Hopefully people will see that I take care of the game and buy it. I need to get rid of stuff.
HBG - Axis & Allies Parts/Accessories and Custom Piece Sets Store!
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I plug in my I phone, and from their I right click the pictures, and then open with paint. I figured, it would be beneficial, if someone can show me in person what I need to do.
I still appreciate everything you’ve done for me.
Thanks again, CWO Marc. :-)
John
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You’re welcome. Sorry I couldn’t be of more help. One definite recommendation I’d make would be for you to do your image processing in Paint on either a desktop computer or a laptop, with a decently-sized screen and a mouse. I can’t conceive of using Paint on an Iphone, working with just a teeny tiny screen and fingertip controls; it’s as mind-boggling to me as the joke in the first Muppet Movie in which Kermit asks Fozzie where he learned how to drive and Fozzie answers “I took a correspondence course.”
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No problem CWO Marc. I think you did as much as anyone could. I just think it would be easier to see how it is done, first hand.
I am using a desktop computer.
Sorry for the confusion.
I was transferring pictures to my computer. The apple phones, come with a cord that I can plug into my desktop.
I forget, what you call it. USB, or something of that nature.
I had a flip phone, before I got the apple iphone 5, just goes to show you, how far behind I am, lol. :-D
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Hey Guys,
Thanks for posting the pics John Brown. I know it’s a pain loading such large pics but you sure get a good look at the detail. I should be getting my pre-order tomorrow according to the postal tracking.
Maybe it’s just me, but the Bismarck doesn’t seem all that bad. The main thing I noticed was on the dark grey pieces the bow seems to be chopped off. Perhaps the gun barrels are a little long. Most of the rest seems to look okay to me. Am I missing something? Perhaps I’m not seeing something even with such close up pictures.
Still curious about the light cruiser. I don’t incorporate light cruisers into my games yet so I wasn’t too worried about that particular piece, although I still like to have one for Germany.
The pocket battleships look really nice. I’m really excited for that piece. -
No problem, knp7765. I was so excited to finally get these. As far as the battleship. It is very playable. At a distance, you can’t tell that there is anything wrong with it.
When hold it in your hand, and looking from the top of it, it is very rough looking, but as far as playing with them, it shouldn’t be a problem.
I’m eventually going to paint a couple, despite the flaws.
I’m still going to buy the 3D versions when they come out of the Bismarck and the light cruiser.
I’m excited about the Greatcoats and the Stukas. I also love the transport ships and destroyers. They turned out really well.
I hope you get yours soon. :-D
John
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…so what happened to the last German set ?
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Hey guys,
I got my pre-order Wednesday. I love them. I think they look great in both colors but I’m partial to the dark grey.The Bismarck is a disappointment. Most of it looks pretty good to me except for the bow being chopped off. HBG said that the Leipzig light cruisers were messed up too but I can’t see it. They look good to me, although I admit that I am not very familiar with the Leipzig class. So am I missing something?
I really like the Me109 fighters. They look great. In fact, all the planes look really good. At first I wasn’t crazy about the Stukas having the cannons but they look great too.
The tanks are great. Do you guys realize that through HBG we now have sculpts for all the German tanks used (or planned) for WW2 (excepting for Panzer 1)?
Panzer 38(t) = Axis Minors Set 1
Panzer II = German Expansion Set
Panzer III = Axis Minors Set 1
Panzer IV = Germany 3 Set
Panzer V (Panther) = Germany 3 Set
Panzer VI (Tiger) = German Expansion Set
Panzer VI-2 (King Tiger) = Amerika Expansion Set
Panzer VII (E-100) = Amerika Regular game pieces
Panzer VIII (Maus) = Amerika Expansion SetThis is pretty cool I think. I would include a picture but my phone takes too big of pictures memory-wise to post here and I haven’t figured out how to resize it yet.
I really like the great coat infantry too. They look pretty cool. I want to try them out in the Battle of the Bulge game. Between this new German set, the German Expansion set, the US Expansion set and the UK Supplement set, HBG has provided enough sculpts to replace all the OOB pieces for that game. It would be cool to compare the setups with OOB and HBG pieces.
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Does anyone know if the new German set will be produced in Axis minor colors? It would be cool to have Panzer IVs and Bf109 for them.
Will there be anymore Dark grey units from the first German set for the items that are out of stock? -
It looks like the German pieces are all the rage right now. I’d be buying in too if I could afford it. Every year HBG is becoming more and more into their own, which is just awesome. I won’t be surprised if they begin to encompass the majority of the A&A oriented market in the future.
I have a question for the community; would it be worth a person’s time to conduct a polling thread to gauge the interest in the French set? It can be compared against other sets/pieces/projects that are on the go. It can serve a purpose of giving HBG some market analysis on our part. Other poll threads can be made to help HBG get an idea as to what the community wants on other things. I look at it as this: HBG gets valuable info and can generate profit/growth to a certain extent, and we as the community can get what we want more quckly (theoretically). Win-win, no?
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It looks like the German pieces are all the rage right now. I’d be buying in too if I could afford it. Every year HBG is becoming more and more into their own, which is just awesome. I won’t be surprised if they begin to encompass the majority of the A&A oriented market in the future.
I have a question for the community; would it be worth a person’s time to conduct a polling thread to gauge the interest in the French set? It can be compared against other sets/pieces/projects that are on the go. It can serve a purpose of giving HBG some market analysis on our part. Other poll threads can be made to help HBG get an idea as to what the community wants on other things. I look at it as this: HBG gets valuable info and can generate profit/growth to a certain extent, and we as the community can get what we want more quckly (theoretically). Win-win, no?
Hey Ben, you don’t have to take a poll for the French pieces, because they are next in line to be produced, according to the newsletter HBG sends, and on its facebook page. HBG will let us know when it is time to pre-order them.
I do agree that you could start a poll to generate, interest, on the next pieces being made. Keep in mine that they are no longer selling complete sets, any more. They will be selling them by the pieces for now on.
I didn’t know if you were aware of that or not?
Polls are always cool, so I’m game. :-)
John
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The tanks are great. Do you guys realize that through HBG we now have sculpts for all the German tanks used (or planned) for WW2 (excepting for Panzer 1)?
Panzer VI-2 (King Tiger) = Amerika Expansion Set
That is pretty cool knp. Didn’t realize that. Would be nice to have the Amerika pieces available for purchase individually, but I can’t fault HBG for wanting to maximize their sales.
The Germans certainly have gotten the most focus from HBG when it comes to pieces and variety. I understand that, since they had one of the cooler vehicle/kit sets of the war. It would be really nice to see that detail afforded to the Germans extended to the other Powers. I believe that is, or at least was, HBG’s intent. That vision has certainly taken strides with the US/UK/Japan, but lately I feel like we have been in limbo of the future with pieces from HBG. Clearly the factory in China is a significant problem from both a timing and quality control sense. The preferred method has moved towards 3D printing. But I for one am a little confused as to how this is all going to work out. There were a lot of pieces and sets planned for that may now not see the light of day. If these recent problems with the German set are the latest example in a trend, is the French set really all that sure? I don’t know.
HBG is a private company and has no responsibility to communicate their business plans with us. But given how much their business is, or was, shaped by this community, it sure seems like it would be in their best interest to do so. I am keeping my expectations low for the future, but am hoping for the best. They still make great stuff.
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It would be nice to have nation specific infantry for the major true neutrals like Sweden, Turkey, Spain and Schwitzerland. It would make the map look so cool, and they would probably stay there all the game. I am not sure for the pro neutrals, since they got activated real fast, and a nation specific Finnish, Bulgarian or Yugoslavian infantry would be on the map not much longer than the French units, before they got swapped. But I know this units would be in use more than 5 different types of German Tanks.
Also I think that specific units for the Tech would be nice too. Like when you get Jet Fighters, you just swap all your fighters on the map with a new Jet sculpt, you even dont need to change the OOB rules, just the plastic piece on the map, and it would be so helpful. Usually after a few rounds you forget you got the Jet Tech, but with Jet pieces you wount forget, man
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Also I think that specific units for the Tech would be nice too. Like when you get Jet Fighters, you just swap all your fighters on the map with a new Jet sculpt, you even dont need to change the OOB rules, just the plastic piece on the map, and it would be so helpful. Usually after a few rounds you forget you got the Jet Tech, but with Jet pieces you wount forget, man
Well that’s what the jet sculpts HBG has already made are for. We already have an Me 262, P-80 and
a Meteorthe Kikka, right? -
Got mine too, last week, and have to generally concur with the mixed feelings: quite happy that they’re finally out and give us some great new options (Pz IV, PBB, greatcoat inf, etc) but a little disappointed in the mold quality/ detail. I actually thought the PBB was even worse than the Bismark! The Leipzig was rather misshapen, too, but it’s so small on this scale that its a little hard to tell, really. After the amazing near-perfection in the sculpts/ molds for the Amerika & Amerika Expansion pieces, this was a real let-down… but then we should maintain perspective: compared head-to-head with oob pieces, even the worst ones in this set aren’t bad in terms of detail; just maybe a little less… oh… “crisp” I would say, maybe partly because of the duller, less “shiny” plastic material (which is consistent with previous HBG products.)
So, overall, while I’d say that they only fall a bit short of the original/ usual HBG standards; it’s just because they fall so far short of the raised bar that was the Amerika piece set that it seems like it’s worse than it really is…
Was there something radically different in the whole production process between the Amerika set and the Germany #3 set that explains the big quality gap, though? It does seem a little mystifying to me…
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Was there something radically different in the whole production process between the Amerika set and the Germany #3 set that explains the big quality gap, though? It does seem a little mystifying to me…
I have a theory. A couple of years ago, the main focus was on the new piece sets, particularly on the new 3-d modeling of the prototype sculpts for each set. A lot of time and effort went into designing and perfecting each sculpt and I think they took a lot of pride in each and every piece. Thus HBG demanded near perfection and would not present them to us, the customers, until they were absolutely right.
If you will remember, there were a couple of sets that came out very good, just in an odd color shade. First was the Axis Minor set that was supposed to be in Italian Brown. The first time they came out in too dark a shade of brown. Second was the Russian set that was supposed to be in the same OOB color of Maroon, a dark brown with a reddish tint. They came out more of a plain dark brown.
When each of these “mistakes” came out, Coach apologized to us profusely and sold these pieces at a very reduced cost so as to not take a total loss on the cost of them. He immediately demanded that the factory tweak the colors to get the right shade and then filled our pre-orders and had those sets ready for sale on the site.
At this time, they did produce some games but these mainly consisted of special rule sets with some specific parts and sometimes new map/boards using mainly existing OOB and HBG pieces to play.
Then the Kickstarter campaign for Amerika was successful and HBG was able to start serious work on their first totally boxed game with all the parts necessary to play it. In other words, you could have absolutely no gaming pieces or accessories, buy this game and still play it.
Amerika became HBG’s baby, taking most of the focus of their efforts. There was a huge amount of work to go into this, designing the box, all the cardboard art of the inner boxes, the game board, the playing and reference cards, all of the new playing sculpts for the game (24 different totally new sculpts), all of the new Expansion sculpts (20 different totally new sculpts) and all of the neat little bonus items earned through the Kickstarter Level goals (special dice, dice bags, 1st player marker, mouse pads, tee shirts, etc.)
Now, all of these items would take a lot of effort even if they were sub-par, slapped together games with average piece quality (Xeno games comes to mind). However, this would not do for HBG. They worked hard to make sure every piece was the highest quality. This was especially true of the plastic gaming pieces. They are some of the highest quality I have seen in any retail board game.
Since Amerika was such a huge undertaking, most other projects simply had to be put on hold or at least move at a slower pace. Even with this, they still managed to make the fabulous US Expansion set in parallel to working on Amerika, as well as a number of smaller projects like special markers and such.
With the great success of Amerika, Coach and his team want to turn out more new games. Several projects are in the works now, from a number of special battle games like Kursk and Midway to the Global War series.
Unfortunately, the piece sets that we have all grown to love have now seemed to have taken a back seat to new game designing. While the US Expansion set came out nicely, I fear that the Germany 3 set suffered from the new direction that HBG seems to be taking. It just seems to me that if the Germany 3 set came out a couple of years ago, Coach would not have accepted the somewhat lesser quality, particularly with the Bismarck, and would have demanded the factory correct the problem. Unfortunately, I get the feeling that selling and designing the pieces is no longer a priority and have been superseded by new game design, 3d units and acrylic markers.
I would note that the only problems were with the ship pieces, and those are the hardest to make good at these tiny scales. The infantry, vehicle and plane pieces all still look great to me.
HBG has already announced that future pieces will no longer be available in full sets but in quantities of five units. Personally, I am not sure how I feel about this. I kind of got used to the sets and think I will miss them. On the other hand, it will be easier to get the right amount of certain units that you really want. For example, with the Germany 3 set I would not have gotten any of the bi-plane fighter because I don’t use them in my games.
I still do not understand how HBG will be accepting pre-orders for new piece sets if there will be no full sets available anymore. Perhaps future gaming pieces will not need pre-sales?
Anyway, that is my theory for what it’s worth. New game design has taken over from piece sales. -
Compelling theory knp.
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Compelling theory knp.
Yes, and a close (but shorter) variant of knp’s theory would go like this: for what are probably factory-related reasons, HBG finds it harder to manufacture injection-molded sculpts than other types of gaming equipment, so they’ve gradually been shifting their focus away from those types of sculpts. Which is regretable in my opinion, because those sculpts have always been the HBG product line in which I’ve been most interested.
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@CWO:
Compelling theory knp.
Yes, and a close (but shorter) variant of knp’s theory would go like this: for what are probably factory-related reasons, HBG finds it harder to manufacture injection-molded sculpts than other types of gaming equipment, so they’ve gradually been shifting their focus away from those types of sculpts. Which is regretable in my opinion, because those sculpts have always been the HBG product line in which I’ve been most interested.
Okay, that sounds a little scary. I would hate to see the day that HBG no longer offers the plastic sculpts.
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Okay, that sounds a little scary. I would hate to see the day that HBG no longer offers the plastic sculpts.
I’d hate that too, and I’d be happy for my theory to be proven wrong. Note that I said “shifting their focus away from those types of sculpts”, not “dropping their sculpts entirely.”
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Well, I hope you’re wrong about the de-emphasis on sculpts, too. I try to spend money on all kinds of HBG products to show my support, but it’s the new pieces that make the whole thing worthwhile for me.
As for the 3d modelled ones, I’ve ordered quite a few, both from the HBG site and directly from Shapeways, but I continually find it frustrating that they’re such a mixed bag… So far we have available super-BB’s for Germany, Japan and France… and the Netherlands… but not the USA or UK? We have a “Taiho-Kai” but no Midway or Malta? And does anyone get what his obsession is for flying boats? I can’t for the life of me come up with a use for them…
Meanwhile, though the Amerika piece set + its expansion gives us nearly every jet or heavy tank we could want, they’re available only in a very limited color palette, so they’re not in the colors that I’ve been using for elites (Dark Green for US, Red for Japan & Black for Germany.) On the other hand, if I switch and have the darker colors be the “normal” and the lighter Amerika shades be the “elites/ heavies” the holes in HBG’s legacy line-up make this difficult, too. (e.g., no small ships at all available in the dark green…) It’s like the company has ADD and can’t focus on the little details enough to maintain consistency or logically-fleshed-out model lines across individual products…
To me it seems simple: if you’re going to do Super-BB’s, do them for everyone before you stop and do flying boats for some nation…
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