So we know that the next 3 sets for WW1 are:
|
German Maxim Team Great War Japanese French Hotchkiss Team |
My question to yall, is what all do you think is the plan with the MG teams? Are they gonna be just the HMGS or do you think they will fill the sprue out with other stuff?
I have a small wishlist myself, like for the german maxim sprue to share space with "german trench raiders"
what yall think or hoping for?
If I get them, mostly Airship gunners to fight my lizardmen, I figure they are going to half sprue the HMG teams together so not a lot of space there. I more looking forward to the Japanese right now honestly.
I'm loving the airship gunner idea!
I'd probably be happy enough with simply the guns and crews to buy the kits eventually, but filling out the sprues with accessories, command and support characters (medics, radio men, etc.), other heavy weapons (flame throwers, mortars, etc.), and other goodies would guarantee that I'd buy multiple sets.
I'm VERY happy with the machine gun teams that were included in the WWI Italians box -I'm wishing there were a couple more.
Wargames Atlantic's WWI and interwar kits have quickly become some of my favorites, alongside the "Imperial Conquests" stuff.
on FB they recently asked for suggestions in what the change/improve with the digital american Doughboy kit as it went to plastic.
my suggestions were:
some heads with campaign hats instead of helmets (these were their standard headgear before reaching france, and no doubt plenty wore them instead of helmets in the trenches, when they could get away with them. after all, lots of people still doubted how well metal helmets would protect them)
non-rifle arms. i suggested some arms with pistols (one revolver, one colt 1911. the revolver would probably be the M1917) and with trench knives (the ones that had the built in knuckleduster, isuggested the 1917 one owuld be easier to sculpt, but the 1918 one is more iconic), letting you do both officers, or some more close combat focused builds. (the latter useful for some of the weird-ww1 skirmish rules that have come out recently)
Shotguns. the US military made extensive use of shotguns, to the point the german government tried to get them banned under the geneva conventions. the standard issue was the Winchester 1897 "riot gun", fitted with a bayonet lug.
backpacks. the digital file had a the core bit of the 1910/1917 field packs, but not any of the optional stowage, liek the bedroll slung underneath, the poncho and shelter half tied over the top, or the additional pouches and bags most troops tended to tie on to make up for the pack's bad accessability. having some variants with the bedroll, and some with the extra stowage would go long way to adding a bit of variety, especially for the skirmish games.
Great choices! There are bound to be small anachronisms here and there if used outside of WWI, but those campaign hats could come in handy for placing those doughboys in other conflicts around that periods of time - the Spanish-Aerican War and Boxer Rebellion, for example!
Ideally, both the "lemon squeeze" and cowboy style "slouch" campaign hats, both would have their uses!
I'll add the "garrison cap" / "wedge cap" / "overeas cap", which seems like a natural fit for American army uniforms of the era (and after): - it's one of the first things that comes to my mind when thinking of the uniforms, thanks to the Sergeant York movie:
Spanish American war and boxer rebellion wouldn't use WW1 figures anyway, most of the US troops in them were using variations on civil war and plains war uniforms. the ww1 Doughboy uniforms weren't adopted until right before the 1917 entry into the war. (and were basically copies of the British uniform.. most were actually made in england and issued on arrival in france.)
American Civil War would be my first instinct here, but then the Uniforms in art for the Boxer and Spanish-American conflicts look more like products of the 20th century... might be because the iconic oval "US" belt buckles aren't there, the jackets are longer four-pocket designs, and some of the gear is newer than what would have been carried or worn in th ACW - and I'm sure it's not just the transition from blue to khaki or olive drab colours:
Those campaign or slouch hats, though, are more like the sort of thing you'd expect to see in an ACW set alongside the iconic kepi caps..
Not that the dough boys would be a perfect match, either - the cartridge pouches, backpacks, gas masks, webbing, badges and insignia, and so on are certainly going to be a different animal, and ou'll no doubt be forced to handwave the Springfield 1903 rifles that a dough boys set would ifeature (not too hard, given how similar so many of those old bolt-action classics are to each other at that scale!) If enough of those bits are optional parts, though - Iwas very happy to see that things like gas mask bags and so on were separate bits, and that lots of head options were included, in WA's British, French, German, and Italian kits o allow a "close enough" margin of error across a couple decades from the turn of the century, into WWII, and hope the Americans are as flexible as possible within the historical limitations!
EDIT: Of course, I can't discount the possibility that I'm dealing with badly-attributed image search results, but I don't think it changes a whole lot, in a world where we just don't have a lot of choices for these wars: either make do with what's available locally, import something only a little closer, or hold breath and wait for something perfect that likely will never materialize!
Even as is, I could easily accept either modified ACW or dough-boy figures here, especially given that it's unlikely we'd see many hard plastic boxed sets for the conflicts in this transitional period between the ACW and WWI, unless it's aimed toward Wild West games, or perhaps Victorian sci-fi and steampunk..
And I, for one, could certainly appreciate and use bits like the overseas caps, campaign and slouch hats, the wefully under-represented trench shotguns and trench knives, sabres, binoculars, and flare guns (not to mention more obvious uncommon bits like Thompsons, BARs, pistols, grenades, heavy machine guns, etc.) Some of this stuff is probablybetter left to a "command and heavy weapon" kit, but either way, it's useful stuff to have around!
