Yeah, I’ve gone kind of piece crazy myself. I have a specific set of pieces for each nation in Global 40 I call my gaming sets. Here is what comprises each nation set:
100 Infantry
50 Artillery
50 Mechanized Infantry
50 Tanks
40 Anti-Aircraft Artillery
40 Fighters
30 Tactical Bombers
30 Strategic Bombers
40 Transports
40 Submarines
40 Destroyers
30 Cruisers
20 Battleships
20 Aircraft Carriers
100 Control Markers
And that is just OOB units! The only exception is China, but they still have 100 OOB Infantry units. I also have some HBG units for China for artillery, tanks and fighters (some house rules allow China to have tanks).
To get these totals, I actually got several copies of the game when they came out and cannibalized them for pieces. I was able to sell off extras which helped me make back some of the money I spent, but it was still pretty pricy.
On top of this, I have huge collections of HBG’s sets in just about every color available. This part is really silly on my part because I pretty much use the Olive Drab for US, Dark Grey for Germany, Burnt Orange for Japan, Maroon for Russia. Basically the OOB colors. So all of those other colors, like the Axis Minors, Neutral sets, US Supplement for Allies and alternate colors for the Japanese Supplement and Expansion sets just basically sit there in their containers. I keep thinking I will use them in trying out the HBG 1939 Global variant because it has all these little countries and you can use all the variant colors to represent them, but I never get around to doing so. My group simply prefers Global 40.
When I think back on how much I have invested in all these game pieces, it almost makes me sick. I enjoy my games and it’s a fun little hobby, but there is such a thing as too much.
Obviously having such large sets is not necessary. You can always use chips which in some cases you simply have to because of space limitations on the board. I hope you are able to find your balance. However, I must agree with YG, the pieces in a single game are simply not enough.
