Thin Grey Line

WWII German TO&E

Reviewed by Bill Rutherford

Tac Publications

This 116-page tape-bound book by Bob Mackenzie, details German combat organizations from 1941 – 1945 at a level of detail appropriate to play of the Tac:WWII, Command Decision, Spearhead, Clash of Armor, or other like-scaled miniatures rules (i.e., a model represents a platoon or so), with rules-specific notes for several of them. An introduction explains how to read the tables and describes the subjective troop quality ratings the authors assigned to the various units in the book. The organization charts are clearly laid out and in a general format familiar to anybody who's played a WW II miniatures game with any of the aforementioned rules. Altogether, there are 163 individual organization charts for everything from independent ski and panzerjager battalions up through panzer korps-level formations. Note too, that this count doesn't include the subordinate organizations (e.g., the regiments, battalions, and companies) that appear, in detail, in the charts. There are organizational notes for the various charts scattered liberally throughout the book. The notes are often as long as the accompanying charts, such is the amount of specific unit information (e.g., the 227th Infantry Division, at the start of Barbarossa, had Dutch M-39 armored cars instead of the more common SdKfz 221s…) included. Six pages of Tac:WWII (same publisher –good rules – see review in The Courier #___!) data charts are also included for every piece of equipment that appears in any of the charts. Much of the equipment data is, however, directly translatable to other rule sets and the charts serve as an interesting inventory of the (to me) bewildering variety of equipment used by the German army. A page-long reference/recommended reading list concludes the book. Available for $16 from your local game shop or, if they haven't got it, directly from the U.S. distributor, Brookhurst Hobbies, at 12188 Brookhurst Street, Garden Grove, CA 92840. Go to their website at HYPERLINK http://www.brookhursthobbies.com http://www.brookhursthobbies.com for a full listing of their wares… Highly recommended!

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