Best posts made by vodot

@reloader-1 Hit dice have GOT to be the next accessory - and I say that as someone who makes and sells them on Etsy! They are a massive time saver, a complete no-brainer for a game where hundreds and hundreds of dice are being gleefully thrown and where high playtime is a significant sales liability.

Recruitment Center token :) Thingiverse Link

@SS-GEN said in Argo's Middleweight Map for 1939 & 1942:

Top Azores is almost right. Same sz but move it more north

I Northed the Azores. I think it would be fun to put them at the center of an intersection, would take some rejiggering. No clue how that affects atlantic flow.

@CWO-Marc I too wanted to find a more generic term than ‘colonial’ which does have the aforementioned “optics” and historical accuracy problems. Remote was the word (instead of colonial) that I couldn’t think of until I read your post; so “Remote” or “Forward” or perhaps “Frontier” would be good, less politically loaded terms; “Outpost” could then either remain or be replaced with “Command” or “Base” or “Base of Operations”. These names might work especially well with ‘additional consideration’ option where any IC placed as part of a bid (or the whole bid) takes on this rule.

Regarding what it’s supposed to represent, definitely the historical presence of centers of production and vectors of attack that weren’t the very capitals of the powers in question. NO power in AA50 or 42 has a second vector but the US, and vector #2 (the PTO) is basically a giant trap. The very first thing I always tell any new player with the UK is “don’t get excited”. I think it’s apparent that someone goofed when you look at the design in 1941 (or, of course, G40), neither of which commits this same mistake (41, anemic as it is, gives the British TWO extra factories (to place WHAT units, one might ask?). Why should the two most playable versions not do the same?

I have nothing against bids for tournament play, but bids are kinda lame for games with friends until you know what you’re doing- and obviously newbies in particular cannot bid (or understand why a bid would be needed) and instead should have more fun and more options. I think this will work well.

Regarding if a power can do this in a different power’s territory, I think certainly not. That’s confusing and against the spirit of the rule, which is to do something really simple with loads of fun, balance-y potential.

@axis_roll said in [Various] The Colonial Outpost (an enhanced Allied IC bid):

I can only speak strongly of AA50-41, that is what we mostly play.
Two others on your list might be a USA colonial outpost in brazil. Also, If russian were going to pressure Japan, I think a bryatia IC might be better than the SFE listed. USA can support with fighters off SZ56 based carriers.
BRY is more positionally valued than SFE.

Other comments on current list (ordered in highest to least valuable):
India. Best all around, will need initial help from russia to sustain
Egypt. Can you hold it round 1? if so, very key as well
South Africa. Good, solid way to fight the Africa Korps and hold onto UK IPCs. Will the axis commit that much to africa?
Australia. To use most effectively, USA needs a fleet to back up small UK navy that would help to take back UK islands
Hawaii. Don’t see too much advantage to a 2-unit producing 1 sea zone forward naval base.
Soviet Far East. might be acceptable since farther away from Japan mainland

Great ideas, of course. India has got to be the main play, but then you forfeit the IPC boost… Is there a strat where hardcore KJF works with a Buryatia OC and an R1 2tnk buy, followed by UK1 Indian IC? There is a lot of Russian cannon fodder there that only wants for some offensive punch. I think that northern land threat is key to cracking Japan, especially if the UK has to pivot completely to Europe due to Sea Lion or big German tanks or something.

@Nuts I’m proud that they went with a D10 right in the face of releasing their “battle dice” accessory product.

It should go without saying- but it definitely doesn’t- great design should trump a marginal increase in sales. I don’t expect companies to sacrifice significant financial incentives for the sake of minor improvements, but in the world I work in (consumer electronics) it’s often the case that they’re willing to sacrifice significant design improvements for even the potential of a minor financial gain. Good on you, Renegade.

@Midnight_Reaper said in Custom 3D Miniatures: Major & Minor Industrial Complexes, Recruitment Center, Airbase, and Naval Base:

@vdot

So, you’ve done up all of these cool new sculpts, and linked them in ThingVerse. Could you tell us, the uneducated, how to move from looking at these pieces to getting them printed out and shipped to us.

I think they’re great, but looking at them is all I can do, as I don’t know how to proceed from there.

Thanks in advance!

-Midnight_Reaper

Well, the next step for me is testing. I expected to have parts in hand faster than this (I submitted my prints to the internal queue days ago, normally faster turnaround than this). If they come out ok, I’ll try batching them up on Shapeways. That will make them available for anyone to pay to have them printed and shipped out to them. I’ve never used Shapeways before, so there is a bit of a learning curve for me too, like what qtys are the most cost-effective and how to link parts together to cut costs, etc. I would love to print these off on the company machines and sell them at cost for you guys, but that is basically the one thing we are NOT allowed to use the printers for :p

What quantities would people be interested in printing, so I know how many to batch up? Shapeways doesn’t strike me as terribly affordable, but definitions of affordable vary… I’ll be looking at Ebard’s Shapeways shop for inspiration and reference :)

For those of you with a 3D printer, you’re good to go- These designs aren’t all completely desktop-3D-printer friendly (some of them are), but with support material even the unwieldy should come out just fine. I tried to keep the smallest details at 1MM, so resolution should not be a problem. Do let me know if any of you try it and have issues.

@dishero Thanks very much! Please do give it a playtest as you have time; I’m without a group to play with at the moment and the more eyes the better, of course.

Not going to lie I really want to see if this makes a Russian Bearing Strait Sea of Okhotsk navy a thing.

@Tjoek this is incredible. Printing this out as I type. Now to find a sheet of 36x78in plexiglass…

@argothair our conversation on modular AA50 overlays is bringing me back to this awesome thread after a couple years - and I missed this official tripleA release during all the pandemical insanity!! This looks incredible. I’ll check it out for sure.

Welcome to the forums, DarkHand! I think you’re on the right track with some of these ideas- have you done a few searches for the existing A/C and other re-balance threads? There are a bunch of them, some absolutely massive, many still active, so calling yours “official” might be a bit of an overreach, but who knows? For example, here’s a thread with literally 1500+ posts that might steady you a bit or give you some inspiration: https://www.axisandallies.org/forums/topic/26089/g40-redesign-currently-taking-suggestions

As for making your own suggestions, playtesting with a dedicated group (enough to figure out the ‘meta’ of a particular HR) is key, so this right here:

@DarkHand said in Official Aircraft Rework Discussion:

I have yet to play test this (or even play regularly really :white_frowning_face: ).

is probably going to be the only limit on what you’re able to come up with. Good luck!

@djensen any chance we get a sticky for 3D models, free and otherwise? These collections need curation…

@Hansolo88 said in Deployment to Cyprus:

@Running-Away

Oh gosh I never noticed Sardinia being misspelled on the map! Just a proofing error I guess. Lucky that it’s a very unimportant territory for the game.

Sardinia fix. :) Print at 400 DPI.

@Argothair @axis_roll you guys are gonna post the game to a thread, right? 0.o

@Tjoek will do. if not over the holidays then first week of Janurary.

@Midnight_Reaper said in Looking for a G40.2 set or all of the unique units:

Re: Looking for a G40.2 set or all of the unique units
For what you want (everything that makes the 1940s games the 1940s games in the first place: mech inf, tac bombers, France, ANZAC, etc…), HBG will be pricy. You aren’t the first person to have this idea. So let me give you some places to look that might be off your radar: Amazon - normally pricy, but now is the time for sales. eBay - a bit of a crap shoot, but bargains to be had. And not just buying game sets - people part out Axis & Allies games all the time on eBay, so with patience and luck you might find just the pieces you want without paying for extras.

Finally, I suggest you look on BoardGameGeek (BGG). Look up Europe 1940 and Pacific 1940, either directly on their marketplace or look up the games and then see if they have one for sale at a price you like. With time and luck, you could walk away with with a set of the second editions for both Europe 1940 and Pacific 1940 for less than $100 for the both.

I wish you all the luck and patience in the world. But: good, fast, cheap - pick two. In this case: cheap, fast, convenient - pick two.

-Midnight_Reaper

P.S. If you run into issues with BGG, send me a PM and I’ll see if I can help.

Thanks, this is great advice- and I may or may not already have the BGG Marketplaces for both games bookmarked… ;) HBG for the Mech Inf and Tacs is easy and cheap enough, for the most part, although there are some stock issues and price oddities; but the cost of a full ANZAC or French military is prohibitive for me.

@Young-Grasshopper said in Looking for a G40.2 set or all of the unique units:

…looks like you’re trying to pimp out your anniversary edition.

That’s exactly what I’m trying to do! I’d like to have the G40 games as well, if only for solo play- my lifestyle doesn’t lend itself well to >5hr games at the moment. :)

Hey @Bigwatcher, looks awesome! Where can I get the map files?

I finished the fixed version with Honolulu moved to SE Oahu and a corrected Iwo Jima- @Tjoek check your PMs. I was going to just rotate it and leave it alone, but the OOB cartography is obviously based on a US pilot’s crude description as he rocketed overhead with bogeys in pursuit (looks very different from the actual island) so I got antsy and just redrew it.

For you purists, Tjoek can probably knock out the rotated OOB version in a couple minutes.

Note: the image below is halved for posting- don’t actually patch your map file with it. Wait for Tjoek to update the masters.

There was also a N/S stitching seam running through the text of “Honolulu” that I hunted down with the clone tool up to Alaska and down past NZ, but it was invisible on anything lower than about 150% on my monitors.

Update: I found a copy of Pacific for $45 (shipped!)… my empire is now nearly complete…

@general-6-stars said in House Rules Compilation: Oil!:

I can post my oil rules and oil bonuses in my game thread on site here.

Then if you want post it at top of your thread

Added your rules to my first post, General. Now I’m reading through the entirety of your amazing thread! :)