Posts made by robert t

Could you explain this please? Canada fielded almost a million men in WWII, mostly volunteers to boot.

Excellent work. I really like the contrast between the SZ and land now.

A couple of quick observations  though: :-D

The neutral territories might be a bit too bold, they seem to me to be inland lakes/seas. Slightly less saturated colour would fix this.

SZ numbers are a bit small. If you added a white outline, they would stand out a bit better and be an opposite of the land numbers.

Looking forward to see how central Europe looks. Are you increasing the size of areas and reducing Africa to compensate?

I’m surprised they went this way as well. Not because it will be A&AZ as I’ve come to see the A&A “title” as an engine rather than a specific game(s).
Sort of like the commands and colours brand.

What I am surprised about is the zombie part. As a fad/craze, it has passed or on the downside of its life cycle.
I will be interested in seeing which board/map they use. Maybe G40 but on a size between Anniv. and 42.2?
Can’t see them creating much new with the amount of map versions/sculpts/graphics they have with Anniv./42.2/1941/G40.
We all know they will cut corners to save 6 cents. :-)

you can also look at Affinity products.
They have a PS and Illustrator replacement.
Cheaper and no subscriptions.
Caveat is they are newish and are not as chrome laden as adobe stuff.
But for this job, they would work fine.

Scotland is definitely in SZ 3 as well as SZ2 and 6.

How does this help the allies? The UK is an island  so all SZ are accessible.

I just feel a slight difference between the land and water makes a map “pop” visually.

Everything becomes readily recognizable. (especially since we’ve all stared at this view of the world since the mid 80’s)

Subtlety is the key though, keeping it weighted against your land mass treatment.

looking forward to your next image post.

I’m one of the few who like the older treatment of the map before they got all PS crazy with textures.

Just a thought, how about adding a slight blue to the sea zones?
I did a C-100, K-80 at 30% opacity over the existing image.
It is subtle and adds a bit of distinguishing between the land and sea on the map.
The land colours are great and give a real era feel to the game.
See attached below.

blue sea zones.pdf

for borders, you could try a gaussian blur country specific colour line and then put a “basic” line, thinner, on the next layer/overtop.

A slightly coloured blur would not infringe too much on the territory shape but add a slight distinction to each area.

If you already have the territories separated, edge them with the countries colour and then add the border line overtop.

The highest contrast to the brown territories is a purple-blue colour which might work best for the water Not as dark as revised but a hint of purple-blue would make the territories “pop” more.

looks good. 4 gigs is nothing for a map this size.

A few things I’d recommend:

1. standardize the placement of the convoy and kamikaze icons  top right and bottom right in the sea zones maybe with a rounded corner rectangle around them (hairline black would work)

2. change the IPC number in the circle from black to white so it stands out better from a distance

3. bold or change the font of the sea zone numbers as the thins of the font will disappear when printed

4. lastly, increase the kerning of the place names so they read easier from a distance

all in all a nice job, like the colour palette you chose.

yes Anniversary is the sweet spot between 1942 and Global 1940.

Spring 1942 is a waste of time IMHO. Revised is better for the “'quick” game of A&A.
1942 2nd is totally different game than Spring 1942. Just look at the Pacific theatre of both maps. More territories and decisions to be made in 1942 2nd ed.
I took all my Spring 1942 pieces and added them to my other games to beef up unit counts.

The board in Spring 1942 is also too small for any real play value.

thanks, looked into them. they hold all the pieces judging by the dimensions.

I like each faction to have its own “box”. The 1940 games do but my 1942 2nd ed. needs some help. :-(

I remember buying the 86 second edition from my FLGS and it was around $60 here.

I liked the set up cards and the place to put newly bought units. I didn’t find the charts hard to read either.

The styrofoam inserts meshed nicely with the charts for storage (with a rubber band). Only thing is they only were good for one copy in some compartments.
I like the new boxes with set up charts on the lids, although I had to make compartments from files on BGG.

Plano boxes failed, for me, in the 1942 2nd ed. game. I have since used the damaged Anniversary boxes as I have the replacements from WOTC.
Works fine, but the box doesn’t close properly. :-( Still looking for the best solution for 1942 2nd as I have two games worth of components to store.

Two things I thought was odd about North America was the lack of the fifth Great Lake (Lake Ontario) and placing our national capital where Quebec City is located. :-(

It is like placing Washington DC in South Carolina/Paris in Amsterdam or Berlin in Warsaw.

I got my boxes as well. Guess they are back in stock for those wanting replacements.

Actually, if you look at proper dice, the “1 pip/dot” is drilled deeper than the “six pips/dots” so that all have the same amount of material removed.
If you look at “chinese” dice, they have a larger “1 pip/dot” to offset the “6 pips/dots”
The weight difference may be minimal, but it does affect the results.

This will be apparent when “lightly” rolling dice as compared to a more aggressive fling.

This is why serious gamers use backgammon or vegas quality dice. It ensures a proper randomness in rolls.

They look etched into the dice.
Won’t that throw off the balance?
The unetched sides will be slightly heavier now.
Otherwise, great idea.

As for industrial complexes, I used grey ones from a previous set to represent the large IC.
For the small IC, I again used pieces from old A&A sets. This time, I used white ones from the “classic”/1987 edition but cut them in half height wise.
They look exactly like the grey IC’s but are shorter. Looks great and nothing is too altered to be G1940 specific.

As for the airbase, I coloured (spray painted) some fighters from the classic game to represent bases. Not as happy but the fighters are distinct/unique enough to stand out.
Thinking of basing them somehow to really look good.
Seaports are a work in progress. So far I cut aircraft carriers in half and trimmed them up a bit. They look like a dock with a building on the one end side. I will paint them grey and see how they work.

My big thing with tokens is everything else in the game is three dimensional. Great looking sculpts which need 3-D tokens. They should be generic to stand out and be used by any player.

Just my thoughts.
R

got mine from a FLGS and it was dented to hell and back.
no outward signs, which is strange.
nothing that impacts play, just doesn’t look great especially after spending $90.
parts will be replaced eventually, which is great.
I’d give your friend a heads up and let them know replacement parts will be available when the new shipment arrives.

on a side note, between this and what happened with A&A 1914, a QA person need s to be hired.
also, how much money can they afford to lose with all this extra parts and shipping.

heard back today.
boxes are going to be replaced.
they are awaiting on a shipment which they say will arrive in 6-8 weeks.
thankfully it is only a cosmetic problem  and I can still play.
great customer support as usual.
went through other problems with A&A 1914 and a quick resolution was reached.

all storage boxes in various states of denting/creasing/imprinting from the “spacer”
silly, they  should have just reduced the size of the box.
rulebook also got damaged.

when I opened the box, the “spacer” was flattened so it must have been pushed on a lot. (rough seas?)
Strange the outer box shows no signs of damage.

Waiting to hear back from WOTC. Usually they are good about replacing damage.
Everything else is fine thankfully and all the pieces match the list in the rules.

Disappointing to see when first opening the box though.