I’ll second Andy above. HBG has some great pieces and they paint up really well because of the detail. Good source for OOB pieces as well. Their Fw-190’s are a bit smaller than the OOB versions, but everything else I’ve gotten from them has been great. Especially the Hellcats, Vals, and Stuka G’s.
What is A&A Miniatures?
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Axis & Allies Miniatures is a collectible miniatures game like HeroClix or Mage Knight.
You buy a starter kit which contains (probably 8) planned but randomly packed pieces. The starter kit will also contain a map to play on and all the rulebooks.
To expand the game you can buy booster packs which will have more collectible/playable pieces.
These types of games usually last about 50 - 60 minutes (or as long as you want).
Discuss…
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That’s exactly right. I played the game at my local store today, and I think it’s excellent! Me and a buddy of mine played; I was the Axis and he was the Allies. The object of the game is to occupy and control an “objective” marker placed on the board; This must be done by turn 7. If that doesn’t happen, then the player with the highest remaining point value wins.
Units all have a front and rear defense value. From what I saw, these values are only different for vehicles. Each unit also has up to six different attack values, which will be determined by what type of unit you’re attacking (vehicle or soldier) and how far away the defender is. Short range is 0-1 hex away, medium range is 2-4 hexes away, and long range is 5 hexes or more. (Default is 5-8 hexes away. I say “or more” because some units have extended long range. For example, the tank I was using had long range of 5-10 hexes.)
So in an attack, you take the number shown under the proper defending unit and its range, roll that many dice, and compare the number of successful rolls to the defending unit’s defense value. (A successful roll is 4 or greater.) If the attack total is less than the defense total, nothing happens. If they’re equal, the defender gets a Disrupted token. (This means that that unit can’t move, but CAN still attack, and it’s atk/def values get penalized. These tokens go away in time.) If the attack total is greater than the defense total, the defender gets a Damaged token, which is much like the Disrupted token, except that it never goes away. If the attack total is DOUBLE the defense total, the defender is instantly destroyed. (Note: These combat examples are in the case of a defending vehicle. Infantry do not get Damaged tokens; as soon as they take an attack that exceeds their defense value by ANYTHING, they are dead. All units, before officially getting taken off the board, get a parting shot.
Each unit also (not in all cases) gets some cool bonuses too (Especially with the “Commander” units.) My anti-tank gun had a bonus that gave any unit that defended against it got a +1 to its cover rolls. Cover rolls means that if a unit is in hindering terrain, (towns, forests, hills, or swamps) it gets to roll a die. If it’s a soldier, and gets 4 or more, it can only be Disrupted, no more. With vehicles, it’s 5 or more. MG crews get a bonus that allows them to attack twice against the same unit. You’d have to play the game to see all of 'em. :wink:
Anyway, before I start to ramble, if you like A&A (Why else would you be reading this?) and also if you like miniatures-based games, then I think you’d love this one… 8)
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And by the way, I won pretty nicely.
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I just wonder if they plan to continue making new units… Kayatushas anyone?
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I believe they should, whenever new expansions come out. (When that may be? :-? I have no clue.)
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The first expansion is planned for December.
As long as the expansion sets are this small and I don’t have to buy as many boosters to get a full set, this should be great.
When I played Heroclix, it just got tedious and expensive with all the pieces and frequent releases.
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what store do can u buy this from and is it like the original but smaller?
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I imagine most game shops will carry the A&A Minis. Any place that carries other collectible games such as HeroClix or Magic will have this game whether online or offline.
I think it will be like the original in name only. The idea is that a game of A&A Minis lasts about 50 minutes and is a single battle or rather a skirmish.
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that means that they wont sell them in kentucky. just great now i have to go out of state to get a game agian! :cry:
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that means that they wont sell them in kentucky. just great now i have to go out of state to get a game agian! :cry:
That is why you have internet Access Yamato… 8)
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lol
but the bad thing is is that my parents wont let me buy things off of the internet. i already thought of that. 8)
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I feel like I’m the only one on these forums excited about A&A Minis. Oh, well.
So my first impressions of the pieces, they were a lot smaller than I expected. You could actually use these pieces on the A&A boardgame maps. Which is actually kinda cool.
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You’re wrong about that one, djensen. I’m excited about it as well. The only thing that bugs me is that the first release is composed of only land units. However, I trust that future releases will include air and sea units as well. How they will affect the rules? Beats the hell outta me…
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Hi guys
Bought A&A Miniatures Starter Pack and a couple of boosters last weekend. Got in a couple of games and some trading at my FLGS and had a blast!
I’m not an A&A player - I mostly use Spearhead for WW2 gaming - and I’ve got one or two questions.
Why is the Lee tank so expensive (37 points) compared to the Sherman(21)? Don’t get me wrong, I like Shermans - I’m doing late-war allies, I’ve got six of 'em - just puzzled. Also, why does the Lee get a Strike and Fade?
Also, how does Strike And Fade work?
Say I shoot first in the assault phase, and my Humber Scout Car machine guns some German infantry and then uses it’s Strike And Fade to reverse behind a wood to break line of sight to that big nasty Tiger, can the Tiger still shoot at the Humber? -
Having been hit with several dice worth of insomnia, here’s what I’d like to see in the Eastern Front expansion;
Soviets
Infantryman with a Sub-Machine gun - range only 0-1, but buckets of anti-personnel dice
Dushka Heavy MG team - extended range (1-10) and 3 anti-armour dice, a real threat to light AFV’s
PTRS Anti-Tank rifle team - also a menace to light armour and a vicious sniping weapon (ignores cover, any hit on a soldier figure kills instantly?)
Early war tanks - the BT7, with similar special actions to a Crusader, but even worse armour, and the T-28 making multiple anti-infantry attacks with its MG sub-turrets
Late-war tanks - the T34/85, the JS2 and (run away and hide!) the JSU152 “Animal Killer”. The latter only fires once every second turn, and is like a sIG33 only much, much more so.
The Germans…
A desperately needed early-war medium tank, say a PzIIIG?
The StuGIII, their most numerous “tank”
A Panzerschrek team (like a Bazooka but a bit better)
A Kubelwagen and
A Pz35t to add a bit of local colour.
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Okay, Nomad; first things first. It seems like you’ve obviously played the game before, so I’ve got a question. Have you heard official news that “Eastern Front” will be the next expansion? 'Cuz in my opinion, and I’ve already said this, but they need to release some air and sea units too. For example, with a naval expansion, maybe some of the map tiles will have a coastal setting on them? Or with an air expansion, maybe set up some of the tiles with airfields on them, which would be the only place planes can end their move. I just think that the game might get kind of old if it only involves land units… :wink:
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I think like most CMG (collectible miniatures games) you won’t get the rule changing expansions right away.
They want to build up the game first. Possibly test how planes could fit into the mix. Hype up a release with planes. And then have a major release around aircraft. I wouldn’t expect to see planes for at least 9 months to a year. But I do expect to see aircraft, somehow.
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AgentOrange
The Eastern Front expansion was from chatter at my FLGS by people who’d know more about such things than I do.
You seem to be under a misapprehension over the scale of the game. Each hex represents 100 meters, each tank is one tank and each soldier stand one individual or a small group. It’s a skirmish game, very different from the strategic level of the A&A boardgame.
The only way to realistically include warships bigger than landing craft would be as off-table Naval Gunfire Support as part of a Normandy, Iwo Jima or similar scenario. Even then, a tank troop or infantry platoon would not normally be able to call in those sort of assets, and a salvo from a battleship would likely eliminate everything on the table - on both sides. The game currently does not even include fire by off-table army artillery.
Similarly - unless you’re doing something like the defence of Habbaniya (spelling?) airfield - aircraft will not take-off or land on the map.
At the default level of 100 points, most German forces seemed to end up with one big vehicle - such as a Tiger or JagdPanther - plus lighter supporting elements. Just one rocket-firing Typhoon or Shturmovik could end a game like that really quickly.
IMHO there’s plenty of fun to be had with this as a land-only game, and plenty of good naval and air games for those as want’s 'em. And there’s always classic A&A. -
Hey Nomad, why not register?
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djensen
All in good time mate!
More insomnia.
I got a look at the French tank mini - Renault R35? - yesterday. I noticed it had a cross with indented arms painted on its tail.
Wait up, I thought. That’s not French. It’s Romanian.
A little checking revealed that the Romanian Army had over seventy R35s that they bought from France in the 1930’s.So, your R35 mini can fight as
- French, allies, in 1940
-Vichy French, axis, against the British in Syria in 1941 or the Brits and Americans in Tunisia in 1942
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Romanian, axis, as German allies against the Russians in 1941-44
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Romanian, allied, as Russian allies against the Germans in 1944-5
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German, captured, 1941 onwards.
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French, allies, in 1944 (they hid a few and dusted them off after D-Day).
For that matter the Syrians used some R35s against the Israelis in 1948, and the Israelis captured several and used them right back….
When fighting alongside the Russians, the Romanians were still using lots of German kit including PzIVs.
In the same vein, there was a short - lived Australian Tank Regiment in Lybia in 1941 equipped with captured Italian medium tanks (they all had to be scuttled as the British didn’t have the diesel fuel to run them), and the British Guards Armoured Division had a ‘pet’ Panther tank named Cuckoo that saw action against its former owners in 1945.
Anyone know any better examples?
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