ejacobs said:

Well, if you want the "D" damage deck...I think the rules are free on line (?).

I have 140+ planes already in 1/144 scale (another 60-70 waiting for their turn on the modeling table. Currently a pair of P-40s being done in British colors), so I just picked up two copies of the boxed set and I'm good to go.

A buddy of mine is getting the miniatures, and I honestly believe the miniatures are a better value all by themselves, but you will have to wait it out.

I really am a big fan of this game, but money is tight right now. Especially if you are buying the miniatures. The boxed sets are more of a stand alone, "play using the cards" kinda deal.  Fortunately, the boxed sets aren' too terribly expensive, and I'll bet they can be had for a very reasonable price from an online vendor. For the money, I think they are worth it (I have all the boxed sets from the WWI game along with all of those miniatures), but a person could get by with just the miniatures for the most part.

afilter said:

I had a chance to play a couple of games this weekend. Didn't try anything fancy as a bunch of newbie's were playing.

1st mission I took a pair of Val's and ran the length of the table while a P-39D and P-40F tried to bring me down and an A6M2 Reisen protected me. As i was the only one who had played before, I wanted something basic for me while they got to try it out. They picked up on it pretty quickly and started in. In the end, I managed to get one of the Val's off. The P-40 got one, but went down mostly due to the rear gunners fire. A damage isn't much, but taking 2 every turn (1 from each plane) adds up. After the first pass, the P-39 and my escort mixed it up. My only D draw was a 5.  The slow speed of the I deck and few turns, (the deck is only 15 cards, 5 of them altitude) makes for limited choices in movement.

The others were just generic dogfights with some of the new planes and decks. I like the new decks as you have some variety available now. i am looking forward to trying some divebomb missions.

One thing I noticed is that with the exception of the I deck there is only one of each manuever deck.  I will have to go back and check DoW, but it seems like there are less cards.  You basically can only fly one of each fighter an 2 dive bombers at a time.  I am hoping an expansion pack will be coming soon.  I just finished painting 2 P-39s, 2 P-40s and 2 Hurricanes tonight.

afilter said:

Your planes look nice!

I would have to say that if you are the kind of player that is going to make his own models, buying double on the boxed sets isn't a bad idea. I read from someone on these boards, way back when about the WWI boxed sets, that they had just decided to get 2 each every time a boxed set came out.

When I got Dawn of War, it had 1 A & B deck, and 2 C & D decks. 2 boxed sets would have left me with 2 A & B, and 4 C & D. As it was, I waited for the booster packs, and wound up with 4 A & B, and 2 C & D. Either way, I want at least 2 each on the maneuver decks. 

With this set, unless these 2 boosters contain more than one maneuver deck apiece; and until the miniatures come out; double boxed sets will be the only way to go for those looking for 2 each on maneuver decks.

Considering the Dawn of War boosters had 3 additional maneuver decks in them,  I could easily see these boosters having a 1-2 combination of two additional maneuver decks each.  That plus some cool additional planes! I was going to skip the booster packs this time around after deciding to get double boxed sets, but I may have to pick up the boosters too for the planes!

I think that is a better way to go as opposed to the last set where the boosters just had more of what was in the boxed set of Dawn of  War. But that was OK for that set as people may have been looking for more Me-109s & Spits so they could do the Battle of Britian games. But I mean, once you play using the minatures, who wants to play without them after that?  

Once you go miniature, you never go back!

The miniatures on their own are such a tremendous value though.

Yeah I picked up the squadron packs for DoW and am glad I di now that I am making my own minis.  For the time being I am going to limit myself to two of each custom mini until I know what is coming with the mini releases.  The big bonus of getting the mini is it comes with a deck that can be used with the cutom minis.  So if I have 2 Stukas and 2 vals when the miis come out I will be able to do a European scenario with 5 stukas or Pacific with 5 vals. 

Hopefully the squadron packs will help me out with decks for the P-40, P-39 and Hurricanes.  I just hate to buy multiples of a box set as we usually do not play that huge of scenarios (3-6 on each side) if a squadron pack will fill the need.

Right now I am set up for 5 Spitfires vs. 5 Me109s:

kaufschtick said:

I agree that the 1/144 scale looks a lot better. I think they choosed 1/200 just for the heavy bombers. The Wow models still are kinda nice (my store finally got them in yesterday) but planes like Me109 and spitfires look so much better when they are a little larger.

I don't find the price in itself so high as long as all the players buy their own planes. But of course I have a job, students don't have the same economy.

We will put up a WW2 game once our current WW1 campaign is over but if we will use the official scale or 1/144 is still to be determined, we just played past august and september 1916 this weekend so it wont be a new campaign until X-mas or so.

Pour Le Merite said:

I am sure the 1/200 scale was picked due to foresight of future models.  A B-17 will be huge.  Even a Ju-88 is pretty big.  The other thing 1/200 does is create a niche for them to buy the official models.  There are a few 1/200 alternatives, but not near as many as 1/144.

afilter said:

That's what I figure, the 1/200 scale will allow them to go with bomber miniatures down the road, if they decide.

I got to see the 1/200 miniatures this past weekend at a friends, and they look better in person than they do in pictures. They are pretty sharp looking.

kaufschtick said:

Yeah, I was very impressed with the quality and detail of the minis.  I was originally just going to get one of each, but now am working toward the complete set.

As for bombers if you look farther down on this page (same link as the other thread) you will see someone has done a B-17 card and manuever cards.  AIR200 supposedly makes a 1/200 model.

http://cockpit-traditions.blogspot.com/search/label/dawn%20of%20war

Note: scroll past the first B-17 to see the manuever cards and English.

afilter said:

Air 1/200??? Don't you mean action 1/200? Or is there another 1/200 mark that is so close in name?

Action have a DC3, a Ju 88 and a Vickers wellington, but at least does not my regular store for action 1/200 have any B-17 and they are well stocked (www.skytrex.com/), high prices for the freight however...

I know however that there are resin models of B-17, and some kind of plastic is better than pewter when we talk about something that big.

And yes, I guess a B-17 is a must for late war games over germany :)

Pour Le Merite said:

No, AIR200:

The line is fairly limited right now, but expanding.  Currently have most of the DoW fighters and a Val And Stuka.  Dauntless is suppose to be coming soon.  Nice models for $3.50 each for fighters and $6 for Dive bombers.  I believe the B-17 lists for $17.  All the models in my pics that are not the WoW models are handpainted AIR200 models.

Are the decales from the same company as the aircraft?

I found some pretty good 1/144 scale decales from a company called True North, which I think was just aquired by another company recently. But their decales are for scales close to and around 1/144, and some may even work on the 1/200 scale planes. Which, BTW, the decales you show pictured may very well work on some 1/144 scale planes too!

kaufschtick said:

Skytrex takes £3 pounds for decals enough for 3 planes (www.skytrex.com/) in 1/200. They also have 1/144.

But I am curios, what does Air200s cost? And give us a link to the store please :)

Skytrex planes are more expensive (£5:50 each) but the action200 is a huge series with many planes. A mix of those, Wow planes and air 1/200 would probably mean we can get all the planes from the war, or at least almost, to play with :D

Pour Le Merite said:

The AIR200 planes cost $7 for a 2 pack of fighters and $6 for a single Val or Kate,  The decals are I-95 they also do a variety of 1/44 these are 1/285 which are close enough for my needs.

The store I purchase from is local calle ""The Last Square" in Madison, WI.  They now do quite a bit of online sales as well.

http://www.lastsquare.com/

HTH,

Aaron

afilter said:

Wow, nice store. They even import Skytrex red eagle serie for WW1 nuts, even though they are pretty expensive with them.

I also notice that Air and Action don't have the same planes only, so we can get some from one and others from the other store, that is nice. I have kinda a feeling that it will take a few years before Wow have made all the models....