Counter Quality

[vince hughes]

Whilst I want to keep genuine opinion on the board. For example, my recent experiences with APL and its produce have been negative (for me that is, whilst other tastes differ), I do at the same time like to keep things polite. And that is something I will continue with as I don't want to see these boards become mini-me's of the snark seen on CSW and BGG by self-appointed big-wigs and quite frankly, nobbish arse-holes (excuse the profanity please). Admittedly, my humour at times and also insistence on points in the past have sometimes rattled a cage here and there, but EVERYBODY on here has always ended up apologising and/or remaining friends still. So lets be sure to keep debate on keel, fair and genuine.

With that all said and the newer posts above, I think some of my irks have turned out to have been justified by MB's decision to now go back to die-cuts and away from what for me have been the quite ugly and ill-produced laser counters. They have smelt, burnt, and stained along the way and have come out with at least three different thicknesses. In individual games, this would not bother me, but in a game series where I EXPECT consistency of product they failed miserably to me as a customer. On top of that, there were the rather disgraceful boards in Lib 44 and the coup de grace for me of course were some of the changes to the rules I couldn't accept.

Conversely and fortunately and perhaps even ironically, my loss was APL's gain and all this seemed to have saved APL as it finally meant product out the door. Unfortunately for APL this meant delivery to a smaller but confirmed fan base as many items were GC order only or were never sent to game stockists not only abroad, but in the US too. My wavering at this level of product has meant that I and a few others online have left AP either as customers and more sadly as PG players too. How many others we don't know of I have no clue if any at all? In my case, it was by happenstance as I started to look at other games and found a couple I have liked. One of which is a platoon scale game of WW2 anyway, TCS. I was also fortunate enough to offload to buyers the product I did not like before re-makes were done (Kursk BT, Lib 44, Russo-Japanese War) and at very decent prices too. It might not be so easy in the US as those titles are more available, but the 2 x PG titles in the UK will be very rare indeed. That lifted their value.

So in summary of this rather long diatribe, my position has not changed and in fact has rather hardened. But above all, given that there are so many different views here as there are persons, lets make sure that posts are polite and not in a fashion that inspires lash-back rather than feed-back.

[waynebaumber]

You did well old boy to off load Lib 44. I am now playing my 4th or 5th game from that book and I am sorry to say that several of the counter faces are lifting off and I suspect should I want to I would be unable to play the entire book as the counters simply would not last. I hope your buyer is a collector rather than a gamer.

[stear]

I have had issues with countersheets (Extremely bad scorching on South Flank, could not wipe it off)and preorders, and have written about a dozen emails, they were never responded to ever.

Well Nick, I know you didn't ask for my help, but I gave Mike a poke on this one today anyway, seeing as your posts about no response on BGG went back to June.

Want to see Mike resolve this,

-Jim

[nicky_longbranch]

Wow, Mr. Stear Thank You! You truly do love this game!

I have had issues with countersheets (Extremely bad scorching on South Flank, could not wipe it off)and preorders, and have written about a dozen emails, they were never responded to ever.

Well Nick, I know you didn't ask for my help, but I gave Mike a poke on this one today anyway, seeing as your posts about no response on BGG went back to June.

Want to see Mike resolve this,

-Jim

[stear]

my loss was APL's gain and all this seemed to have saved APL as it finally meant product out the door.

Mike does maintain this saved his / APL's bacon.

That said: I agree, component quality needs to get to a consistent thickness / clarity basis (as I noted above some pages back), if APL is to thrive long-term by satisfying the long-term fans as well as attracting new.

It saddens me that changes between 3rd and 4th edition PG rules sheared off some players as well; I do hope the same will not happen to a large degree with the revised GWAS/SWWAS rules I am working on.

-Jim

[stear]

Wow, Mr. Stear Thank You! You truly do love this game!

Didn't know you were a GWAS/SWWAS fan!

Seriously, I do want to help Mike with his recovery, much of which is / will be in PG-space.

-Jim

[leonard]

It saddens me that changes between 3rd and 4th edition PG rules sheared off some players as well

To my point of view, 4th Ed rules are far better than the previous ones and there were just a few protests from grognards up to now (and you might think to what "grogner" means in French...) . These rules combined with better production should give the game more players.

[campsawyer]

Leonard,

Whilst you are here, a designer question for you. In many FoF scenarios with aircraft, why is the side with the aircraft given AA guns but the other does not? Reference #21 Red Dusk as an example.

[leonard]

Whilst you are here, a designer question for you. In many FoF scenarios with aircraft, why is the side with the aircraft given AA guns but the other does not? Reference #21 Red Dusk as an example.

Errr... Usually, the OOB of my scenarios are the closest to the historical action that I can design. Now, I haven't checked out my original Gembloux scenarios versions but it is certain that Moroccans had 20mm AA guns at hand (and 75mm AA SP guns a bit farther to the west). These same guns also appear in scenario n°18 - the Iron Line: south- where German aircrafts are offensive. In Gembloux, most AA guns (88s and SK6/2) were used for ground combat.
The lone general comment I can make is that French AA guns were rather rare while German aircrafts were numerous and also that French aircraft interventions were rare.

[richvalle]

Leonard,

Whilst you are here, a designer question for you. In many FoF scenarios with aircraft, why is the side with the aircraft given AA guns but the other does not? Reference #21 Red Dusk as an example.

Heh, thanks for this question. I'm playing this battle now and totally missed that I get a plane. Even though we're in turn 11 I'm asking if he can arrive late.

With the victory conditions the way they are I don't think the French have a chance of winning but I'm loving the battle so far.