This looks very interesting.  Granted, it may be a stretch historically, but it’s cool to add another faction and I love playing alternate reality type scenarios.  That said, I have a few questions/comments of my own:
1-I understand the Italian over-running of Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Greece are meant as balancing factors rather than historical events.  What I don’t understand is why the Italians are so offended by Dutch actions.  In this scenario, you seem to make the Italians really have an axe to grind against the Dutch Diaspora, even more so than against the British it seems.  Why is that?
2-About the DEI.  I’m not so sure they should be considered “Allied Neutrals” and given over to other Allied powers.  Granted, your NO about the transfer of power does at least give 2 ipcs per territory for a total of 8 ipcs (Sumatra, Java, Celebes & Dutch New Guinea), still the DEI is a large chunk of the Dutch income.  I guess between the NO and if they manage to take over the rest of South America, that will make up for the territory loss of the DEI income, it just seems like too large a percentage of the Dutch income is based on NOs as opposed to actual territory.  Then again, since you mentioned not wanting to add territorial ipcs, I guess you did good with what you had to work with.
3-You mentioned with the formation of the Dutch Diaspora, Argentina, Chile and Venezuela become Pro-Axis Neutrals.  I take it they are treated the same as Finland and Iraq?  If Germany, Italy or Japan managed to get some troops over there, they could land and absorb those countries, plus gain extra infantry, on their NCM?
4-I have a few questions about your new National Objectives:
  A - UNITED STATES - The US turns over the West Indies to Dutch Diaspora, subtracting 1 ipc from the US total (US gets 51 ipcs now).  One of the US wartime NOs is for US control of Mexico, Southeast Mexico, Central America and West Indies.  In your scenario, should this read “Allied” control now?
  B - JAPAN - The original Japanese NO for the DEI was 5 ipcs per turn for control of ALL the DEI (Sumatra, Java, Celebes and BORNEO).  Your new Japanese NO states that they only have to control TWO of the former Dutch territories in the East.  Since Borneo belongs to UK/India, does that simply drop Borneo from this NO?  Also, does this NO include Dutch New Guinea?

That’s all the questions I can think of now.  I pretty much understand the rest.  One more thing, about the game pieces used.  Historical Board Gaming has Dutch pieces available in their Painted Armies section.  I think they are orange.  They even have Dutch roundels to use for control markers.  That might work better than using Russian pieces, plus it would add more color to the board.

Next we visit the land of the rising sun, JAPAN.
In Classic, the pieces were a basic light yellow.  I have found that some games even had the infantry in this light yellow color while others had infantry in a darker shade.
In Pacific, early versions of the game had Japan in a bright red color.  Later versions came out with a light burnt orange color.
From Revised through Anniversary, they came out in a somewhat darker shade of burnt orange.
In Guadalcanal, the Japanese also got orange colored Anti-Aircraft guns (these are usually a neutral grey).  Also, some games came out with mis-moulded cruisers in US olive green color.
In 1942, Japanese pieces came out in their final current color.  It’s still a burnt orange color which looks to me like it is at the same time a little darker and a little brighter than the Revised color.  Also, the artillery piece underwent a change in that it’s support struts are now open for firing position.  The older versions were closed like it was being towed.
Finally, in Pacific 1940, they got Tac Bombers represented by Val dive bombers and Mech Inf represented by SdKfz 251 halftracks.  I guess WOTC thinks it makes sense that Japan would use German halftracks.  Oh well, I’m sure FMG will fix that problem.

Next we have Italy.
Italy is somewhat of a newcomer to the A&A gaming world.  They weren’t introduced until the Anniversary game in October 2008.  So, they have no pieces from Classic, Europe, or Revised and they were not included in the 1942 game either.  Basically, Italy is restricted to Anniversary and Europe 1940.
In Anniversary, as many gamers already know, many of the pieces were very sub-standard.  With Italy, it got a little worse.  Not only were many of the pieces suffering from crappy moulds, most of them were not even Italian units.  Only the Infantry and the Tank (Carro Armato) were uniquely Italian.  The fighter and all naval units were German styles and the bomber and artillery were Japanese.  A very big disappointment indeed.  That being said, it was pretty cool adding Italy to the mix of the game.
In Europe 1940, the piece moulds were a vast improvement in quality.  However, they still have Italy using foreign equipment.  Now only the Infantry piece is Italian.  Everything else is German.  They even replaced the Carro Armato with brown Panthers.  WHile it’s true Italy did share some German equipment during the war, they still had a lot of their own stuff.  On a brighter note, at least they aren’t using Japanese bombers and artillery now.
Thankfully, FMG is going to fix this error very soon and all of us gamer will be deliriously happy.

Finally, we have some of the smaller nations in the Axis & Allies world.
First, a couple of new additions are ANZAC (Australia New Zealand Army Corps) and France.  ANZAC came to us in Pacific 1940 in Dec 2009 and France with Europe 1940 in Aug 2010.  Since both countries were introduced in the latest versions of the game, they both have all the units that are now included in the games (ie. cruisers, mech inf, tac bombers).
ANZAC is grey in color with a brownish tint to them.  All of ANZAC’s pieces are copies of British pieces.
France is royal blue in color.  They have unique infantry pieces but all of their other pieces are Russian.  Why they chose Russian equipment for France is beyond me.  I would have thought UK would be a better fit.

Next we have China.  China was first introduced in the original Pacific game and represented by dark brown Russian infantry in earlier versions (with the Red Japanese) and in later versions by bright red Russian infantry (with the burnt orange Japanese).  In the Anniversary game, the Chinese got their own unique infantry unit in a lime green color.  Since China was somewhat backwards and primitive compared to the other nations of WW2, they do not have any of the other combat pieces that other nations have.  Only infantry.

Finally, we have the common pieces.  In other words, pieces that every nation uses.
In Classic, there were Industrial Complexes and Anti Aircraft Guns.  They were white in color to show their common status.
From Europe to 1942, ICs and AA guns were produced in a light grey color.
The 1940 games introduced the concept of major and minor factories, as well as air bases and naval bases.  Actually, Pacific had air and naval bases but they were printed right on the board.  Now, ICs, AA guns, and bases are on little cardboard counters with little symbols to let you know what they are ( IC with a 10 is a major IC, IC with a 3 is a minor IC, AA gun is an AA gun, plane is an air base and anchor is a naval base).  I personally prefer the plastic pieces to the cardboard counters.  Pacific 1940 came out with very thin cardboard counters and they were hard to work with.  Europe 1940 went back to the good, thick cardboard stock and are much easier to use.
Finally, the plastic piece to the right of the cardboard counters is not actually an A&A piece.  It’s a city piece from RISK.  I like to use them as Major ICs.  Just a personal liking.

Hey everybody, here is a new step in the evolution of Axis & Allies game pieces.  Introducing the new Field Marshal Games Italian Combat Units.  While these aren’t actually Axis & Allies pieces per se, in other words not produced by WOTC, they were basically made to replace the current Italian units in the game (all the brown GERMAN units).  So, I think this can definitely count as another step in the evolution of pieces.
Italy, first introduced in the 50th Anniversary Edition of Axis & Allies, was represented with uniquely Italian Infantry and Tanks.  The fighter and all naval vessels were German models and the artillery & bomber were actually Japanese models.  On top of this, the plastic pieces were very poorly molded and many pieces had some major flaws (for ALL countries, not just Italy).
Europe 1940 did correct the molding problem with much nicer looking units.  However, with the exception of the Infantry piece, they still didn’t have any uniquely Italian equipment.  WOTC replaced the Italian tank from Anniversary with the German Panther tank molded in brown color.  So now Italy has ALL German equipment, including the bomber and artillery.  At least they did fix that mistake.  During the war, Italy did use some German equipment, but I’m pretty sure they never used Japanese artillery or flew G4M “Betty” bombers.
Finally, Field Marshal Games decided to fix this problem once and for all.  They gave Italy all their own unique equipment;  Italian tanks, artillery and vehicles.  All Italian aircraft and naval vessels.  They matched the color with their Combat Dice which comes out just a little darker than WOTC’s Italian pieces.  What’s more, FMG did extensive research into each different unit and crafted pieces with incredible detail, much more so than WOTC.  They are truly fabulous and I think will look very nice on our gameboards.
I have attached pics showing the different units;  land units, air units and sea units.  Enjoy!

Here are some comparisons with A&A board game pieces and their A&A Naval Miniatures counterparts.  I’ve got all 6 sets of the Naval Miniatures but in some cases, I wasn’t able to find the correct class of ship that is the same as the board game class so I used a ship that came closest in appearance.  Also, I didn’t bother with submarines or transports because there wasn’t enough of them in the Naval Miniatures sets.  First we go with Allies:
USA - Carrier == Wasp Class
          Battleship == Iowa Class
          Cruiser == Portland class (A&A Minis didn’t have a Portland so I went with Pensacola class.  Looks close)
          Destroyer == Fletcher class (the book calls it a Johnston class, but I looked it up on Wikipedia and the USS Johnston was a Fletcher class ship)
UK -  Carrier == Illustrious Class
          Battleship == Revenge Class (the book calls it a Royal Oak class, but the HMS Royal Oak was one of the Revenge Class)
        Cruiser == County class
        Destroyer == Fletcher Class (actually a US ship.  UK doesn’t have their own destroyer yet.  FMG will fix that.)
USSR - Carrier == Illustrious Class (actually a UK ship.  USSR doesn’t have their own A/C yet.  FMG will fix that.)
          Battleship == Gangut Class
          Cruiser == Kirov Class
          Destroyer == Gnevnyi Class