John Paul wrote:Our fundamental plan for books has evolved since we did Bagration so that we are trying to cover all three periods in some way every year and despite the late-war schedule driving the bulk of new models we have books on both mid and early coming as well. I will do this more formally on the web next week but to give you the basics of what you will see in the next twelve months might help clarify our plans.

Early-War: This is being worked on right now for an initial release in the first half of next year. We have to make over 100 (124 to be exact) new codes to complete the entire range so this has been the part that we have had to wait for as releasing books with cool models seemed silly. EW will get a book a year with the first one focusing on the conflict in France and Poland and its appropriate lists. The following years will see books on other areas with corresponding models out with them. An EW campaign is also on the list. We have a plan currently that has four years of paper and models before we have to try hard to explore new things for EW and that is more than enough to keep us busy for now. We always wanted to do EW well so having a much bigger rolling plan than people were expecting is what we have come up with. EW is not a poor cousin to MW and LW but a whole period and gaming style all of its own when even the Panzer II was to be feared and FOW plays very differently to either MW or LW.

Mid-War: Having started in this period when FOW was launched we have already spent years producing lists and models for this period. The next six months sees the updated versions of both Afrika and Ostfront come out. As you have seen with Afrika we have gone back and added more lists and brought them all up to the new standard making them so much easier to field. We have plans for several campaigns for the period with the Desert likely to be the first out but not until the very end of 2010 at the earliest and MG and EW will be out before that slot opens up. We will be updating the website in a few months to offer the full spectrum of MW bxes and armies so that getting everything we ever made for MW will be easier than ever.

Late-War: Our rolling plan for a new theater each year is ongoing. MG will begetting two books "Hell's Highway" focusing on the first two bridges and with lists covering 82 & 101 US airborne, Guards tank, infantry and 2nd Cav lists with variant Irish and Welsh Guard lists as well. These are stacked against the 6th ans 3rd Fallschirmjager and their inetrsting mix of support from SS to taning school troops. Julian Cook, Frost and Von Der Heydte are the three heroes in this book. Next up you get the Firestorm campaign box with a massive 130cm x 60cm playing board. Early in the new year you will then get "A Bridge Too Far" covering Arnhem and the forces around there. British and Polish airborne lists with variant 9th and 10th SS lists with support from a variety of troops sent over to stem the tide. As well as MG you will be seeing a book on the invasion and battles in Italy in early 44 out in mid 2010 as well so anybody wanting to field Anzio or Cassino lists will finally get what they want.

Web Material: We have always had the policy that we should be offering free additional material on on website and apart from being disapointed at the order they come out in the repsonse has always been posotive. Variant lists are always done as part of work/research for printed books or serious research by trusted contributors as we do so much work to pick the best material for books we always get left having to make tough choices of what to include or not. Given these lists have a solid framework on which they were based and we put them through the testing cycle as well we have always felt that these lists were great to offer in this format as the alternative would simply be not to do them as our printed schedule is always full. The sheer number of official ones now does give us the choice to print a compilation of them and that is definitely something we are looking at doing in the future.

With all of this going on you can only imagine what the future holds and in trying to give FOW players everything they want and come up with some new surprises we are never short of things to do. It just goes to show that sitting down in front of the computer on a Sunday morning feeling all relaxed just led to a proverbial "spilling of the beans" which i am sure will spark some conversation over the weekend and allow those of us who not lucky enough to be at Historicon something to talk about instead.

legoburner wrote:Aw, Irish guards are just a variant list.

Wikipedia wrote:In order to accommodate the large weapon and a second loader, a turret larger than that of the Cromwell was required and as such the hull had to be enlarged. It was lengthened and an extra road wheel added. As a consequence of the weight increase, the armour had to be reduced and the hull machine gun was removed for stowage of the long 17pdr cartridges.

Unfortunately, due to some short sightedness no provision had been made for deep wading trunking and thus the A30 was unavailable to participate in the Normandy landings, the tank having to wait until ports had been secured and the Mulberry harbours completed. The Challenger, despite its high centre of gravity was liked by its crews as it was somewhat faster and more agile than the equivalently armed Sherman Firefly. The Firefly design which had been a backup strategy proved to be easier to build and production of the Challenger was stopped with about 200 units built. Many of the A30s were issued to units using the Cromwell to ease maintenance logistics, as they shared many of the same parts.

legoburner wrote:I never did like the metal sherman tracks in the british armoured squadron box so hopefully that will get replaced with plastic like all the others.

George Spiggott wrote:Looks like multiple (three?) panzerschreck teams as part of your HQ.

legoburner wrote:What's the source on the FoW website for that image? I cant find it anywhere right now :S

BFM BB111 European Village Set 1 (8 Houses) $0.00
BFM BB112 European Village Set 3 (6 Destroyed) $0.00
BFM BB113 European Village Set 4 (Walls) $0.00
BFM BSO104 Guards Rifle Command (2 stands) $3.50
BFM BSO105 Guards Rifle PIAT (3 PIATs) $3.50
BFM BSO189 Guards Head Sprue (3 sprues) $2.75
BFM FBX03 Firestorm Market Garden Boardgame $50.00
BFM GBX08 Fallschirmjagerkopanie $45.00
BFM GSO122 Fallschirmjager Snipers (3 teams) $3.50
BFM UBX18 Parachute Rifle Company $55.00
BFM USO113 Para Pathfinder Team $1.75
BFM USO114 Para Snipers $3.50
BFM USO115 Turner Turnbull $2.25
BFM USO116 Para Supply Cart $2.75