United States Set from Historical Board Gaming!


  • Hey coach…good work… US set is a must.
    Meanwhile I order WWII painted leader. (Roco figurines)
    Can’t wait to get it.
    What about WWII generals like Rommel, Montgommery and others commanders?


  • Hey gents, did any of you read this?
    Pearl Harbor mini-submarine mystery solved?
    Researchers think they have found the remains of a Japanese mini-submarine that probably fired on U.S. battleships on Dec. 7, 1941.
    December 07, 2009|By Thomas H. Maugh II
    The remains of a Japanese mini-submarine that participated in the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor have been discovered, researchers are to report today, offering strong evidence that the sub fired its torpedoes at Battleship Row.
    That could settle a long-standing argument among historians.
    Five mini-subs were to participate in the strike, but four were scuttled, destroyed or run aground without being a factor in the attack. The fate of the fifth has remained a mystery. But a variety of new evidence suggests that the fifth fired its two 800-pound torpedoes, most likely at the battleships West Virginia and Oklahoma, capsizing the latter. A day later, researchers think, the mini-sub’s crew scuttled it in nearby West Loch.

    The loch was also the site of a 1944 disaster in which six tank landing ships preparing for the secret invasion of Saipan were destroyed in an ammunition explosion that killed 200 sailors and wounded hundreds more.
    When the Navy scooped up the remains of the so-called LSTs and dumped them outside the harbor to protect the secrecy of the invasion, it apparently also dumped the mini-sub’s remains, which were mingled with the damaged U.S. ships.
    “It’s not often that a historian gets a chance to rewrite history,” said marine historian and former Navy submariner Parks Stephenson, who pieced together the evidence for the television program “Nova.” “The capsizing of the Oklahoma is the second most iconic event of the attack. If one submarine could get in in 1941 and hit a battleship, who knows what a midget sub could do today. Iran and North Korea are both building them. It’s very worrying.”
    Stephenson and his colleagues have put together a convincing chain of circumstantial evidence, but it is just circumstantial, said Burl Burlingame, a journalist at the Honolulu Star-Bulletin and author of “Advance Force: Pearl Harbor.”
    “There is a good chance that this is the Pearl Harbor midget, but I don’t think the case is closed on it,” Burlingame said. “At this point, it is not hard evidence.”
    The two-man, 80-foot-long sub in question does not have a name of its own. Each of the five subs in the attack was carried by a conventional submarine and took its name from the mother boat. It is thus called the I-16-tou – tou being Japanese for boat. Powered by a 600-horsepower electric motor, the sub could reach underwater speeds of 19 knots, twice as fast as many of the U.S. subs of the day.
    The three pieces of the sub were found during routine test dives between 1994 and 2001 by Terry Kerby, chief pilot of the Hawaii Undersea Research Laboratory’s submersibles Pisces IV and Pisces V. But Kerby and others assumed they were a part of a war trophy that had been captured by allied forces at Guadalcanal or elsewhere, towed back to Hawaii and scuttled.
    Stephenson got involved in 2007 because he was looking for the fifth Japanese mini-sub.
    In 1941, a crewman on the I-16 had received a radio call from the I-16-tou at 10:41 p.m. on Dec. 8 reporting the success of its mission. That indicated to Stephenson that the mini-sub had found a calm place in the harbor and hidden until the next night before surfacing and sending the call.
    The crew members would have then scuttled the craft because they could not get it out of the harbor. The West Loch would have been a good location to hide, but researchers could find no trace of the boat there.

    A diver who had been looking for the mini-sub suggested that Stephenson talk to Kerby, who sent him pictures of his find.

    “As soon as I saw the bow section with the distinctive net cutter, I knew that we had found the fifth midget sub,” Stephenson said. The Japanese navy modified net cutters on the subs for specific missions, and the one on the wreck was identical to those on the other mini-subs.

    No torpedoes were found on the wreck, and evidence suggests that they were not present when the boat was sunk. A newly declassified photograph taken by a Japanese plane during the attack appeared to show a mini-sub firing a torpedo into Battleship Row. A report to Congress in 1942 by Adm. Chester W. Nimitz describes an unexploded 800-pound torpedo recovered after the battle. That’s twice the size carried by the torpedo bombers.

    That torpedo was apparently a dud that missed the West Virginia.

    But an examination of the remains of the Oklahoma shows that it apparently had underwater damage much larger than that associated with aerial torpedoes. An underwater blast would have caused it to capsize, Stephenson said. “Otherwise it would have settled to the bottom upright,” like the other sunken ships.

    The 1944 disaster at West Loch occurred on May 21 as the Navy was preparing to invade the Mariana Islands in Operation Forager. The Navy clamped a top-secret classification on the incident to keep it from the Japanese, and few records are now available. What is known is that it was crucial to clear out the debris because the loch was by then the site of an ammunition dump.

    Records from the salvage ship Valve showed that it was brought into the loch during the cleanup and its 250-ton crane was used for an undisclosed reason. Stephenson thinks it lifted the I-16-tou, but there are no records to confirm that.

    The remains of the mini-sub were then dumped three miles south of Pearl Harbor along with those of the LSTs, to be found by Kerby 50 years later.

    Bulkheads on the wreck are sealed, so researchers don’t know whether the mini-sub crew was trapped. But a map taken from one of the other mini-subs showed the location of a safe house in Pearl City, Hawaii, suggesting the crew might have scuttled the boat and escaped.
    This ends the midget sub issue
    WARRIOR888

  • Customizer

    Warrior,

    If you really want to know about the midget subs and everything else in the attack on Pearl Harbor,…you should read the book “Attack on Pearl Harbor: Strategy, Combat, Myths, Deceptions by Alan Zimm”.  It would open your eyes.  If you don’t by a copy, try finding it at your local library or have them order it.

    I’ve seen the tv special you’re referring to and it was very good.  But for the complete truth and a greater understanding on what happenned and why,…read the book.

    Almost all of the Japanese torpedo bombers flew down one approach and then struggled to turn towards the BBs to attack them.  That’s why the Oklahoma received an overabundance of torpedo hits.  Anyhow, I hope you and every American would read this book, or have it taught to them in school.  Like I said, give yourself a better understanding of what actually happenned by reading the book.

    “Tall Paul”

  • Sponsor '17 '13 '11 '10

    US supplement set (Not Naval) is finishing preproduction and I should have some pictures next week!

  • Customizer

    “Coach”

    That’s Great news.  I’m really looking forward to seeing some more pics of all of these units.  You picked some real winners in this set,…Wow!

    No rush, but whenever it’s time I’m ready to pre-order several of these sets.  I think your waiting until the units are almost ready to produce to take orders is smart for everyone concerned.

    ----------------------------

    Will you also have the latest news or new pics of the US NAVAL Set(s), too??? 
    I was hoping for an update on these once you returned from your vacation.

    On a related note, I’m having some MARINE RAIDERS made from the regular Marines in your latest set.  I should have some pics of these and other stuff for you in a couple of weeks.  Keep up the good work.

    “Tall Paul”


  • Coach,

    Are you going to open these up for pre-order soon?


  • Coach,
    I noticed in the US Supplement Pictures you had an Air Transport Plane, but in the list of 28 pieces you don’t have included.  Is this unit not being made?

  • Sponsor '17 '13 '11 '10

    @Johnson73:

    Coach,
    I noticed in the US Supplement Pictures you had an Air Transport Plane, but in the list of 28 pieces you don’t have included.  Is this unit not being made?

    I will correct that.
    There will be the Transport plane.

  • Sponsor '17 '13 '11 '10

    U.S. Set preproduction pieces.
    Hope to have them in 6 weeks!

    US set.jpg

  • Customizer

    Wow,

    Great looking units, “Coach”!  I’m really looking forward to this Set.  Let us all know when we can Pre-Order these.  Keep up the Good work!

    “Tall Paul”

  • '12

    Sweet!  Another GREAT addition to the collection!

  • Sponsor '17 TripleA '11 '10

    Wow! Great job again Coach. I will give my wife the X-mas shopping list…


  • dear god!! there perfect!

  • Customizer

    The B-25s look a little odd to me.  The horizontal tail plane looks too long.  I think the vertical tail planes should be even with the engines.

    Everything else looks great.

  • Sponsor '17 '13 '11 '10

    Both colors are being approved then I will release for production.
    They will be in my hands in late Janurary.

  • Sponsor '17 TripleA '11 '10

    Got my US set in the mail yesterday. They are REALLY AWESOME Coach! Quality of all sculpts is what we have come to expect from HBG. The airborne infantry are fantastic. Casablancas are sized correctly as well as all aircraft. The color is the same as the Olive Drab Marines. One cool thing I didn’t know about until I had the pieces in hand is all the aircraft sculpts have the little “landing gear pins” on the bottom that are exactly the right length. All the aircraft are very stable and won’t fall over easily. The Nevadas are about the same length as cruisers or the older battleships from Revised. So they are smaller than the G40 sized molds but I don’t see this as a problem. All of the tank sculpts are great as well. Lots of detail on the treads and turrets. Hellcats and Priests look especially cool. P-51 and P-40 are about the size of OOB Zeros. And finally, I now have Avengers to finish off my new Midway game! Check 'em all out if you haven’t done so already:

    http://www.historicalboardgaming.com/United-States_c_161.html

  • Customizer

    I got my US supplement sets from HBG yesterday.  10 sets in each color.  They look fabulous.  I think the tail plane on the B-25s is too long so they look a little odd to me, but otherwise they look pretty cool too.  The tanks/SPGs are amazing.  I love that they actually have tracks.  The battleships have an incredible amount of detail for such a small scale.  I like that you can see the individual gun barrels and I can even make out smaller guns and lifeboats.
    It should be noted that the reason HBG and FMG pieces have such great detail, particularly the tires on trucks and tank tracks, is because their molds are “top to bottom” while the OOB molds are “side to side”.  This allows for much better detail.  This is also why the tank turrets have to be made seperately and snapped into place.  Otherwise the barrels would simply be a part of the body of the tank.
    I really love these pieces and can’t wait to get more for other countries so I can start working them into my regular games and come up with rules for the new stuff.  I have some ideas, mostly gotten from here on the Forum with a few of my own, but right now only Germany and USA have stuff like light tanks, SPGs, etc. and I think I should have some for the other countries first.  In the meantime, I will be building up one heck of a collection.
    Did anyone wonder what 10 sets of US Supplements would look like all lined up?  Here you go.  How do you like the mixed set?

    US Dk Green set.JPG
    US Olive set.JPG
    US Both sets.JPG

  • Customizer

    Look at the trucks!  They are only slightly larger than the OOB trucks from BOTB so I think they work great.  They sure do look cool.
    Check out all the different trucks and halftracks we have available now.

    Trucks side.JPG
    Trucks bottom.JPG
    Trucks & Halftracks.JPG

  • Customizer

    Here’s some more interesting things.  We have a pretty big selection of tanks, armored cars and SPGs now thanks to FMG and HBG.
    Look at all the different fighters we have available.
    Our Battleship selection is growing too.

    Tanks, Armored Cars, SPGs.JPG
    Fighters.JPG
    Battleships.JPG

  • Customizer

    Here’s a sampling of different carrier/aircraft configurations.  Of course I didn’t represent EVERY variation, that would probably take more carriers than I even have.  How about the two at the bottom?  The Doolittle raid?

    Take a look at the Escort Carriers.  I’ve set them up with 1 plane (first picture) and 2 planes (second picture).  I think most people agree that Escort Carriers should only carry 1 plane.  What about the values?
    Attack = 0
    Defense = 2
    Move = 2
    Cost = $10
    1 hit to sink.  Carry 1 plane.

    Does that sound about right to everyone?

    Carriers with planes.JPG
    Escort Carriers 1 plane.JPG
    Escort Carriers 2 planes.JPG

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