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The End Of The Beginning
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The End Of The Beginning:
Early-war, so many options!
with Wayne Turner
With the publishing of Barbarossa we come to the end of the Flames Of War Early-war (1939 to 1941) period. However, this does not mean an end to Early-war for gaming. With so many books available for Early-war there are plenty of opportunities to try something new.
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We also plan to continue to fill in the gaps not
covered by the books, such as Axis allies like the Hungarians and
Romanians that will be available on our new digital app following
closely behind the release of Barbarossa, and lets not forget Operation Sealion,
the planned German invasion of Great Britain, as well as planned
briefings for Belgiums and Yugoslavs. Early-war has such a variety of
forces and theatres with so many varied and interesting campaigns.
So what’s available? Well, loads actually! You can choose forces from five different books. |
Early-war By The Numbers
In November 2009 we embarked on an ambitious project to go back to where
the war began and started work on what would become Blitzkrieg. Over
the next five years we have spent over 5,500 hours creating the
Early-war series of books and covering the period like no one has done
before.
Let us roll out the numbers…
• We wrote over 760 pages of content. • We created 117 new companies. • We laid up over 800 platoon diagrams.
• We sculpted, painted, and released over 250 products. • Hundreds of people around the world helped out as playtesters or contributors. • And we took more photos and wrote more web articles than we can possibly count! |
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The first book to be released was Blitzkrieg, with Phil heading up the writing on this project. Blitzkrieg covers the battles for Poland and France in 1939 and 1940. It includes the follow forces:
Polish (4)
• Kompania Czołgów (Tank Company) • Pułk Kawalerii Zmotoryzowanej (Motorised Cavalry Regiment) • Batailon Piechoty (Infantry Battalion) • Pułk Kawalerii (Cavalry Regiment).
Germans (15)
• Leichte Panzerkompanie (Light Armoured Company) • Mittlere Panzerkompanie (Medium Armoured Company) • Verlastete Panzerkompanie (Trucked Armoured Company) • Czech Panzerkompanie (Czech Armoured Company) • Schützenkompanie (Rifle Company) • Panzerschützenkompanie (Armoured Rifle Company) • Kradschützenkompanie (Motorcycle Rifle Company) (Heer and SS options) • Leichte Pionierkompanie (Light Pioneer Company)
• Infanteriekompanie (Infantry Company) (Infantry, Motorised, and SS options)
• Pionierkompanie (Pioneer Company) (Infantry, Motorised, and SS options).
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Read The Design Notes For Blitzkrieg here...
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British (6)
• Armoured Regiment • Infantry Tank Company • Divisional Cavalry Squadron • Rifle Company (Guards, Regular, and Territorial).
French (9)
• Compagnie de Combat (Combat Company) • Escadron de Combat (Combat Squadron) • Compagnie de Châsseurs Portés (Carrier-borne Light Infantry Company) • Escadron de Fusiliers Portés (Truck-borne Fusilier Squadron)
• Escadron de Reconnaissance (Reconnaissance Squadron) • Escadron de Fusiliers Motocyclistes (Motorcyclist Fusilier Squadron) • Compagnie de Fusiliers-Voltigeurs (Fusilier-Light Infantry Company) (Active, Reserve, Colonial). |
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Our second book for Early-war is Hellfire and Back, written by Wayne, and covers the campaigns in North Africa during 1940 and 1941. It includes Italian, German and British forces.
Italians (5)
• Compagnia Carri (Tank Company) • Compagnia Bersaglieri (Light Infantry Company) • Compagnia Motociclisti (Motorcycle Infantry Company) • Posizione de Fucilieri (Fortified Infantry Position) (Fucilieri/Black Shirt, and Libyan).
Germans (9)
• Leichte Panzerkompanie (Light Armoured Company) • Mittlere Panzerkompanie (Medium Armoured Company) • Schützenkompanie (Rifle Company)
• Panzerschützenkompanie (Armoured Rifle Company) • Kradschützenkompanie (Motorcycle Rifle Company) • MG-Kompanie (Machine-gun Company) • Leichte Pionierkompanie (Light Pioneer Company) • Infanteriekompanie (Infantry Company)
• Stützpunkt (Strongpoint).
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| Read The Design Notes For Hellfire and Back here... |
British and Commonwealth (15)
• Armoured Regiment • Crusader Armoured Squadron • Honey Armoured Squadron • Armoured Car Squadron
• Jock Column • Infantry Tank Company • Divisional Cavalry Squadron • Rifle Company (Guards, 8th Army, Indian)
• Commonwealth Rifle Company (Australian, New Zealand, South African) • Tobruk Strongpoint. |
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Out third early-war book, Burning Empires, by the esteemed Mike Haught, covers the Greek and Syrian campaigns, as well as raiding forces in the desert. Burning Empires also includes all the Raiding rules as well as five Raiding Missions.
Italians (3)
• Battalione Fucilieri (Rifle Battalion) (Fucilieri, Black Shirt, and Alpini).
Greeks (2)
• Tagma Tethorakismento (Armoured Battalion) • Lokhos Pezikoy (Infantry Company).
Germans (5)
• SS-Kradschutzensturm (SS Motorcycle Rifle Company) • Gebirgsjäger Infanteriekompanie (Mountain Infantry Company) • SS-Infanteriekompanie (SS Infantry Company) • Fallschirmjägerkompanie (Parachute Rifle Company)
• Luftlandesturmkompanie (Glider Assault Company).
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French (2)
The Syrian campaign is unusual as it included French troops on both sides, Free French and Vichy French.
• Compagnie de Tiirailleurs (Vichy French) • Compagnie de Tiirailleurs (Free French).
Raiding Forces
The other big feature of Burning Empires is the section on Raiding forces, which covers these forces in the Middle East and North Africa from 1939 to 1943.
British Raiding Forces (3)
• LRDG Patrol • SAS Squadron • Sudan Rifle Company.
Italian Raiding Forces (2)
• Compagnia Autosahariana (Saharan Motor Company) • Compagnia Mitraglieri (Machine-gun Company).
Free French Raiding Forces (2)
• Compagnie de Tirailleurs Senegalais (Senagalese Light Infantry Company) • Compagnie Decouverte de Combat (Combat Reconnaissance Company).
German Raiding Force
• Brandenburger Halbkompanie (Brandenburger Half Company)
US Raiding Force
• OSS Operation Group
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After the release of Burning Empires we decided to spilt the early-war in the east into two smaller books, the first of these was Rising Sun which featured the Winter War Finns, 1939 Japanese from the battles in Manchuria and Soviet forces for 1939 to 1940 to face both of these as well as the Poles from Blitzkrieg. Wayne Turner headed up this project.
Japanese (5)
• 3rd Sensha Rentai (3rd Tank Regiment) • 4th Sensha Rentai (4th Tank Regiment) • Hohei Chutai (Infantry Company) • Kihei Chutai (Cavalry Company).
Finns (4)
• Jalkaväkikomppania (Infantry Company) • Mannerheim Line Strongpoint • Jääkärikomppania (Light Infantry Company) • Sissikomppania (Ski Guerilla Company).
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Soviets (6)
• Heavy Tankovy Batalon (Heavy Tank Battalion) • Light Tankovy Batalon (Light Tank Battalion) • Fast Tankovy Batalon (Fast Tank Battalion) • Motostrelkovy Batalon (Motorised Infantry Battalion) • Strelkovy Batalon (Rifle Battalion)
• Kavalyeriyskiy Polk (Cavalry Regiment).
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Out latest early-war book covers Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union. The German army has defeated its enemies all over Europe, leaving just Soviets to defeat to assure total dominion over the continent. Wayne took the reins on this book.
Germans (9)
• Leichte Panzerkompanie (Light Armoured Company) • Mittlere Panzerkompanie (Medium Armoured Company) • Czech Panzerkompanie (Czech Armoured Company) • Panzerschützenkompanie (Armoured Rifle Company) • Schützenkompanie (Rifle Company) • Kradschützenkompanie (Motorcycle Rifle Company) (Heer and SS) • Infanteriekompanie (Infantry Company) (Heer and SS).
Soviets (9)
• Tankovy Batalon (Tank Battalion) (Red Army and Guard) • Inomarochnikiy Tankovy Batalon (Lend Lease Tank Battalion) (Red Army and Guard)
• Motorstrelkovy Batalon (Motor Infantry Battalion) • Strelkovy Batalon (Rifle Battalion) (Red Army, Guard, Red Banner, and Militia).
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We also have a number of German and Soviet intelligence briefing we weren’t able to fit into the book, plus Romanian, Hungarian, Slovak and Italian companies, all coming out on our new digital app.
~ Wayne.
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