@LHoffman:
IMO it all makes sense and it serves as a good visual distinction between the levels of equipment as they are represented in pieces… That appears pretty consistent to me. They do not scale exactly with OOB units, no. But if you are only going to be playing Spring 42 with people who cannot tell a destroyer from a cruiser, let alone tell you what class a ship is… it may be best to stick with OOB units. That simplicity fits much better with the scale of Spring 42.
I pretty much concur with everything you said… in general, I find that the HBG units are definitely detailed and/or more accurate than the A&A OOB units… the scaling to each other (BBs to other BBs, Tanks to other tanks) is more accurate. A good example of detail is the OOB Sherman tank vs the HBG Sherman tank. The detail and accuracy comparison is massive (in favor of HBG)… the problem I have with using HBG (and once again, this is opinionated preference, certainly not saying everyone else should think the same), is that the scale of HBG doesn’t match OOB (HBG tanks are almost always smaller than OOB, ships are all over the map on scale compared to OOB)… and this is where a design philosophy has to come in… HBG units are MORE ACCURATE… in that an Iowa BB is definitely bigger by a considerable margin than a Nevada BB, and HBG shows this difference. Yamato’s are bigger than Iowas, Iowas are bigger than Royal Oaks, etc, etc, etc… in the OOB units, all of these BBs would be the exact same size (historically incorrect), but GAMEPLAY WISE, it makes for an easy distinction at a glance as to what any class of ship is from any nation. In HBG units, you’re going to have multiple cases where BBs are the same size as Cruisers and so on and so on… which, to some, may be very confusing in game.
Equipment history is a specialty of mine… I have tons of books on all the tanks, ships and planes of all the powers in the war, and can recognize almost any of them at a glance… and I imagine a lot of others on this forum can do the same… but similarly, sometimes ease of identification and conformity is preferable, especially when playing a rapid game with people not so brushed up on the difference between an Iowa, Nevada, Baltimore and Portland class ships. I love the detail in the HBG models, and I’ll be the first to admit, they are superior to the OOB models in that regard… but I give a nod to the instant class distinction and uniformity of size for purpose of gameplay in a game to the OOB units (unrealistic as it may be), it makes the game easier to teach and understand for newer or less equipment-focused players of the game.
As has been said by myself and others in previous posts in this thread… I think someone putting a set of units together either has to focus on HBG units or OOB units, because mixing the two together almost looks like you’re merging two units from completely different games together… they just don’t look good together IMHO. If you want detailed units that are properly scaled, focus on HBG units… if you want simpler units on a uniformity of scale based on class in-game (for speed of play and/or recognition), not by historical reality, then go with OOB units.
Custom painters and hardcore Global 40 players probably should (and do) go HBG custom units… and as much as I love the historical accuracy of HBG, I hate mixing them with OOB (they contrast badly) and I’m surrounded by a bunch of people new to the game that I will have to teach… so FOR ME, the best move forward is to stick with the OOB units (and i’m getting as many different OOB units as I can, and plenty of them so I don’t have to run short on any game). I can certainly appreciate anyone who pushes forward with the HBG units… many of them are quite beautiful.
P.S.
While HBG ships and Tanks have a very noticeable size-of-scale clash with OOB units, I find most of the HBG aircraft size well with OOB units and can freely be mixed without much difference at all… the only exception to this rule would be Japan, which HBG’s “Pumpkin Orange” is a very noticeable different color tone than the OOB Pumpkin Orange (and of course, this wouldn’t be an issue to painters), but this color difference bugs me with Japan… to others, this may not be an issue at all… but overall, HBG planes merge well with OOB units.
