Re: Field Marshal Games Pieces Project Discussion thread

[Tall Paul]

I got EXACTLY the number of FMG units that I orderred.  I bought them through HBG and got EXACTLY the number of units I WANTED and ORDERRED.

Exactly 20-Rifle Infantry and 6-each of everything else other than 2-each of the Carriers, Battleships, and Cruisers.

Thanks Doug, the “Coach” at HBG and Jeremy at FMG.  They’re being painted by “Allworkandnoclay” as we speak along with several other units, too.  Thanks again HBG & FMG.

“Tall Paul”

[knp7765]

@Holden:

Don’t have a use for the transports, armoured cars and trucks so I bagged them and stored them with the rest of the spare pieces I’ve got).

The Armored Cars are FMG’s Mechanized Infantry piece for the Italians.  Do you not use Mech Inf in your game?  Or do you just prefer the OOB halftracks?

[Redking]

Received my order from FMG and thought I’d share my count:
6 commanders
13 submachine gun inf
11 rifle inf
12 artillery
6 trucks
12 autoblinda mechs
6 carro armato tanks
6 semovente tanks
12 fighter planes
6 divebombers
6 bombers
6 cargo planes
12 transports
12 subs
12 destroyers
6 cruisers
6 battleships
6 carriers

Only deviation is one extra submachinegun and one less rifle.

My complaints are minor: I might have liked more diff between two infantry types, more tank units vs naval units, and different size ratios among the motor land units (the Italians themselves might be at fault here - didn’t they know I’d turn their war into my amusement?).

But the sculpts are very nice, and I appreciate the balance of expanded variety and detail vs slavishness to minutiae.

[Tall Paul]

Redking,

I also wanted different numbers of units than was offerred in the standard set.  That was why I orderered my FMG Italian units through HBG.  I got EXACTLY what I wanted.  I must say that I’m glad I did it that way as I didn’t think I’d ever need more than 2-each of the Carriers, Battleships, and Cruisers for the Italians.  And I wanted 20 of the Rifle Infantry and 6 of the Machinegun Infantry(for Special Forces).

“Tall Paul”

[Redking]

Tall Paul,

I envision the smg infantry the same way - as special/shock forces.
I will probably purchase more rifles as regular infantry (from HBG).

However, I maintain fantasies of repainting my Italians tyrian purple, and creating a more “scenario-neutral” game where Italy can influence other minor powers, so having the excess of naval craft might come in handy some day (but probably not).

[Tall Paul]

Redking,

I’m sorry but I may not have explained myself properly;

I bought 20 FMG Rifle Infantry (from HBG) to be used as “Regular” Infantry.  These are to be painted in the Italian Desert Drab scheme by “Allworkandnoclay”.

I bought 6 FMG Machine Gun Infantry (from HBG) to be used as “Special Forces” Infantry.  These are to be painted in the Italian European Camo scheme by “Allwork”.

Are you familiar with “Allwork” and his paint schemes.  If not you can use the “link” in Reply #15 above to see all of his AWESOME paint jobs.  There’s about 35+ pages on his thread but you can easily blitz through them if you’re only looking for the pics of his AWESOME paint jobs.

I hope I explained myself better this time.

“Tall Paul”

[Holden]

@knp7765:

@Holden:

Don’t have a use for the transports, armoured cars and trucks so I bagged them and stored them with the rest of the spare pieces I’ve got).

The Armored Cars are FMG’s Mechanized Infantry piece for the Italians.  Do you not use Mech Inf in your game?  Or do you just prefer the OOB halftracks?

I actually like the halftracks. I’d use the trucks for the Italian Mech Inf but they are massive. Maybe I’ll use the armoured cars and try it out.

[knp7765]

Hey All, got my FMG Italians today.  They look fantastic.  Plus, the darker brown color contrasts with my brown carpet so I can find them easier (dropped a submarine, found it right away).  I got 5 sets cause I’m just crazy about having lots of pieces for my games (prefer not to use chips if possible).  The piece count varied some from set to set, but overall I think I did pretty well.  Out of a possible 780 total pieces, I had 18 missing pieces and 7 extra pieces for a net loss of only -11 pieces.  The weirdest one was 1 set was missing 4 of 6 aircraft carriers.  I didn’t expect to be missing any of those.  Here is a breakdown for each set.  All pieces were at the proper count unless noted:
Set 1 = Missing - 1 Tac Bomber, 4 Aircraft Carriers                                        Extra - 1 Strategic Bomber
Set 2 = Missing - 1 Tac Bomber, 4 Cruisers                                                  Extra - 1 Strategic Bomber, 3 Destroyers
Set 3 = Missing - 1 Carro Armato, 1 Aircraft Carrier, 1 Cruiser                      Extra - 1 Semovente, 1 Destroyer
Set 4 = Missing - 2 Artillery, 2 Fighters, 1 Transport plane, 2 Destroyers      Extra - 1 Submarine, 1 Transport ship
Set 5 = Absolutely Perfect, no missing, no extra
So not so bad.  A little peeved with the first 2 sets (4 carriers, 4 cruisers) because I think that’s a bit much, but overall still really good.  Plus, there were a LOT of sets for them to deal with.  These things happen.  I can pick up the extras at HBG so everything will be cool.  Here are pics of my pieces, all FIVE sets.  Quite an army.  First is Land and Air units, second is all the Naval Units and the third is my new container for them.
Now I’m looking forward to the Germans.

[Johnson73]

question is:  What are going to do with all those Italians?

[Viracocha]

@Johnson73:

question is:  What are going to do with all those Italians?

Well… no need for single chips  8-)

[knp7765]

@Viracocha:

@Johnson73:

question is:  What are going to do with all those Italians?

Well… no need for single chips  8-)

That’s exactly right!  I like these little units so much, it’s what first attracted me to A&A in the first place.  So I really prefer not to use chips unless absolutely necessary.  For example, in the setup for ALpha+3, there is 11 infantry on Germany and 6 infantry on S Italy.  Those places are just too small so I go ahead and use the chips.  Same for infantry and tanks in Holland/Belgium and the 6 infantry in France.  Also, if there is a massive amount of units somewhere, like when Russia is placing huge stacks of men to defend Moscow, I will chip up there too rather than have 20-30 infantry pieces on the board there.  Most other places though, I just use the actual units.

[FieldMarshalGames]

WOW!  That is a HUGE Army!

Glad you like them!

Thanks for the support of this project.

Jeremy

[CWO Marc]

@knp7765:

That’s exactly right!  I like these little units so much, it’s what first attracted me to A&A in the first place.  So I really prefer not to use chips unless absolutely necessary.  For example, in the setup for ALpha+3, there is 11 infantry on Germany and 6 infantry on S Italy.  Those places are just too small so I go ahead and use the chips.  Same for infantry and tanks in Holland/Belgium and the 6 infantry in France.  Also, if there is a massive amount of units somewhere, like when Russia is placing huge stacks of men to defend Moscow, I will chip up there too rather than have 20-30 infantry pieces on the board there.  Most other places though, I just use the actual units.

One way to get the satisfaction of deploying huge armies (or fleets) of sculpts without getting into crowding problems on the map is to put the sculpts on a separate table and to represent them on the board with small coded unit markers.

I’ve experimented over the years with different ways of doing this.  In my current method, I use small coloured wood or plastic blocks (one per army or fleet), next to each one of which I place a single mini poker chip with an identification code on it.  One block-and-chip pair goes next to each army or fleet of sculpts on the side table, and a second pair goes on the map to show where that unit is located.

For the units of major countries, I use colour-coded square wooden blocks.  A good source for these is the line of “Commands & Colors: Ancients” games (including the various expansion sets).  For minor countries, I use 1-centimeter colour-coded plastic cubes which are sold in jars of 1,000 by school supply companies (example: http://www.classroomproductswarehouse.com/catalog/product?deptId=&prodId=CN319). For mini poker chips, I use the ones which come with A&A.  I either write identification letters on them with a marker, or I stick coloured Avery dots on them.

For those interested in “fog of war” variants of the A&A rules, note that these block-and-chip pairs can be used to partially conceal information from the other player.  If the identification chips placed on the map are put face-down, the other players will be able to see (from the side table) what your various armies and fleets are composed of but won’t be able to tell which one corresponds to which block-and-chip pair on the board.

[Fishmoto37]

@Johnson73:

question is:  What are going to do with all those Italians?

He will surrender them all to the allies. Then the allies will have to use so many men to guard them nobody will be left to fight the germans. Its called team work.

[WARRIOR888]

Gents, you want to avoid crowding an AA map with minatures?  Buy Ben Steins Biggest, Baddest, AA on steroids map for the War Game.  Mine is a wopping 6ft by 3ft in dims.  Only crowding is some smaller countries.

WARRIOR888

[Tall Paul]

Warrior,

Again I think you right.  IMHO, I couldn’t agree more on the value of enlarged maps if you can afford them in space and cost terms.  My map is 48" x 108",… or 4 ft. x 9 ft. and it really helps the congestion problems!

Although it looks as if KNP might want to take over the world with his Italians.  “Mama Mia” Or at least cook everyone a Pizza or something.

I applaud his large purchase as it certainly aids FMG in “paying-off” their large investment in this set and will make future set releases possible.

“Tall Paul”

[WARRIOR888]

KNP,  I figured out a scenario for you to use your massive new FMG Italian Army,  Use half as Axis/Fascist Forces and the others as Italians allied with the UK and USA.  This will keep the Germans from taking over Italy.

WARRIOR888

[knp7765]

@Fishmoto37:

@Johnson73:

question is:  What are going to do with all those Italians?

He will surrender them all to the allies. Then the allies will have to use so many men to guard them nobody will be left to fight the germans. Its called team work.

HA HA HA HA!  Very good.  Better yet, the Italians can give all their Carro Armatos to the Allies then have them go up against Germany’s Tigers and King Tigers.

[Fishmoto37]

@knp7765:

@Fishmoto37:

@Johnson73:

question is:  What are going to do with all those Italians?

He will surrender them all to the allies. Then the allies will have to use so many men to guard them nobody will be left to fight the germans. Its called team work.

HA HA HA HA!  Very good.  Better yet, the Italians can give all their Carro Armatos to the Allies then have them go up against Germany’s Tigers and King Tigers.

Sorry no King Tigers were ever in N. Afica.

[knp7765]

I put together the Alpha+3 setup using first the old OOB Italian pieces then next using the new FMG Italian pieces.  Quite a difference.  I like FMG’s color better.
You probably can’t tell because of the lighting, but for Germany’s tanks, I subbed out the OOB Panthers and put in HBG’s Panzer IIIs.  That seems suitable to me because I don’t think they had Panther tanks until 1942 but they did have Panzer IIIs in 1940.