HBG's French set… any news?

[AlphaKappa]

What’s the latest about HBG’s French set?  Any idea when it’s supposed to be released?

[Midnight_Reaper]

I think that HBG’s facebook presence is the best way to keep up with what they’re doing… when they feel like being chatty, anyways. I asked them about this a couple months ago and at that time they said that they had just gotten the master prints from the manufacturer and if they liked them, they would start production soon. So, perhaps sometimes later this year, if everything goes right?

-Midnight_Reaper

[Erocco]

I asked Doug a couple of weeks ago and at that time he said 4 months. So times that by two and it should be coming out next spring.

[GeneralHandGrenade]

They posted pictures of the set on Facebook today and said it will be out in the fall;

https://www.facebook.com/HBGnews/?hc_ref=ARQN37Q6RXyyZ308iFgN-n-PdUX1kUD8MnuR3PtGjDmYj4p_u0GK2TvoEWMWaQTfbRI&fref=nf

[CWO Marc]

Thanks for the link, GHG.  I’ve checked my notes on HBG’s early conceptual CGI drawings for the proposed French set (which originally had 23 projected sculpt types) and I’ve compared it with the 14 sculpt masters in the posted pictures,  As far as I can tell, 13 of these 14 sculpts correspond to these 13 projected units:

Infantry with rifle
French Foreign Legion
Lorraine 1938L Mech
Char B heavy tank

Breguet 690 Tac Bomber
Bloch 210 Medium Bomber
D.520 Fighter Plane

Bearn Class Carrier
Dunkerque Class Battleship (actually a battlecruiser)
Suffren Class Heavy Cruiser
Le Fantasque Class Destroyer
Redoubtable Class Submarine
Golo Type Transport Ship

It’s not clear whether the Breguet 690 Tac Bomber and Bloch 210 Medium Bomber are meant to serve, respectively, as the the game’s tactical bomber and strategic bomber units because HBG was originally considering having an F222 Heavy Bomber unit in its set as the strategic bomber.

The 14th sculpt in the picture (the artillery piece) is a mystery.  HBG had a) a 105 mle 1935b Artillery [howitzer] or a Mle 1897 gun as the artillery unit, b) a Chamond SP Artillery unit in an undefined gun role, and c) a W15 SPAT in an undefined gun role, but the gun in the picture doesn’t look like any of them; it actually looks more like a Canon de 75 modele 1897, though the breech seems too large and rounded in that regard.  At any rate, there’s only one gun in the set, and it’s clearly a field artillery piece of some sort, so there’s no anti-aircraft gun in the set.

EDIT: Actually, I’ve re-checked the gun from another angle, and it does appear to be the projected Mle 1897 gun (the same as the Canon de 75 modele 1897 I mentioned).

[jim010]

Great news! I’ve been waiting years for the French set!

[Charles de Gaulle]

I like this.

[General 6 Stars]

Sweet. More Frenchies to kill in game.

[jim010]

Pre orders are next week!

[Midnight_Reaper]

@jim010:

Pre orders are next week!

Source?

-Midnight_Reaper

[jim010]

From HBG. I ordered some stuff from him and asked about the french. Said the mold was being tested and will start taking preorders next week.

[Erocco]

No preorders yet…

[AlphaKappa]

Any updates?  I saw that HBG was promising a preorder “in a few weeks”, “next week”, etc. on Facebook, but haven’t seen any links either there or on their website.  Did I miss it, or has it not happened yet?

[Midnight_Reaper]

@AlphaKappa:

Any updates?  I saw that HBG was promising a preorder “in a few weeks”, “next week”, etc. on Facebook, but haven’t seen any links either there or on their website.   Did I miss it, or has it not happened yet?

For whatever reason, the pre-order seems to be back-ordered. Not here yet, not yet available for sale. You haven’t missed anything.

That said, we do have some numbers as to what should be available in a set. To quote from HBG’s Facebook page:
“Any decision on how many units per type, per set will be offered?”
“8 fighters, 8 transports, 16 infantry, 8 Destroyers, 8 subs, 8 cruisers, and 4 of everything else (aircraft carrier, battleship, tactical bomber, strategic bomber, artillery, mechanized infantry, tank). 84 total pieces”

-Midnight_Reaper

[Midnight_Reaper]

@Midnight_Reaper:

“Any decision on how many units per type, per set will be offered?”
“… 16 infantry …”

Just how that 16 infantry will be broken out between regular French Army and French Foreign Legion is not known at this time.

-Midnight_Reaper

[calvinhobbesliker]

@AlphaKappa:

Any updates?  I saw that HBG was promising a preorder “in a few weeks”, “next week”, etc. on Facebook, but haven’t seen any links either there or on their website.  Did I miss it, or has it not happened yet?

Not too surprising given that some of their Japanese pieces have been out of stock since January of this year.

[thenorthman]

http://www.historicalboardgaming.com/Battle-Pieces–WW2-French-Set-Pre-Order_p_1669.html