Upcoming Early War Tournament - So Many Choices!

So my next tournament is February 21st at Guardian Games - the 1550 point Early War "War Begins" tournament. For the past couple of months I've been trying to come up with a fun and/or unique army to bring to the tournament. I have a lot of EW Germans that are partially painted. I also have a lot of other EW stuff that needs to be painted as well including Japanese, Soviet, etc. Pretty much you name it at this point.

Right now I have more ideas for armies than time to paint them. I can easily put something together that is German as a "fall back," but I was hoping to do something different this time. I could put together a decent mixed force of Panzer I, Panzer II, and Panzer III E tanks out of Blitzkrieg, but the mixed nature of the platoons and the heavy reliance on the Panzer I has always made me a bit nervous.

One German alternative I've considered is the Czech Panzerkompanie. I've come up with a preliminary list using the Panzer 35(t) as a base:

HQ - Two Panzer 35(t) - 165 points

Czech Panzer Platoon - Five Panzer35(t) - 420 points
Czech Panzer Platoon - Five Panzer35(t) - 420 points

Panzerschutzen Platoon (Three squads) - 245 points
Mixed Panzerspah Platoon - Two Sd Kfz 222 (2cm) and Two Sd Kfz 221 (MG) - 150 points
Priority Air - Ju 87B - 150 points

This gives me 1550 points on the nose with four platoons. It also is a fairly good representation of the 1. Leichte Division in Poland at the start of the war. There isn't a lot of extra modeling that would be required to make this list work - though I could try and kit bash a Sd Kfz 251/1 Ausf A from the Battlefront Ausf C if I wanted a challenge. It think at this point the catch would be finding enough 35(t) tanks in the wild.

Alternately I could go for something complete different. I've been reading a book on the Polish 10th Mechanized Cavalry Brigade called The Invincible Black Brigade by Jerzy Majka. This unit has an absolutely amazing history and could be easily represented by the Pulk Kawalerii Zmotoryzowanej list from Blitzkrieg on page 26. It is a FV mechanized list with very reasonably priced platoons (or companies in this case). The biggest problem is, though I love Battlefront miniatures, their support of the Polish line has been poor, and they've never released miniatures appropriate for the "Black Brigade," so I'd have to look elsewhere for at least a portion of my miniatures. I've toyed with various lists, but right now what I'm thinking would be:

HQ

Regiment HQ (Company command rifle, 2iC Rifle, Motorcycle and sidecar) - 40 points


Combat:

Kawalerii Zmotoryzowanej Company - Command rifle/MG team, one HMG, two Kawalerii Platoons (four Rifle MG, one ATR Team) - 305 points
Kawalerii Zmotoryzowanej Company - Command rifle/MG team, one HMG, two Kawalerii Platoons (four Rifle MG, one ATR Team) - upgrade to halftracks - 310 points
Zmotoryzowanej Anti-Tank Gun Platoon - Command Rifle team - 3X 37mm wz. 36 - 130 points
Reconaissance Tank Platoon - 3X TKS, 2X 20mm FKA TKS - 110 points


Weapons:

Vickers Tank Platoon - 3X Vickers E Type B, 2X Vickers E Type A - 160 points
Zmotoryzowanej Anti-Tank Gun Platoon - Command Rifle team - 3X 37mm wz. 36 - 130 points
Zmotoryzowanej Anti-Tank Gun Platoon - Command Rifle team - 3X 37mm wz. 36 - 130 points

Support:

Light Gun Battery - Command Rifle team, Staff team, 4X 75mm wz. 1897 guns - 235 points

Total: 1550 on the nose... 8 platoons

This particular list (which again, would be a decent representation of the unit) would give me several opportunities for modeling. The Polish version of the Vickers E tank is unique and both the one and two turret versions would require some conversion. Most of the infantry and gun teams would have to come from a 3rd party sources, though the anti-tank guns would come from Battlefront and the Light Gun Battery would also be straight Battlefront as well.  The TKS platoon would also be Battlefront, though I may need to make some head or command figure swaps.

All that being said, I've also been toying with Japanese and Soviet lists, though I'm not happy with either at this point. I've got the next couple of weeks off for the holidays, and I plan to start working on an army before Christmas. Whether that ends up being the army I take to the tournament remains to be seen. I think I even have an Italian Early War army in progress somewhere I need to finish up! I just need to win that lottery so I can spend more time painting!