Berlin - The Downfall - Antony Beevor.

One minute your ducking into a bookshop to avoid Christmas shopping, next thing you know you are rummaging through the various boxes and cupboards in the man cave for the next new project or should I say previously unfinished project.

I picked up a second hand copy of Berlin by Antony Beevor, it tells the story of the Soviet offensive on Berlin in the closing months of the war, it was perhaps the bloodiest of the entire war in europe, dwarfing those on the Western Front, the book gives a broad narrative of the "armies" movements backed by numerous personnel experiences. The atrocities by the advancing Red Army and similarly the German defenders on the people of Poland and Eastern German is a harrowing read at times and gives an insight into the mindset that is modern Russia.

It reminded me of a campaign that I took part in with my old gaming club back in the 90's which saw rag tag kampf groups hold the River Oder against the Russian steam roller, this is crying out to be reimagined using the excellent Chain of Command rules - Bad news for me with Warfare only a week away.

Digging through the storage boxes I should have enough to pull together forces for the Russian juggernaut, with only a few 'extra's' needed to top up the Russian formations and support options.

Good job some of the Russians are already on the paint table.