"WWII: Early or Late War?" Topic

For me it's early war.

1940 Western Front

1941 Philippines

I agree!

All of them, but on balance I probably do more post 1942

I tend to 1943 to mid-44. More variety of kit and uniforms and still a bit of balance between forces, especially in Italy.

The fall of the Dutch East Indies, Greece.
jon

France.

Both in 1940 and 1944.

Dave

My projects are quite varied:
15mm 1940 France and 1941-42 Eastern front
28mm late war Germans
1/300 Battle of Britain
1/2400 early war Pacific naval

I tend to work on early war projects, though will gladly play in a late war game

I first thought I'd only have W.W. II North Africa in 28mm. It is a TOTALLY different look from armies in Europe.

Then I thought, well, get some figures and expand to have games based upon Sicily. Uniforms are kinda like North Africa.

As long as you are going to have those, maybe some France '40 stuff too, as the tanks are really pretty on the table.

Got Early war Germans? Then get some Russians as switching from France '40 to Russia '41 is easy.

If you have '41 Russians, you might as well get some mid and late war Russian tanks, as the uniforms didn't change that much.

Late war Russians, require late war Germans and vehicles.

And late war Germans, how about some British and Yanks for Normandy stuff. Then I'll stop.

But I'm only going to get a "small" amount of Pacific theatre stuff.

My 28mm W.W. II collection grew like a tumor on a Chernobyl firefighter.

We play early ,mid and late
Trying out the Dutch for a few scenarios as they fought gallanty but were quick to be overwhelmed

I started WWII gaming almost exclusively Western Desert – loved it

Have subsequently done a lot of Eastern Front and more recently NW Europe 1944

But I really, really love the early war stuff – don't game it enough; just bought some minis to flesh out my French 1940 forces

Middle East/North Africa, where you get a nice variety of equipment, organization and doctrines, and ETO 1944--but only in bad flying weather.

Predominantly early war. 20mm 1940 and will be expanding to Greece and Crete. I am doing SE Asia in 28mm that will cover most of the war. I also have some later war 28mm for skirmish gaming, and 20mm Japanese and marines. I also have some 28mm Chinese, though they are warlord era they can work for early Sino-Japanese in the north. I have a large unpainted collection of 10mm mostly mid to late war. Not really sure where that will be going yet.

Left to myself, I did Greek and Italian armies, so 1940-41, early war.
I try to be a team player, though, and have a Sherman "Easy Eight" tank and some American infantry for use when the group does a late war game.

The Greeks and Italians are all painted and ready to go--the Americans, well, not so much!

Grelber

Everybody says early war, but that's not what I see at tournaments!

I'm doing the Pacific Theater. Japanese, U.S., Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Indian Forces, Gurkhas, Etc. Using 54 mm figures from Expeditionary Force. Loads of scenarios from beach landings, jungle fighting, destroying airfields, Liberating prison camps, etc.

I like mid to late war.

Deucy, let me introduce you to the concept of sampling error. You're like the movie critic living in Manhattan and travelling in arty leftist circles who announced that she couldn't see how Nixon won the election: she didn't know anyone who voted for him.

Neither TMP nor tournaments are random samples of miniature wargamers playing WWII.

Eastern Front mostly 1940-2 in 20mm, some '44-45 armor.

Western Front '44-45 US and UK and, of course, Germans, 20mm.

in 6mm, mostly Western Front '44-45.

Yes. I have 28mm Early-to-Late War Ostfront, Late War US for Western Front, and USMC/US Army and Japanese for the Island Hopping and PNG+ campaigns.

My wish list includes a platoon each of Brit + DAK and Italian Desert War, Brit (Western Front), French (early war), and then Diggers, Chindits and Commonwealth troops and PNG locals for PNG and Burma. Oh, and lets toss in a platoon of Chinese Expeditionary Forces for good measure!

I've run WWWII games, using the excellent Graven Image 35mm WWII figures, based on the premise that an experimental "Hanebu" prototype (a top secret German flying saucer) has crashed in the Black Forrest. The SS, the SAS, & the NKVD clash in the attempt to secure this advanced technology each for their own postwar use, thus set in the very late war period.

Everything from 1942-45. In 15mm so that I can store it all. Hahaha

I have more interest in the early war period (39-42) but game the entire conflict.

All of my WWII miniature and board gaming is either just after D-Day (I don't game the beaches) or Market Garden. Air is The Blitz or Pacific. Naval is all Pacific. I'm oddly specific in what I like?

So I guess Late War.

But I will play nearly everything other than Pacific land battles.

1939 Polish campaign and France 1940 are my preferred periods, together with "Battle of the Atlantic", but I will game any period in the European/Eastern Fronts. No interest in the Pacific though.

Early war in the Pacific. Guadalcanal and especially New Guinea. Green US soldiers and eager young marines against veteran Japanese. There are also the Australians slugging it through the Kokoda trail and Papuan guerrillas. I have produced a scenario specific date and rules for the Buna-Gona Campaign. In 1942 it was an even match on air, land, and sea. Later the US became an unstoppable juggernaut.

Correction to the above"scenario specific game.:)

Well, as a soloist, I have the following armies:
Winter War Finns
Early & late war Russians
1944 US Para
Early & late war Germans

It's all good.

WW2 is mostly naval for me so early war is most balanced

I'll game any year, but my collection is focused on the early way years, 1939 to mid 1942.

I'm with Mr Tibbles- the period from the middle of June '44 until the end of Market-Garden have grabbed my gaming interest in a way that the other theatres and fronts never have. I have a battlegroup from Guards Armoured DIV (my mate had already built 7 and 11 DIV) and a small enemy force from 2nd (Army) Pz DIV. In 15mm, for the usual storage reasons.

I have a lot of things going on regarding WWII periods. Right now, most of my stuff is mid to late War but I will be adding some Barbarossa stuff to the list.

Here is what I have painted so far. This is all in 1/285th scale.

1. British North Africa – 1942 period after Caunter.
2. German North Africa – 1942 period.
3. Russians. The infantry could probably be used easily in any game from 1941-45. I have a small amount of vehicles painted for 1941 but most are 1942 to 1945.
4. Americans – NW Europe 1944-45 period.
5. British – NW Europe 1944-45 period. No completed infantry yet.
6. Germans – mostly mid to late War 1942-45 but some infantry and some of the vehicles can be used for 1941.

I have a fair amount of early War vehicles and infantry including Poland, France, 1940-41 North Africa, and more Russian and German vehicles for the period 1939-41.

The great thing about gaming WWII is the variety of combat. So much evolution during the war that it's like playing many different wars.
Early war has a different feel vs mid and late war. N.Africa has a different style vs Western Europe or even Russia. And this is not even including the Pacific theater.

For decades I've done early Eastern front, 41-42 but just now I'm working on painting France 1940 stuff so yeah, early war for me.