@CWO:
@John:
It is good time to be a fan of axis and allies!Â
Yes, this is a good time to be an A&A piece junkie. When I compare all the goodies we have now (both OOB and from HBG) with the limited range that we had in the early days (both OOB and from folks like Table Tactics and Xeno Games), the difference is worlds apart. Back then, when I wanted to give an existing nation a unit type that didn’t exist OOB, or when I wanted to create an equipment set for a country that wasn’t yet officially part of the OOB game (France, for example), I had to make do with sculpts cobbled together from other sources – usually with very unsatisfactory results. Over the years, as more and better pieces (representing more unit types and issued in more colours) have become available, I’ve been able to correct a lot of those deficiencies. The inventories of the primary nations have been upgraded, while the “make do” sculpts have gradually been withdrawn from those inventories: they’ve either been reallocated to minor powers or retired altogether. It’s a bit like what happens to military equipment in real life, come to think of it. When (as an example) America’s military equipment starts showing its age, it’s replaced with new and better material and the old stuff gets given to the Marine and the National Guard, or it’s given or sold to allied countries. Those countries in turn sometimes re-sell the stuff as it ages even further, and so on, sometimes to the point where the weapons leave state control entirely and end up in the hands of revolutionary groups or similar organizations. I guess you could say that a very rough index of a military force’s status in the world is how many times its hand-me-down hardware has changed owners before they acquired it. Hmm…that’s a potential idea for what to do with all my retired-from-service sculpts: give them to the little revolutionary/nationalist groups that originated during WWII and that started campaigning against the colonial powers once the war ended.  :wink:
Yes, several people have showed me pictures of the old pieces, and you can tell a world of difference between the pieces then and now. I guess you could use your older pieces for nations like Portugal, Siam, Iraq and Brazil, until the Global sets fill those needs. Romania and Hungary will be getting a Global set in the near future as well as Brazil, so it is not far off. :-)