The New Sculpts…

I agree for most except I’d think that the ChiHa would be more likely to show up than the Frank… but the rest I could live with! :D

I think the Germans might also get a Electraboot or something as the 16th sculpt. @2cents! :D

Starting with 370 count total…

Bold means new sculpts…total count 160 and 16 new sculpts  The PDF says each nation has 32 new pieces, so 160 divide by 5=32.

US:  76 total pieces — 32 new pieces ----3 new sculpts
20  new Infantry 
6  New Artillery
6 Armor
8 P-40 Fighters
6 S. Bombers
6 Submarines
6 Destroyers
4 Cruisers
4  New Early War Battleships
4 Aircraft Carriers
6 Transports

Japan:  74 total pieces----32 unique pieces—3 new sculpts
20  New Infantry
6 Artillery
6 Armor
8  New Fighters
4 S. Bombers
6 Submarines
6 Destroyers
4 Cruisers
4 Battleships
4 Akagi Aircraft Carriers
6 Transports

UK:  76 total pieces and 32 unique pieces with 4 unique sculpts
20 New Infantry
6  Artillery
8 Armor
8 Fighters
6 New AVRO Lancaster Bombers
6 Submarines
6 Destroyers
4 Cruisers
4 New  HMS Hood Battleships
2  New  Ark Royal Aircraft Carriers
6 Transports

Germany:  78 total pieces—32 unique sculpts—4 unique sculpts
20 Infantry
8 New Artillery
12 New Tiger Tanks Armor
8  New FW-190 Fighters
4 New He-111  S. Bombers
6 Submarines
6 Destroyers
4 Cruisers
2 Battleships
2 Aircraft Carriers
6 Transports

USSR:  66 total pieces—32 unique pieces—3 unique sculpts
20  New Infantry
8 Artillery
10 New IS-2 Armor
8 Fighters
2 S. Bombers
4 Submarines
4 Destroyers
2 Cruisers
2 Battleships
2 New Aircraft Carriers
4 Transports

17… but still pretty good. To many Artillery? ;)

@reloader-1:

IL, you have 18 new sculpts in your list.

I think you can safely scrap the New Aircraft Carrier for the Soviets ;)

I’m a bit divided between the need for new Infantry sculps - nice to have them, but at the same time the current sculpts have existed since Classic and they are probably one of the A&A features by now.

I believe the Hood is meant to be a battleship in the game.

It was a capital ship, and most certainly not used as a cruiser, light or heavy.

@jim010:

I believe the Hood is meant to be a battleship in the game.
It was a capital ship, and most certainly not used as a cruiser, light or heavy.

It’s ironic that WotC is using a battlecruiser in a battleship role because that’s exactly what how the Hood was used against the Bismarck, with the result that it promptly got blown out of the water.

Thin deck armour was an issue, certainly, but it was also a lucky shot on the part of the Germans.

These battles pretty much boiled down to who got the first lucky shot.  I wouldn’t hold that against the Hood, as it was a powerful capital ship that the Germans feared.

Other battlecruisers during the war performed well in the German, British and Japanese navies.  Hood was probably the best of them all.

@jim010:

Other battlecruisers during the war performed well in the German, British and Japanese navies.Â

Good performance in general fleet duties and good performance in combat against a battleship aren’t the same thing.  Other than the Hood-Bismarck fight, I don’t recall any other battlecruiser-versus-battleship engagements in WWII.  During WWI, the Battle of Jutland showed how dangerous it was for battlecruisers to take on battleships.  It was Jutland, in fact, which caused Britain to scrap plans to build more than one Hood-class battlecruiser…and which led to major revisions to the design for Hood itself (which had just been laid down), including a considerable uprating of its armour.  Ironically, the Third Battlecruiser Squadron commander at Jutland who was killed when his flagship Invincible blew up (only six of the crew of 1,032 officers and men survived) was named Horace Hood.

During WW I, the battlecruiser losses for the British were due to the German battlecruiser fire, not the battleships.  And the losses were not attributed to the light armour, but flash in the magazines.  The Germans discovered this problem previously and fixed it, which is why they didn’t suffer the same battlecruiser losses.

And there were a number of battlecruiser vs battleship battles.  I agree that battlecruisers are vulnerable to plunging fire, but at long ranges.  Medium to close range they are the equal to a battleship in fire power and side armour.

Scharnhorst vs Duke of York and Kirishima vs Washington and South Dakota are just 2 battles off the top of my head where there was a battlecruiser vs a battleship.  Thin deck armour was not a factor in either battle.  One was a lucky hit, and the other had the wrong type of shell was surprised and overwhelmed.

My point is that Hood was one of the world’s most powerful capital ships, and at the time, easily the most recognizable British ship.  It’s loss was tragic, but that should not prejudice the ship against being chosen as a representative of the British capital ships over a lucky hit.  How many other capital ships were lost due to lucky hits?  Bismarck, just to name 1.

Hood was, after all flagship of the British Home Fleet.

I just got word that WOTC announced 2nd edition 1942 which confirms some of the other sculpts that are new:

New Miniature Sculpts
There are 5 new sculpts in the game including UK artillery,
submarine & destroyer units; German artillery; and a
Russian submarine. There�s even an all-new combat unit:
the Antiaircraft Artillery!

This confirms what partially i already predicted…of the 8 new sculpts that we have no idea you can infer that 5 of them are these above.

http://www.harrisgamedesign.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=9088

Holy sheeet! Only six dice?! A new combat unit… Anti-Aircraft Artillery. Nice!  :lol:

P.S.  Could we please start a new sub topic for this game?

I am wondering about this new sculpt – the Anti-Aircraft Artillery. They had AA Gun pieces in all of the older versions of A&A, so in that regard it’s not such a new thing. SO, I wonder if this means that each nation will get their own Anti-Aircraft Artillery and they will be in national colors rather than the neutral light grey.

Also, if this is the case, will they be different models of AA Artillery or will they all be the same, just in different colors.

What do you suppose will be the new German Artillery? This is assuming they don’t go with the 88mm.

Well, knp7765… the line that I find intriguing is this one:

There’s even an all-new combat unit: the Antiaircraft Artillery!

I mean, I don’t know about you but I think we could be looking at an all-new combat unit with its own unique stats and abilities. At least, that’s what I’ve gathered.

Perhaps Artillery and AA Guns get combined into one unit now?

Hey Lozmoid,
I don’t think they will combine artillery and AA guns. Two of the new sculpts mentioned were UK and German artilliery pieces. I think you were right in the first place, that we are getting a whole new unit with it’s own unique values. If that is the case, then they may well be nation specific as well. If they decide to transfer the Alpha+3.9 AA gun rules over to these new games, then countries will be able to buy many AA guns and have them all in one place for maximum effect. Also, since AA guns get destroyed when an enemy captures that territory, they don’t need to be the neutral grey color anymore, unlike ICs that can still be captured.

I hear you loud and clear, my friend. Yes it follows that they would incorporate the new AA Gun rules into this version (and the new 1941 game?). So I wonder what this new ‘Antiaircraft Artillery’ unit will do? I agree that they will be nation-specific mould/sculpt and colour. I am highly anticipating this game, and if it’s cheap enough, I’ll definitely pick up a copy.

When there was talk of a 1941 game with cool new sculpts I thought “Hmmm maybe I’ll buy it for the sculpts”.  But now it seems there may be some new sculpts in a 1941 game and some others in a “new” 1942 game.  You can bet some community college business school graduate in their marketing department dreamed that up to soak the “enfranchised” players.  Nope.  Count me out.  I won’t buy either one if they did that.