Not really knowing much about the mechanics of the game I chose for my first army to build a late war US Tank Company. I think I picked the US mainly because I have done a lot of reading about the period, have a nice collection of war movies, and I think they look cool. Of course being from the US makes me biased toward them. Oh boy, have I learned about trained units, poor front armor, and mediocre anti-tank ratings!
I watched a few games played at the local game store Gryphon Games and Comics and talked with some of the players. I got a bit of advice about some force composition and was off to build, paint, and play a US Tank company. After an Open Fire box set, a Fortress Europe book, and a 2 Stug's for 3 Sherman's swap I ended up with 6 M4 Sherman 75mm tanks to paint.
When I got to the end of the internet I had come up with a whole bunch of great sites, blogs, and information about the game. Using two wonderful painting guides I found on BigLee's and Dr. Faust's sites I was off and painting. I do not consider myself to be a good painter when it comes to color, shading, and techniques. There's no camouflage here but I think the results were pretty good in the end.
At this point they have been blown up numerous times by all sorts of pioneers, Soviet refrigerators, and German cats.
