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I can only image how busy the people at HBG are.  Makes me wonder what it’s like.  We’ll just have to wait and see how things unfold from here.  Maybe some rich enthusiast might come by there and make everything way easier :p.

I can’t see them excluding the Soviet Navy from the set.  The OOB set came with models, but not many for obvious reasons.  It would almost feel incomplete if HBG had a new set without any navy.  That’s just my opinion though, of course.

Yeah, I’m sure they will eventually make a Russian set that includes ships, it’s just not a high priority what with the new games, US Expansion, Axis Minors 2, French Basic, Facilities and so on. Things just take time is all. Like you, I would like to see HBG versions of everything because they look so much better. However, for now I am satisfied with the OOB Russian ships. For one thing, at least Russia has their own ship types. They even have their own carrier thanks to the 1941 game.

Secondly, in most games Russia NEVER buys a ship. Although, we will occasionally come up with a sort of custom Global 40 game with different alliances so you will see countries buying stuff they would normally never buy. In one game, France was part of the Axis so they didn’t get wiped out round 1, but actually went along for several rounds. It was neat to see France buying stuff and going on the offensive.

@knp7765:

Yeah, I’m sure they will eventually make a Russian set that includes ships, it’s just not a high priority what with the new games, US Expansion, Axis Minors 2, French Basic, Facilities and so on. Things just take time is all. Like you, I would like to see HBG versions of everything because they look so much better. However, for now I am satisfied with the OOB Russian ships. For one thing, at least Russia has their own ship types. They even have their own carrier thanks to the 1941 game.

Secondly, in most games Russia NEVER buys a ship. Although, we will occasionally come up with a sort of custom Global 40 game with different alliances so you will see countries buying stuff they would normally never buy. In one game, France was part of the Axis so they didn’t get wiped out round 1, but actually went along for several rounds. It was neat to see France buying stuff and going on the offensive.

––Yes, the Russians almost never purchase a ship,…but what is to say that we can’t have a
“Tsushima 1905” game just like we already have a “Midway” game.  I know that a “Pearl Harbor” game  is one that the “Coach” had expressed an interest in producing (one day).

Tall Paul

I see what you mean Tall Paul, but we are talking about sets for Global 39/40 which is WW2 sets. In other words, SOVIET Russia.
If we were to get a “Tsushima 1905” game, you are talking Czarist Russia with much different ship types. Plus, in that case, we would need a totally different Japanese navy set as well.

While I am always open to exploration, I am skeptical of how a Pearl Harbor game would work.

Seems like a surprise attack with overwhelming forces will only ever go one way. Not to mention that the very nature of the game would remove that level of surprise. For example… would the Americans ever be able to win at Pearl Harbor? How would they do so? Or will the game only ever be to see how many more Japanese planes they can shoot down? Just seems like there is little room for a different outcome.

But that is an aside from the purpose of this thread…  :roll:

@Tall:

Yes, the Russians almost never purchase a ship,….but what is to say that we can’t have a “Tsushima 1905” game just like we already have a “Midway” game.  I know that a “Pearl Harbor” game  is one that the “Coach” had expressed an interest in producing (one day).

A Tsushima game would be fun, but it would be a sculpt nightmare on the Russian side.  The Russian fleet at Tsushima was a mish-mash of ship types drawn from every corner of the Russian Navy, many of them decrepit and completely unsuited for a major fleet action.  These second- and third-rate vessels were imposed on the commanding Russian admiral (who would happily have done without them) by his political bosses back home who believed that quantity mattered more than quality in naval warfare.  Their main effect was to limit his fleet to the speed of slowest unit as it sailed ponderously halfway around the world to meet the Japanese fleet in its home waters, at the bottom of which most of the Russian ships ended up.

Guys,

––Perhaps throwing out a SPECIFIC example for a Russian naval game was unfortunate,…but what you should understand as my MAIN POINT is:
by the time HBG finishes producing the U.S. Sets (don’t forget HBG’s “War Plan Orange” units),…

----We are ALREADY GOING TO OWN all of the U.S. world war 1 Battleships we would need for a
“Pearl Harbor” game.
––And just think, we might have a 1920’s wargame with Japan (which almost actually happenned), including the Battleships and Battle Cruisers like the Lexington and Saratoge that became Aircraft Carriers.
----I’m just saying,…we should keep an “open mind” as to what games we may have available in the (near) future.

Tall Paul   :-D

As far as custom or oob units go I’d still like to have at least one type of everything. I like “what-if” scenarios a lot. I often fanaticize about having scenarios where the allies continue the war against the Soviets or many other scenarios where one might need Russian sculpts that aren’t often purchased in the game.

I can’t read HBG’s mind(s) but I have no doubt that they think about these things too. So whatever they want to produce I’m a buyer pretty much. In one of CWOMarc’s previous posts I believe he has similar sentiment in regards to the days where the best you could get “stock” for A&A was Table Tactics (Which I happen to miss greatly) taking nothing away from them, but HBG has taken custom sculpts to the next level by leaps and bounds.

So while there are some thing I wish they would or wouldn’t have produced I’m glad they’re doing it.

@Tall:

we should keep an “open mind” as to what games we may have available in the (near) future.

Yes, I’m quite willing to do so because, to echo Toblerone’s point, any occasion when HBG produces a new set of sculpts is a welcome one.  There are different preferences about which sets should come first, but everyone seems glad that we’re getting so much variety from the folks at HBG.

Those among us who like to create their own customized game scenarios (including games outside of the historical boundaries of WWII) are particularly well served by all the models and colours of battle pieces that the company has been producing.  Devising custom game rules is something that anyone can do easily, since it requires little more than a word processor.  Creating custom maps is tougher, since it requires software and talents that not everyone has, but at least it’s easy to get the maps printed commercially once they’ve been drawn.  Designing and manufacturing plastic sculpts, however, is something that most people are better off leaving to professionals (even in this age of 3-D printing) if they want to get their hands on a large assortment of high-quality sculpts in multiple copies, which is why I’m happy to see HBG tackling that part of the job on everyone’s behalf.

We are looking at a lot of different things and are in the works of more than I can say but once we get over this hump this year, Amerika boxed game, revamping our website on purchasing pieces, New designs for game and game designers. We will follow this up in our newsletter to keep everybody informed on what we are doing and the direction we are going. Thank you all for your continual support.

Coach, are the British Sets ready to be delivered to us this week or is there a delay? :-)

Thanks,

John

@John:

Coach, are the British Sets ready to be delivered to us this week or is there a delay? :-)

Thanks,

John

We  will start shipping on friday, start. It will take 7-10 days to do them all.

@coachofmany:

@John:

Coach, are the British Sets ready to be delivered to us this week or is there a delay? :-)

Thanks,

John

We  will start shipping on friday, start. It will take 7-10 days to do them all.

Thanks Coach! :-)

Coach, any chance of getting the German Expansion set in Italian Brown? Just about everyone but Italy has a good paratrooper and I for one would love to have that set for my Italians.

Coach has plans on doing an Italian set sometime in the future, but it may be a while since we still have the US Expansion set, Axis Minors 2 set, French WW2 set, Facilities set and French WW1 set in the works.
Also, there are the Global Expansion sets coming up. I think they have started on the first one “Island Warfare”.
Plus there are new full games like Midway and Kursk.
Since Italy is a relatively minor nation, plus we have the FMG Italy set, so I’m afraid that gets put on the back burner.
Although the German Expansion set in Italian Brown would be interesting. It would depend on how much interest there is to justify the expense. Remember, HBG would have to order a minimum of 1000 sets before the factory in China will make them.

@knp7765:

Remember, HBG would have to order a minimum of 1000 sets before the factory in China will make them.

And unfortunately this problem can’t be solved by having China build more Industral Complexes, since the rules don’t allow that.  :-D

Well they did do the US set in orange and white recently and the moulds are already cast. I agree Italy is a minor nation but so is Anzac.  If I have to I guess I’ll just paint some Germans Italian brown.

I do have some FMG units but honesly they aren’t my favorite and I liked it better when they sold the large batches of units as opposed to the way they sell them now.

@toblerone77:

I do have some FMG units but honesly they aren’t my favorite

Some of them are quite good (particularly the SPA and infantry w/ machine gun). The ships, which I once thought were amazing, are incredibly pedestrian compared with the new HBG ships.

But I second Toblerone… I would love to see Italian units sooner rather than later. Be that as it may, since I understand that production is set for some time, but I definitely find Italian units more interesting than a French set or a WWI set.

LHoffman,
I would definitely agree with you on wanting WW2 Italians before the WW1 pieces. Then again, I really didn’t get into A&A 1914 that much and that was the only WW1 game that I even played. I am much more interested in WW2. So I have very little interest in seeing a WW1 set.
However, I must disagree with you on the French WW2 set. I am really wanting to see real French units. I am sick of the blue Soviet units for France. At least with Italy we do have the FMG sets and pretty decent OOB pieces. I really like the OOB Littorio class Battleship and Zara class Cruiser. I also like that tank from OOB, I think it is the Carro Armato 18/42.
Also, I rarely use paratroops in my game anyway so getting an Italian paratroop unit doesn’t concern me so much. I’m sorry to those of you that are really into paratroops, but I can’t vote with you on that one.

@knp7765:

LHoffman,
I would definitely agree with you on wanting WW2 Italians before the WW1 pieces. Then again, I really didn’t get into A&A 1914 that much and that was the only WW1 game that I even played. I am much more interested in WW2. So I have very little interest in seeing a WW1 set.
However, I must disagree with you on the French WW2 set. I am really wanting to see real French units. I am sick of the blue Soviet units for France. At least with Italy we do have the FMG sets and pretty decent OOB pieces. I really like the OOB Littorio class Battleship and Zara class Cruiser. I also like that tank from OOB, I think it is the Carro Armato 18/42.
Also, I rarely use paratroops in my game anyway so getting an Italian paratroop unit doesn’t concern me so much. I’m sorry to those of you that are really into paratroops, but I can’t vote with you on that one.

I used the paras as an example. I agree also with wanting French and WWI units. I just think it kind of sucks that we have Axis minors 1 with Italian Brown  units as well as the upcoming Axis Minors 2 set. For continuity, the German supplemental set could use at least Italian brown units maybe even the other colors. To the best of my knowledge once the mold is done for a set another color set is not as prohibitive in cost. Hence Orange, White, and the older  French-Blue US supplement set.

We have pink Japanese units as well and I’m not sure where the demand for that is LOL. I guess collection-wise I should get some.

I guess what I’m getting at is I’d like to see at least “one of each type” for all the playable nations in the game.