My case of Flank Speed from Miniature Market arrived today. It is the 2nd case I’ve opened (you can read about my first at War at Sea: Flank Speed Opened First Case & Singles).
I’ve been waiting for this 2nd case for two days. Miniature Market (I’ll share my review of my experience buying from them soon) shipped it UPS Ground, they didn’t have to, and it arrived in Massachusetts Monday morning where it sat not more than 50 miles from my house all day long. Today it arrived at the local distribution center, ten minutes from my house in the next town over, and then spent over 12 hours on a truck. Normally UPS delivers by Noon but today it didn’t arrive until 8pm. I was crestfallen but that was nothing compared to how I felt after opening the case.
This case has the worst distribution I have ever seen for any War at Sea case. You will recall the awful distributions I faced in my Task Force cases. This is worse or so I think. You’ll find more ranting on the set’s quality, or lack thereof, after my pulls are listed.
Here are my pulls (Quantity then Name, in order by set number):
2 HMCS Sackville
2 Milan
0 Suffren
1 HMNZS Leander
2 HMS Belfast
1 HMS Prince of Wales
1 HMS Repulse
3 HMS Saumarez
2 Martlet Mk. II
2 SB2C Helldiver
1 USS Alaska
0 USS Arizona
1 USS Gunston Hall
1 USS Intrepid (I received 2 more as singles)
2 USS Kidd
2 USS North Carolina
3 USS Phelps
2 USS Richmond
2 USS San Diego
2 Gromkiy
1 Oktybraskaya Revolutsia
1 Kirov
1 Ju 88A-4
0 Prinz Eugen
2 Schleswig-Holstein
2 T27
3 U-47
0 Aquila
0 Gorizia
1 Guiseppe Garibaldi
3 Pegaso
1 Re. 2001 CB
2 A65M “Zeke”
0 Aoba
3 B6N2 “Jill”
1 Nagato
2 Oi
2 Shigure
1 Soryu
2 T1 Landing Ship
This means I am still lacking the Suffren (#3 French Rare) and Prinz Eugen (#24 German Rare). The pulls may not look too bad since I did beef up some of my aircraft and cruisers. But, let’s look at the Rares and their duplication.
I did not get the Suffren (out of 60 models in a case I couldn’t pull a 1 in 40 model) nor the Prinz Eugen (also 1 in 40). I got duplicates of the USS North Carolina and Schleswig-Holstein. I believe duplicates of any Rares in a case is poor distribution. Furthermore I received enough U47s for a Wolfpack, it does not have the Wolfpack SA so why would you ever use more than one? I pulled another Intrepid bringing my total up to 4, which is unnecessary.
In all this excess I’m still short on models. Most notable are the two Rares I’m missing but I’m also short on aircraft. The Re. 2001 CB numbers three, I’ve only a single Aquila and Gorizia, very few Russian vessels (I’ve all three they released but with so few vessels I need quantity to create a fleet). I realizing I am very whiny about my pulls and I will stop whining now but I want to mention that I had hoped and expected to get some doubles but thought I would have pulled my Suffren and Prinz Eugen in this case. I’m most disturbed at not getting the Prinz Eugen. I’ve wanted this ship since Base Set and it is one of the few units I’ve looked forward to in this set.
Moving on let’s address the plethora of errors in this set. Nobody is perfect but I’m amazed at the lack of quality control in this set. If I ran a business with the same quality control exhibited in this set I’d go out of business (especially if it was a restaurant). The great people at the Axis & Allies ForuMINI (you guys rock!) have compiled a growing list of the defects. They will, I believe, be submitting this information to Richard Baker who is the game designer for War at Sea and hopefully he will issue a new set of Rules Clarifications. It took less than 48 hours (less than 1 business day) to release rules clarifications after Task Force released. Let’s see how long it takes for them to be released on Flank Speed.
- The name of the Zero is wrong. It should say A6M5 NOT A65M.
- Suffren has incorrect armor. It should say 3 NOT 4 (she had no armor belt).
- The Lay Smoke Screen Special Ability (see Milan, T27, and Shigure) is incorrect. It makes no mention of Concealment. Correct Lay Smoke Screen SA appears in the February 27, 2009 Update and Clarifications document.
- U-47’s Armor 4 is incorrect. Should be Armor 3
- The roundel on Italian stat cards is still wrong (since Task Force). I think they used the roundel for Iran.
- The Guiseppe Garbialdi is spelled incorrectly. It should be Guiseppe Garibaldi
- All aircraft have the Ship Main Gun icon instead of Airplane Gun icon on their stat cards.
Until these are officially clarified I suggest enacting the following House Rules.
- Suffren is Armor 3.
- Lay Smoke Screen Special Ability on all Flank Speed units (Milan, T27, Shigure, and any I missed) is replaced with the one from the February 27, 2009 Update and Clarifications document.
- U-47 is Armor 3.
Don’t forget to come back to read my review of my experience purchasing from Miniature Market and my pulls from my 3rd and final case. They will be shared soon and as soon as I get my Suffren and Prinz Eugen I will begin digitizing the stat cards.
