How to waste a day.

I was checking through the various blogs I read when I saw that Ben had posted about a 2-day FoW event taking place near me in June. It sounded interesting so I contacted the organiser asking for a spot. The event is FearNaught - El Alamein and obviously all forces have to be relevant to the campaign setting. And this is how I came to waste a day.
You see I don't have any North African campaign models, so off to EasyArmy I go. I'm assuming anything from the 'North Africa' book is allowed so I bought access to that on EasyArmy and started perusing. The first problem was what type of force did I want to take? A British tank force was an option because I love the look of the of the Cruiser & Crusader tanks. I found Brit tank units with Matilda's (too cheesy) & Shermans (too boring) then I saw the 8th Army Light Armoured Squadron.

8 Crusaders
3 Shermans (to longe range kill & smoke barrage)
3 Grants (to longe range kill & smoke barrage)
9 universal carrier w .50cals (to flush out ambushes etc)

Battlefront BR210 Universal Carrier

A nice force but over £130 retail. Hmmm maybe there's a cheaper option.

I'd didn't really want to take an infantry force as they don't particularly appeal to me. But I had a look around anyway and then I saw the British Commando (Tunisia) force.

Commando HQ w 2 Piats
3 Commando Platoons
3 Churchills for support

Battlefront BR072 Churchill III

Lots of nice options to change out sections for mortars, Piats or SMG's, plus Fearless Vets and cheap to buy. A definate possibility. But not sure what figures I would be able to use. Would they wear tin hats or do they have to wear berets?

But I didn't stop there. The doubt over figure availablity kept me looking. I'd had a fancy for an armoured car force for a while so I had a look at those next. The British forces were nice but again cost was a factor, lots of models so very expensive if I went that route. So I looked at German and found Panzerspähkompanie (15.)

5 Sd Kfz 223 (radio)
8 Sd Kfz 222 (2cm)
6 Sd Kfz 231 (8-rad)
3 7.5cm PaK40 gun (which I already have)
5 Panzer III

Some nice models although I'd have to fudge the 223's with 222's & build the antenna, and I'd use 234/1's for the 231's as there's not a lot of difference. All these from Forged in Battle or PSC because of the good prices so a middling cost overall and another option to consider.

But I didn't stop there I looked at various variants on various forces and that combined with finding models to suit & checking prices & totalling them up took ages. So that is how I ended up wasting a day and not doing anything that I'd planned to do. But of course it wasn't a waste as I'd enjoyed every minute of it and as I'm retired all I have is free time :-)

P.S. I still haven't made up my mind. :-)