@Cantab:
The only other thing is there are not enough pieces sometimes. It does not change how the game is played in any way, but just a couple more of every unit would do the trick. I was thinking of buying some from Historical Board Gaming and thought I might get some of the 1942 set, because Japanese Tiger tanks do not look right. Are all the figures and counters about the same size between versions (i.e. will they work on my map or be so huge I will have no space)?
The official A&A out-of-the-box pieces are more or less standardized in terms of their size, with units of the same type tending to be approximately the same size. For example, in Global 1940, the strategic bombers are large, the tactical bombers are medium and the fighters are small. There are size variations within each class, but on the whole the size of an aircraft unit reflects its function in the rules. The same applies to battleships, cruisers and destroyers.
To get an idea of how big all the pieces are relative to each other, I recommend consulting the unit identification charts that I prepared, and which are posted here:
http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=31982.0
The pictures you see are high-contrast sculpt photographs (nor drawings), so they accurately represent the sculpts. All the aircraft (which I had to photograph vertically) are shot at the same scale, and all the other pieces (which I had to photograph horizontally) are likewise at a standard scale relative to each other, though there is a small difference compared to the aircraft scale (they’re close, but not an exact match).
The HBG sculpts are designed to be compatible with the OOB A&A ones, so their sizes are a good match.