Hot Lead 2016

I've put my name forward to GM a game of Big Chain of Command. I have the horde of Russians ready to go (130 or so). Now I have to work on the German opponents. I have 55 done already but I have another 60 or so to go.

I have 8 weeks to prepare and it starts with a list of things to do:

• Complete the German infantry and support weapons
• Create more wood fences
• Shrubbery and hedges
• Maybe a creek or stream
• Design the scenario and terrain map
• List the forces
• Label the leaders 
• Use stickers to indicate different sections
• Create player packages
• Create Russian patrol markers
• Create more trees and repair the existing ones

I have made quite a bit of progress on the BTD Germans. I have the first coat complete. I'm now at the stage of fixing the overruns. Once that is done, I can apply the wash and then do some highlighting. Flocking is the final step. I think I need to complete this by the first weekend of February. 

Then I can use the rest of February to do terrain and the first two weeks of March to design the game.

Goals are good to have.

Book Review: Encyclopaedia of German Armoured Vehicles

https://books.google.ca/books/about/Encyclopedia_of_German_Tanks_of_World_Wa.html?id=JSStQgAACAAJ

If you are building a WW2 German army that has any tanks in it, this is the book to get (but beware the prices!). Every major vehicle has an entry with multiple photographs (1000+ black and white). Each model (ausf) describes what changed and there's often a photograph that shows the changes. The armament for each model is provided along with production information.

But there's not just the important tanks. You can truly geek out on the obscure stuff where only one or models saw service or some of the truly bizarre experimental stuff that barely got off the drawing board. There's pre-war stuff and some last month of the war desperation stuff and the story in between stuff where the Germans extended the usefulness of a chassis for far longer than they thought originally.

The book also covers halftracks, armoured cars, and important captured tanks. There's armoured vehicles used to control rocket launches and vehicles that worked on land and on water. There's even a vehicle that was both an armoured car and a tank.

If you see a copy in a used book store for a reasonable price, grab it. I have immense gratitude to Alain for giving me his copy when he was downsizing his library.