@LHoffman said in Customizers: which A&A games do you own?:
So what is everyone’s rationale for owning multiple copies, or many multiple copies, of the same game. If it is just for collecting purposes, then I suppose that rationale isn’t necessary. But otherwise is it to get pieces, for game value if/when they go out of print, spares, lending them out to others, hosting game parties or tournaments where multiple copies are needed…?
I have various reasons for owning multiple copies, but they all relate to the fact that the sculpts are the feature of the A&A games that I’ve always liked the most (with the maps coming in second place, and the actual game mechanics only coming in third place). I think I once mentioned this in an older thread, but what makes the sculpt / map combination so interesting to me is that it reminds me of the 1970s-era movie Midway, which features two map tables (a huge one in Nimitz’s headquarters in Hawaii and a smaller one on Yamamoto’s flagship), on which some suitably-shaped blocks representing planes and ships are used by both sides to plot the movements of the opposing forces as the operation progresses, as if they’re playing some kind of intricate game of chance and skill. It’s no surprise that the large Global 1940 map has turned out to be my favourite one, and I once used it and my sculpts to recreate the Midway operation (just as a map exercise, not as a game).
But anyway, I’ve always liked the idea of having a sculpt collection that’s large and diverse (both in terms of unit shapes and sculpt colours), because it offers more opportunity to depict WWII military situations on a map. Those opportunities were limited in the old days, when the number of player nations and unit types was small, but now the numbers and the diversity in my collection are large enough to allow some sculpts to be used in ways which go beyond their original purpose. For example: now that I own the second version of the Panther tank (the one introduced in Bulge, I think) in large enough numbers to fulfil every possible application as the standard German medium tank, I can reallocate the first version of the Panther to the role of a Jagdpanther tank destroyer. Ditto with the old small-scale version of the German 88mm FLAK gun: the new big version is actually used in Global 1940 as an AAA gun (which is what it was originally designed for in real life), so I can reallocate the old small version to serve as an 88mm anti-tank gun (an adaptation that actually was done with the 88mm, when the Germans discovered that this anti-aircraft gun was also a superb tank-killer). I’ve supplied China with the old lime-green British equipment pieces from (if I recall correctly) the Revised edition, to make up for the fact that China in Anniversary and Global only has infantry units; the greens don’t quite match, but they’re close enough. I have a tray (I keep all my sculpts in plastic trays) in which I’ve put all of my cherry-red Japanese pieces from the old Pacific game, and I’ve labeled it “Axis Minors” (to stand for Bulgaria and Hungary and so forth), and I have a similar Allied Minors tray in which I’ve put all the old purple Soviet pieces. I have two trays of “ANZAC grey” units: the ANZAC-patterned ones from the second edition of Pacific 1940, and the British-patterned ones from the first edition (with some AAA units borrowed from the second edition game); I’ve labeled the ANZAC-patterned one “Southern Commonwealth Dominions: Australia, New Zealand, South Africa” and I’ve labeled the British-patterned one “Northern Commonwealth Dominions: Canada, Newfoundland, Eire”. And so forth, just for the fun of it.
