1914 Sculpts list by type…from larry

[DrLarsen]

So… any official word on what sculpts the AA14 ships as supposed to be?

And IL, did I guess right that the dreadnoughts in your game (based on the pictures you posted) are the Courbet, Iron Duke (or Orion or KGV?), and Kaiser classes?  If so, I’d say you made some pretty good choices, neither the cutting edge, nor the obsoletes, but the mid-range work-horses, that also happen to be about as widely produced as any one format…

[Imperious Leader]

I only made recommendations for sculpts, they took these and made the final proofs. Ultimately, the producer makes this decision but he is keen on WW1 knowledge.

[Flashman]

Does that not conflict with your decision to use the same scale pieces for compatibility with “other WWI games”?

@Imperious:

We are not making the same mistakes over. The colors will be different.

[DrLarsen]

@Imperious:

I only made recommendations for sculpts, they took these and made the final proofs. Ultimately, the producer makes this decision but he is keen on WW1 knowledge.

So, IL… do you know what ships are pictured in the preview images you’ve shared so far?  The resolution is uneven on my screen and given two angles of the shot, I can’t quite be sure, but this is what I think I’m seeing…

1. Top: German Kaiser-class BB (the diagonal layout of the midships turret seems to make this a natural guess; the Brits also did some diagonal layouts, but the turret shape says “German” to me on this one, but I can’t quite be sure…)

2. Middle BB: One of the three British 13.5" “super-dreadnought” classes (i.e., Orion, KGV, Iron Duke.  Can’t quite tell which as the stack/mast layout is obscured.  If I’m wrong about the turret shapes, though, and the above is the British one, than this must surely be the German Konig-class, the only German all-centerline class with a single mid-ships turret.)

3. Lower BB: Must surely be the French Courbet class, the only class I can think of with 2 wing turrets together with two sets of fore-and-aft superfiring ones.

4. Upper Cruiser: I’m thinking French Gambetta class ACR, with its four stacks, obvious tumblehome and 8 turrets in a hexagonal (or would that be octagonal?) layout.

5. Lower Cruiser: Omaha-class CL, with its obvious 4 stacks and 2 twin turrets (an unusual feather for CL’s back then) which might be a bit of an odd choice since they didn’t make it into the war at all, but I’m not bothered, as I think they’d look like a good fit together with the US 4-piper destroyers.

6. Upper Destroyer: One of the British Admiraly classes; can’t tell which…

7. Middle Destroyer: One of the US 4-piper, “flush-decker” designs, not sure which…

8. Lower Destroyer: One of the German Grosse Torpedoboots (again, I can’t tell which…)

[Imperious Leader]

Does that not conflict with your decision to use the same scale pieces for compatibility with “other WWI games”?

Nobody has a monopoly on scale. I don’t like some of the OOB colors, we just do what we think is best. The Germans will be lighter, Ottomans sort of a dark red color, UK Khaki, USA brown-green, etc.

[DrLarsen]

@Imperious:

Does that not conflict with your decision to use the same scale pieces for compatibility with “other WWI games”?

Nobody has a monopoly on scale. I don’t like some of the OOB colors, we just do what we think is best. The Germans will be lighter, Ottomans sort of a dark red color, UK Khaki, USA brown-green, etc.

I do agree that we shouldn’t let WotC’s odder color choices become some sort of de facto, all-time, canonical standard.  I for one simply can’t grasp their choices on certain ones for 1914 at all.  Their Ottoman blue-green would have been much better for the Austrians and their Austrian green would have been much better for the Italians… I don’t grasp why they just can’t pick colors that are reasonably close to standard infantry-color uniforms and make exceptions only occasionally where the colors might be too close to those of another power?  What on earth would have been wrong with giving the Germans feldgrau, the Austrians their “pike-grey”, the Brits their khaki, the French their horizon blue, keep the same OD for the Americans, and make the Italians their green (what was that shade called?)… maybe make them a tad brighter to stand out on the game-board (if necessary), but why not try to get them somewhat close?

[DrLarsen]

Oh, and keeping the same scale (or close to it) is important not just for WotC compatibility, but also so that it fits on a game-board and so that guys like HBG can keep doing what he does so well…

[Imperious Leader]

Yes exactly.

[DrLarsen]

@DrLarsen:

Oh, and keeping the same scale (or close to it) is important not just for WotC compatibility, but also so that it fits on a game-board and so that guys like HBG can keep doing what he does so well…

One more thought on the “doing it right vs. compatibility issue”: since WotC made the mistake of making all their non-infantry sculpts the same, it does offer one consolation: except for infantry (which I’m assuming IL will do right anyway)pieces from WotC could be used in IL’s game, even if he switches up the colors, all the more easily!

Not that there’s that much here worth re-using, though; the pre-dreadnoughts make sense, but it looks like most (some ?) of IL’s cruisers are also late-war (though the French one is an older ACR)… and elite infantry could be done better most of the time w/ regular AA units (who mostly have the right helmets, more-or-less, anyway…)

[Old Dwarf]

@DrLarsen:

Oh, and keeping the same scale (or close to it) is important not just for WotC compatibility, but also so that it fits on a game-board and so that guys like HBG can keep doing what he does so well…

@Imperious:

Yes exactly.

Love that :-D  (self confessed Scale Addict)