Fun and Games

OAFS Photo

I've always been something of a believer in "bigger is better." Especially when it comes to games. Even though the space to set up and play one of the so-called "monster" games is at a premium these days. Oh, I have the space, but I also have a wife who doesn't want maps and cardboard counters strewn all over the living room floor.

I mean, I get that.

While on Okinawa I purchased two monster games from Simulations Publications, Inc., or SPI as they were more commonly known. The first was this one ...

Source

Three 22" x 34" map sections, 100 yards per hex, counters represented regiments and artillery batteries. A real monster. A few of us actually played the Little Round Top scenario. Oddly enough the guys controlling the Union forces were actually northerners: New Jersey, Vermont, and Michigan. The guys controlling the Confederate forces were both southerners: Texas and Alabama as I recall.

The North won, just barely, but we had a blast refighting the struggle upon that hill ...

That hill in the middle of the photo is Little Round Top
OAFS Photo

Now the other monster SPI game I had on Okinawa was SPI's Wellington's Victory.

Source

A massive 68" x 34" map, 100 yards per hex, counters represented battalions/squadrons (infantry/cavalry), and artillery batteries. The map was huge. No one other than me was very interested in playing it so I had to go solitaire. Spread that huge map out on the floor of my room in the barracks (no roommates thankfully, I mean I was in the Air Force, right?).

Set it up Friday night and Saturday morning, then started fighting. I'd only leave the room to go get something to eat and the various calls of nature required of we humans. Come Sunday night, the French forces had punched a hole in Wellington's left flank and it looked as though the Prussians weren't going to make it in time.

Now I lived in the barracks, right, and on rare occasions the squadron would come through and inspect our rooms, to make sure we weren't raising vermin, and to ensure the general hygiene and cleanliness of the barracks. (My memory just reminded me that the USAF didn't call them barracks, we called them "dormitories." What were we, college students?)

I was loathe to pack the game away, so I said the heck with it and left it set up. Of course, dontcha know it, the squadron decided to inspect that Monday. I was called in to the commander's office that afternoon. As I walked in, the First Sergeant, whose desk sat outside the commander's office, was giving me the evil eye.

"So, First Sergeant, commander wants to see me?"

"Yes, no doubt he wants to chew your ass for that pig sty of a room of yours, Airman."

He got a "harumph" from me (under my breath of course) just as the CO walked out, a Major as I recall.

"So Airman, what game was that?"

The commander and I had a great discussion of the battle and of gaming in general. I told him the story of us playing Terrible Swift Sword as well. The First Sergeant was not pleased. From that day forth I had a free pass to keep my monster games set up in my room.

"I don't wanna see any dust on those counters and that map, okay Airman?"

"Sir, yes Sir." Though I didn't like the guy at first, he turned out to be a pretty cool dude.

Now, the two games at the top of the post, both are recent acquisitions, the one on the left is the final (I think) game in the series, a series I mentioned here last year. I waited a couple of years for that one to come out. Worth the wait it was.

Now the one on the right is different, it's a monster game and I saw that one mentioned some time ago. Couldn't find anywhere outside of Australia that had it and I wasn't going to pay the shipping fees and all that (tariff too, no doubt). But Noble Knight Games had it listed and I could get on a waiting list for it. So I pulled the trigger on that. That was over a year ago, I think.

While down in Maryland I got an email from Noble Knight Games that the game was available and would I wish to purchase it?

Why yes, yes I would. So I did. It was pricey but what the heck, why not? FedEx actually delivered it to me at Chez Tuttle et Nuke's house on my birthday. Nice, very nice.

The Nuke took one look at it and said, "Damn, Dad, that's your jam, that's right up your alley."

The Missus Herself just shook her head and mumbled something about "boys and their toys."

Well, she ain't wrong, is she?

More War Game Stuff ...

Call to Arms: Panzer Elite - In Game Screenshot

"Beg to report, Sir! All objectives have been seized. We lost one tank, sucks, but the Krauts lost beaucoup scout cars and halftracks. We also destroyed a number of anti-tank guns."

So yeah, picked up where I left off yesterday. Finally got past the airfield and on to the final objective, a large village with a big church which could be seen from the airfield. Orders were to capture it. So I did, without losing anybody, which is always good.

I've started using a couple of tactics which seem to be working well.

• Avoid motoring down a road. The enemy will cover those as they're the fastest way to get from Point A to Point B. They like to cover the roads with dug-in anti-tank guns. Which sit low to the ground and usually only take one or two hits to make your day very bad indeed. DAMHIK
• Avoid charging across open spaces. Just because your tank is very fast, the ability of a gun crew (whether in a vehicle or on the ground) to track you and put a round into you is pretty high. As the computer can't think like a human, it will follow set patterns.
• If you get hit, start backing up, very quickly. Then try and figure out where the shot came from. If you look first, that second round will ruin your day.

So far, it's been a learning experience ("learing" for you folks in Minneapolis/St Paul). Which I suppose is the point as I've never served in a tank unit. (Reminds me, I need to get a screen shot of a tank blowing up for juvat, usually it's one of mine getting blown up so I forget to grab a screenshot. I'm too busy trying to figure out where the shot came from. It's the guy you didn't see who kills you.)

Now this game is what is called in "Early Release," which on Steam (where I get most of my games from) means that a product is playable, just not ready for prime time yet. If you buy it in Early Release, you DO get all the updates as they come out. If you wait for the full release, the price usually goes up. I don't mind being a "guinea pig," it's what I spent the last few years of my career doing, beating up on software trying to get it to fail. Which usually just means using it for its intended purpose.

For a combat system that might involve firing more missiles than the ship can carry and seeing how the software handles it. (In early versions, before deployment, that answer is usually "not very well." I had a software puke tell me "that's not a realistic test." The Navy guy standing next to him asked, "Based on your zero years in the Navy?" Heh.)

Anyhoo, if something crashes, the game will immediately grab logs, screenshots, and whatever else it needs and sends it off to the developers. So far this beast has only crashed a couple of times on me, and within a day or so they publish an update.

So, airfield secured, time for the next mission. Now the solo missions are coming out slowly, after all, they need to program the AI as well as everything else in the game. If you're playing against other humans the problem is simpler, from a programming standpoint. So, what's my next mission?

In the solo world there are only two American missions, neither of which is very easy, both of which can take hours to get through. As the enemy never seems to react quite the same way all of the time and might set up a hundred yards or so away from where you saw him last time, the game is very replayable (sic).

So let me see, let me see. Ah, there's a new German mission!

Prior to deployment the game sends you to the hangar. Not sure why it's called a hangar, that's where one stores aircraft, I probably would've gone with "motor pool" or "tank park." But that's just me. Anyhoo, it looks like this when you first enter -

Call to Arms: Panzer Elite - In Game Screenshot

You click on the gray box with the plus sign to select one of the vehicles listed above the white bar which says "Add Vehicle." You can have up to five vehicles, provided you have the points.

Also note that some vehicles (like the Panther and the Tiger) don't become available until you've progressed further in the game. I haven't played against real humans yet so I'm not sure how that works. Baby steps for me, baby steps. I don't want to wander into the arena and have people say, "Look at the newbie, has no clue, let's kill him quick."

And humans tend to be far nastier opponents (and more clever) than any computer AI. Now in some games the make the AI challenging by letting it cheat. It will never run out of ammo, it will kill you first time, every time, and always knows where you are. I haven't experienced that yet in this game.

Which I like.

Now in  the next screen you see your tanks all ready to go.

Call to Arms: Panzer Elite - In Game Screenshot

Here you pick your platoon, so to speak. You get X number of points to spend and as you get further into the game, you get more points. For this mission I have 2,000 points, which as you can see above, I have misspent. The Pzkw IV Ausf H is a better tank than the Ausf G. Why I picked two Gs and three Hs is beyond me. (I went back in and corrected that, I now have five Pzkw IV Ausf Hs to deploy and fight with.)

Once you pick your platoon, you deploy to the field and the "fun" begins. For this mission, which I haven't started yet (still celebrating the capture of the airfield, not ready to get my ass kicked again, just yet), there are four objectives. Here's the in game map -

Call to Arms: Panzer Elite - In Game Screenshot

From what I gather, as I start paying attention to the details of the game, the dashed orange lines around the objective (numbers in diamonds) are where one can expect to make enemy contact. I'm not sure if the areas outside of that are clear of the enemy, but I don't know yet. I don't have enough hours under my belt yet. My platoon is within the orange circle. I added that, the game shows your vehicles as little arrowheads.

As I went into the game, I noticed that there are four supply dumps. Four. Which lead me to believe that I will be expending a LOT of ammunition. Another thing you get at supply dumps are "repair kits." If your tank takes damage, you can repair it. (Note that if you're immobilized where the enemy can see you, you probably won't get a chance to fix anything. A second shot will be coming in shortly. DAMHIK.)

Here's the statistics for the Pzkw IV Ausf H - 

Call to Arms: Panzer Elite - In Game Screenshot

Now the Stuart carried 81 rounds of anti-tank ammunition, the Pzkw IV only carries 40 rounds of anti-tank ammunition. (Listed under APCBC above, APCBC = Armor-Piercing, Capped, Ballistic Capped, which you can read all about here, provided, of course, that you want to learn esoteric armor things. I do, you might not.) Bigger rounds take up more space, in case you're wondering.

So you have fewer rounds, and as the game gives you five main battle tanks, expect to meet main battle tanks, which might take more than one round to kill. So more ammo dumps says to me, harder mission. And as one progresses, one expects to see harder/tougher missions.

One more note on those repair kits, you get three but they can be replenished at a supply dump, they are also medical kits. If a crewmate gets wounded, he can't do his job. Bad thing if your loader, or for that matter anyone in the crew gets hurt. Can't drive, can't shoot, can't do lots of things. So you can also "repair" a crewmate.

Anyhoo, I've gone on far too long about this stuff, which many folks will probably skip. Which I don't mind, remember I blog for me, if y'all like it, well that's a win-win. If I get one or two people who enjoy the post, hey, I'm happy.

And lately we've been making thousands of spambots happy.

Bless their little hearts.

Like I said, next week is going to be busy and probably hectic, looking forward to the three flights and eleven hours to get to Fresno. (Yes, that was sarcasm, how could you tell?) But at the end of the day, I get to see LUSH and two of my grandkids. Maybe The Naviguesser might make an appearance as well, he lives a couple hours away. The Nuke is flying in for the weekend so it should be grand.

I might not be blogging much, we'll see.

If I'm not online, have fun, stay out of the liquor cabinet, and empty the trash on your way out. (Looking at the pilots out there ...)

Ciao!

The Airfield

Call to Arms: Panzer Elite - In Game Screenshot

Just a quick post today, I've been trying to recapture an airfield all week in this game and am steadily improving. I start out with four M5 Stuart tanks and am up against a mix of German scout vehicles and small tanks, think Pzkw II. There are a bunch of halftracks wandering around as well. Many of them pack nothing stronger than an MG 42, but ...

They also carry infantry who tend to have Panzerfausts and Panzerschrecks (German version of the bazooka). Those infantry are sneaky bastardos and love nothing more than to let a tank drive past and then shoot them in their weakest armor, the rear.

Of course, the Panzerschreck wasn't bad against the frontal armor of a Stuart, so I've got to keep an eye peeled for those guys. In the screenshot above my platoon has captured a supply dump, which was needed. You can see there's infantry there as well, those are my guys. I try not to outrun them because they are very good at suppressing their German counterparts.

Call to Arms: Panzer Elite - In Game Screenshot
(Map in lower right corner enlarged)

In the map above the orange circle is where I started after the most recent in game save, this only happens at certain checkpoints, I'm sitting on the checkpoint where this happened. Up until Thursday I never managed to get here with more than two tanks. But now that I'm used to the game, and know where most of the German hidey-holes are, I made it to the first save point with the entire platoon.

Thursday evening I actually made it to that supply dump (circle in yellow) with all four Stuarts intact. Got everybody refueled and reloaded with ammunition then pushed on to the main area of the airfield (the "3" inside the diamond above).

Came around the corner and WHAMMO! Damned anti-tank gun took the lead Stuart out, then proceeded to pick off the rest of the platoon one by one.

So this weekend, now that I can get to the supply dump with a full force, I plan to take the damned airfield. I just need to smack that AT gun. Little bastard doesn't look much bigger than a 50 millimeter, but with the light armor on the Stuart, that's all it takes.

Break a leg!

Next week things could be quiet around here, I'm off to California. LUSH claims to have a computer, so I might be able to log in there and blog from California. Otherwise it's just the cell phone. Which is nice, but ...

It's still a cell phone with that wee keyboard and me with my fat fingers!

We'll see how it goes!

When Night Falls ...

Screenshot - Call to Arms: Panzer Elite

... Sarge gets his game on.

Yup, back in the saddle again, this time with Call to Arms: Panzer Elite from Digitalmindsoft Publishing. I originally got into this publisher's games via their Call to Arms - Gates of Hell: Ostfront. When Panzer Elite came out, I jumped on it. I mean, y'all know my love of tanks. (And juvat, I'll try and find some screenshots of aircraft blowing up tanks in one of the games I have. I know it's there, just haven't played that particular setup yet.)

This one is in early release, in other words you buy the game and provide feedback to the developers and as the game gets updated, you get the updates. Basically you're paying for a finished product and get to help test that product. I don't mind, that particular business model seems to be working for a lot of game publishers.

Anyhoo, that opening photo is the standard player's view. You're hovering behind your tank so it's perhaps a bit more "arcade-ish" than IL-2 Sturmovik - Stalingrad. But it's great fun. Once you see something you might want to shoot at, you can zoom in to this view ...

Screenshot - Call to Arms: Panzer Elite

I thought I saw movement just beyond that farm ahead to the right, so I zoomed in to the gunner's position. Moments later a Pzkw IV came rumbling into view. He blew off my left track but this was his fate ...

Screenshot - Call to Arms: Panzer Elite

I'm not sure if the crew can bail out at this stage of development, they can in Call to Arms - Gates of Hell: Ostfront, in that game you can bring up spare vehicle crews to repair and re-man a vehicle. Which is pretty cool.

For now, if the vehicle dies, so does the crew.

As for Call to Arms - Gates of Hell: Ostfront, it looks like this ...

Screenshot - Call to Arms - Gates of Hell: Ostfront

Screenshot - Call to Arms - Gates of Hell: Ostfront

You can play zoomed out, with a map showing you your guys and known enemy positions, or you can zoom way in, like that last screenshot, to really see what's going on. You can order your units to advance, fight, withdraw, what have you, and they'll execute in real time. Then you can zoom in and watch the action.

It's immersive, very immersive.

I highly recommend both, if you've got at least this much oomph in your machine:

Minimum System Requirements

OS *: 64bit - Windows 7, 8, 10, 11

MEMORY: 16 GB RAM

GRAPHICS: GTX 1070 / RX 5600

DIRECTX: Version 11

STORAGE: 80 GB available space

SOUND CARD: DirectX 11 compatible

ADDITIONAL NOTES: SSD drive and fast internet connection needed for optimal gameplay

If you've got that, or better, you should be able to run these games. (juvat - Not sure if they'll run on a Mac, but the discussion page on Steam says "Yes" it runs on Windows and Mac.)

Sorry gotta run, Krauts are breaking through near St. Vith!

The Well is Running Dry

Screenshot of the Commander's Position in the Panther
IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad

Contrast the German Panther commander's position above with that of the Soviet KV-1 commander's position below ...

Screenshot of the Commander's Position in the KV-1
IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad

Note the game play aids along the bottom of the screen along with the mini-map in the lower right hand corner.

I've had this game for a long time, couple of years at least. When I got it my machine didn't really have the cojones to run the game, it IS a resource hog, comparatively speaking. My Razer laptop could run it but that poor beast died before I could really get to this game. Okay, I have a LOT of games for the computer.

My current laptop has the cojones to run the game but, and this is a big but, the laptop heats up quickly when playing games of this sort and I don't really want to burn up another laptop. Laptops are deuced useful when traveling dontcha know? But the smell of hot electronics bothers me. A lot. Can't imagine why. (Bit of snark there, I used to work avionics and the smell of hot electronics meant there was something we had to fix ... Which is exactly why I don't like that smell.)

My current desktop machine has lots of power and lots of cooling fans, seven to be precise, and the CPU is liquid cooled, not quite like a Maxim machine gun but you get the idea.

I'm still getting to know this new machine (so far I love it) and I do that by playing games on it. It's who I am, it's what I do. Can't command armies in the field but I certainly can on my computer. Best of all, no one gets hurt for real.

A game I am anxiously awaiting is Grand Tactician: Napoleonic Wars (1792-1815). The following screenshot might tell you why ...

Grand Tactician: Napoleonic Wars (1792-1815)

I have the American Civil War version of this, Grand Tactician: The Civil War (1861-1865) and enjoy it though the graphics aren't quite as good as what is shown above. As can be seen below ...

Grand Tactician: The Civil War (1861-1865)

The units seemed to be scaled better in the former, by which I mean the number of men represented on the display matches what the actual unit would have. If a battalion has 500 men, you'll see 500 men. The latter game seems to have fewer soldiers on the display than would be present in real life. Then again, that might be a setting the user can fiddle with. More items to display takes longer and on lower end machines could really bog down the game play. We shall see.

So that's what I'm up to, as for material for blog posts the well does seem to be running dry. Maybe it's me being lazy (or tired, I stay up way too late playing these damned games) or perhaps I need a break.

Might take a couple of weeks away from the hurla burla of the internet, I'm starting to need it. Failbook is driving me nuts (too much political shit) so I'm cutting back on my time spent over there. I'll read friend and family posts about their families and vacations but not much more. It's getting out of hand. (And don't get me started on the number of bloody ads Failbook inundates us with.)

Anyhoo, enjoy your Sunday. See you ...

Uh, scratch that, be back on Tuesday with something, I dunno ...

Maybe inspiration will hit, you never know.

What? No Tanks?

Screen shot from the game (splash screen)

Sea Power: Naval Combat in the Missile Age

Nope, no tanks today, I've been too busy learning a new game on the computer. It's one of those games about which my former naval officer son once remarked, "Too much like what I do for work for me to really enjoy it ..."¹

And this one is pretty good.

I picked this up a few months back but haven't really had the chance to really get into it until now. I did play it once right after I got it, decided to jump straight in without playing any of the tutorials and got my ass kicked.

I was in charge of two ships doing gunfire support off the coast of Vietnam, feeling my way through the controls. A couple of enemy aircraft came on scene, seeing a MiG make a low pass over my flagship, unopposed because I forgot to tell the lads to engage, made the hair on the back of my neck stand straight up.

Seeing BOTH of my ships dead in the water and on fire, really got my attention. This time, I'm going through all of the tutorials, multiple times no doubt, before going to sea again!

There's a lot to this game and it's going to take some time to get good at it, or I might suck at it forever, that happens. So bear with me, if the posts seem short, it's probably because I'm out at sea somewhere, stalking someone, or running from someone.

So far, I am very impressed.

It's something to watch your aircraft come up on the elevators (on a carrier) or come out of the hangar (helicopters on destroyers), watch them preflight, then launch. The graphics are pretty good, much sharper than the release trailer above.

I should note that this game is in "Early Release," which means we get to pay to play and provide bug reports and suggestions to the developers. I should note that I have zero problems with this. In my old job I remarked on more than one occasion that that was the sort of work I'd pay someone to let me do. So getting paid to do it was a bonus.

The time period is the Cold War, so think Sprucans and older non-nuke carriers as well as the first three nuclear carriers, USS Enterprise (CVN-65), USS Nimitz (CVN-68), and USS Dwight  D. Eisenhower (CVN-69). Hopefully they'll include Burkes at a later date. For now, I'm happy with what there is.

Here's a series of screen shots I took while launching a helo from USS Gallery (FFG-26). In the first shot you can see the port side hangar door opening. On the lower right of the screen is the flight deck window which indicates that I've got an SH-2F heading towards the launch point.

Screen shot from the game (Actual game play)

Now in the next screen you can see the helo is out of the hangar but hasn't moved to the launch point yet (the middle of the circle on the flight deck).

Screen shot from the game (Actual game play)

Once the aircraft is at the launch point, you can listen as the engines spool up, the sound is pretty awesome. After a short wait, the rotors begin to spin. Although you can't see it in the shot below, the rotors are spinning and it's shortly before the pilot "pulls pitch." If you look close, you can see the rotor wash on the sea from the helo!

Screen shot from the game (Actual game play)

Now the aircraft is airborne and awaiting your orders.

Really cool stuff if you ask me.

Screen shot from the game (Actual game play)

So if the posts seem short (maybe even non-existent), you'll know why.

Okay, sea and anchor detail have been called away, gotta run, see you when I get back. Virtually, of course.

Ciao!

¹He does play now, after being out of the Navy for over a decade.

All Work and No Play ...

Long ago, shortly after the Earth had cooled and life began to emerge from the primordial sea, I had a board game I really liked. 'Twas named PanzerBlitz and it was published by the Avalon Hill Game Company. I had many games from Avalon Hill, still have most of 'em. I spent many a happy day with my friends playing these games.

(Source)

Now that opening photo is a new acquisition of mine, an offering from GMT Games out in Hanford, California (oddly enough where The WSO lives, it's not a store you can walk into, more like a design shop/warehouse sort of thing I reckon). I saw the game on Amazon and noted the similarity of its cover with my old favorite PanzerBlitz. (Learned that that was intentional, the guys at GMT are gamers of a certain age, they remember, and honor, the old days.)

After a couple of days of hemming and hawing, I decided to purchase the game. While doing so I noted that the game had a number of expansions. (Which is a thing these days, I don't mind, it seems to work.) So guess what ...

These are big games, lots of pieces, lots of rules, charts (of the data kind) and maps. (Didn't want to confuse you Naval types as to a chart and a map, one details the water, t'other details the land - for those going "huh?" about now.) Lots of delicious detail about guns, armor, shot types, shot type effects on armor depending on direction of the shot ...

Dear me, I get excited just typing all that.

For I have ever been a gaming geek, love the details, though I'm rather a terrible general or admiral. Too impetuous dontcha know?

I do play computer war games as well, love the fog of war (which is damned difficult to produce in a war game without duplicate maps and pieces and some brave soul volunteering to be the umpire) but there is something about a board game, perhaps it's the colorful box art, counters, and hex maps. Perhaps it's the smell of those components and the way they feel in your hands.

It's much like the difference between an actual "dead tree" book and the electronic variety of same - Kindle, Nook, what-have-you. I had a Nook once upon a time, it was nice, but the battery died, damned lithium nightmare. Haven't replaced it because one of the books I had on my Nook had maps, which were hard to read on the wee thing. You could expand them, but it just didn't work in that format.

Long story short, I discovered three other expansion sets which, of course, I just had to have. 

(Source)

(Green means, I have it, Blue means, it's on order, and Brown means, it hasn't been published yet.)

Note that "P500" designation on the game to the far right, this is something I had never heard of before and apparently GMT has done very well with the concept. Rather than produce a game and hope enough people buy it to make it worth their while, GMT will design and develop a game but then put it out there on their website to see if there's any interest. If at least 500 people actually order the thing, then it gets published. You can read the description of that concept here. No one is out any money until it actually gets published, and the company has at least 500 game orders in hand so they know how much they'll make. Another neat thing about P500 is that if you order it, hoping it gets published, you get the game at a discount.

The Sarge likes discounts as the Sarge is frugal, some might even say "cheap."

So if we do get snow bound, I have something to do which requires no electricity - learn a new gaming system. Something I really enjoy if the truth be told.

I'm going to get back to the book in a couple of days or so, I need to work out where the characters are going next. Especially how am I going to get Jan to Warsaw when the country is crawling with Germans (and Russians to the east).

While fighting was going on at sea and in the air, there wasn't much in the way of ground combat in the West from October of 1939 to May of 1940 (when all Hell breaks loose). So it's a good time to do some character development and bring in some supporting cast as well. 

The goal is to cover the backstories of some of the characters from Almost a Lifetime. Also to cover the early parts of the war where we Americans weren't as involved. Some Americans think that we went to Europe and saved their bacon, well, sort of. Much of our contribution to the war effort in Europe was getting supplies to our Allies, particularly the Russians who were tying down the vast bulk of the German military on the Eastern Front.

I read something in Snow & Steel near the end of the book which illustrates how little the Russian people knew of American efforts to keep Russia in the war. When Soviet troops met up with American forces along the Elbe River, they were surprised that the Americans were using what the Russians thought were Soviet tanks.

Sherman tanks, the Russians thought that the Shermans they had received were actually built in the USSR.

Not.

We did quite a lot to both motorize and feed the Red Army  from about 1942 on. We shipped them a lot of trucks and a lot of food. Also uniform items from what I understand. Without our help the Russians might have lost the war. Without Russian help, we would have lost the war in Europe. Our big contribution was defeating the Japanese.

But I digress.

Suffice to say, we will get to the Eastern Front in this book, North Africa as well. Stay tuned.