ITALY & CHINA COMBAT DICE - Help us design them!

FieldMarshalGames,

Wow they look great, + 1!  Thanks for the hard work you put into this.  Do you have a better idea now when we should see them on the shelves?

Thanks,

LT

I’ve been really trying to imagine what the AA dice might look like (IL really earned his keep with that idea.) Text is a definite not. Picture of an AA gun? Naah. Seems a little too “Milton Bradley” kiddie to fit in with the other dice you’re making. Which are obviously first rate and geared towards the advanced A&A enthusiast.

So I started thinking AA gunsight. Did some looking around. Most AA gunsights are very grid-like and somewhat plain (probably not something you’d put on a die.) But I found this one I thought had just the right classic lines for the intended purpose:

This is a 40mm Bofors AA gunsight. I drew this in Illustrator. I was picturing it on a white or light grey (AA piece color) die with all the other sides blank. You spot that badass in a roll and POW-POW-POW! Plane’s goin’ down!

Now I assume you screen print your dice so these lines might be too fine at dice size. If you used the original vector Illustrator file and screen printed it with a 300+ screen and using film (not liquid) emulsion… hmmm. Anyway, I drew the proportions matching an actual gunsight from a museum photo but the lines could always be beefed up for printing purposes if necessary.

You say help us design 'em… we help design 'em!  :-D ~ZP

yea use that. The dice are blue (pale blue like the sky) with white pips. The image is in white.

The new dice set would include just 15 dice, 6 Italian, 6 Chinese, 3 AA gun

oh yea… good question.

i think in terms of cost you can only choose either blank or pips on the other sides and i think they should be pips because of house rules where a two result would result in a damaged bomber ( it returns back to base and does not perform mission).

If cost is included for a unique image on the other 5 sides, then something like the same image with flak bursts on 5 sides, and a bomber blowing up on the one result?

I have a new idea: technology dice!  The dice could have an image of a wheel of industry or the standard flask and science desk setup or you have 2 dice: 1 with the tech image for success, then a second die that has the different techs on each side?

I know its kinda wild.

You could also make general dice for each nation:  each side has a unigue combat modifier you roll each turn for one battle

examples:

1= defender can retreat
2= attacker +1
3= defender +1
4= Entrenched defense ( this would be all hits rounded in half – 5 hits is actually 2 hits)
5= Surprise attack +2
6= attacker repulsed ( they must retreat)

these generals dice would be used a number of times during the game… like 2-3 times per game or the dice can be purchased like a special action like paratroopers?

just ideas…

also you can have a winter die for unique winter results that may effect a region of the map

lastly, you can have a die that functions for sea invasions where the invading side needs to roll to see if the tides allow a landing.

I personally would prefer an image of a smoking plane instead of a gun sight, or perhaps a fighter inside a gun sight.  One thing you will need to consider is the fact that in AA50 a roll of 2 or less would result in a aa gun hitting. In my opinion your dice should be blank on all sides but two. One side would have the image of the plane being shot down representing a die roll of 1. The other opposite side of the dice should have another image either same smoking fighter as the first side that is faded out a bit, perhaps the die says radar under that image, or maybe the far side would have an image of a radar screen. This side would of course reflect a two being rolled. The dice should probably be white, though a light sky blue may be nice too. Just my thoughts.
      Another thought is that AA50 requires that Bombers and Fighters be rolled separately for AA Guns. Maybe the AA Gun Dice should include images of both a fighter being shot down on one side and a bomber being shot down on the other side. This would accomplish a similar thing as having the radar screen.

nice!

I prefer that you release china and India first. Float the AA Gun dice around for a while. The last thing you want is to produce a poor product because you rushed it into production. I will probably get murdered for this but it isn’t a good idea to go over budget unless you are absolutely certain your product will sell. AA Gun dice are nice but very few will buy in them by comparison to the the national combat dice you have already produced.

I believe the product that has the greatest need to be produced is NATION SPECIFIC HALF TRACKS. It seems like every variant uses half tracks as mechanized infantry now. Another product that most A&A fans would love to see is fully nation specific pieces. Good case and point is Italy, which much to the dismay of A&A fans abroad, had only two nation specific pieces. The soviet union also uses many borrowed forces. Even Britain and USA use the same artillery, destroyer, submarine and transport. Get my point?

This HYPOTHETICAL NATION SPECIFIC SET molded in AA50 COLORS would include:

HALF TRACKS - for all six major AA50 countries.
AIR TRANSPORT (paratrooper plane) - for all six major AA50 countries
ITALIAN forces - Artillery, fighter, bomber, Complete Italian Navy
SOVIET UNION forces - Artillery, Complete Soviet Navy
UNITED KINGDOM forces - Artillery, destroyer, transport, submarine
CHINA forces - one light green P-40 fighter.

Producing these units would make fully complete Nation specific set of units for each AA50 country as well as adding mechanized infantry and transport planes for each of them.  I know i would definitely buy these and i don’t believe i would be alone. You should also be able to sell the set for a pretty good price.

I still like the idea of having all other sides of the die being blank, but that’s just me. It won’t address the radar tech of course but tech dice would probably be another (future) product entirely. So for the cost of putting a flak or some other image on all the other “miss” sides you could instead use the additional image to create 2 different AA dice to represent both fighters and bombers.

~ZP

Nice. Use these images. (maybe make the fighter a tad bigger.) Looking forward to the pieces when they come?

Yes these are great, but fighter must be larger so it shows up on the pip.

If you have to make them one color than red on a blue die would be great. second choice is white.

~ZP

I like the AA die concept but I think for clarity, it should have 5 numbered sides and the above image with the bomber.  This way you don’t have to remember if you have radar then fighters hit otherwise bombers hit.  I know it sounds like a small thing to remember but less is more.  Also if you don’t put pips on the other five sides then you can’t use the AA die for anything else.  Maybe you need another die…for something… you grab the AA die it’s blank on five sides, can’t use it.  Makes the item less funtional.

A note about the set already produced - anytime someone sees the AA50 game with these dice they say, “Wow, it came with these dice?”  and I say, “No I custom ordered them.”  Then they say,  “Those are really cool.”  Nice job.

@FieldMarshalGames:

I don’t want to get the community too excited about these yet as production will be late next year and the process will be much more involved than dice.

Too late… I’m excited at the prospect of new peices, jets for my jets, heavy bombers for my heavy bomber - B29 anyone?

For now it’s red chips under the bombers, fighters and tanks for the tech variants.  :-D

Look foward to seeing the complete set of national dice - you have a customer waiting for Itlay and China to get added to the basic set.

I registered on this forum just to weigh in on this thread, and also on the one you mentioned about possible future playing pieces… So, you’ve pulled in another lurker into the light!

I vote to not go over-budget or create any delays by adding AA dice just yet… good idea, but I say it can wait until the possible options are fully vetted, and pleeease don’t delay the Italian/ Chinese dice, because I can’t wait to buy them!