What are the plans for releasing miniatures for the WWII version of the game?

What miniatures do you use (or do you prefer not to use them)? I am very interested in this game and I think nice minis would really add to the experience.

they are supposed to be releasing 1/196 scale minis for WWII in 2009

I found some 1/144 revel models from the mid 80s that work wekk for these.1/144 models are hard to come by,but walmart also has some 1/144 ww2 planes in the toy section.These are cheap and prepainted.Easy to get started with I believe they are put out by 20th century toys.

Go on E-Bay, there is a massive amount of 1:144 pre-painted and unpainted minitures available, thats where I get mine from.

aarondpjames said:

A-men to that, I'm up around 160 now. Bombers in threes and fighters in twos, kinda like an airplane's Noah's Ark.

How many hit points do you bombers have? As it must take forever to knock a flight of 3 out of the sky.

kaufschtick said:

Put some pictures of your collection up Kaufy as I see you don't have any pics over here and I would love to see the new planes that you have gotten. Aarondpjames, the group that I play with are talking about slowing down the bombers in groups of three and adding an extra table (See folding camping tables) for them to cross to give extra shooting time. Also we are talking about having a limited number of escorts as to represent the waves that the defending fighters would come up and draw the fighters away and then a group would attack the bombers. That free fighter or two could make it harder to defend as now the escorts have to choose what to do. Also we are talking about engine damage to the bombers and that causing slowing flight speeds and creating the wounded animal from the herd effect. Now I think that this forces the attackers to choose where to attack and changes the escorts roles as well. Just some ideas that the boys and I are throwing around here. What is your guys take on this as I would love to hear your ideas and concerns. Thanks SHEP.

Shep

Loving the sound of your bomber group with escorts thing mate, you could have hours of fun with that game!

For engine damage on bombers, we use the following "House rules"

This would also work with your idea of picking of the wounded member. Not only could they be limping at the rear of the flight, but they may well be a couple of altertude pegs below, and out of range for any mutual fire support for the other friendly bombers. Giving you your easy target.

The bad thing is, now i've been sucked into to this 3 bomber group thing you and Kaufschtick are going on about, some how I've got to tell the Mrs's i "need" to go and buy  More airplanes!!! She's gonna go mad!!!!

aarondpjames said:

LOL!!!!

Rodger_Wilco on the old boards got me going on the whole 1/144 scale planes thing. I'm keeping a close eye on how you all are working the bombers so far, because some of the bombers I have are actual model kits I have to build. I love the pre painted, semi assembled planes though.

As far as bombers go, i like the idea of having them "scroll" across the playing area in waves of three. If you have a rectangular playing area, you can vary the frequency of the waves by having them "scroll" across long ways, or short ways.

I have right now three of the following bombers: B-17F, B-24J, B-25, B-26, Dauntless, Kate, Val, Betty, Nell, Sally, He-111, Do-217, Ju-88 & Ju-87.

I have two each on Avengers and Helldivers, and a PBY Catalina and a Japanese Mavis.

I have been pretty busy during the holidays, but hope to get back to building here very soon. Give me a few weeks and I'll get some Pics up.

Mate, you could start your own war with that lot!!

kaufschtick said:

How does that song go again Kaufy, OH YEAH, Show me don't tell me (Rush). Kaufy put some pictures up on this site as I would love to see the collection over here. I know that you are not camera shy my friend so let us drool over your armada my friend. BTW, gaming with Khayman7 and the boys tomorrow at 4:00P.M.. First a game of A&A minis and then WoW. I hope to get some shots in on Khayman7 (he shot me up the last game {Battle of Britain}) but we will be playing with 7 guys so it will be shoot when you can. Should be a nice sized furball. We are going to do some different type of missions to playtest with some good ideas from Khayman7. I have to work today and I am going to be a wreak as I will be thinking about gaming night with the Papa John's pizza, Roman's wings and Samuel Adams cherry wheat and mixed cases. Should be some buzzs going on and I don't mean just on the table. LOL.

Sheppard1972 said:

How does Agiolillo put it on here when asked for information on new product release dates..."in time".

Seriously though, are the old boards still viewable as read only? I had quite a few pics of the planes I'd already done up over there. 

I grew up building 1/72 scale model WWII airplanes. I inherited it from my Dad who still builds to this day. I believe he has roughly 1100 1/72 scale models. About 20 or so are small PT & E-Boats type ships, including a 1/72 scale german sub! About 250 are armor and vehicles. The rest are planes, everything from the Wright Flyer all the way up to the B-2 Stealth Bomber. Needless to say, it's pretty freakin' awesome!

Like I said, Rodger_Wilco got me going on the 1/144 scale thing, so for me, I've kinda switched over from 1/72 scale to 1/144 scale. I still have about 45 1/72 scale WWII planes unbuilt in the basement. At last count, on the 1/144 scale size, I have some where around 150, maybe 160. For me, model building is a hobby, so I really enjoy just sitting down and building them. It's very relaxing. But then there is work, family (FIVE kids! ) and time to spend with friends, so sometimes things get a little busy for me, and the time to work on models gets pushed to the back burner. After just coming out of the holidays (I work in the retail field, so it is an extremely busy time for me), I really find that I need to slow down, and spend a little "quality" time with family and friends.

My thoughts on the pictures is that on the old boards, I was putting them up as I finished them, a couple at a time. But since the old boards are history, I thought I'd take a different approach on the new boards. I figure the next set for the WWII version of WoW, Fire from Above, or something like that , will be out this spring, or summer. So I'm thinking of laying on a big blitz of photos when I get all of what I have now ready to go. I'm not really in too big a hurry right now, but I'm starting to get the "itch" again already. That, plus I just can't seem to quit buying planes on E-Bay! 

Talk about your wife giving you the business, our pay pal account is in my wife's name, and so all of the planes I've been ordering lately  come addressed  in her name. So she claims that they are all hers!!!!

Anyway, I'm starting to think of what to title the thread once I get set. Sometime soon! 

I hear ya Kaufy. BTW, Khayman7 did not show on last Saturday's game night due to the large amount of snow that we were hit with up here but we did have 5 of us to play. I shot a buddy down that had 4 kills on the night and I would have made his 5th. Everyone was following our duel closely as I was bragging that he was going down when he told everyone that I was going down. Great time had by all and look forward to our next game night. BTW Kaufy, as I was tipping back my Cherry Wheat Sam Adams I spilled some suds for you my friend. Take Care. SHEP

Sheppard1972 said:

Mmmm... Cherry Wheat - one of my favorite brews. If you haven't tried it, and you can find it, search out some Sea Dog Blue Paw. It's a blueberry wheat ale, and it's yummy.

Any update on when the minis will be released? I'm resisting, though not easily, buying the WWI models in favor of the WWII planes.

As far as news goes on the WWII minis, I find that the forun over on Board Game Geek are a pretty good source of information.

As far as the Cherry Wheat goes, i can only drink about one, maybe two of those in an evening. Don't get me wrong, great suds, just something about that one for me that kinda keeps me at bay a bit. I guess it's because I like like tipping back more than one or two when I'm partaking of tasty suds! 

I've been partial to The Great Lakes Brewing Company lately myself. Mmmm, Edmund Fitzgerald...( I can't help thinking of the crew every time I even mention that beer, God Bless...)  

I put together the 3 B-17Fs, 3 Do-217s, 3 Sally's, 2 F6F Hellcats (1944/45 colors) and 2 more Me-109Es this past weekend. I took a couple pics of the "assembly area" in the process. I've got 2 Hurricane Mk.Is, and a pair of Me-110s still in the works at present. I should be close to having about 100 of the 160 or so planes I have finished, pegged, and ready for play. Most of the rest of what I have are all regular model kits, not the pre-painted ones (which I think are super), and they are a bit more involved in getting ready. So they go slower. I do have a vaca coming up in about 3/4 weeks, and I'll be cranking a lot of them out that week. 

I saw on EBay some more 1/144 scale Ki-43 Oscars over the weekend, and there was a Yak-9 ( I'd love a pair of those) on the auction side as well this past weekend. I guess the Yak-9 came out in Wing Club 3?  I guess also that those kits make limited runs, so grab em' when you can, cause they don't seem to stay around long.  

Yeah I couldn't make it, too much risk to play a game. Funny/Scary story, the Monday after that the roads out here were still terrible. My wife was coming home from school doing 25 on I-90 and did a 180 on the freeway, Luckily people dodged her and nobody was hurt. Yes that was 2 days later!

As for all the talk about beer the Edmund Fitzgerald is probably my favorite great lakes regular brew. If you go into seasonals now there are some other ones like Christmas Ale, Conways Irish Ale, and Blackout Stout. For anyone in the area I have a local bar that still has Christmas ale, bottles are 2.25 and 25  ounce drafts (???? thier claim) are 4.00! Two of those and some wings and its off to bed! I can do the wheats if they have a hint of fruit flavoring. I want beer flavored beer, not fruit juice with beer flavoring...I'm looking at you Shock Top!  As Burt Reynolds stated "Man Law, Don't fruit the beer!" On a side note I'm going to be starting to move into the hobby of home brewing myself here. There will be NO hefewiesens in my brewing. If anyone knows where I can get a cheap kegerator let me know. It would be much easier to carbonate that way, and there is always cold beer on tap for gaming nights. My only request would be a small donation to the next batch.

So kaufy I don't know if you posted this before, if so I'm sorry, but what firing arcs and hit points are you using for the bombers? This is the main reason I'm holding off on buying miniature bombers. I found a very simple one for B-17s essentially giving them 3 shots. I was going to go more detailed originally with something like this:

1.) Dual gun turrets (Top, Ball, Tail, and depending on version Nose) use B damage at close and A at long.
2.) Single gun locations (Waist, and depending on version, Nose) use A damage deck.
3.) Top Turret has a 360 arc to targets at B-17’s level or above, but cannot fire at those below.
4.) Ball Turret has a 360 arc to targets at B-17’s level or below, but cannot fire at those above.
5.) Front gunner gets 60 degree arc and full range.
6.) Tail gunner gets 60 degree arc and full range.
7.) Waist Gunners get 60 degree arc.
8.) -1 to damage off of counter drawn down to 0.
9.) Use counters/makers to show which direction the top and ball turret fired, they can only rotate 1 card facing per phase.

I am worried that this will be too much on the technical side and slow down gameplay too much to the point that people will become bored with what is essentially a quick light air combat game. These problems would only magnify  as you add more bombers to the formation. (though I think it would be more realistic and freaking cool!) My group wants this game to be fast and light. I am trying to get them into slightly more heavy games but they don't like down time...It amazes me though how they can play Axis and Allies!

I do not have miniatures for it yet and was planning on using pictures in the same scale to playtest.