French Set…need help to finalize set.

agreed, fmg’s Italian cruiser was a bit smaller then i thought it would be, compared to the battleship. but then again i felt the infantry was to small and the mech and truck were to big

OK, so I have an interesting compromise idea: why not add a Dunkerque class to the French set.  Since presumedly, FMG is going to want to do the Richelieu for the French BB and a treaty cruiser for the French CA, HBG wouldn’t be getting in the way of FMG’s plans.  Make it in-between the WotC Hipper class (which is the largest of the oob cruisers) and Bismark class in size, and players could decide to use it either as a conventional BB, a CB (attack/ defend at a 7 on a d12) or perhaps even a cruiser, depending on what makes the most sense for their own house rules.  Hopefully, the new AA41 CB pieces (since that’s really what they are if they really are the Hood and the Kongo) is a tad smaller than the AA40 BB pieces and then, when added to HBG’s Dunkerque, 7 different players could have a piece in their color that could be used as a CB should they want to experiment with the concept.  (Italy and ANZAC would still be left out, but Italy didn’t have any CB’s anyway, unless you count their rebuilt old BB’s as essentially CB’s in capability, and none of the Commonwealth nations had capital ships of their own by this time…)

IMHO what is needed from a french set is a top to bottom redesign of the current french units. everything from art to battleships need to be done so they look french. I’m talking about a set 100 to 150 pieces something on the scale FMG did for Italy. Or doing two sets but one set of 28 pieces just isn’t going to be enough to make everyone happy.

when Europe 1940 is reprinted do you think they will add unique  pieces for the french and Italians. and if you feel they will wouldn’t it be better to see what they make before making a supplement set?

What I’m afraid of after seeing pics of 1941 is that when they reprint Europe 1940 they will do the same thing…all Allies get the same sculpts and all Axis get the same sculpts. So France will get HMS Hood battleships and IS-2 tanks while Italy gets Kongo battleships and Tiger tanks.

@knp7765:

What I’m afraid of after seeing pics of 1941 is that when they reprint Europe 1940 they will do the same thing…all Allies get the same sculpts and all Axis get the same sculpts. So France will get HMS Hood battleships and IS-2 tanks while Italy gets Kongo battleships and Tiger tanks.

I doubt that will happen. I believe global will remain a delux version. Actually I expect that global will get the new sculpts introduced in 41 and 42 but only for the appropriate countries. Ie I expect to see Russian but not British IS-2s. I also expect there will be a FEW new sculpts. (likely Italian)

@knp7765:

What I’m afraid of after seeing pics of 1941 is that when they reprint Europe 1940 they will do the same thing…all Allies get the same sculpts and all Axis get the same sculpts. So France will get HMS Hood battleships and IS-2 tanks while Italy gets Kongo battleships and Tiger tanks.

Now gentlemen, that would really drive their sales into the sewer and prove what we on this forum have known all along, Wizards of The Coast Avlon Hill doesn’t care about quality or iconic.  It all about the bottom line greenbacks!  Let get real Tigers and JS IIs in 1940 or 1941 how stupid can you get!

The French need a Full land, Air and Naval set just as the Japanese are receiving.  Think about it, the French Army was one of largest in the world before WWII and their Navy was larger than any Axis accept the IJN!
The French had more different types of tanks then the entire German, Italian and Japanese Armies combined.
From their small calvary tanks to their 10 each massive Char 2C monsters built by FMC.

WARRIOR888

I agree I would like the French set to be the 3 set combo Japan is getting

The following is pure speculation on my part:

I don’t know that every nation will need 3 sets. Certainly Japan, US (not including Marines), UK and Germany. Russia is heavily land based and would not require the extensive navy that Japan will get, but does need enough equipment to keep up with the Germans. We may be able to fit them into 2. We will have to wait and see on that. It’s a long way away right now! The Italians and French could probably be fit into 2 sets each as well. Keep in mind there are Axis Minors is brown and neutrals in blue. No fear though, I know Coach plans to do justice to the French and give them a great set.

IMO the only way to give them justice is giving them all there own units so we can play france with zero blue russians

Yeah, we all hate the blue Russians…

i’ll take that as good new for france  :-D

well if its true that reprint of 1940 is coming out this 4th quarter than i say might as well wait until it comes out to see if OOB made anything new

@Lunarwolf:

well if its true that reprint of 1940 is coming out this 4th quarter than i say might as well wait until it comes out to see if OOB made anything new

New pieces in a reprint for the French are unlikely IMO.

I would rather get one French set, then focus on other nations, because as much as we need new pieces… the French are on the board for 1-2 turns. However, I know they may be necessary for the 1939 game (which I would buy if I had the time or pieces to play  :-o)

@Spitfire38:

@Lunarwolf:

well if its true that reprint of 1940 is coming out this 4th quarter than i say might as well wait until it comes out to see if OOB made anything new

New pieces in a reprint for the French are unlikely IMO.

I would rather get one French set, then focus on other nations, because as much as we need new pieces… the French are on the board for 1-2 turns. However, I know they may be necessary for the 1939 game (which I would buy if I had the time or pieces to play  :-o)

IMO the French could be done in one set if and only if it has a full range of naval units, which for me means at least one of each the current ship types, and preferably a couple of “tweeners” too (i.e. a CB or old BB and a contre-torpilleur or light cruiser) because I want the diplomatic maneuvers over the French Fleet to be an important part of my GW1939 set-up.

lol and that’s the problem because in my opinion France can be done in one set as long as includes a French version of everything that’s on the game board at set up. So no French BB or CV but we would get french tanks and planes. Seems people are split on the issue some want the set to be strong navy others want only what is needed to put french units on the board.

@Yavid:

lol and that’s the problem because in my opinion France can be done in one set as long as includes a French version of everything that’s on the game board at set up. So no French BB or CV but we would get french tanks and planes. Seems people are split on the issue some want the set to be strong navy others want only what is needed to put french units on the board.

But if that’s all you want then there’s no problem with oob, since it won’t be on the board long anyway… I want French units so I can experiment with set-ups DIFFERENT from oob scenerios, especially because one major thing that I use war-games for is as teaching tools for my students.

oh no I hate blue russians. makes me think the purges depressed the russians and to get away they ran to paris to defend the place from the germans.

@Yavid:

oh no I hate blue russians. makes me think the purges depressed the russians and to get away they ran to paris to defend the place from the germans.

Well, at this scale a T-34/76 could pass for a Somua S-35, a Yak-1 or a MiG-3 could pass for an M.S. 406, or, for that matter a D. 520 (which had its cockpit further back like the MiG, but was said to be so similar to the Yak-1 in flying characteristics that Free French pilots trained on it in England to get ready to fly Yaks in Russia…) � The artillery is really a US 105 mm, which has a fairly generic Field Artillery look in any case, and they don’t start a out with any Mechs anyway, so what’s the big deal with the land units? � It’s the naval units where France was most distinctive (and formidable, actually) and it is where using Soviet units most short-changes them!

@DrLarsen:

@Yavid:

oh no I hate blue russians. makes me think the purges depressed the russians and to get away they ran to paris to defend the place from the germans.

Well, at this scale a T-34/76 could pass for a Somua S-35, a Yak-1 could pass for an M.S. 406, or, for that matter a D. 520 (which had its cockpit further back like the MiG but was said to be so similar in flying characteristics to the Yak-1 that Free French pilots trained on it in England to get ready to fly Yaks in Russia…)�  The artillery is really a US 105 mm, which has a fairly generic Field Artillery look in any case, and they don’t start a out with any Mechs anyway, so what’s the big deal with the land units?�  It’s the naval units where France was most distinctive (and formidable, actually) and it is where using Soviet units most short-changes them!

Oh, and keeping in mind that they do have an oob Infantry that looks pretty good imho.