The US can declare war on any or all Axis powers during their collect income phase of turn 3. This way the US can collect the bonus income for it’s 3rd turn.
Posts made by knp7765
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RE: When to bring America into the war
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RE: HBG - Axis & Allies Parts/Accessories and Custom Piece Sets Store!
@CWO:
Compelling theory knp.
Yes, and a close (but shorter) variant of knp’s theory would go like this: for what are probably factory-related reasons, HBG finds it harder to manufacture injection-molded sculpts than other types of gaming equipment, so they’ve gradually been shifting their focus away from those types of sculpts. Which is regretable in my opinion, because those sculpts have always been the HBG product line in which I’ve been most interested.
Okay, that sounds a little scary. I would hate to see the day that HBG no longer offers the plastic sculpts.
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RE: HBG - Axis & Allies Parts/Accessories and Custom Piece Sets Store!
Was there something radically different in the whole production process between the Amerika set and the Germany #3 set that explains the big quality gap, though? It does seem a little mystifying to me…
I have a theory. A couple of years ago, the main focus was on the new piece sets, particularly on the new 3-d modeling of the prototype sculpts for each set. A lot of time and effort went into designing and perfecting each sculpt and I think they took a lot of pride in each and every piece. Thus HBG demanded near perfection and would not present them to us, the customers, until they were absolutely right.
If you will remember, there were a couple of sets that came out very good, just in an odd color shade. First was the Axis Minor set that was supposed to be in Italian Brown. The first time they came out in too dark a shade of brown. Second was the Russian set that was supposed to be in the same OOB color of Maroon, a dark brown with a reddish tint. They came out more of a plain dark brown.
When each of these “mistakes” came out, Coach apologized to us profusely and sold these pieces at a very reduced cost so as to not take a total loss on the cost of them. He immediately demanded that the factory tweak the colors to get the right shade and then filled our pre-orders and had those sets ready for sale on the site.
At this time, they did produce some games but these mainly consisted of special rule sets with some specific parts and sometimes new map/boards using mainly existing OOB and HBG pieces to play.
Then the Kickstarter campaign for Amerika was successful and HBG was able to start serious work on their first totally boxed game with all the parts necessary to play it. In other words, you could have absolutely no gaming pieces or accessories, buy this game and still play it.
Amerika became HBG’s baby, taking most of the focus of their efforts. There was a huge amount of work to go into this, designing the box, all the cardboard art of the inner boxes, the game board, the playing and reference cards, all of the new playing sculpts for the game (24 different totally new sculpts), all of the new Expansion sculpts (20 different totally new sculpts) and all of the neat little bonus items earned through the Kickstarter Level goals (special dice, dice bags, 1st player marker, mouse pads, tee shirts, etc.)
Now, all of these items would take a lot of effort even if they were sub-par, slapped together games with average piece quality (Xeno games comes to mind). However, this would not do for HBG. They worked hard to make sure every piece was the highest quality. This was especially true of the plastic gaming pieces. They are some of the highest quality I have seen in any retail board game.
Since Amerika was such a huge undertaking, most other projects simply had to be put on hold or at least move at a slower pace. Even with this, they still managed to make the fabulous US Expansion set in parallel to working on Amerika, as well as a number of smaller projects like special markers and such.
With the great success of Amerika, Coach and his team want to turn out more new games. Several projects are in the works now, from a number of special battle games like Kursk and Midway to the Global War series.
Unfortunately, the piece sets that we have all grown to love have now seemed to have taken a back seat to new game designing. While the US Expansion set came out nicely, I fear that the Germany 3 set suffered from the new direction that HBG seems to be taking. It just seems to me that if the Germany 3 set came out a couple of years ago, Coach would not have accepted the somewhat lesser quality, particularly with the Bismarck, and would have demanded the factory correct the problem. Unfortunately, I get the feeling that selling and designing the pieces is no longer a priority and have been superseded by new game design, 3d units and acrylic markers.
I would note that the only problems were with the ship pieces, and those are the hardest to make good at these tiny scales. The infantry, vehicle and plane pieces all still look great to me.
HBG has already announced that future pieces will no longer be available in full sets but in quantities of five units. Personally, I am not sure how I feel about this. I kind of got used to the sets and think I will miss them. On the other hand, it will be easier to get the right amount of certain units that you really want. For example, with the Germany 3 set I would not have gotten any of the bi-plane fighter because I don’t use them in my games.
I still do not understand how HBG will be accepting pre-orders for new piece sets if there will be no full sets available anymore. Perhaps future gaming pieces will not need pre-sales?
Anyway, that is my theory for what it’s worth. New game design has taken over from piece sales. -
RE: Activating Strict Neutrals
I believe while they are still neutral, no air units may fly over them from either side.
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RE: HBG - Axis & Allies Parts/Accessories and Custom Piece Sets Store!
Hey guys,
I got my pre-order Wednesday. I love them. I think they look great in both colors but I’m partial to the dark grey.The Bismarck is a disappointment. Most of it looks pretty good to me except for the bow being chopped off. HBG said that the Leipzig light cruisers were messed up too but I can’t see it. They look good to me, although I admit that I am not very familiar with the Leipzig class. So am I missing something?
I really like the Me109 fighters. They look great. In fact, all the planes look really good. At first I wasn’t crazy about the Stukas having the cannons but they look great too.
The tanks are great. Do you guys realize that through HBG we now have sculpts for all the German tanks used (or planned) for WW2 (excepting for Panzer 1)?
Panzer 38(t) = Axis Minors Set 1
Panzer II = German Expansion Set
Panzer III = Axis Minors Set 1
Panzer IV = Germany 3 Set
Panzer V (Panther) = Germany 3 Set
Panzer VI (Tiger) = German Expansion Set
Panzer VI-2 (King Tiger) = Amerika Expansion Set
Panzer VII (E-100) = Amerika Regular game pieces
Panzer VIII (Maus) = Amerika Expansion SetThis is pretty cool I think. I would include a picture but my phone takes too big of pictures memory-wise to post here and I haven’t figured out how to resize it yet.
I really like the great coat infantry too. They look pretty cool. I want to try them out in the Battle of the Bulge game. Between this new German set, the German Expansion set, the US Expansion set and the UK Supplement set, HBG has provided enough sculpts to replace all the OOB pieces for that game. It would be cool to compare the setups with OOB and HBG pieces.
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RE: HBG - Axis & Allies Parts/Accessories and Custom Piece Sets Store!
Hey Guys,
Thanks for posting the pics John Brown. I know it’s a pain loading such large pics but you sure get a good look at the detail. I should be getting my pre-order tomorrow according to the postal tracking.
Maybe it’s just me, but the Bismarck doesn’t seem all that bad. The main thing I noticed was on the dark grey pieces the bow seems to be chopped off. Perhaps the gun barrels are a little long. Most of the rest seems to look okay to me. Am I missing something? Perhaps I’m not seeing something even with such close up pictures.
Still curious about the light cruiser. I don’t incorporate light cruisers into my games yet so I wasn’t too worried about that particular piece, although I still like to have one for Germany.
The pocket battleships look really nice. I’m really excited for that piece. -
RE: HBG's Amerika Game ON KICKSTARTER NOW - FUNDED!
I found the OOB board sufficient. Of course, a bigger map is nice but it depends on how much table space you have available.
I believe there is a unit per space limit so using the OOB board is pretty easy. Usually you want bigger maps when you play a game like A&A where there is no limit to how many units can be in any given territory. Some spaces in Europe can get pretty crowded. -
RE: Evolution of Axis & Allies pieces – Take 2
Hello Wolfshanze,
Thanks for that info on the German capital ships & cruisers. I didn’t know they had problems with the stern. Construction flaws?
Funny about them putting these cruisers with the aft end chopped off in the game to represent that problem. -
RE: HBG's Amerika Game ON KICKSTARTER NOW - FUNDED!
My copy of this game is in the mail and I’m hoping it will be here in a week. Can anyone tell me if it’s a good game now that you have had some time to play it. Do you need to order anything else to make it complete?
Everything you need to play the game is included. There are expansions that you can see on the HBG site but the basic game has everything you need.
I thought the game was pretty cool. At first I thought there was no way the Axis could win but after a couple of games I realized it’s harder on the US than I first thought. It can be pretty tough on the Axis too if you don’t get the right weapons.
I think it is a fair amount more complex than your typical Axis & Allies game. I first thought it was simply going to be a WW2 version of Fortress America, but it really has a lot more to it than that. The combat board is pretty complex and you may need to check the instruction book for reference a lot for your first game or two, but if you like it then the rules will probably become second nature just like A&A games.
I really like the game and absolutely love all the new sculpts. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have. -
RE: Retreats
One thing I don’t like about this rule is that some players use it to certain advantage, like you mentioned getting kind of a “reward” for retreating.
For example, a common move for some players is during G1 where the infantry and artillery in Greater Southern Germany attack Yugoslavia along with 1 tank from Romania. They go 1 round of combat and if even 1 Yugoslav infantry survives, they retreat everything to Romania. By doing this, they have all the infantry and artillery from Greater Southern Germany (minus any casualties inflicted by the Yugoslavs) ready to attack Russia if they decide on a Round 2 Barbarossa.
I just think it’s a cheesy move, even if it is technically legal to do. I just don’t like it and I have never used it myself nor have any of the guys in my play group.
Of course, just our playing style but we rarely retreat from attacks anyway. Usually the only reason we do retreat is in the case of a disastrously bad dice result. In most cases, this ends up in the attacking force getting obliterated on the enemy’s turn or at least in that enemy getting a lot better defensive position so the attacker’s chance is lost. -
RE: Playing Solo
I’ve done this on occasion, set up and play the board by myself. I usually don’t make it to completion. Basically what I do is try out different reactions by one side to another side’s movements.
For example, I might try a somewhat standard German starting move and try out different ways for Russia and England to react to it. Then I run through a few rounds and see how successful it may be. Then I might re-set it up and try a different approach.
The problem with this is if the battles don’t come out the same. Like say in the first try, Germany takes Paris and really romps the French with little casualties. Then they have more units for their next adventure. Then in the next try, Germany struggles and the French put up a tough fight. Now they have Paris but with much less resources left over. So whatever the British or Russian reactions might be could be affected and I won’t get a really good idea of the difference in strategies.
Still, it’s kind of fun when no one else is available to play and I have the time to spend. -
RE: WE WANT A G40 RULE BOOK!
@WILD:
IMO the only way WOTC does a combined Global rule book is if they do a 3rd special edition of Global 40 at some point all in one box (instead of marketing two games). Otherwise it wouldn’t be worth the effort $$$$
With that said it would be really nice to have one document that includes updates from the faq, has more examples, and an index with page references would be awesome
That would be a cool idea. Especially if they fixed the French pieces while at it.
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RE: Scramble G1\. Why not?
As Britain, I usually don’t scramble. I want them for defense in case of Sealion and they are too valuable later in the game as well. Without the RAF, I don’t think UK can project any threat on Germany or Italy and they are free to pound Russia and take over the Med respectively.
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RE: Unit real life ratio
Also, it’s not just the numerical quantity that is not properly represented. There is also the quality of the different units. Take tanks for example: The German tank is a Panther, the US tank is a M4 Sherman and the Japanese tank is a Type 95. In the actual war, the Panther clearly outclassed the Sherman and the Sherman totally dominated the Type 95. (In fact, the Type 95 was not a tank by German or US standards).
However, in the game they all attack and defend at 3. Not sure how you would fix the values to show the performance of particular units, but I think you would have to use a D12 system.
Also, like others have pointed out, a tank piece is not just tanks but represents a number of different vehicles like tank destroyers, SP artillery, tanks of varying sizes, etc. -
RE: HBG - Axis & Allies Parts/Accessories and Custom Piece Sets Store!
I was wondering about the phasing out of sets too. I wonder why. Are the complete sets not as popular as selling individual pieces in sets of 5 each? I guess that would work for people that just want certain units and not others in the sets.
For example, with the new Germany 3 set, I really didn’t want the He51 bi-plane but just accepted it as part of the set. Maybe they are retooling the molds to make one certain unit at a time in large numbers so they can order that way. I mean, they would obviously sell more of the Panzer IV or Panther tanks than they would of Graf Zeppelin carriers.Still, I do wonder like you if the France set will still be sold as a set or will they start the 5 each piece sells with that one.
Looks like those of us that pre-ordered will be getting our Germany 3 sets around Sept 1 or so. So looking forward to seeing them.
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RE: HBG - Axis & Allies Parts/Accessories and Custom Piece Sets Store!
Can we get an update on the Germany 3 set?
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RE: POW House Rule
Also, in most battles, infantry are the first casualties you take to keep your armor and planes around longer. It just seems to me that most players would rather battle it out to the end.
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RE: Identifying building on Japanese invasion currency of Philippines
Thank you very much CWO Marc.
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Identifying building on Japanese invasion currency of Philippines
Hello everyone. I have some Japanese invasion currency from the Philippines. On the front is a depiction of some building or monument. I have looked a bunch but keep coming up empty.
I don’t know if it is Japanese or Filipino.
Can someone tell me what this building is?
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RE: The Spanish Beachhead: American Strategy
@Young:
Very tricky to contain Japan with such little resources on that side… It sounds like the landings went well, but lost in the Pacific to early in the game. Is that right?
Yeah, pretty much. We packed it in without really declaring a winner, but thinking back I just realized Japan did win it with 6 victory cities: Tokyo, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Manila, Sydney and Honolulu. Pretty sure they had Sydney and Honolulu for at least 1 round. I think the US would have taken both back next round (2 transports, 2 inf & 2 art to go after Hawaii, 2 tanks & 2 halftracks to go after Alaska plus bombers to support both).
Like I said, the turn 2 DOW by Japan threw me off because I was planning it by your example which showed Japan waiting until round 3 or 4. Also, Russia taking Turkey was a little odd, but I think that worked out because UK didn’t have enough resources down there to do it. (UK was having trouble with German subs)
The US landings in Spain did go great. Only lost 2 or 3 infantry and there were several British fighters to support. US then split their force and attacked S. France and Normandy. The S. France battle went really well with the US losing 1 infantry and tromping the Italians good. Normandy was tougher because the Germans put up more of a fight and the US ended up with just 1 tank, 1 art, 1 mech and 2 or 3 infantry left. The Brits helped shore them up though.
I really want to try this again. Obviously I need to think a little more fluidly so if the Axis do something I don’t expect, I can handle it better. My planning was a bit too rigid.
Also, Japan taking Sydney so early was a real fluke. At first I thought Japan was going to keep busy with Russia and China, even though they bought transports. I thought those were for the DEI, not Australia and Hawaii.Oh yeah, I have really got to consider that victory token idea. Looks really interesting.