In a strong and varied list it’s sometimes difficult to pick a stand-out subject, but for me the most anticipated title in next year’s Elite series line-up is M.C. Bishop’s Roman Infantry Helmets, scheduled for November 2025 publication.

The distinctive and varied helmets worn by the infantrymen serving in the Roman Army during the Republic, Principate and Dominate are an immediately recognizable element of their equipment. Legionaries and auxiliary troops were equipped with multiple types of helmet over the centuries, with different variants being used simultaneously. These functional, everyday items were sometimes elaborately decorated, and reveal much about how Roman soldiers were intended to be seen by their opponents, allies and the civilian population.

Each of Mike’s many contributions to the Osprey programme – both in the Elite series and also in the Weapon series – has successfully built upon the latest research and findings, interpreted with the author’s deep knowledge of all aspects of Roman arms and armour. This forthcoming volume promises to continue in the same vein, with authoritative text complemented by carefully chosen illustrations and the Elite series’ customary eight pages of original colour artwork. I’m really looking forward to this one!

 

ELI 259 The Athenian Army 507–322 BC

By Nicholas Sekunda

Illustrated by Giuseppe Rava

16/01/2025

This fully illustrated study explores the formidable Athenian army, rivalled only by the Spartan army in terms of battlefield prowess and influence.

In 508 BC, the reforms of Kleisthenes established the ten tribes of Athens, inaugurating a system of military organization that remained in place for nearly 200 years until Athens’ eclipse by the growing power of Macedon in the early 3rd century BC. Fully illustrated, this lively study investigates the development and effectiveness of the armies fielded by Athens during its many wars with its Greek neighbours, notably Sparta, and other opponents such as the Persian Empire. A variety of different troop types made up these armies, ranging from formidably armed and armoured hoplite heavy infantry to lightly armed archers, peltasts and cavalry.

In this book, Athens’ major wars and battles of the period are summarized, and important aspects contributing to the Athenian army’s battlefield prowess, influence and legacy, ranging from mobilization and training to the evolution of arms and armour, are examined in the light of the latest scholarship and archaeological finds. The eight colour plates reconstruct the appearance of components of the Athenian army at various stages of its development. The authoritative text is complemented by carefully chosen photographs, many in colour, depicting a variety of surviving artefacts, supported by informative captions.

 

ELI 260 The German Navy in World War II: The Kriegsmarine 1939–45

By Nigel Thomas PhD

Illustrated by Johnny Shumate

27/02/2025

Our veteran author Dr Nigel Thomas, creator of some 30 Osprey titles over about 40 years, is a linguist and military historian who has become renowned for the depth of his detailed research in the archives of several European countries. The core of his studies has been World War II, and I’m delighted that he has now tackled the somewhat neglected subject of Hitler’s Kriegsmarine. With the honourable exception of  our New Vanguard series, we have previously tended to concentrate on the obviously dramatic subject of the U-boat war, so I believe that Nigel’s latest title will fill a genuine gap.

Covering the surface and the submarine fleet, it offers a really remarkable amount of information in the space available, on organization, orders-of-battle, deployments, and uniforms and insignia  – all  supported by a series of very detailed tables. Not being a naval buff myself,  I have learned a great deal that is new to me. Until I worked on Nigel’s text, I had not grasped the full  degree of the German surface fleet’s  operations. Nor did I have much idea about the Kriegsmarine’s complex rank structure, or its uniforms and insignia, particularly those of its sizeable land forces. I was myself a collector over many years, yet I have now learned about uniforms that are quite new to me: indeed, if I had previously  been shown a Navy Land Forces’ officer’s  cap, I would not have had any idea what I was looking at. I hope and believe that our readers will find this book as useful as I have.

Apart from its submarine warfare (which Churchill admitted was the only threat that actually kept him awake at night), the German Navy in World War II has been relatively little-published compared with the other armed services comprising Hitler’s Wehrmacht. This concise introduction, by a respected historian of 20th-century European armed forces, offers readers an impressive amount of information regarding both the fleet put to sea by the Kriegsmarine, and  its extensive – though usually neglected – land combat forces. A summary of  the war at sea is followed by chapters covering naval commands and organization; the specifics of the Navy’s warship types, numbers and orders of battle, both surface vessels and U-boats; and the organization, order of battle and deployments of the naval land forces. All this information is supported by extensively detailed tables –as is the second half of the book, which is devoted to Kriegsmarine uniforms, from Grand Admiral down to Ordinary Seaman. It covers  the complex rank structures; insignia of rank and branch; and naval combat awards. The book is illustrated with wartime photos showing uniformed officers, NCOs and ratings, and by eight new colour plates detailing a wide range of seagoing  and land uniforms and insignia.

 

ELI 261 The Goths AD 200–700

By Raffaele D'Amato & Andrea Salimbeti

Illustrated by Marek Szyszko

24/04/2025

An illustrated study of Rome’s key enemies from the Late Principate and Dominate: the western Visigoths and the eastern Ostrogoths.

The Goths were a numerous and important Germanic people who, under pressure from the Huns to their east, migrated into the Balkans during the 2nd century AD. At first they raided and looted Roman territory, but some later took service as Roman allies. By the 290s they were recorded as having divided into the Tervingi or Visigoths to the west, and the Grutungi or Ostrogoths to the east. In the 4th century a major advance by the Huns forced the Goths south against the Danube. Failure to negotiate settlement in Roman territory led to wars, during which the Ostrogoths won a decisive victory over a Roman army at Adrianople (AD 378), and the Visigoths finally sacked Rome itself (AD 410).

As the Western Empire collapsed the Gothic peoples established kingdoms in the Iberian Peninsula and Italy. While the Ostrogoths were defeated in Italy by the Emperor Justinian in the 6th century, they survived in Crimea as subjects and soldiers of Byzantium until the 8th century, while the Visigoths retained power in Spain until the Muslim invasion of the same century. Both branches of the Gothic peoples thus played leading parts in the transition from Roman to early medieval Europe.

 

ELI 262 American Civil War Amphibious Tactics

By Ron Field

Illustrated by Steve Noon

19/06/2025

This thought-provoking book reveals the tactics, technologies, and specially raised units at the heart of the Union’s efforts to conduct combined operations during the American Civil War.
During the American Civil War, as well as confronting the Confederate forces on land, the Union commanders mounted several ambitious amphibious operations, both on the coast and along the banks of the great rivers. Although the Anaconda Plan, intended to defeat the Confederacy by blockading ports and advancing down the Mississippi to cut the Confederacy in two, did not gain widespread support among Union generals, the growing effectiveness of the Union Navy, the willingness of the Union Army to countenance combined operations, and the efforts of farsighted officers such as Ambrose Burnside, David Farragut, and John Dahlgren, ensured that amphibious warfare played an important part in the defeat of the South.

In May 1862, foreshadowed by the amphibious operations to capture Roanoke Island and New Bern in North Carolina and Island Number Ten on the Mississippi River, the Union forces’ use of combined operations to seize New Orleans dealt a major blow to the Confederacy. The true potential of amphibious operations was revealed by the Union efforts to capture Fort Fisher in North Carolina. While the initial Union attempt failed in December 1864, a renewed effort in January 1865 resulted in a Union victory. Fully illustrated, this study investigates the tactics and technologies harnessed and developed by the Union forces during the Civil War, and the Army and Navy units raised and equipped to conduct amphibious operations.

 

ELI 263 Roman Cavalry Tactics

By M. C. Bishop

Illustrated by Adam Hook

28/08/2025

Drawing upon the latest scholarly research, this book by a leading authority on the Roman Army describes the steady evolution, and explains and illustrates the tactics, of the developing cavalry arm.

It is unsurprising that most study of the Roman Army has concentrated on the heavy legionary infantry, which set that army apart from its opponents, and played the central role in pitched battles during the wars of expansion fought by the Republic and Principate. In fact, however, the cavalry ‘wings’ that probed ahead of and masked the flanks of armies on the march, and sought to outflank and encircle enemies in battle, played a key part in Roman campaigns of conquest.

The original small cavalry arm provided by the citizen nobility had proved inadequate before the end of the Republic; Julius Caesar’s cavalry was largely made up of hired allies, and under Augustus the armies of the Early Principate began to incorporate large numbers of non-citizen auxiliary cavalry units. As the provinces came under increasing attack during and following the chaotic mid-3rd century, improving Rome’s military mobility became ever more vital, and this was achieved by adapting the lessons learned from ‘barbarian’ enemies – particularly Parthian and Persian cavalry in the East. Rome adopted both new heavily armoured shock cavalry and horse-archers, and these shaped the tactics employed during the Dominate.

By the time of the twilight of the Roman West, cavalry seem to have overtaken infantry to become dominant in Roman field armies. In this book, featuring eight newly commissioned artwork plates and an array of other illustrations, a leading expert on the Roman Army draws on the latest research to explain this process.

 

Special Operations Forces in Afghanistan, 2009–22

By John Parkinson

Illustrated by Johnny Shumate

25/09/2025

Describes and illustrates the development and operations of coalition and Afghan Special Operations Forces in Afghanistan from 2009 until the final coalition withdrawal in 2022.

At the end of 2008 the coalition (US/NATO) strength of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan was clearly inadequate, leading to a ‘surge’ of troops that could not, however, be maintained in the long term. From the start of 2009 a reorganization of the Special Operations Joint Task Force – Afghanistan (SOJTFA) under US General Stanley McChrystal coincided with a change of doctrine: the creation of a special forces command (ANASOC) in the Afghan National Army, to fill the gap by partnering ISAF increasingly in counter-insurgency operations against the Taliban, Al Quaeda and ISIL-K. This would be paralleled by a “village stability” program – in effect, a revival of the previous “strategic hamlet” doctrine that had failed in Vietnam (but without adequate analysis of that failure). The consequences of this change of approach, and the evolving organization and appearance of the SOF troops tasked with implementing it, are the subjects of this study.

From 2012 many NATO countries reduced their contribution, leaving only the US, British, German, Polish, Czech and Slovak contingents with more than 200 men each in country by late 2018. The burden of direct operations never diminished; this led to an over-ambitious expansion of ANASOC, but slacker ties between it and the US/NATO command. In this book, a former USMC officer with first-hand experience and many contacts explains the consequent spiral of problems that culminated in the fall of Kabul and the hasty withdrawal of coalition forces in 2022.

 

The Wagner Group, 2014–23: Putin's Global Mercenaries

By Mark Galeotti

Illustrated by Johnny Shumate

23/10/2025

The inside story of the mercenary force organized on Vladimir Putin’s instructions by business tycoon Yevgeny Prigozhin, and led by former Spetsnaz Colonel Dmitri Utkin.

Conceived by the Kremlin in 2013 as an instrument of ‘deniable’ power projection, the Wagner mercenary force was a fixture of Russian foreign deployments for nine years. First deployed in the Donbas region of Ukraine during the undeclared war there in 2014, from 2015 it went on to play a key role in Russia’s intervention in the Syrian civil war, then extended its activities to six African countries and even to Venezuela, before becoming one of the most infamous fighting forces in President Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

In Ukraine, although it enjoyed considerable autonomy, Prigozhin’s feud with the Russian Defence Ministry and General Staff became ever more bitter, threatening the Russian Army’s military cohesion and exercise of command. The world was astonished by the Wagner Group’s final mutiny in June 2023, by which Prigozhin hoped to persuade President Putin to back him in his conflict with the Army leadership, and its days in Russia seem to be over – though not those of other mercenary organizations, which makes this a suitable time to examine the phenomenon. Illustrated with rare photographs and eight specially commissioned artwork plates, the narrative text is interspersed with concise profiles of central personalities, orders of battle, units and actions.

 

Roman Infantry Helmets

By M.C. Bishop

20/11/2025

 

The Roman infantry helmet was a vital piece of personal protection equipment of both legionary and auxiliary troops. Drawing upon the latest research and findings, renowned authority M.C. Bishop investigates the origins, development, manufacture, decoration and use of this vital defence.

The protective headgear worn by Roman foot soldiers of the Republican period was adopted directly from the Etruscans, who had in turn adapted helmets from neighbouring European Iron Age cultures, both within and outwith the Italian peninsula. Its form remained largely unchanged until the Late Republic, when contact and conflict with a wider variety of contemporary cultures introduced new influences.

The dynamic forces at work during civil wars and transition from the Republic to the Principate at the end of the 1st century BC saw a whole range of types introduced which then gradually evolved until new influences saw further changes. This culminated in contact with Eastern cultures leading to completely new types being introduced which simplified manufacture and ultimately led directly to a variety of post-Roman helmet types found, among others, with Saxon and Viking warriors.

Many new finds have ensured that much has changed in the narrative of Roman helmets in recent scholarship and the time is ripe for a new and accessible examination of the development, manufacture and use of the Roman infantry helmet.