I may work that in to some peripheral NPCs. Good thought. I pressed ahead with what I already had though. Been going a bit slower than I'd hoped, but is moving forward.

YEP!
 

My next fav movie laugh I can just see Gandolf saying that line I shall endeavor to persevere

You know you're not going to believe it but I was making a joke about Lone Watie just the other day - with a friend, who is from Poland, and we were talking about Twilight:2000. It went something like this:

"We all got dressed up in our suits and went to see the man from the Politburo up in Krakow. We were starvin', and there was no work. They said we looked Comradely. 'Endeavor to persevere.' he said. Pravda said 'Dockworkers in Poland Endeavor to Persevere.' We thought about this, endeavor to persevere. We thought about it, and then we made war on the Russians. I didn't surrender. They took my tractor from me, made it surrender. Probably pullin' artillery up in Kalisz."

I can not see
 

I'm crying I swear.
Just proves a good line works any time any place.
Made the tractor surrender??? so funny.
Now how to use that in my Morrow game hmmmmmm.

Okay so.

In looking at Going Home and the U.S. Army Vehicle Guide, it is giving me a clearer picture of what units are where. I was amazed; it has been so long since I have looked those over. Between U.S. Army Vehicle Guide Going Home there is still a massive number of armored fighting vehicles in the US forces hands. They're just scattered to hell and gone.

Also I'd forgotten that the Pact had pushed all the way into Germany (and that France occupies everything up to the damn Rhine...) That will require some re-thinking on my part. The former, I mean; as to France and the Zone of Death I think Going Home more than adequately deals with those traitorous sons-of-bitches...

I'm still pressing forward with character creation though. Very slow, very grindy.

Now, you're getting to why they are in cantonment - their encampment is built to defend the 1-3 large stills used to develop fuel for these beasts.

Oh, and some farmland to fuel the stills.

Oh, and some peasants to work the farmland, in exchange for defensive cover.

Oh, dear. Now you have a nearby village to write up, too. And a mayor/leader/councilor or...

And devise some reasonable relationship between the two:
Did the village volunteer labor in exchange for protection?

(Magnificent 7 gambit - "We are just poor Polish farmers threatened by an army of bandits; we do not have gold, but we can feed your bellies and gas tanks")

Were they made to accept it at gunpoint?

("Mr. Mayor, you will supply us with three men every other day to work our fields or we will send the tanks to flatten yours. If you do this without a fuss, we will see to it that no one unwanted visits your village.")

Or more directly "Resistence is fuedal. You will be assimilated." (Sorry, couldn't resist)

The next question is... do all three tanks still run? How well?

Engine?
Suspension?
turret?
main weapon? (weapon out or ammo out?)
targeting system?

I understand this is a source book, but, especially if you are making them up as if it was a large group of PCs...

1. One or more systems being out makes for an interesting problem for the NPCs (or for PCs trying to figure out NPC behavior)
   
2. Search for replacement parts provides a hook for why part (and only part) of this unit might be encountered (wandering the countryside looking for salvage; in a market town looking to trade) as means of introducing them to a PC team.

An expansion of what the author had in mind, but you would have a more interesting sourcebook, yes?

Uncle Ted

I will treat the armored vehicles that I initially roll up as how they are available to PCs at the start of a game. I've got nearly 3/4ths of the (N)PCs statted now, soon I will know how much money I have to "spend", and I will decide what I spend it on.

As to the "camp followers" you touch on something interesting. I know there's a tendency by a lot of US players of T2k to cast the US troops as liberators and well-accepted and beloved folks by the Poles, but the region I'm putting this in was a heavily coal-producing area that was, during the initial push into Eastern Europe, relatively untouched. When US troops had to fall back, the town I'm thinking of (I don't have my maps handy) got a good pasting from remaining FRG and USAF air assets to deny a coal-fired powerplant to the enemy. As this armored division is stationed in that area the locals are decidedly icy towards German and American (and not to mention other NATO forces) being stationed in what were the ruins of their homes.

I may throw an M88A2 into the mix, working overtime as a construction/clearing vehicle to help mend bridges literally and figuratively with the locals.