Posts made by Azrael

The group has grown quite a bit and has a large player database if your looking to find some local opponents and/or discuss axis and allies

I made a Facebook group that I am hoping will bridge more axis and allies gamers together whether the boardgames or miniatures https://m.facebook.com/groups/163123007675067?tsid=0.2706160094012411&source=result

The area i am from near tri city kw Ontario has quite a few players though mostly the miniature games like war at sea.

I’m trying to unite the brand on facebook check out my new axis and allies Facebook group https://m.facebook.com/groups/163123007675067?ref=content_filter

@Hunter:

Can someone tell me why we needed this? I would really like to know. I would buy it for the sculpts if we get any new ones besides the zombies.

Trying to attract millenials and other new blood I guess.

I am getting back into the swing of things with all 3 mini games I enjoy using the stuka in AAAF

The warspite goes for soo much because of class limits (5-6 I think) and it was in the set task force which commands the most money.  Its a decent ship but not one that see’s alot of play because it lacks torpedo defence.

If you can paint they are no shapeways for like 20.00

@hkytown1:

I think I’m nearing the end of my War at Sea collection.  I’m running out of pieces that I need.  Aircraft are always useful but I have 3-5 of each plane. This has become much more of a collection then a game. I’m lucky enough to play at least every one or two months.

you need to get a summer home in Waterloo ontario so you can get ALOT of WAS games in, I have never played outside Waterloo and I have played something like 300 games against 15 different people.

Probably easier to do it this way then updating a bunch of different threads

Order of Battle 2.0

http://aaminis.myfastforum.org/about36047.html

Azraels Ice/icebreakers, weather, terrain house rules

http://aaminis.myfastforum.org/about39191.html

Richard Bakers advanced facing rules

http://aaminis.myfastforum.org/about37840.html

Warmachine alt was ruleset ($100 contest runner up)(A more strategic then tactical alternative)

http://aaminis.myfastforum.org/about36534.html

@Bpk333:

Where did you get islands for your board?

kallistra

@hkytown1:

I just love the mini’s game, playing, collecting, it’s right up my alley.  So much of this game appeals to me as far as play time, no painting and assembling, simplicity.  I’m not super historic as far as what pieces actually fought against each other so it’s fun to play against whatever you want and no tape measures! This past Thanksgiving, three of us battled using only Axis nations!

There is nothing more fun then opening up a case of boosters and seeing what you get as well.

Azrael, have you still not never opened a booster?

I opened only 1 ever which was a prize for winning a tournament it contained an OR as the rare lol of which I already owned 3 lol.

I prefer finding 6.00 hellcats, 8.00 sparvs, 6.00 hsb’s, 0.99 edsalls, 14.00 warspites, 8.00 gz’s etc hehe

@Deaths:

But the fact remains that there are no more new sets coming out.
This saddens me because WaS is an awesome game. Especially when ur opponents are
not historical unit limit Nazis. My 3d islands and game table are works of art, not
to mention the added expense for the materials used in making the islands and table, gale force 9 gaming aids, smoke,mines,fire plumes(hit markers), storms and airfield and objectives markers.

Ironically set 1 was my most invested set, bought 3 cases whole and another 2.5 cases worth of boosters plus 2-3 starter boxes.
Set 2 I toned it down abit got about 3.5 cases total
and about 2 cases of the other sets each.

The land minis are fun but when they changed scale, I lost interest… Already had enough tanks and men, why start over I thought.  Land minis are really fun if you get the chance to play with 3d hex terrain system

Most Minis players are at
Forumini web site.

For was they are working on the 3rd 72 card set by the time that is done almost every conceivable unit will be done (they need a 4th set to outright complete it).

The cmg model no longer applies to the game its a wargame in its own right now and the models themselves are used for @ least 2 other games.

The game doesnt “need” new sets it is the most complete miniature ww2 naval game that will ever exist.

The minis will never die , there is enough content that the game is “complete” and more is continually added.

@ the gamestores in my area I have never seen anyone play any of the boardgames but we play the minis every week since they are fun and don’t take a day to play we can do an entire 10 player tournament of was before you can play a game of the boardgames.

They are different experiences but the skyrocketing prices for was singles tells you all you need to know about the popularity of the game people are still jumping in.

This is inspired by seeing how the online nationals work

There is 3 tiers of nations

Usn/ijn {Top tier}

Uk/km

Italy/france/russia {Bottom tier}

(If someone plays a minor ex Dutch or whatever force it ranks below the bottom tier)

The player with the weaker nation/tier gets to choose the match conditions (example a year limit, whether it’s night or day etc).

Matches played on equal tiers are open year regular matches (unless you have a mutually agreeable match format or want to use this situation to play out a tournament theme you had predetermined beforehand)

In tournaments you would have to build some fleets on the go but that’s only 10mins and you could implement a game turn limit to compensate. That way you could play more of a variety of things and it balances the nations.

If conducting this as a tournament format the variety of match types skews the points results therefore while points are used to determine a win they aren’t tracked overall for the tournament.

Wins are the deciding factor with a new twist for tiebreakers; the nations you defeated are worth points , top tier is worth 3 pts each, middle tier is 2 pts each and bottom tier is worth 1 point each.  ( If someone is crazy enough to play a minor nation pure they are worth 0 pts in this tiebreaker format).

This adds alot of strategy to the nation you pick with it not being a no brainer to select the best and allows you to play a variety of match types on the same level.

We actually played a tournament using this format http://aaminis.myfastforum.org/about39873.html
it was pretty good the only thing is its very time intensive if you have players who aren’t hardcore was players with the builds.

Similar to night rules, this represents an element of concealment whether cloud cover or what to give an edge to attacking units allowing a scenario like Taranto to more easily play out.

Uncertain objective: after both fleets are deployed roll a die on a 1-2 place an objective marker on the center left, 3-4 in the middle, 5-6 on the right (optional).

Covered approach:  Ship anti-air rolls -1 on each die   Â

Spread out CAP: defensive fighters must make a search check and succeed on a 3+

Target located/lit up: units roll +1 dice against damaged units

Disorganized attack: aborted air units get +1 rearming tokens.

http://johnsmilitaryhistory.com/carriertactics.html
The above provides some historical insight into this, if you view this as cloud cover you can combine it with the current “twilight” rules to represent changing battlefield conditions.

Having an antithesis to a night match has alot of potential so im open to feedback and will probably change it over time.

The planes are 1/600

The miniatures games are very time friendly taking anywhere from 30mins-2hrs with 1 hr being typical of a regular game.

@Cinefyl:

Thanks to all for the great ideas and encouragement…A&A Minis is sounding more and more interesting.

So to answer a few of the questions you all had…and pose one or two more:

I am planning on playing with my teenage son, and we are interested in actually playing rather than collecting.

I get the gist of what you have all posted, but one thing that I guess will make me sound dense is

1. do I NEED a starter/base set to get the rules for a particular flavor (Task Force, Flank, Zebra, etc.)
2. Does a base/starter set have enough pieces and parts to let us actually get started (even on a limited scale) to give it a test run without spending major $$$

Thanks!

Booster sets (condition zebra, task force etc) have different mini’s and units from each other not different rules they are expansions to the same game not different games with different rules.

Having said that the land,navy and a20 air game are all different games of axis and allies miniatures and all have their own expansion/booster packs.

The navy and air games starter packs are easier to find then the land game, if you only have the starter you can play but it’s very scaled down/basic from a regular game …. Good for learning the rules… But only a taste of the full experience  (like a salad at a steakhouse)

@Cinefyl:

Morning all,

Am thinking of diving into miniatures but am feeling lost on where to start (in the sense of what to buy). I have no problem tracking down what I need, but not sure which “set” I should get.

I have heard from folks about the ground starter pack, the naval and the Angels but not sure if in the end it will all come full circle or I should try to start with something specific and work my way into things slowly (time and budget issues).

Any ideas greatly appreciated,

Thanks

I started out with war at sea singles of just the commonwealth and Germany then branched out to the rest of Europe then everything remaining (usa/ijn) .  Since I liked was so much I eventually bought into a20 and the land game as well though I think was is the best of the 3.

The main question for you would be are you “collecting” or “playing”, what are you hoping to get out of the miniatures? That will probably dictate what you should do.

Personally I would pick a game ,pick 2 nations that fought each other and buy singles for them, and if you like it……expand

@hkytown1:

Gotta keep up the good fight here at the ORG Az, nice job…got 2 decks myself.

Ironically a few of my threads here like my strategic warfare scenario I did for the forumini contest (that I finished second in ) and my collection photos almost have as many views here as they do on the forumini so somebody is looking.

War at sea is an amazing game its good to spread the word, i was lucky to come across it rather happenstance .

CV Sparviero (awaiting deck decals)

HMS Roberts

akitsu maru (awaiting deck decals)

T-2 Tanker

Thought I would spread the word out into the other aam sites

They can be bought at 12-7 games

Axis

Germany

Italy

Japan

Romania

Siam

Neutral

Allies

Australia

Canada

France

Greece

The Netherlands

New Zealand

United Kingdom

United States

Soviet Union

Ice sheet/floe /iceberg rules:  Use either instead or in addition to schoals/islands etc.  Place evenly either as scarce or generous as you like.

Limiting sides to 1 icebreaker each per 100 pts if playing without much ice or icefree objectives is good balance of facing the hazard of ice and having a little bit of protection.

If playing with a bunch of ice including ice covered objectives probably 2-3 icebreakers per 100 pts would work well in balance.

Having 2 forms of ice adds to variety and can work

Iceberg: (use island terrain from starter or litko token) works exactly like a regular island would the icebreaker CANT move through it.  Adjacent sectors are treated like mines.

Ice sheet: works just like a schoal(use schoal from starter or litko ice floe tokens) except torps can’t go though it, sectors adjacent to it are treated like they have mines.  The icebreaker can escort ships through ice floes at speed 1.

Icebreakers:  In lieu of current icebreakers use aux’s as icebreakers.

Ice breakers don’t take ice damage adjacent to ice sectors and protect friendly ships/subs in the same sector from ice damage.

Icebreakers have close escort and may escort friendly ships/subs onto or through sectors with ice without hazard.

Icebreakers are limited to speed1 while protecting themselves and other units from ice damage rolls, units that ignore this are subject to ice rolls.

Icebreakers  may  not be attacked until at least one other friendly ship in  their sector has been .

Units whose icebreaker gets sunk are stranded if on an ice sector until a friendly icebreaker can come rescue them but may still fire normally.

If mines are laid adjacent to ice , the effects stack and both rolls must be made.

Using icebreakers you may in your game want to cover some objectives in ice for fun.

–--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My original post regarding this

One element of WW2 units that haven’t shown up yet in WAS is the icebreaker something that was frequently used in the baltic/arctic theater.

Which means a couple things among which we need a proper icesheet mechanic for the game rather then the typical schoals if you happen to use the litko ice tokens. � Perhaps schoal like mechanic but mtb’s can’t move over them (the ice is impassable, but � does it block Los? ) and moving adjacent to the ice sheets you risk hull damage like mines.

Then you need Icebreakers who can interact with the icesheets in the game, perhaps like mine sweepers where on a 3 or more (something like that) it can remove a sector of ice. � Or what I like best perhaps something less outright where an icebreaker can escort another unit through the ice sectors.

Then you may want Icebreakers to have a more abstract function in the context of a WAS match in the form of Sa’s. � Perhaps forward deploying with a smaller unit even such as a sub and allowing it to fire on turn 1 (icebreakers cleared paths for subs). � Or allowing forward deployed units to grab objectives on turn 2 (as opposed to turn 3) if with an icebreaker to abstractly represent the icebreaker clearing the way to the objective, forward deployed units are usually target practice and lots of units can grab objectives on turn 2 and this could still be contested easily on turn 2 if not outright destroyed so it makes a SA of sometimes limited use (forward deployed ships) a tad more useful.

And for the Ice breaker I would like to see the most
Predreadnought Battleship Hessen converted to Icebreaker/target ship in ww2. � Adds more variety to the game which is great and more surface ships for Germany which is always nice you could even use holstein as a proxy.

converted to a icebreaker/target ship

in its former life as a battleship

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS_Hessen

It should play out more interesting then it sounds and at the very least let you use a few units you might not normally and give you an alternate game to play aux’s rather then the wotc convoy rules.