Trend or Coincidence?

[Belisarius]

I received 6 boosters in the mail yesterday. As I opened them, I noticed an interesting development. Of the six rares, all six were Allies. Actually, all six were U.S. (Enterprise, Iowa, Princeton, Salt Lake City, Tennessee, and Washington). Five of the six had three Allied and two Axis units, the other had three Axis and two Allied. The distribution of the two starters and twelve boosters I already have is fairly similar. I have more Allied units in almost every category:

Battleships: Allies 6 (5 U.S., 1 U.K.) Axis 1 (1 Italian)
Battlecruisers: Allies 2 (2 U.K.) Axis 3 (2 German, 1 Japanese)
Fleet Carriers: Allies 4 (3 U.S., 1 U.K) Axis 0
Light Carriers: Allies 1 (1 U.S.) Axis 0
Escort Carriers: Allies 1 (1 U.S.) Axis 0
Heavy Cruisers: Allies 2 (2 U.S.) Axis 1 (1 Italian)
Light Cruisers: Allies 9 (5 U.S., 1 U.K., 3 French) Axis 4 (3 Japanese, 1 German)
Destroyers and Destroyer Escorts: Allies 10 (8 U.S., 1 U.K., 1 French) Axis 9 (3 German, 4 Italian, 2 Japanese)
Torpedo Boats: Allies 3 (3 U.S.) Axis 2 (2 Italian)
Submarines: Allies 6 (2 U.S., 4 U.K.) Axis 10 (3 German, 3 Italian, 4 Japanese)
Auxiliaries: Allies 1 (1 U.S.) Axis 4 (3 German, 1 Japanese)
Fighters: Allies 5 (3 U.S., 2 U.K.) Axis 3 (3 Japanese)
Dive Bombers: Allies 2 (2 U.S.) Axis 6 (3 German, 3 Japanese)
Torpedo Bombers: Allies 6 (3 U.S., 3 U.K.) Axis 2 (2 Japanese)
Patrol Bombers: Allies 2 (2 U.S.) Axis 1 (1 Japanese)

There is relative parity in destroyers, torpedo boats, and aircraft. The Axis has an edge in submarines. The Allies have the edge in everything else (lumping battleships and battlecruisers together).

Wouldn't it make more sense, from a playablility standpoint, to include either 8 or 10 units in each starter (4 or 5 from each side), and 6 units in each booster (3 from each side)? Then at least the ratio of Allied to Axis units wouldn't be so out of whack. Just a thought.

[Joisey]

I had to aquire almost my entire Japanese fleet through aftermarket purchases. There must be somewhere else in the world where people are pulling all the Jp ships from boosters, but I never saw them.

[Slaynar]

Now you have gone and DONE it...

You just had to put "SENSE" into the packaging of the game... GEEZZZ
Belisaruis

HEHEH
I am sure the packaging is intended to maximize Profit over any real mathmatical function.

[trout11]

I had to aquire almost my entire Japanese fleet through aftermarket purchases. There must be somewhere else in the world where people are pulling all the Jp ships from boosters, but I never saw them.

Well when I purchased a half a case at the Only Game in town in Somerville I pulled nothing but Ialian and Japanese ships. Very Very litle US ships. I had to go elsewhere for my US ships..

[Joisey]

Well when I purchased a half a case at the Only Game in town in Somerville I pulled nothing but Ialian and Japanese ships. Very Very litle US ships. I had to go elsewhere for my US ships..

Right, I could have gotten an Akagi from you, but I had already bought one online.....which I then waited 2 weeks to get delivered. :rolleyes:

[trout11]

Right, I could have gotten an Akagi from you, but I had already bought one online.....which I then waited 2 weeks to get delivered. :rolleyes:

I remember... ..We had a game last night at the Only Game.. everyone was there!! We missed you.. Axis (Japs lost again ) to superior US air power

[Belisarius]

Now you have gone and DONE it...

You just had to put "SENSE" into the packaging of the game... GEEZZZ
Belisaruis

HEHEH
I am sure the packaging is intended to maximize Profit over any real mathmatical function.

I know, I know. And I try so hard to avoid that whole "Logic" thing.... :)

But seriously, I have a case and a half now (plus 2 starters), and it's still hard to put together anything like a balanced historical Axis fleet (except for the Italians). I didn't have that problem at the same point with A&A minis, although I have way more Allied units there, as well.

And I don't think WOTC makes much profit on the aftermarket purchases we're being forced to make. It seems to me that if they want to maximize their profits, they would find a way to make the distribution a little more equal.

But then again, I'm just a history professor, not a corporate suit....

[TheJudge]

I'll gladly trade my extra Akagi for your Enterprise if you are interested.

[shousa]

from what I've read on the forums, allied boosters tend to come in clumps, even within cases. my experience with a half-case plus a starter has been a heavily skewed distribution as well. 5/7 Rares were allied, the Axis got 6/8 Uncommons BUT because of a wealth of auxiliaries (3 already!) have less than double the points value in uncommons compared to Allies. Commons have been more evenly distributed but the lopsided top end leaves the Axis with little choice in fleet composition. The only unit they have worth more than 20 points right now is Vinny! Meanwhile I've got 2/3 US battleships, 2/3 US carriers, etc. Now, to invalidate everything I've just said with honesty, I did get my boosters from 5 different stores and therefore can't even assume that they're from the same case. Oddly enough, though, from what I've read of the case pull reports there seems to be a trend of allies or axis rares and uncommons traveling in large packs, resulting in a rather unbalanced collection for those with less than 2 or 3 cases. Some get lucky annd buy a case loded with axis and another with allies. some don't and have to buy 3, 4 cases or just go to ebay for singles to finish out the othr side. I wonder what WotC thinks of this sort of distribution?

[Muenchausen]

I had to aquire almost my entire Japanese fleet through aftermarket purchases. There must be somewhere else in the world where people are pulling all the Jp ships from boosters, but I never saw them.

My first three cases was predominantly Axis (IJN). After three cases and two starters I was missing six rares. Four were US and two were UK.

[kaz]

I had to aquire almost my entire Japanese fleet through aftermarket purchases. There must be somewhere else in the world where people are pulling all the Jp ships from boosters, but I never saw them.

That would be me not much alide units a hell of a IJN fleet 3 Akagis 1 shokaku 3 shoho,s 1 yamato 5 tone,s an thats just my IJN sould see the italians and germans My brother has about 3 rare usa ship he has the alise lol i have the axis

[kaz]

I know, I know. And I try so hard to avoid that whole "Logic" thing.... :)

But seriously, I have a case and a half now (plus 2 starters), and it's still hard to put together anything like a balanced historical Axis fleet (except for the Italians). I didn't have that problem at the same point with A&A minis, although I have way more Allied units there, as well.

And I don't think WOTC makes much profit on the aftermarket purchases we're being forced to make. It seems to me that if they want to maximize their profits, they would find a way to make the distribution a little more equal.

But then again, I'm just a history professor, not a corporate suit....

How about a starter stet as normal then have a alide buster and a axis boster ????? any thoughts

[afilter]

Just coincidence.

My experience has been fairly even distribution when you buy a case at a time. When pulling individual boosters it is luck of the draw. When I first bought 2 Starters and 4 boosters it was very heavily axis based, infact I could not put together an equal allied fleet. Of course theat meant I had to go buy more.;)

Unless buying case lots I think it is just the luck of how you pull them.

[Bigblue2]

I have found that when purchasing collectible games that it is best to purchase, sealed cases, if you want a good distribution. If you don't, you will often get a lot of duplicates.

[Raeder]

I don't have a problem getting a good dispersion of countries. I am having problems finding certain classes of ships. I have no fleet carriers. Can not find them anywhere. Now, I'm not buying in bulk like some of you are, but you would think with all the purchases I've made, I would at least have found one Enterprise or Akagi.

[tbopper1]

10 allied, 2 axis, thats the case I got. Toss in the 2 Starters and its 12-2. In that batch I have 2 of Exeter and 3 Ark Royals.....At least I have the Swordfish and Hurri's to field them, to bad I prefere historical play.

[XAos]

HEHEH
I am sure the packaging is intended to maximize Profit over any real mathmatical function.
If A/H could do that they would. thats why it's a CMG isn't it.:D

[Legbiter]

I got the whole set, no doubles, from two cases. This is almost impossible by chance, so I suspect that Wizards are packing the rares in such a way as to raise the chances you will get a whole set by buying less than the statistically-likely number of boosters based on random distribution. I suspect in practise this means you have to buy all your cases at once from one source to maximise your chances.

[dracos42]

I had to aquire almost my entire Japanese fleet through aftermarket purchases. There must be somewhere else in the world where people are pulling all the Jp ships from boosters, but I never saw them.

I bought one case and got the entire Japanese fleet, all the Italians except the Vitorio Veneto, and all the Germans except Schranhorst. For the Allies I only got 3 battleships (Iowa, Tennessee, Richelieu), 1 cruiser (Boise), and one CVE, plus planes and DDs/DEs. A 13th booster gave me the Canberra, and the starter set gave me the Hood.

Mike L.

[Cpt. John Miller]

In 2 starters and 16 boosters(1 case +4) and I have drawn not a single Japanese rare and only 1 zeke in that same amount of boxes.
Very wierd.:confused:

[zaarin7]

In 3 starters and 12 boster bought over time but all from the same store I had a slight Allied slant. Then they started selling singles and thats where I got Akagi, Kongo and Enterprise.