• '18 '17 '16 '15 Customizer

    @lthaut:

    Feel free to add any feedback as I’m looking to make a few changes especially towards a further customized version. I was going to take the customized version towards a kind of grind house direction with coffee stains and a grungy overlay. I’m considering having smaller country markers for the ones not represented with the possibility of a 1939 rollback. If I get permission there will also be a different victory point system borrowed from the board game ‘Struggle for Europe and Asia’. Last on the list is replacing the charts with blowup boxes for congested areas complete with some flash art that I’m willing to paint according to suggestions.

    Are you going to put roundels on all the neutral, pro allies and pro axis countries, like Cyanight did on his map?

    Just curious.


  • I was thinking of doing that but I’m not sure without community support for doing it. I attempted a 1936 rollback similar to what Cyanight accomplished but it seemed too busy of a map to me. Although I did have everything as a roundel and not as strategically placed as what Cyanight did. If I do the roundel thing I’d go for half sized roundels for the neutrals with a different variation (for instance just the blue and white roundel for Finland instead of a swastika), but hopefully with permission of Cyanight to use his idea of non roundels (Mongolia just being a star except half sized in this case).

  • '18 '17 '16 '15 Customizer

    @lthaut:

    I was thinking of doing that but I’m not sure without community support for doing it. I attempted a 1936 rollback similar to what Cyanight accomplished but it seemed too busy of a map to me. Although I did have everything as a roundel and not as strategically placed as what Cyanight did. If I do the roundel thing I’d go for half sized roundels for the neutrals with a different variation (for instance just the blue and white roundel for Finland instead of a swastika), but hopefully with permission of Cyanight to use his idea of non roundels (Mongolia just being a star except half sized in this case).

    No problem! I was just curious if you thought about it, but you obviously have. I just think it is cool to have them on there. :-D


  • Some decals for the map done by tracing Tamiya for speed in art rage. I’m thinking of doing stukas, u-boat, b17, zero, Japanese fleet, and a British destroyer next.

  • '18 '17 '16 '15 Customizer

    Are you saying these are going on the map?

    If you are, I wouldn’t put to many, because some people are not into pictures on a map.

    I’m just letting you know from experiencing what others have  said. :-)


  • Very good looking map  :-P

    You might want to keep an eye on the release of the new map for Global War - due in November:

    http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=36323.0

    Might give you some inspiration (or another map source)


  • Thank you for the comment Munck. I’m pretty excited for HBG’s 1936 map it’s looking a lot better than when it first appeared as an alpha. For people not being that much into flash art is actually perfect for my intentions :-D Don’t worry though they’ll still be the one that’s up now probably with the added in neutral markers. As far as the grind-house style I’m going for on the next project it’ll be a dirty torn up filter overlay to make it look old, decals for the tackiness and aftermarket look, definitely blood- coffee- and ink stains, then last on the list is sexual appeasement. Still very rough thumbnails but an idea. Figures from Aurora model.

  • '18 '17 '16 '15 Customizer

    @lthaut:

    Thank you for the comment Munck. I’m pretty excited for HBG’s 1936 map it’s looking a lot better than when it first appeared as an alpha. For people not being that much into flash art is actually perfect for my intentions :-D Don’t worry though they’ll still be the one that’s up now probably with the added in neutral markers. As far as the grind-house style I’m going for on the next project it’ll be a dirty torn up filter overlay to make it look old, decals for the tackiness and aftermarket look, definitely blood- coffee- and ink stains, then last on the list is sexual appeasement. Still very rough thumbnails but an idea. Figures from Aurora model.

    No worries, I just know that variety is always good, because not everyone is the same, but you seem to have a grasp of what your trying to accomplish, so I hope it appeals to all types. :-D


  • Oh yeah Munck i almost forgot to say that unfortunately I will not be doing any edits of HBG maps. While that what I’m doing to the 1940 map is in the grey area I feel that any fun edits to their stuff (even if I had permission from HBG) would be more of a product leak since their a fairly new and independent company. I have no idea how they are pulling it off but I hope their successful especially with getting those expansion pack ideas into reality  :-).


  • Looks great, lthaut!

  • '18 '17 '16 '15 Customizer

    @lthaut:

    Some decals for the map done by tracing Tamiya for speed in art rage. I’m thinking of doing stukas, u-boat, b17, zero, Japanese fleet, and a British destroyer next.

    I like these and the style. Unsure if I would like them on the map or not, but there are plenty of other places you can put them.

  • '21 '18 '17 '15

    Map looks great, i like your style.


  • Thanks everyone for the comments. LHoffman what did you have in mind for other places? I may be able to accommodate a side project. Anyway here’s an in progress concept piece for my planned unofficial map stamp on the upcoming grind-house project.

  • '18 '17 '16 '15 Customizer

    Haha, Apocalypse Now style huh?

    Other places would include the box or container for the game… if you were planning to use something other than the G40 boxes. Unless you are not having a box for it.

    The main thing that I was thinking of would be the nation specific setup/National Objective charts. Lots of people have re-done these to their own liking and include some sort of country specific artwork like tanks, planes, ships, leaders, flags, etc…

    If you are changing the map I assume you may also be making rule changes? A rule book would be an apt place for more artwork too.


  • lol Yeah I definitely had Apocalypse Now in mind when hashing out a rough layout. I probably will drop the flash art and just go with the unofficial stamp as even though I’m taking the quickest way to do these model decals it’s still pretty time consuming and tedious. Right now I’m waiting on permission to use the victory conditions seen in Struggle for Europe and Asia on this map although I’ll have to come up with a different point system to make it work.

    As this map has drastic modifications done to it despite for non-profit, educational content will always be helpful in this regard so I thought of something that might meet that intent while being artistically pleasing at the same time. The victory points I plan to add are either worth 1-3 points so what I was thinking was having actual country specific medals used with the highest award being worth 3 points i.e. the Medal of Honor for the United States followed by the Distinguished Service Cross then the Silver Star. An example concept can be seen in the PC game Close Combat (http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2108227&mpage=1&key=�).

    Thoughts and opinions?


  • Received permission from Mark over at Oxford Game Design to use their victory point system. Still need to make adjustments but these are the country specific victory medals (from various close combat mods) worth up to 3 points with 100 points on the map. I have no idea why but photo bucket seems to add a ton of color saturation without letting me edit so I went with an effects filter.


  • I sent an official request form in through Wizards of the Coast so hopefully I’ll hear back from them soon.

  • '18 '17 '16 '15 Customizer

    So the G40 map and territories are staying mostly intact but you are placing these victory point medals on it?

    I like the 3-tier medal approach, adds a good flavor. However, it could be a little confusing to add up during gameplay, especially when viewing from longer range. Numbers or colors on the map would be much easier, though not as interesting.

    I also think they are a little small based on the picture. You may want to make the medals bigger so they stand out and don’t get missed. Some territories may get kinda crowded with names, markers, victory points, IPC value, victory cities and bases (i.e. Novgorod).


  • Yup the territories are staying mostly intact except for the medals. I think what I’ll have to do is post 2 screen shots side by side, one being enlarged medals, and the second having just one medal at the current size but color coded. I originally planned on the color coding by ripping yellow, orange, and red off of the map to stay within he same color range but as you said makes it less interesting.

    The purpose of the victory point system is three fold. My main goal or mission statement sort of speak is to get closer to games like World at War and Hearts of Iron in complexity while at the same time making the play time shorter and still fun. Sounds like competing goals but the VPs accomplish this by ending the old mechanic that once a side reaches an economic threshold they can usually compound statistically into a long drawn out win. I’m not saying that I’m a really good player but this is usually what happens when I play with friends that are equally matched in play styles. Similar to RTS games I think the fun factor drops off once you reach that economic threshold because now it’s just a game of steam roll your opponent. In terms of complexity now there’s various cost benefit choices to make such as do I tactically engage to destroy enemy forces, take a territory for its economic value, accomplish national objectives, or go for victory points? This supports more varied strategies while making useless territories important like Crete, Sicily, Vyborg, and others especially in the Pacific.

    How it works is that as the game progresses the Axis have to be in control of less and less territories to win and if they lose too much the Allies win. This more closely reflects the end game stages of chess or checkers. Struggle for Europe and Pacific already had this system in place so it was pretty convenient to see how they distributed the points in this system which I’ve mostly converted over. One point of note though is that because they have a different movement mechanic feedback will probably be necessary to figure out what the right winning number conditions are. So far straight from the Struggle for Europe and Pacific global game the numbers will loosely be in these ranges:

    Summer 1942 37(lose) -65(win), Winter 1942 37-64, Summer 1943 33-59, Winter 1943 28-52, Summer 1944 23-40, Winter 1944 17-27, Summer 1945 12-12.

  • '18 '17 '16 '15 Customizer

    That is cool. I like your thought process here.

    It may be a long read to catch up, but part of what you are doing is being discussed here over in House Rules: G40 Redesign http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=36518.0

    Discussion of late has been less focused on Victory Conditions, but I think a few of us at least have agreed that Victory Conditions are the most central element of game play. If you want to shape how the game is played, the most immediate way would be to modify the Victory Conditions.

    I would love a more nuanced game that has multiple paths to victory and a more complex strategic structure. Unless you enlarge the map even more than G40 is, it will be difficult to achieve this I think. Because map size (# of territories) is directly related to how complex you can get. That must be balanced with simplicity and ease of play so that the game is not overly ponderous and technical.

    I have never before considered a three faceted motivation system like you describe here. At least I have never recognized it as such. Tactical decisions, Economic decisions (includes NOs) and Victory decisions. Many times all three of these factors are combined within a single territory. However, the Victory point system you describe could be considered a sort of second currency in the game. If you can make it Victory Points sufficiently valuable to compete with the other two, I think there is real potential here.

    @lthaut:

    How it works is that as the game progresses the Axis have to be in control of less and less territories to win and if they lose too much the Allies win. This more closely reflects the end game stages of chess or checkers. Struggle for Europe and Pacific already had this system in place so it was pretty convenient to see how they distributed the points in this system which I’ve mostly converted over. One point of note though is that because they have a different movement mechanic feedback will probably be necessary to figure out what the right winning number conditions are. So far straight from the Struggle for Europe and Pacific global game the numbers will loosely be in these ranges:

    Summer 1942 37(lose) -65(win), Winter 1942 37-64, Summer 1943 33-59, Winter 1943 28-52, Summer 1944 23-40, Winter 1944 17-27, Summer 1945 12-12.

    This scale assumes that the Allies will inevitably grow and become harder to defeat as the game goes on. As long as that is inevitable then this method shouldn’t be an issue… but if the Axis have one really great round in, say, Winter of 43, they could win the game before the Allies are truly defeated.

    What I do not quite understand is how the Axis could be considered to win later in the game by having less territory than they had in the beginning or the middle. Say the Germans took Stalingrad in 1943 but did not have enough points for victory… if it comes to 1945 and they have lost Stalingrad and are pushed back closer to Germany they could still win? This puts great onus on the Allies to consistently make large gains so that the Axis do not win simply by existing in a stalemate.

    You haven’t finished yet and I do not fully understand the rules, but these are just my initial questions.

Suggested Topics

Axis & Allies Boardgaming Custom Painted Miniatures

41

Online

17.0k

Users

39.3k

Topics

1.7m

Posts