Plastic Playing Pieces

@Adlertag:

I got 2 questions for TT.

When can I buy this new product ? 5 years from now ? Longer ?

I got your pieces, and they are not the same size, colour and quality as the real A&A pieces. Will the new pieces look more like the A&A pieces ? And in AA50 colours ?

I would say 6 months after I have the funds to move forward. 
All the designs are completed and the cavities have been started.  Things are on hold while I am out of work.  Unless I find a rich gamer who wants to go in partners. :O)
As for quality of the pieces they will exceed the quality of the A&A pieces.  They will even exceed the quality and detail of my current line as I have gotten better at designing and have found some top notch mold makers who enjoy working on my products.

For the infantry I really advise not using a “gun” to indicate the type of infantry, but rather a distinct infantry soldier holding a rifle or what not.

I think using these forums to get the people needed to kitty up $50 bucks would be fine as its serving our needs.

I would think making:

Mechanized Infantry in 6 unique molds

Fighter-bombers in 6 molds

Heavy Tanks

Self propelled artillery/Tank Destroyers

Halftracks/trucks for 6 nations

Italian fleet units

Heavy bombers for 6 nations

Rocket unit ( v-1 design on track)

an airborne unit ( generic)

Coastal fortification unit ( something like Atlantic wall pill box)

Super subs

Jet fighters in 6 nations

Sub pen

Heavy artillery in 6 nations

Soviets in winter clothing ( shock army)

Light tanks in 6 colors ( except the uk tank would be a churchill because they already have Matilida which is a light tank)
germans would be Panzer III

Oki, I’ll kitty up 50 bucks if thats the way to go  :wink:

I’ll also suggest you make expansion-packs to sell separately:

1. expansion pack: Italian fleet units and planes.

2. expansion pack: French units

3. expansion pack : units for tech, like rockets, jets, heavy bombers, super subs etc

4. expansion pack: Blockhouses, halftracks, trucks, heavy artillery etc

5. expansion pack: Elite units for all nation, US get Marines and Paratrooper, Germany get Fallschirmjaeger and Gebirgsjaeger, UK get Commandos, Japan get Marines, Sovjet get Siberian ski-troops, Italy get Alpinies and Marines etc

6. expansion pack: Neutral infantry to Sweden , Spain, Turkey etc

and noooo, we dont need sub pens or light tankettes or jeeps

You guys forgot the Polish Cavalry. :roll:

I agree with Craig completely.
These units should be done for AA50 first in AA50 colors.
Make nation specific units first then move on to other molds.
I like the idea of making seperate expansion packs too. Start with AA50 nation specific units, then move on to France and China molds, then move on to common varient units like halftracks, Air transports, blockhouses. Also a seperate expansion for buildable tech AA50 tech units like Heavy artillery, rockets, halftracks (mech infantry), paratroopers (air transport unit) ect. Elite units and such should be done last.

I also have designed Generals for bonuses for units under the great generals of the day.
It all comes down to $$$ :O(

I favor something in between. Id like the first batch to include the missing pieces that got jipped from revised, but packaged with at least the 2 strongest candidates for new pieces: Some mechanized unit and a fighter bomber. The Germans or americans dont need a fighter bomber because they already have stuka and p-38, so its basically 4 plane molds and 6 mech molds.

I guess i could agree with craig on his list, but id rather just use the same approach TT used when it made unique pieces that were not “makeups” for AH failures.

@Imperious:

The Germans or americans dont need a fighter bomber because they already have stuka and p-38, so its basically 4 plane molds and 6 mech molds.

That’s what I do with my Stukas and lightnings… although a P51 would be nice!  :-)

I guess we all have every single A&A sold to date? This gives us trucks, Stukas, Blockhouses - I’ve even been using my original AA subs as super subs, and used to use the old battleships as crusiers.

From a sales point of view, I would have thought things like Super Subs, Rockets and Jets (which are already in the rules) would have a wider appeal than some of the more specific units - if it comes down to priorities.

TT - how many units do you need to sell to break even? I wish I had that kind of cash to spare, otherwise it would be winging its direction to you right now!

Are you looking for some pre-orders from the community?

For $50, I’m in.

@templeton:

@Imperious:

TT - how many units do you need to sell to break even? I wish I had that kind of cash to spare, otherwise it would be winging its direction to you right now!
Are you looking for some pre-orders from the community?

With the larger mold I can produce pieces for 2 cents and sell them for a dime. One shot of 48 pieces (this could be any color or country), sell it for $5 and make $4.  That would only require me to sell about 16,300 sets to break even.
I’m not taking formal pre orders.  I’m sure the sales are there but the development money is not. Right now I am burning up inventory and Table Tactics has been in the black the last 2 years but not enough to get any bank to make a loan or attract a venture capital partner.

TT, if you make pieces that are close to A&A pieces in colour and size, will you violate the copyright to Hasbro ?

no not at all. Only if he took the hasbro mold and copied it. Anybody is free to make any pieces they desire and colors are not copyrightable.

Jack -
being a “silent” member of the A&A forums since 1998 when i first went “online”, all i can say is that if you make them, we’ll buy them! I own 5 copies of each set you have made to date. Good luck and keep 'em coming!
Thoes426

Ditto above!

I put together pieces from TT, Eagle, Xeno, TWG and all my own considerable collection for plastic HO’s to find the best possible piece in every category I can think of… Give me more piece options and I will buy at least some, and maybe 4 or 5 copies if they fit what I’m looking for especially well.  Glad to see TT weighing in, as I like your pieces very much from a quality angle, (and own 4 or 5 copies of everything you’ve made carefully organized in tackle boxes) but just wish you’d made some different choices.  (a half-track in Central Powers but no biplane? Maybe you should have ditched the WW1 tank and just called it A&A Accessories 2…)

This sort of thing could go on ad infinitum…I’m sure every one of us has their own unique “wish list.”

I think the smartest thing is to go not so much by broader categories, but by which individual units in which colors would be in the highest demand.  some kind of poll, maybe?

Aaron

To ILs list I would add:

Armoured Trains

Long-range Fighters (mustang for Lightening swop)

Armoured Trains

Radar Installations (neutral pieces like Aas)

Cavalry (Cossacks) for Germany & USSR

My main interest is for pieces to represent techs, which I dislike using without specific pieces to represent them. 
This is more useful to me than, for example, specific Italian artillery units.

Yea we already got Italian pieces and they are fine for now. New pieces would be a benefit. I am not too concerned with a unique Soviet artillery unit unless its Katyuska or a dedicated heavy say 155MM artillery unit.

Id like the new units to have a proposed value that was playtested… so perhaps the heavy artillery would be a 3-2 unit?

Would Heavy Artillery still modify the attack value of Infantry?

no and artillery should not boost infantry. Fighters should boost tanks. heavy Artillery rolling a one in the first round choose loses and all artillery should move 2 spaces

@Imperious:

no and artillery should not boost infantry. Fighters should boost tanks. heavy Artillery rolling a one in the first round choose loses and all artillery should move 2 spaces

The basic rule could say that units dont modify each other.

Then we could have this Leader/Commander/General/HQ unit, and with this mastermind present Combined Arms would be allowed, like artillery boost infantry, and fighters boost tanks. I suggest that a task force with an General can roll all dices simultanesly, and then assign the results to the units. This is because this General make better use of the resources (the dice), than a stack with no brain.

Example 1; A Task Force with 1 General, 2 tanks, 3 artillery and 8 infantry attack an enemy stack.
This is 14 dice that are rolled simultanesly. (The General also contribute with a die, that are without any fixed value.) Assign all 1’s to the infantry, all 2’s or less to the artillery, all 3’s or less to the tanks.

Example 2; A stack without any General, but with 2 tanks rolling separatately, 3 artillery rolling separately and 8 infantry rolling separately. This is the basic combat system present.

So now we need a Leader unit. Luckily it seem like TT already made this molds  :-)