Eastern Front Design Notes

By Phil Yates

Following from North Africa, Eastern Front is a major revamp of Ostfront, one of our mid-war compendia. Like North Africa it brings our old books up to our latest standards with the new company organisation diagrams, complete listings rather than modifications for variants, and better overall organisation. It has also undergone a comprehensive re-pointing to bring all of the forces into line and incorporate the last four years of experience.

German

The German section is both essentially the same, and quite different. While it covers the same material, it does so in a much more complete and easy-to-use fashion. Not only are all of the previous variant briefings such as pioneer companies and SS and Luftwaffe forces are now listed out in detail and pointed out in full, but the Panzer and Panzergrenadier companies have been broken up into multiple briefings.

Instead of two armoured briefings, we now have six: 1942 Schwere Panzerkompanie, 1943 Schwere Panzerkompanie, Czech Panzerkompanie, Mittlere Panzerkompanie, a 1943-style Panzerkompanie, and the Kursk Pantherkompanie. This will get rid of a lot of the perennial questions on how they go together and will help those interested in historical forces get the right combinations of equipment.

Of course most of these briefings now come in two flavours as well—Heer (Army) and SS.

As with all Fearless forces, the SS have benefited considerably from the points reduction in Fearless tanks and guns. If you ever wanted to try SS, but were put off by the points cost, now’s your chance!

The Panzergrenadier and Panzerpionier companies received a similar treatment with the armoured and motorised versions being separated out and given both Heer and SS options. Gepanzerte Panzergrenadierkompanie players (and those who have always wanted to play them) will be happy with the new points too. A Gepanzerte SS-Panzergrenadier Platoon is now cheaper than the old army one.

We gave the Grenadiers a slightly different treatment. Here we finally gave the motorised infantry and Panzergrenadier divisions their due. You can now motorise your infantry! The Luftwaffe Feldkompanie also has its own briefing to properly reflect their interesting variations and oddities.

On the equipment side, we have added in the 8.8cm PaK43/41 (new research has shown that they were fielded at Kursk), made the Hornisse a bit more realistic in price, and added the 15cm SFH18 (beloved of late-war players), and the self-propelled 8.8cm FlaK18 showcased in mid-war monsters. The rocket artillery has the new organisation for the Panzerwerfer batteries allowing a devastating bombardment, and an option for the SS to field their R-Vielfachwerfer launchers (seen in Monty’s Meatgrinder and River of Heroes).

Overall, I think most German players will be very happy with the new book.

Finnish

As anyone who reads the forums will know, the Finnish lobby is alive and well, and definitely keen to be heard! It is no surprise then that they have new special rules for their artillery and the Hunters rule replaces the Ski-equipped rule bringing them in line with their new late-war briefing.

Aside from that, they also benefit from the general reduction in the cost of Fearless tanks and guns.

This particularly helps their tanks and artillery, which also gets a greater variety of guns ranging from the little Russian 76mm regimental gun to the German 150mm and Russian 152mm howitzers.