Return from Paradise!

 A slight exaggeration perhaps, but our weeklong break in Rarotonga, the Cook Islands was a very relaxing and soul lifting experience! 

Not a lot to say in this post - NOTHING has occurred in the hobby space since we got back on Weds this week and the first scheduled game isn't till a week tomorrow, so here are a few pics and videos of our trip:

Very average picture through window at Auckland airport

On the deck of our room 5 hours later!

Road front of our hotel

A few cocktails and more normal beers were consumed over the 8 days!

Hermit crab (I think?) on the beach

A couple of sunset pics

Went out for the obligatory canoe trip a couple of timed! Our hotel in the three-story building in the centre of the image above.

A nice meal on the Sunday to celebrate Mothers Day!

Breakfast on the last day, below is an eggs bene with a rosti made from a mixture of "island fries made with island root vegetables such taro, potatoes, kumara and arrowroot, topped off with a slab of freshly caught local Tuna!

Apart from snorkeling, paddling, eating and drinking, we didn't do a hell of a lot - so I did get two of the three books taken, read, and the third about 75% read by the day we returned (since finished)

Below are some images from the book "Panzer Killers", which I read first - about 20 individual chapters recording experiences of different members of the Red Army anti-tank artillery destroyer regiments (the name seems a bit of a mouthful to be honest!). I thought these sketches might come in useful as inspiration for small scale skirmish games?

 Interesting facts include that the 45mm guns were supplied with a variety of shells - HE, HEAT, APDS and "cannister" for defensive use against enemy infantry. Our group has often discussed the relative merits of allowing dedicated AT guns to fire at infantry in our games, but the Russians at least, obviously took this into consideration and had specific ammunition for the purpose.

I have just today received this book via the library service - 800+ pages, and it may be hard going as it's been written in the "Socialist Realist" literary style in the 1950's (a waste of time as it turned out, all copies were seized by the KGB and it was not published until a microfilm of it was smuggled to the West in 1980, 18 years after the authors death from cancer!). I will report back on progress in another post!