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I got my Japanese pieces in today. Everything looks awesome. Good Job guys.

@Yavid:

I got my Japanese pieces in today. Everything looks awesome. Good Job guys.

Congratulations! What color or colors did you get? :-D

I just got OOB orange. and I did get a German coaster which made me laugh

@Yavid:

I just got OOB orange. and I did get a German coaster which made me laugh

Well, I’m glad you got them. :-D

@Yavid:

and I did get a German coaster which made me laugh

The Japanese coaster is by far the best. Red disk on one side, rising sun on the other; looks really cool. Sitting on my desk at work right now. I have a friend here who is into Japanese television, culture and cars and he was kinda jealous of it. I think I might order one for him next time I get some pieces.

@LHoffman:

@Yavid:

and I did get a German coaster which made me laugh

The Japanese coaster is by far the best. Red disk on one side, rising sun on the other; looks really cool. Sitting on my desk at work right now. I have a friend here who is into Japanese television, culture and cars and he was kinda jealous of it. I think I might order one for him next time I get some pieces.

Yes, I agree. It is my favorite as well. :-D

HBG’s roundel coasters look so good that I’ve never put any drinking glasses on them, in order not to spoil them.  :-)  I currently have the US, USSR, Germany and Japan coasters, and I’ll add the UK and Italian ones the next time I order something.  I hope HBG will produce ANZAC, France and China ones too at some point, since it would be great to have a complete set for the Gloabl 1940 nations.

They sound cool. Are they a freebie when you order a certain number of nation specific units or are they offered for sale?

@CWO:

HBG’s roundel coasters look so good that I’ve never put any drinking glasses on them, in order not to spoil them.  :-)  I currently have the US, USSR, Germany and Japan coasters, and I’ll add the UK and Italian ones the next time I order something.  I hope HBG will produce ANZAC, France and China ones too at some point, since it would be great to have a complete set for the Gloabl 1940 nations.

Yes, it would be cool to add the other nations. :-D

@wittmann:

They sound cool. Are they a freebie when you order a certain number of nation specific units or are they offered for sale?

Both.  You can order them, but HBG often tosses a free one into the boxes of products that they ship to customers.  The ones I received with my early orders were square HBG logo coasters, but a while ago HBG switched to providing roundel coasters.  They’re essentially jumbo-sized territorial markers, and they could be used in all sorts of fun ways – for example as identification markers for sculpt boxes – so it would be neat for HBG to produce them for the remaining countries.

I see. Thanks Marc.
I am waiting on the UK set and bought the German one last year, but I do not feel the need(like you!) to get too many.
Hope you have been well.

In this thread…

http://www.axisandallies.org/forums/index.php?topic=33624.0

…John Brown mentioned that he was looking forward (as I am) to HBG’s forthcoming French WWII set, which is much needed because France’s only distinctive OOB sculpt is the infantry unit.  I was looking at HBG’s Design Stage page for the set, and I noticed that it includes every Global 1940 Second Edition unit type except the anti-aircraft artillery piece.  Would HBG consider including an AAA unit as part of the set to fill this gap?

I checked on the AAA weapons that France had in WWII (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_anti-aircraft_guns), and the options are fairly narrow.  The 25 mm Hotchkiss anti-aircraft gun (“Mitrailleuse de 25”) would be a good contender, since it’s a reasonably large weapon.  The Hotchkiss M1929 machine gun (“Mitrailleuse de 13.2”) was much lighter, being a 13.2 mm machine gun rather than a 25mm autocannon.  Both were produced by the same French company.  The Hispano-Suiza HS.404, produced by the French subsidiary of a Spanish firm, was a 20mm weapon, midway in caliber between the other two weapons.

Not to dampen anyone else’s excitement, but France is dead last on my list of anticipation, besides maybe China. Boring units with little to no war contribution and present for about 5 minutes of A&A gameplay. 99.85% of the pieces will never be used.

If France is ever in a position to actually buy anything, the German player should be quitting before it happens. No point in prolonging the inevitable.

I am rather interested in their ships though. That is one usable unit, which I would personally love to modify rules for… such as French naval units having the possibility of being taken over by Germany. Would make games a bit more interesting.

@LHoffman:

Not to dampen anyone else’s excitement, but France is dead last on my list of anticipation, besides maybe China.

Fair enough, though my suggestion wasn’t about changing HBG’s production schedule or about adding a new set; it was a question about a possible one-unit tweak to a 20-unit-type set that HBG is already designing and planning to produce.

@LHoffman:

Not to dampen anyone else’s excitement, but France is dead last on my list of anticipation, besides maybe China. Boring units with little to no war contribution and present for about 5 minutes of A&A gameplay. 99.85% of the pieces will never be used.

If France is ever in a position to actually buy anything, the German player should be quitting before it happens. No point in prolonging the inevitable.

I am rather interested in their ships though. That is one usable unit, which I would personally love to modify rules for… such as French naval units having the possibility of being taken over by Germany. Would make games a bit more interesting.

I’m excited because I make up my own home games. I live so far from anyone that plays, that I make up games sometimes, and the more pieces from different countries, the better for me.

I played some games with Tall Paul, but we never have time to finish them, and he lives over 2 hours away. I only get to play every couple of months with him, so anything new just adds to my game.

I like to develop, “what if scenarios?”.

That is the cool thing about axis and allies and HBG making these pieces, because you can develop your own games and house rules.

You can have a 21st century battle with just France and England, if you choose. You could pretend the Chinese and Russians are on the same side and use the red Japanese armies as China and the OOB or Maroon HBG pieces to represent Russia, taking on the world.

Most people will play the global game, but there are some of us that have other games in mind that we can use these pieces for.

That is what so great about HBG, they think outside the box. They cater to all kinds of players.

One of the things, I hope they produce someday, is a Vietnam Boxed game with expansions later for it, with plastic Huey helicopters, Chinooks, Riverboats for Seal Teams, LRRP patrols, Green Beret, Marines and other special forces, F4 Phantom and other bomber planes, NVA, Vietcong, and many units used in the war.

I wouldn’t mind them having French units from 1954, when they were there and it stretching to 1975, or the Australians involvement during the war.

Of course, it wouldn’t play like axis and allies, it would be a different game, but I guess point I’m making, is not everyone will like the same things, but HBG has something for everyone.

I’m excited about the next couple of board games.

Many people wanted Amerika and that is great, but it wasn’t my cup of tea, but Midway, on the other hand, I’m excited about.

So there is nothing wrong if your not excited about it, but your not dampening my excitement, because I know what I want to use them for.

What set are you excited about the most? :-D

@LHoffman:

Not to dampen anyone else’s excitement, but France is dead last on my list of anticipation, besides maybe China. Boring units with little to no war contribution and present for about 5 minutes of A&A gameplay. 99.85% of the pieces will never be used.

If France is ever in a position to actually buy anything, the German player should be quitting before it happens. No point in prolonging the inevitable.

I am rather interested in their ships though. That is one usable unit, which I would personally love to modify rules for… such as French naval units having the possibility of being taken over by Germany. Would make games a bit more interesting.

I like that idea Hoffman. Imagine Britain does a successful Taranto, only to discover the French Med ships come after them!
Even a 33% chance would throw a spanner in the Works and make the UK player think twice.

I am looking forward to the French WW2 set. Sometimes I have made up variants. In one, France was a member of the Axis so they stayed in the game for a while and were actually able to buy other different units. That was fun.
I’ve also tried out a RISK type game using the A&A map and units. You can have all sorts of armies with all the different colors now available.

@CWO:

Fair enough, though my suggestion wasn’t about changing HBG’s production schedule or about adding a new set; it was a question about a possible one-unit tweak to a 20-unit-type set that HBG is already designing and planning to produce.�

Yes, I did realize that. I was just stating something that I thought was sort of relevant and have been wanting to say for some time anyway. It wasn’t really directed at anyone in particular. No problem though.

@wittmann:

@LHoffman:

I am rather interested in their ships though. That is one usable unit, which I would personally love to modify rules for… such as French naval units having the possibility of being taken over by Germany. Would make games a bit more interesting.

I like that idea Hoffman. Imagine Britain does a successful Taranto, only to discover the French Med ships come after them!
Even a 33% chance would throw a spanner in the Works and make the UK player think twice.

I do believe that the idea of a French defection/commandeer scenario has been thrown about before, both with the naval element and some sort of Vichy France rule. I personally do not care for any Vichy France additions since it is superfluous and would unnecessarily complicate play.

Now, maybe it is just because I am a sucker for seeing capital ships on the board, but I think it would add another dynamic to the game if Germany could somehow commandeer French ships on the board after they take Paris. Similar to what (almost) happened in the war. I don’t know, maybe Germany has to roll a 5 or 6 to obtain the ships. Maybe they keep getting a chance to roll every turn that the ships are on the board, until then they remain a sort of pro-Axis neutral. Unless Germany rolls a 1, in which case they move to Allied control. … I don’t know this would have to be worked out a bit.

This would also open up the ability for Allied ships to come in and destroy them, similar to a Mers-el-Kebir situation.

I think this would make games a bit more interesting and also realistic, since French naval squadrons did not actually fight with the Allies like often happens in the game. (I know individual French ships did, but not on the scale that is referenced in A&A.)

@John:

What set are you excited about the most? :-D

Well, in terms of upcoming sets that we know about, I would have to say Axis Minor Set 2, with US Expansion being a very close second. I am very excited for a decent Panther sculpt, as well as Bismarck. But my favorite piece in the set has to be the Deutschland-class pocket battleship. … Like I said, I am a sucker for capital ships.

I tend to be less excited for whole sets than I am really pumped up for certain pieces. The Deutschland is one of these, others include:

Yorktown-class carrier USA (confirmed) - I said before and will say again, if this is the last piece they do, I will be eternally satisfied.
Lexington-class carrier USA (?)
Pzkpfw. IV Germany (?)
Pzkpfw. VI Ausf. B Tiger II (?)
F6F Hellcat USA (?)
Hood-class battlecruiser Britain (?)
Shokaku-class carrier Japan (?)
Vittorio Venito-class battleship Italy (?)
B-24 Liberator bomber USA (confirmed)
Nelson-class battleship Britain (?)
SBD Dauntless TAC bomber USA (?)
Takao-class cruiser Japan (?)
Fw 200 Condor bomber/transport Germany (?)
Alaska-class cruiser USA (?)

Granted some of these may not fit into HBG’s production theory, but I would love to see them regardless.

Below are some that HBG has already produced, but could really use a do-over in terms of sculpt quality, size, proportions or detail. They are not at the same level as the pieces HBG is currently producing:

F4U Corsair fighter USA
P-51D Mustang fighter USA
P-40 Warhawk fighter USA
Nevada-class battleship USA
Fw190 fighter Germany

LHoffman, I like your list a lot. those are much needed pieces and some could be redone, as well.

@LHoffman:

I do believe that the idea of a French defection/commandeer scenario has been thrown about before, both with the naval element and some sort of Vichy France rule. I personally do not care for any Vichy France additions since it is superfluous and would unnecessarily complicate play. […] I think this would make games a bit more interesting and also realistic, since French naval squadrons did not actually fight with the Allies like often happens in the game. (I know individual French ships did, but not on the scale that is referenced in A&A.)

The part of the OOB rules which says “This game doesn’t deal with the German installment of the Vichy government in France. All French units, after the fall of France, will continue to be controlled by the player that was selected to control France (US or UK).” is noteworthy because, essentially, it means that the game depicts an alternate-history scenario in which France set up a government in exile rather than surrendering and that it kept fighting on the Allied side from its colonial empire.  So while the actual historical events of WWII did set up a situation in which the Vichy-controlled French fleet was mostly inactive, the game itself provides a good justification for giving the French fleet a more active role.