Posts made by Wolfshanze

Shhhhhhhh!  :-o

Well you can start by tossing out the “aimed only for Stalingrad in 1941” thing, because as previously mentioned, Stalingrad was NEVER an aim or objective of the 1941 Barbarossa invasion.

I’ll assume for argument’s sake, he’s speaking of the three Army Group approach of North, Center and South, and axing (or greatly curtailing) the Army Group Center objective of Moscow.

My short answer is “no, wouldn’t have changed anything”… because the truth is, Germany (or Hitler in particular) damn near did have a North and South strategy at the cost of Army Group Center…

The long answer, Hitler’s constant misdirection of Army Group Centers Panzers to the South, then back north to Center again pretty much destroyed Army Group Center’s ability to reach Moscow before the Russians had time to entrench and before the fall mud and winter frost set in.  While one can argue if Moscow’s capture would have doomed Russia or not, one has to take into consideration many factors… rail heads, rally points, winter quarters, sundries, factories, and one important factor… Stalin himself… when the Germans literally had the Kremlin within binocular range, the Russian government and Stalin’s advisors urged Stalin to flee the city to a safer local… Stalin refused outright, as he basically had a “bunker mentality” with Moscow… much the same that Hitler did 4 years later in Berlin… he was going to stay no matter what.  If the Germans had arrived earlier to the gates of Moscow and had been able to take the capital, i’d say it’s a good chance that Stalin would have stayed and died, like Hitler did in Berlin.  This could have had profound effects on both the Soviet Union and the course of the war… hard to say, but I think it likely Stalin would have gone down with Moscow… he showed no sign of leaving when the Germans were close to the Kremlin, so I don’t think if the Germans arrived earlier and could take the city, things would have been any different.  The military impact of the loss of Moscow would have been significant in its own right… the political hit, would have likewise been great, if not catastrophic.

I firmly believe, Moscow was doable by the Germans within the planning of Barbarossa, if not for the massive blunders Hitler intervened with during the conduct of the operation.  The planing and execution of Barbarossa by the German High Command, was pretty much spotless… what doomed the operation, was not the three pronged assault, but rather Hitler’s constant interference in the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht.

I just realized I ordered US carrier aircraft that don’t exist from HBG’s website…

WTF is a “F4F Hellcat” anyways?  :-o

(So did HBG mean to say “F4F Wildcat” or “F6F Hellcat”?  What model is it?)

Be as aggressive as possible. Sitting back and playing the waiting game is not a good idea for Germany (or Japan) when the Allies have an income advantage over you… the strong points of the Axis is that they start with more forces in locations ready for the offensive.

To win as Germany, you need to knock out either the UK or USSR as quickly as possible before the USA and UK forces can build up and become a serious threat. This means you kinda need to put a seed in your head as to if you’re pursuing a Kill England First strategy or a Kill Russia First strategy, and plan accordingly… realistically, with either strategy, you should probably neutralize the British fleet on your first turn, or at least as much of it as you can… this is an obvious need if you’re going after England first, and it is also needed if you’re going after Russia first, because denying England a fleet early, gives you some breathing time to work on Russia. Also, your spending should be focused on whichever strategy you’re going after… you’ll need to beef the German fleet if you’re going after England, and you need tons of tanks and ground forces if going after Russia first. What you should do in Russia on the first turn will vary depending on what the Russian player does before Germany moves, so it’s hard to say with certainy exactly what you should do, but press an attack somewhere if you’ve got a path to victory, being meek in Russia is never a good thing unless you’re just stalling on the Eastern front while you focus on England.

There’s a lot of strategy videos on Youtube for Axis and Allies, you might want to check them out as well.

P.S.
Axis and Allies Revised is now officially a dead version of A&A (out of print, rules not current, etc)… while it may be the version you have, realize most people have moved on to the 2nd Edition rules in 1941, 1942 SE and 1940 SE.  Since 1942 Second Edition is basically the modern remake of Revised, almost any strategy that you hear about A&A 1942 SE can be applied to A&A Revised (and to some extent, vise-versa).  Also, rules for 1942 SE are available for free download… you could probably play Revised using most/all of Second Edition rules if you wanted to.

Great idea… I ordered a set of Orange Chips… and… all the Black Chips are sold out… who bought all the black ones!!!  [sigh]

Ya, site says April… also, all pre-orders are sold-out.  :-(

EDIT:
Well, all pre-orders sold out as of yesterday… I checked today and there was “1” available… guess who snagged it?

@cyanight:

I have no idea when the German set will ship. I think it was supposed to ship in late spring. Once the pre-orders are filled you can buy the set or groups of 5 pieces. I paint all my pieces so I could care less about color.

I checked the site out… German Set 3 is supposed to be out in “April”… so if that’s true, they got a 30 day window coming up.  Pre-Orders are “sold out”, which is worrisome to someone who didn’t get a pre-order in (c’est moi)… so no clue when the set will be available again or individual sculpts can be ordered, but I’d definitely like a lot out of that set. The Deutschland class pocket battleships would be sweet… hopefully they are sized as Cruisers and not as Battleships… and of course the ubiquitous Pz-IV is a must.  Surprised it’s taken all these years to get a Pz-IV.

At this point, i’m more worried about my “silent” orders that don’t have shipping status days later even though they’re paid for… HBG orders 1,2,4,5 and 6 out of orders 1 though 7 have all shipped… so order #3 is strangely missing a shipping status despite being paid for last week… then of course there’s my FMG order of combat dice… paid for and silent… as the thread about FMG pretty much says they’ll never say a word but you may (or may not) eventually see it!
:?

This should be stickied… had to dig to find this, since it’s different than a lot of places say the units are.

I dunno… Bombers are very flexible, and very powerful… and though it is a 3 for 2 swap out, it’s giving the Axis who have the initial momentum and larger starting forces just that much more flexible powerful options… and as others have said, could really mess with an Allied fleet in the Atlantic… I just am of the feeling, throwing extra bombers at the Axis gives them more benefit than the added bombers do for the Allies.  When you bid for extra tanks or ships, there’s only so much one can do with that… but bombers have such range and flexibility, that’s some kind of bid to toss out there.

My 2-cents… maybe worthless, but that’s my take on it.

Well if I have a dishonest Mailman, he’s going to have the most awesome set of Axis and Allies armies in all of Florida.  I only started my own work last week, when I got 1941 on Friday and 1942SE on Sunday… I’ve placed a lot of orders for extra units from E-bay and HBG, most of which have shipped, but haven’t received anything yet… so (at the moment), all I have at the house is a combined 1941/1942 set with the promise of a lot more to come (assuming my mailman doesn’t decide to add to his Axis and Allies collection from all my orders! lolz).

Ya, I’ve been checking E-Bay… scored some extra Industrial Plants there… only thing is, what I’m looking for (at least with the UK) seems to be custom-only units… Valentines and Churchills are HBG custom sculpts that are out of stock. Seems every other game just has has Matilda II’s for the UK, so if I did find someone unloading their A&A on E-Bay, I’d probably just end up with more Matilda IIs…

When I get the time, I need to see if there are any sources for non-Matilda English Tan tanks out there besides HBG (and NO, I don’t want Tan Joseph Stalin tanks, thank you! lolz).

EDIT: Apparently I need to comment more about the out-of-stock status on things I want from HBG… so now it would seem they have restocked on Tan Valentines and Churchills… grabbed me a few of each… they were out of stock for the past couple of weeks at least, I swear!
SUPER SECRET DOUBLE EDIT: And now I just scored some Tan Shermans from a spare UK Tan D-Day set off E-Bay… thanks for the head’s up on D-Day Marc… I didn’t catch they had Tan Shermans… so now I’ve gone from having just Matilda IIs to having Matildas, Valentines, Churchills and Shermans for the UK. Well… once I actually start getting packages in the mail… my mailman is going to be busy the next week or so.

Marc… ya, I’m not sure I’m up to compiling a master list… was curious if anyone else was that bored… I was just wondering if there was something simpler than my current method of hunting and pecking on the HBG site for gems I might have missed (which accounts for my multiple orders when I realize a day later there was something I wanted that I initially missed).

Mostly, all the “out of stocks” are annoying… especially when its something I think would fill a big whole… right now, my entire cache of UK tanks are Matilda IIs, Matilda IIs, more Matilda IIs and the occasional Matilda II.  I’d love to get my hands on something besides a Matilda II for the UK, but everything I’ve come across (at least in Tan) is out of stock… and I’m not really liking the idea of having celery green UK tanks mixed in with my otherwise all-Tan UK units.  I would love some Valentines or Churchill’s, but they’re all out of stock and I worry they are out of stock like Industrial Plants are out of stock (ie: forever and a day).  I’d settle for some tan Shermans or Grants, but can’t find those in-stock either.

Oh well, at some point I will have discovered every nook and cranny of HBG… still anxiously awaiting my first few waves of reinforcement units coming from HBG this week.  Maybe I’ll even here from FMG about my combat dice! lolz.
:|

Thanks guys for your responses… Marc, your OOB charts are really nice, but unfortunately, I’m more looking for a “where do I get my hands on that sculpt” list, which really isn’t covered by an OOB (the OOB fills its own niche nicely of course). KNP’s evolution thread is a little more in-line with a “where can I get that list”, if you can recognize whats all in his pics.  I was a little shocked to realize there seems to be very little difference in sculpts between the “1st edition” and “2nd edition” versions of 1940 and 1942… they seem nearly identical in sculpts… I know there are a few minor differences, but for the most part, overall they’re very similar.

I guess at this time, HBG’s site is the closest to a master list, but I’ve found its hunt and peck nature is not always accurate… I’ve been in unit categories that are missing a unit or two, only to find the unit that should be there under a different category (like color) show up under a different list on the site and then take a vise-versa on a different unit and it happens again.

Cyanight, thanks for the head’s up on the WW2 German 3 set, I must’ve skipped over that… I’d so love to have Pz-IV’s for Germany… any idea when the set is due for release?  Do they charge you on pre-order or when it is actually released?  Will they be selling the sculpts from the set individually?  I’ve found some things (like Neutral white infantry), completely out of stock for individual sale, but available if you buy the (neutral expansion) set.

Thanks for the answers Marc and Cyanight… I guess i’ll just have to keep pecking over the HBG site for things I’ve missed (already made a half-dozen individual orders cuz I keep thinking of and noticing things I’ve missed that I want).

I’m aware of the Battle Flags as opposed to national flags… I just like them as spiffier emblems and they’re still WWII specific. The German flag I used is actually the Reichskriegsflagge. Often mistaken as strictly a naval flag, it’s actually designed personally by Adolf Hitler… this flag served the Heer (Army) and the Luftwaffe as their War Flag, and the Kriegsmarine as its War Ensign (the National Flag serving as Jack). This flag was hoisted daily in barracks operated by units of the Wehrmacht combined German military forces, and it had to be flown from a pole positioned near the barracks entrance, or failing this, near the guard room or staff building.

P.S.
Pretty much the same thing with the Japanese Rising Sun flag… that’s a battle/war flag too, also used by the IJA from 1870-1945… much like the Reichskriegsflagge, it wasn’t limited to just the Navy… hence I feel the use of battle/war flags to denote the military trays of Japan & Germany is perfectly fine. Once I get everything to where I like it (extra units from HBG and bins properly marked), i’ll repost pics of my final results (and probably next to my nearly empty 1941-only bins for comparison).

Attached a pic of the Reichskiegsflagge in use… definitely not the Kriegsmarine hoisting the flag!

Is there anywhere out there, or someone out there who has bothered to post a compressive list of all available sculpts and/or where to get them from? Say, something like this:

German Tanks {black}
Pz-38t (HBG)
Pz-II (HBG)
Pz-III (HBG)
Pz-V Panther (1942 SE & 1940 Europe SE)
Pz-VI Tiger I (1941)

If there is a list or link somewhere of everything at a glance, please post it… I know we can go to HBG and hunt and peck, I was just wondering if there’s a master list somewhere, or maybe some sculpts that exist that aren’t listed at HBG. At the very least, if there’s no master list, are there any tanks I’m missing from my above example on Germany? I know there’s some StuG’s and SPA on HBG’s site, but those aren’t true tanks. Where the heck is the ubiquitous German Pz-IV?

Thanks… I’m having them “professionally” done… www.vistaprint.com (Small Product Label Stickers - Rectangle  3.43" x 1.93" size).  Simply upload whatever picture files you want printed, they print up the stickers and send them back.

I of course used the 1912 American Flag for a WWII sticker… using anything else would be like using today’s German tricolor flag for WWII Germany.  The Governors of all 48 states would agree!
:-D

Excellent ideas… I heard Orange is the new Black.

Which version of the game (and accompanying chips) are you using? If I’m not mistaken, 2nd Edition has smaller chips than previous versions… if you have an older version, you might seek 2nd Edition chips… if  you’re already using 2nd Edition and want even smaller chips… hmmm… that might be a chore… not sure where you’d look at that point…

Only thing I could think of is maybe think outside the box… get more Industrial Complexes and mark or paint them different from your default IC’s… like orange or black to denote damaged.

Finishing up work on my national storage bins… removed the store/manufacturer label from each bin, and since there’s one bin for each nation, I custom made some product label stickers that I will be putting on each bin cover using battle and/or national flags for each: