Was there something radically different in the whole production process between the Amerika set and the Germany #3 set that explains the big quality gap, though? It does seem a little mystifying to me…
I have a theory. A couple of years ago, the main focus was on the new piece sets, particularly on the new 3-d modeling of the prototype sculpts for each set. A lot of time and effort went into designing and perfecting each sculpt and I think they took a lot of pride in each and every piece. Thus HBG demanded near perfection and would not present them to us, the customers, until they were absolutely right.
If you will remember, there were a couple of sets that came out very good, just in an odd color shade. First was the Axis Minor set that was supposed to be in Italian Brown. The first time they came out in too dark a shade of brown. Second was the Russian set that was supposed to be in the same OOB color of Maroon, a dark brown with a reddish tint. They came out more of a plain dark brown.
When each of these “mistakes” came out, Coach apologized to us profusely and sold these pieces at a very reduced cost so as to not take a total loss on the cost of them. He immediately demanded that the factory tweak the colors to get the right shade and then filled our pre-orders and had those sets ready for sale on the site.
At this time, they did produce some games but these mainly consisted of special rule sets with some specific parts and sometimes new map/boards using mainly existing OOB and HBG pieces to play.
Then the Kickstarter campaign for Amerika was successful and HBG was able to start serious work on their first totally boxed game with all the parts necessary to play it. In other words, you could have absolutely no gaming pieces or accessories, buy this game and still play it.
Amerika became HBG’s baby, taking most of the focus of their efforts. There was a huge amount of work to go into this, designing the box, all the cardboard art of the inner boxes, the game board, the playing and reference cards, all of the new playing sculpts for the game (24 different totally new sculpts), all of the new Expansion sculpts (20 different totally new sculpts) and all of the neat little bonus items earned through the Kickstarter Level goals (special dice, dice bags, 1st player marker, mouse pads, tee shirts, etc.)
Now, all of these items would take a lot of effort even if they were sub-par, slapped together games with average piece quality (Xeno games comes to mind). However, this would not do for HBG. They worked hard to make sure every piece was the highest quality. This was especially true of the plastic gaming pieces. They are some of the highest quality I have seen in any retail board game.
Since Amerika was such a huge undertaking, most other projects simply had to be put on hold or at least move at a slower pace. Even with this, they still managed to make the fabulous US Expansion set in parallel to working on Amerika, as well as a number of smaller projects like special markers and such.
With the great success of Amerika, Coach and his team want to turn out more new games. Several projects are in the works now, from a number of special battle games like Kursk and Midway to the Global War series.
Unfortunately, the piece sets that we have all grown to love have now seemed to have taken a back seat to new game designing. While the US Expansion set came out nicely, I fear that the Germany 3 set suffered from the new direction that HBG seems to be taking. It just seems to me that if the Germany 3 set came out a couple of years ago, Coach would not have accepted the somewhat lesser quality, particularly with the Bismarck, and would have demanded the factory correct the problem. Unfortunately, I get the feeling that selling and designing the pieces is no longer a priority and have been superseded by new game design, 3d units and acrylic markers.
I would note that the only problems were with the ship pieces, and those are the hardest to make good at these tiny scales. The infantry, vehicle and plane pieces all still look great to me.
HBG has already announced that future pieces will no longer be available in full sets but in quantities of five units. Personally, I am not sure how I feel about this. I kind of got used to the sets and think I will miss them. On the other hand, it will be easier to get the right amount of certain units that you really want. For example, with the Germany 3 set I would not have gotten any of the bi-plane fighter because I don’t use them in my games.
I still do not understand how HBG will be accepting pre-orders for new piece sets if there will be no full sets available anymore. Perhaps future gaming pieces will not need pre-sales?
Anyway, that is my theory for what it’s worth. New game design has taken over from piece sales.
Compelling theory knp.
Compelling theory knp.
Yes, and a close (but shorter) variant of knp’s theory would go like this: for what are probably factory-related reasons, HBG finds it harder to manufacture injection-molded sculpts than other types of gaming equipment, so they’ve gradually been shifting their focus away from those types of sculpts. Which is regretable in my opinion, because those sculpts have always been the HBG product line in which I’ve been most interested.
@CWO:
Compelling theory knp.
Yes, and a close (but shorter) variant of knp’s theory would go like this: for what are probably factory-related reasons, HBG finds it harder to manufacture injection-molded sculpts than other types of gaming equipment, so they’ve gradually been shifting their focus away from those types of sculpts. Which is regretable in my opinion, because those sculpts have always been the HBG product line in which I’ve been most interested.
Okay, that sounds a little scary. I would hate to see the day that HBG no longer offers the plastic sculpts.
Okay, that sounds a little scary. I would hate to see the day that HBG no longer offers the plastic sculpts.
I’d hate that too, and I’d be happy for my theory to be proven wrong. Note that I said “shifting their focus away from those types of sculpts”, not “dropping their sculpts entirely.”
Well, I hope you’re wrong about the de-emphasis on sculpts, too. I try to spend money on all kinds of HBG products to show my support, but it’s the new pieces that make the whole thing worthwhile for me.
As for the 3d modelled ones, I’ve ordered quite a few, both from the HBG site and directly from Shapeways, but I continually find it frustrating that they’re such a mixed bag… So far we have available super-BB’s for Germany, Japan and France… and the Netherlands… but not the USA or UK? We have a “Taiho-Kai” but no Midway or Malta? And does anyone get what his obsession is for flying boats? I can’t for the life of me come up with a use for them…
Meanwhile, though the Amerika piece set + its expansion gives us nearly every jet or heavy tank we could want, they’re available only in a very limited color palette, so they’re not in the colors that I’ve been using for elites (Dark Green for US, Red for Japan & Black for Germany.) On the other hand, if I switch and have the darker colors be the “normal” and the lighter Amerika shades be the “elites/ heavies” the holes in HBG’s legacy line-up make this difficult, too. (e.g., no small ships at all available in the dark green…) It’s like the company has ADD and can’t focus on the little details enough to maintain consistency or logically-fleshed-out model lines across individual products…
To me it seems simple: if you’re going to do Super-BB’s, do them for everyone before you stop and do flying boats for some nation…
To me it seems simple: if you’re going to do Super-BB’s, do them for everyone before you stop and do flying boats for some nation…
Wait, on second thought, just skip the stupid flying boats altogether… And those silly gliders and all the other ridiculous and useless units (Landkreuzer P 1000 Ratte, here’s looking at you!) Has anyone actually gotten any use out of those flying boats or gliders or ridiculous uber-weapons? Am I missing something here…?!?
To me it seems simple: if you’re going to do Super-BB’s, do them for everyone before you stop and do flying boats for some nation…
Wait, on second thought, just skip the stupid flying boats altogether… And those silly gliders and all the other ridiculous and useless units (Landkreuzer P 1000 Ratte, here’s looking at you!) Has anyone actually gotten any use out of those flying boats or gliders or ridiculous uber-weapons? Am I missing something here…?!?
I don’t think you are missing anything. That is your opinion, but I happen to agree with you. The standardization that was planned for the sets has been semi-maintained in the sets themselves, but now that HBG has said they are no longer making sets, I am afraid that idea is going to be thrown out too. That is unfortunate because I really appreciate consistency.
I have been under the impression from the start that HBG was to create batches of new game usable pieces in sculpts not found in the OOB Axis and Allies. There would be some versions of sculpts found in the OOB game (e.g. Shermans, Zeros, Bismarck, etc…) but most of them would be heretofore unseen (e.g. Liberator, Tiger II, Me262, etc…). Then, once the “new” sculpts were deemed mostly complete, HBG would start work on OOB replacement pieces (P-38, B-17, etc.) which would be up to the HBG standards of better detail and consistent sizing.
Apparently this is not the case any more, if it ever was. While I don’t think it is necessary to stick to that exact formula, the premise is pretty good: new sculpts to replace OOB unit types, with a few logical riffs such as jet fighters and heavy units. I would prefer to see a bunch of OOB replacement sculpts than historically obscure, non-regular use pieces like superweapons, alternate history vehicles and niche unit types with no concrete use with basic A&A rules.
Yeah, it’s one thing to have a set of advanced weapons that are 1 notch (or even half a notch) better than the typical, but so many of the new 3d-printed “expansions” just seem so out there…
IMO, HBG has far too many irons in the fire and has lost sight of both what we want and what they originally set out to do. The large number of roads half taken have caused me to lose faith in them. When they were at the top of their game, the pieces they were producing were excellent. It’s a shame we have so many unfinished product lines and essentially dead projects. I used to check their website often. Now, it’s something like once every six months and dropping. That’s too bad too because they showed great promise at one point.
Most of the custom made pieces and units at HBG reward points if purchased (At least that’s what the website claims). My last order I was suppose to be rewarded a bunch of points but never did. This was my third order at HBG and the first time this happened. When I contacted HBG via facebook (they reply within minutes if not seconds) they said not all orders reward points which puzzled me. So I specifically made a list of my purchased pieces with the corresponding amount of reward points according to the HBG website and send it off. No reply back. Anyone else experience something like this before?
Most of the custom made pieces and units at HBG reward points if purchased (At least that’s what the website claims). My last order I was suppose to be rewarded a bunch of points but never did. This was my third order at HBG and the first time this happened. When I contacted HBG via facebook (they reply within minutes if not seconds) they said not all orders reward points which puzzled me. So I specifically made a list of my purchased pieces with the corresponding amount of reward points according to the HBG website and send it off. No reply back. Anyone else experience something like this before?
Are you logged in to your account when purchasing and trying to redeem points or check your balance? I have not personally had this problem.
Are you logged in to your account when purchasing and trying to redeem points or check your balance? I have not personally had this problem.
Yes I am logged in.
Are you logged in to your account when purchasing and trying to redeem points or check your balance? I have not personally had this problem.
Yes I am logged in.
I am not sure then, sorry. I haven’t had an issue like that, but I also have not ordered from HBG in a while. I do have reward points in my account currently though.
I don’t know if this helps, but when you get some of the 3D printed pieces, they don’t award points for those because their profit margin is very small on those.
I’ve gotten reward points on their pieces from the combat unit sets and some of the acrylic markers and battle labels. Just not on the 3D printed pieces or old A&A pieces.
I don’t know if this helps, but when you get some of the 3D printed pieces, they don’t award points for those because their profit margin is very small on those.
I’ve gotten reward points on their pieces from the combat unit sets and some of the acrylic markers and battle labels. Just not on the 3D printed pieces or old A&A pieces.
Thank you for the reply knp. The order was mostly combat units and clearly the HBG website states how many points should be awarded for the pieces I’ve odered.
What do ya’ll think about the Global War 1936 Base Set?
I love it
I love it
Well, sure, but its only up for pre-order now, yeah?
Guess I was more interested in asking what did all ya think about having calvary, partisans, mountaineers and the like?
And also the nation colored factories.
I love it
Well, sure, but its only up for pre-order now, yeah?
Guess I was more interested in asking what did all ya think about having calvary, partisans, mountaineers and the like?
And also the nation colored factories.
This is the first set that I don’t have a lot of interest in. The only pieces I am really looking forward to are the major and minor factories. I do like the idea of having them in national colors. I think I’m going to pass on the pre-order this time and wait until the factories are offered in sets of 5.
I am really looking forward to the French set. I might do the pre-order on that one.
