Sitting nearby was another beguiling book, this time on the Arctic Convoys and with a recent take on operational decision making by teh Admiralty based on information from Bletchley Park and its Enigma decryptions (see below, the „pair“ nicely finished off the book token, job done – one „hot“ sunburn Mediterranean campaign, the other a „Freezing Cold“ ice chipping weather Artic campaign, Russia here we come!):   

The fun started when I got back home and rummaged through my existing book and game library coming across „Hunting The Beast“, trying to kill the Tirpitz and then a recently „gifted“ Arctic Convoy game from Avalanche Press (see below, the map inside it is absolutely beautiful): 

There was still more fun to be had in the „Wargaming Library“ – Paddy Griffith’s classic Sandhurst Wargames book includes a very detailed „Sink the Tirpitz“ game (see below, I like many wargamers possess at least one copy of this [quad] game, but still do not have all the pieces for all the games as it really needed to come in a box – alas it is now out of print despite it being a classic): 

Although not as beautiful as the Avalanche Press Artic Convoy map, the Sandhurst Wargames maps are still very functional and „interesting“ especially the one detailing the fjords of Norway. Given that these were the days when we did not have Google Maps on tap, when produced it was very enigmatic addition (see below, one interesting part of the game is that there are many ingenious ways [FAA, RN, X-Boats] in which you can try to sink the Tirpitz and her companions – not saying you will be successful at any of them and I don’t think geting the RAF’s 617 Squadron to drop Grand Slams on her is one of them):   

This is all settling in the back of my mind, where the wargame scenario „mixing pot“ resides.