Use Your Old AA Guns.

[ossel]

Just a heads up; the game is going for $35 on Amazon…much better price then the $80 on FFG’s website. Thinking of getting it to scavenge parts from as well…those city pieces are damn sexy.

[ossel]

Went ahead and bought the game…there are definitely some interesting pieces in there, but the city markers are the highlight. I will definitely be using these in my Global games to mark victory cities.

I’m also VERY interested in providing 3D models for nation-specific Victory City markers (as I’ve posted here: http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=27911.msg1270732#msg1270732). I wonder what you guys think about that idea.

EDIT: I’ve started a thread to discuss this here: http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=33379.0

[knp7765]

I have got both versions of Fortress America. The new version has exactly 30 city pieces to match the 30 US cities that the invaders have to capture. The old version from Milton Bradley had something like 32 city pieces. That version had a few extra pieces in all the colors which is a rare thing. Games now days tend to just include the number of pieces that you need to play the game. If you accidentally lose a piece or two, you are just SOL.
With the new Fortress America game, I agree with toblerone77. The city pieces do look a little cooler. I really like the laser complexes in the new game. They come in 3 pieces and you have to put them together. They are kind of big but look really cool. Maybe you could use those as some sort of “super cannon” in A&A. Range of 10 spaces. Hit on a 5 or less. Destroys all units in a territory. Lays waste to everything!
I got the city pieces from RISK a while back. I was using them for Major ICs, but now I use them for Mid-Level ICs. For Major and Minor ICs, I use the colored factories from “The War Game: World War 2”. They look really good, problem is there is a limited number of factory pieces. The US dark green has plenty, more than you need. There are a lot of dark grey for Germany, but you can run out of the minor ICs if Germany is successful at expanding. During the game, I like to remove the colored factory of the original owner and replace it with the colored factory of the conqueror. If Germany really expands, that would mean 7 minor ICs (3 in France, 4 in Russia) and that is without Germany buying any new factories or conquering Allied factories that were purchased. I think there is only 6 or 8 dark grey minor ICs.
Russia and Italy have to share the brown factories, which only works because Italy has 1 major and 1 minor. There seems to be plenty of tan (UK) and yellow (Japan) ICs. There are no Majors in blue (France) so to start out the game I have to use the light grey for France’s major IC. There really is no minor IC for ANZAC as The War Game doesn’t have that particular color, so I use the original IC pieces for ANZAC’s minor.
The other problem with The War Game for anyone who doesn’t have one is that it is expensive. I think I spent a little over $200 for one copy of the game, one set of extra pieces and shipping. The War Game looks pretty cool. Very similar to A&A but there are a number of different rules, like defender retreats and 2-step naval attacks (which would eliminate blockers in a lot of cases). The pieces look really cool with great detail but most are somewhat bigger than A&A pieces and all units for all countries are German sculpts in different colors. All carriers are Graf Zeppelin, all Battleships are Bismarck, all tanks are Tiger, etc. They even have a Maus heavy tank and Me262 Jet fighter.
Also, the game board is HUGE. About the same size as HBG’s 1939 map in the large size, close to 8 ft. x 4 ft.
Anyway, if some of you happen to have that game, the ICs are pretty cool looking. Although, it looks like in a few months or so HBG will fix the problem of different types of ICs along with other neat facilities too.

[Yavid]

@knp7765:

I have got both versions of Fortress America. The new version has exactly 30 city pieces to match the 30 US cities that the invaders have to capture. The old version from Milton Bradley had something like 32 city pieces. That version had a few extra pieces in all the colors which is a rare thing. Games now days tend to just include the number of pieces that you need to play the game. If you accidentally lose a piece or two, you are just SOL.
With the new Fortress America game, I agree with toblerone77. The city pieces do look a little cooler. I really like the laser complexes in the new game. They come in 3 pieces and you have to put them together. They are kind of big but look really cool. Maybe you could use those as some sort of “super cannon” in A&A. Range of 10 spaces. Hit on a 5 or less. Destroys all units in a territory. Lays waste to everything!
I got the city pieces from RISK a while back. I was using them for Major ICs, but now I use them for Mid-Level ICs. For Major and Minor ICs, I use the colored factories from “The War Game: World War 2”. They look really good, problem is there is a limited number of factory pieces. The US dark green has plenty, more than you need. There are a lot of dark grey for Germany, but you can run out of the minor ICs if Germany is successful at expanding. During the game, I like to remove the colored factory of the original owner and replace it with the colored factory of the conqueror. If Germany really expands, that would mean 7 minor ICs (3 in France, 4 in Russia) and that is without Germany buying any new factories or conquering Allied factories that were purchased. I think there is only 6 or 8 dark grey minor ICs.
Russia and Italy have to share the brown factories, which only works because Italy has 1 major and 1 minor. There seems to be plenty of tan (UK) and yellow (Japan) ICs. There are no Majors in blue (France) so to start out the game I have to use the light grey for France’s major IC. There really is no minor IC for ANZAC as The War Game doesn’t have that particular color, so I use the original IC pieces for ANZAC’s minor.
The other problem with The War Game for anyone who doesn’t have one is that it is expensive. I think I spent a little over $200 for one copy of the game, one set of extra pieces and shipping. The War Game looks pretty cool. Very similar to A&A but there are a number of different rules, like defender retreats and 2-step naval attacks (which would eliminate blockers in a lot of cases). The pieces look really cool with great detail but most are somewhat bigger than A&A pieces and all units for all countries are German sculpts in different colors. All carriers are Graf Zeppelin, all Battleships are Bismarck, all tanks are Tiger, etc. They even have a Maus heavy tank and Me262 Jet fighter.
Also, the game board is HUGE. About the same size as HBG’s 1939 map in the large size, close to 8 ft. x 4 ft.
Anyway, if some of you happen to have that game, the ICs are pretty cool looking. Although, it looks like in a few months or so HBG will fix the problem of different types of ICs along with other neat facilities too.

do you have a link for “The War Game: World War 2” I want to check it out but can’t seem to find it.

[CWO Marc]

@Yavid:

do you have a link for “The War Game: World War 2” I want to check it out but can’t seem to find it.

http://www.thewargame.com/

[Yavid]

@CWO:

@Yavid:

do you have a link for “The War Game: World War 2” I want to check it out but can’t seem to find it.

http://www.thewargame.com/

that game looks awesome

[CWO Marc]

@Yavid:

@CWO:

@Yavid:

do you have a link for “The War Game: World War 2” I want to check it out but can’t seem to find it.

http://www.thewargame.com/

that game looks awesome

I have two copies of it.  Until Global 1940 came along, TWG’s game board was my favourite world gaming map, both in terms of its large size and of its overall appearance.  The sculpts have many positives, along with a few negatives.  On the positive side: they have the same level of detail as A&A OOB pieces and are made of the same kind of hard plastic; the scale of the ships is the same as A&A OOB (the destroyer piece being absolutely perfect in this regard) and the scale of the troop pieces is just a tiny bit larger; there are pieces for 8 player countries, including China and France; and there are some very cool units such as Me262 and two types of troops (plus a commander piece).  On the down side: the aircraft pieces and ground units are too big compared to A&A OOB, the colours and/or shades are noticeably different from A&A (France being the closest match); some of the pieces have parts which are too fragile and which bend or snap off too easily (the elite infantryman’s submachine gun, the aircraft propellers, and the artillery struts being particularly vulnerable); all the pieces are German in design, regardless of which nation they’re used for (which is great for Germany but annoying for everyone else); and the number of sculpts provided in the box (both in terms of numbers and of unit diversity) varies from country to country, with the US, the UK, Germany and Japan getting the most hardware, the USSR and Italy getting an intermediate allocation, and France and China getting almost nothing.  I recall some rumours that there were (supposedly) plans to produce a second edition with nation-specific sculpts, but this never seems to have materialized.

[HBG]

What about the old AA guns as light AA, 1 die roll, and the new ones as heavies, 2 die rolls?