Western Desert CofC.

Okay, so it wasn't all Too Fat Lardies' "fault" for reigniting my interest in WW2 gaming. My recent reading of Basil Liddell-Hart's History of the Second World War had much to do with it. His descriptions of General O'Connor's efforts to push the Italian army out of Cyrenaica are vivid. It begs the question - Would O'Connor have succeeded in his aim if Churchill hadn't deprived him of units and further reinforcements by sending them on a forlorn hope to bolster Greece? Could Rommel have got enough supplies past Malta to enable him to push on to Egypt?

So, I'm opting for the Western Desert, 1940-43.

This is something I gamed way back in the 70's using Airfix and Matchbox models on a crude sand table, but I haven't played much of this theater since. It's interesting to see Rich Clark using a sand table for his own demonstrations of Chain of Command rules, but I think I'll stick with the sand colored cloth for now.

There are some nice figures and models out there. Old Glory's Command Decison range Italians come recommended, and can't really be beaten for price - $15 for a pack of 50. Old Glory does have a reputation of variable quality, though. Peter Pig is another option, having very nice sculpts, although this higher quality means they're roughly twice the price of Old Glory. I read the two ranges are generally miscible. I think pick n' mix will be the way to go.

As for vehicles, Zvezda produces a wide range of tanks etc. suitable for early war. Scalehobbyist carries the range in the US. The models are very cheap compared with metal or resin versions, snap together, and photos I've seen show the results are pretty good.

A recent upswing in work means I'll be a bit too busy to deal with CofC for a while, but my first step will be to buy the rules and look them over. More details to come...