Russian Units used for the French?

When the second edition was made, why did the French not have their own sculpts, like other countries?

Just curious!

John

@Narvik:

Because they survive one turn.

When that is said, IMHO I figure we would be better off if the resources spent on 7 different nation specific AA-guns was used on the French units, and that the old AA-gun mold was used but in nation specific colors, like they did in AA Guadalcanal. Or that the Russian battleship was given a French look and not the floating gas station look. Or the whole Russian navy was looking French. etc etc The giant Aussie look weird too.

Thanks for the info!

@CWO:

When the second edition came out, I remember speculating that the French pieces retained their Russian configuration for two reasons: almost certainly because it was cheaper to do so, but also perhaps to create a selling point for a hypothetical third edition.  In the first edition, Italy had German-patterned equipment sculpts, ANZAC had British-patterned equipment sculpts, and France had Russian-patterned equipment sculpts.  In the second edition, Italy got its own equipment sculpts on the Europe side and ANZAC got its own equipment sculpts on the Pacific side, and the game also saw the addition of the new AAA piece in nation-specific designs; France, however, kept its Russian equipment pattern.  Larry has said that there are no plans for any additional editions of the game at this time…

http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=32812.0

…but if a third edition did ever come out, an upgrade of France’s sculpts would be an obvious feature to offer on the European side.  What’s not obvious is what corresponding upgrade could be made on the Pacfic side, since all the major powers there now have their own distinctive sculpts.  I’d of course love to see China get its own equipment set, but under the OOB rules China wouldn’t have any use for it, except in a very limited way for the artillery and fighter units.  And as regards the fighter, which represents the Flying Tigers, we already received some P-40 Warhawks in the 1941 game, so there’s nothing to be gained by having WotC toss one into a hypothetical Pacific 1940 (3rd ed) box.  It’s a pity that China wasn’t sufficiently industrialized during WWII to have very much military hardware.  Perhaps the way to split the difference for the game would be to find out what kind of hardware China did actually have and to give China some selective unit types to reflect them, along with some appropriate tweaks to the OOB rules.  It’s all just wishful thinking – but a fun thing to indulge in nonetheless.

Thanks Marc! I never paid attention to the French units till the other day. I’m glad HBG has the French set coming. It is much needed. :-)

@toblerone77:

If there ever is a third edition I could see new French units for Europe and new US units in the PTO. It still begs the question Why did AA50 and AAP’01 get both Hellcats and Lightnings yet AAGC had just Hellcats?

Just an FYI also guys, the plastic pieces are cheap to produce in the volumes Hasbro produces in China ONCE the molds are made. When WOTC/Hasbro shorts on the plastic pieces they’re just being cheap, and is also the reason they will send you a whole new set of pieces when you complain. The most expensive components to the game are the printed ones. The paper IPCs of yesteryear cost more money to produce than our beloved sculpts.

It would be awesome if both the US and UK got different sculpts in both theaters of war.

Thanks for the info! That is good to know. :-)

@toblerone77:

@CWO:

@toblerone77:

If there ever is a third edition I could see new French units for Europe and new US units in the PTO.

Great idea!�  I love it.�  That would definitely solve the question of how to introduce a new set of equipment pieces in Pacific to balance an upgraded French equipment set in Europe.

See Larry, I’m full of good ideas! Just put me, KNP, CWO Marc, John Brown and all the other sculpt hounds in charge…. well at least of the sculpts.

I will second that! :-D