HBG - Axis & Allies Parts/Accessories and Custom Piece Sets Store!

[CWO Marc]

@knp7765:

I’m curious. Some people like to replace the OOB pieces with HBG pieces because of the greater detail and sometimes better sculpts. Are you one of those or are you happy with the OOB pieces? I would like to eventually replace the OOB pieces myself.

My approach is to consider the OOB pieces as the core ones, and to supplement (not replace) them with concentric rings of non-OOB pieces.  The HBG sculpts occupy the inner ring immediately surrounding the central core: their size, their colours, their WWII designs and their level of detail make them fully compatible for use alongside the OOB units, and their large (and increasing) variety provides a tremendous range of specialized or supplementary units.  Surrounding the HBG inner ring is a middle ring that encompasses various sculpt types that, to various degrees, fit the size and the WWII era of the OOB and HBG sculpts: FMG, Table Tactics, Xeno, Enemy on the Horizon, The War Game: WWII, and so forth.  Surrounding the middle ring is an “everything else” outer ring for sculpts that either don’t fit A&A at all (for instance ancient Roman sculpts or sci-fi sculpts), or which just might get used in A&A in special situations even though they have compatibility problems (for instance the Victorian infantry units from War: Age of Imperialism, which could be pressed into service as WWII colonial infantry).

The OOB central core itself has several sections rather than being monolithic.  I’m aiming to review and rearrange my OOB collection over the Christmas holidays, so the following description is only a draft at this point, but here’s where things seem to be going based on some partial work I did this summer.

The basic sculpt sets for the nine Global 1940 combatant nations consist of all the pieces from all the games which match precisely (in size, design and colour) the ones in the second edition of Global 1940 (G40/2), except for two adjustments.  The adjustments involve replacing the British G40/2 naval transport (actually an American Liberty ship) with the British-design Fort type naval transport from 1941, and replacing the Russian G40/2 carrier (actually a British Illustrious class vessel) with the Russian-design Kostromitinova class carrier.

The other groupings are still under review.  One grouping at the moment consists of the completely unique sculpt designs from 1941 (other than the Fort and Kostromitinova classes, which I’ve transferred to the basic sculpt sets).  Another consists of pieces which, although they’re nominally the same ones as the G40/2 ones, are actually design variants (with the differences in design ranging from the minor to the flagrant), or in some cases production variants (presumably resulting from variations in the moulding process rather than deliberate design changes).  There are also categories that reflect differences in colour or shade that have appeared over the years (in some cases paired with design changes, in others not).  And then there’s the A&A WWI: 1914 sculpts, which constitute in many ways an oddball grouping of their own.

I’ve always been interested in seeing what kind of optimum use I can make of the OOB sculpts that have appeared in all the A&A games over the years, taking advantage of the fact that there have been so many variations in design and size and colour.  One example of a decision that was easy to make when G40/2 came out was to take the G40/1 ANZAC sculpts (the same butternut grey colour as the G40/2 ones, but completely British in design) and to redesignate them as Canadian pieces (Canada has roundels on the map but no sculpts), with a few G40/2 ANZAC AAA guns being transferred to Canada to fill the gap created by the fact that G40/1 had no AAA sculpt.  I haven’t yet settled, however, on a comprehensive way of using all those other variant designs and colours.  For example: should I give China (which has no sculpts, and is technically only allowed one fighter plus some artillery) the old lime green British equipment units, with the old small-sized British battleship being redesignated as a cruiser?  Should I give China just the lime green artillery pieces, plus a P-40 Warhawk sculpt from 1941 to represent the Flying Tigers, who did in fact use the P-40?  Should I redesignate the old-style Panther tanks as tank destroyers?  Should I redesignate the old-style small-size Stukas (incorrectly used as fighters in the early games) as tankbuster Stuka models?  Should I redesignate the old-style small-size German 88s (incorrectly used as field artillery in the early games) as anti-tank guns?  Should the Tiger and IS-2 tanks from 1941 be used as specialized heavy tank units – and should I ignore the fact that on Germany and Russia had them in real life?  Should the Hood and Kongo “battleships” from 1941 be used as battlecruisers?  Should the dark brown German + Japanese equipment allocated to Italy in Anniversary and in G40/1 be paired with the dark brown Russian infantry pieces from WWI to create a sculpt set for the Axis Minors? And so on and so forth.  I find it great fun to play around with questions like that – especially since there are so many possible answers, each with its own advantages and disadvantages.

[HBG]

@SS:

Thanks Coach for the AWESOME stuff I just bought !!!

Glad you liked them!

[knp7765]

CWO Marc,
I did the same thing with the British transport and Russian carrier from 1941. Those got moved into my regular gaming sets. I also kept unit sculpts from 1941 that were correctly nation specific, like the German Tigers and planes, Japanese ships and so on. All of the pieces where they used the same sculpt from another nation, like the Japanese Orange Tigers, P-40s in UK tan and Russian brown, Japanese ships in German black and so on I sold off on eBay. I’m a little picky that way.
My gaming pieces go like this:
First there is the main gaming sets, typically OOB pieces right now. These are the pieces I normally use for playing G40. They are all the OOB pieces available from Pac40 and Eur40 2nd editions. The only difference being Germany because I painted all German pieces dark grey. Otherwise they are all OOB.
Next is a secondary set of OOB units. These include the 1941 sculpts and I also have sets from older A&A games. There are the Celery Green British and Grey Germans from Revised, the Red Japanese and Dark Tan British from Pacific, the Burgundy Russians from Europe and I even have Blonde British pieces from D-Day, although they don’t have any ships.
Next would be all the HBG sets that I have collected. From time to time, depending on my mood, some of these pieces will move to my main gaming sets as replacements for the OOB pieces. For example, the T-34/76 tanks from Russia Early War will replace the OOB T-34s. Japanese ships from the Japan Expansion set replace the OOB Japanese ships, especially the battleship and carrier. I like to use the Nagato battleship and Kaga carrier. Also, since in most of our games we don’t differentiate between light, medium or heavy tanks, I will replace the OOB Panthers with HBG Tigers because the Tigers just look so dang cool.
The majority of my HBG pieces tend to remain unused because we haven’t really gotten into adding extra units into the game. (Light carriers, self-propelled artillery, tank destroyers, etc.) I have come up with new stats to fit those units, but when we get down to playing a game, we tend to go with OOB play for simplicity. We do occasionally play with techs so some more of HBG’s pieces come in handy, like Jet Fighters and Heavy Bombers.
After that would be my “outer ring” of pieces which would include A&A 1914, The War Game, Fortress America (both old and new versions) and any other pieces I’m not thinking of right now. While OOB and HBG comprise the great majority of my pieces, I do want to count those others because I am still curious as to just how many of these pieces I have. Now I am getting into pieces that while I do play with them occasionally, it is seldom. I just really like Axis & Allies.
I usually prefer G40, although a quick game of 1941 can be nice. 1942 is good for something in between those two. As for the smaller level games, I really like BOTB.
Every now and then for a change of pace, I enjoy a good game of Fortress America. That’s a reason I can’t wait to get the AMERIKA game and try it out. Like Fortress America but with a WW 2 flavor, kind of.
Plus, since it’s already been established that I am a piece junkie, I’m really looking forward to all those new cool looking sculpts. I paid extra to get reinforcement sets and the expansion sets too. Love the pictures we’ve gotten from Coach, really going to love having them right here in person.

[CWO Marc]

@knp7765:

I’m really looking forward to all those new cool looking sculpts. I paid extra to get reinforcement sets and the expansion sets too. Love the pictures we’ve gotten from Coach, really going to love having them right here in person.

Yes, this sort of thing lets a sculpt enthusiast experience a bit of the excitement that some German commanders around Kusrk may have felt when they were told that they would be receiving great new weapons like the Panther and the Elefant for use in Operation Citadel.  (Their combat debut was a bit of a bust, but that’s another story.)

[Flashman]

Talking of commanders, is there any market for commander pieces?

I was thinking along the line of busts, rather than scale figures; some inspiration:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/39445/ample-busts

[CWO Marc]

@Flashman:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/39445/ample-busts

Uh, “ample busts”?  If I click on that link, which Mussolini will I get: Benito or his granddaughter Alessandra (who’s posed for Playboy a couple of times)?

[Tall Paul]

Guys,

@Flashman:

Talking of commanders, is there any market for commander pieces?

I was thinking along the line of busts, rather than scale figures; some inspiration:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/39445/ample-busts

**––IMHO there are TWO good reasons for having a SINGLE Commander figure,…rather than an individual unit (or bust) of all of the commanders in WW2.
----First off, the production expense would be tremendous compared to a SINGLE Commander figure, and IMHO not required. I think that a ‘generic’ commander figure better fits our needs in our A&A games rather than a more ‘tactical’ approach of a ‘specific’ commander. Just ask HBG, who would be the producer in this case, what their opinion would be.
----Secondly, a ‘generic’ commander unit could not only be used for any surface warfare,…but could be used for Naval & Air Force purposes. I had wonderful visions of painting the FMG announced but not produced Commander unit in Air Force Blue, Naval Blue, and Army Green uniforms for any service necessary.

Tall Paul**

[Flashman]

@CWO:

@Flashman:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/39445/ample-busts

Uh, “ample busts”?  If I click on that link, which Mussolini will I get: Benito or his granddaughter Alessandra (who’s posed for Playboy a couple of times)?

Neither, as suitable “busts” of WWII leaders in a suitable scale are unmade, hence the suggestion. Have not seen that particular edition of Playboy, though Mussolini senior did pose as the April 1936 Centrefold for Fascist Dictator Monthly.

On another note, any chance of my suggested 1946 Soviet set for a four - cornered “Global” version of Amerika?

[ossel]

I use officer chips (http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=30016.0) and I might try and do tokens in the future.

[toblerone77]

Just a suggestion for HBG:

You guys should really emphasize that your products will work well with Memoir '44.

In WWII board gaming, I never realized that there was this “other” game, and it is a great game! While I love Axis & Allies I’m really starting to love M44 and I think HBG could expand it’s “Empire” by showing how well it’s line up of sculpts work for this game as well.

[CWO Marc]

@toblerone77:

Just a suggestion for HBG:
You guys should really emphasize that your products will work well with Memoir '44.
In WWII board gaming, I never realized that there was this “other” game, and it is a great game! While I love Axis & Allies I’m really starting to love M44 and I think HBG could expand it’s “Empire” by showing how well it’s line up of sculpts work for this game as well.

HBG produces a lot of things (like marker tokens) that would indeed work well with Memoir 44, but I’m having trouble understanding the notion that its sculpts would fall into that category.  I bought some of the early Memoir 44 games in the hope that their combat units could supplement the somewhat limited range of A&A OOB pieces that were available at the time.  I eventually stopped buying the Memoir 44 games, however, because I found their sculpts to be quite incompatible with the A&A ones: the Memoir 44 sculpts are much bigger, their colours generally look nothing like the ones in A&A, and in my opinion their level of detailing isn’t satisfactory for pieces of that size.  Since the Memoir 44 pieces don’t match the A&A OOB ones, they wouldn’t match the HBG ones either, given that the HBG sculpts closely match the size, colours and level of detailing of the OOB pieces.

[toblerone77]

What I’m suggesting Marc is that HBG sculpts could replace many of the M44 units such as vehicles. I agree that using M44 pieces to replace A&A would not work. There is one scenario in the base set where there are two squads of US Airborne and French Military Academy students vs. the Germans. All the Allied forces use the generic US troops to represent all the allied forces in this scenario. You could run this scenario with all custom HBG sculpts with the exception of the French infantry but I suppose you could use HBG’s neutrals or A&A OOB French infantry.

[CWO Marc]

Ah, I see.  Thanks for the extra information.  This actually means that the concept you proposed could be broadened even further, beyond its original Memoir 44 formulation, to a statement that HBG’s sculpts are usable as supplemental or even as outright replacement pieces for A&A, Memoir 44 and a variety of other WWII wargames.  And in fact, HBG does already say something to that effect on its battle piece pages, for example here:

http://www.historicalboardgaming.com/HBG-Battle-Pieces–WW2-Japan-Supplement-Set_p_729.html
“HBG is producing its seventh series of plastic gaming pieces that may be used in miniature games such as Axis & Allies, Memoir44, and many other miniature war games.”

[toblerone77]

@CWO:

Ah, I see.  Thanks for the extra information.  This actually means that the concept you proposed could be broadened even further, beyond its original Memoir 44 formulation, to a statement that HBG’s sculpts are usable as supplemental or even as outright replacement pieces for A&A, Memoir 44 and a variety of other WWII wargames.  And in fact, HBG does already say something to that effect on its battle piece pages, for example here:

http://www.historicalboardgaming.com/HBG-Battle-Pieces–WW2-Japan-Supplement-Set_p_729.html
“HBG is producing its seventh series of plastic gaming pieces that may be used in miniature games such as Axis & Allies, Memoir44, and many other miniature war games.”

That’s what I mean. Though It may cause some trouble for HBG, It would be cool to see a M44 set-up using HBG sculpts advertised on the site. A member of the forum was selling their collection of A&A games because they are more into playing M44. I suggested that they may want to keep their collection because some of the larger M44 battles such as Market Garden require multiple sets of M44 sculpts. This could easily be remedied by using A&A and HBG sculpts to replace the M44 sculpts.

“Tigers in the Snow” is another scenario that is out of print, but you can download the setup and even print the map I believe. The problem is again, you need more M44 Tigers which means you need an additional M44 “Equipment Pack” just to get some extra Tigers or… voila! buy/use some HBG Tigers.

I guess my posts were just to show how many cool applications there are for HBG products outside of HBG and A&A games.

[CWO Marc]

I guess another potential idea would be to fight wargames in which the players on one side are armed with HBG sculpts and the players on the other side are armed with the OOB pieces from whatever game is being used.  Given the number and range of HBG unit types, this could put the OOB player at a severe disadvantage in terms of specialized units.  :-D

I once read about a tabletop miniatures gaming session held at a convention in which one player controlled a force of modern US M1 Abrams tanks while his opponent controlled a force of Victorian-era Martian fighting machines form the original War of the Worlds novel.  That would have been a fun one to watch.  I wonder who won.  And that was actually long before the Spielberg version of WotW came out.

[sophiedog2]

Is there an invasion of Italy clarification thread?

[sophiedog2]

Do you have any idea when the FMG Italy pieces will be back in stock?

[St3vYb0y]

@sophiedog2:

Do you have any idea when the FMG Italy pieces will be back in stock?

FMG has them in stock, you can order directly from them.

[Yavid]

with doing the 3d printed sets is HBG still doing the Global War expansion sets. I haven’t heard anything in a long time about Island Warfare.

[toblerone77]

Yavid, I can’t speak for HBG but my understanding is the new US set is next then Germany along with Amerika to be available to purchase. Then I believe France and Island Campaign sets.