Thanks to everyone for your kind remarks. Which of the games have I picked up? I started with Red Thunder because I wanted to play the Eastern front (I thought), but I tried some of the initial scenarios and campaigns and I kind of regret that purchase for now. Undeterred, I went for Normandy with all expansions, but that hedgerow fighting is as I feared. I will at some point get back to both of those titles, but I have finally found the kind of maps I wanted with Fortress Italy, and the troop selection is interesting as well as it covers quite a long period of the war.
I joined the group here specifically to play some head-to-head, but I still want to get better at some of the mechanics, hence I'm back on the forums today to look for some answers and/or pose some questions. I have trouble with timing things, or with getting a tank to pop out, taker a shot, and roll back in the same minute's time. Just some things like that that I want to be able to do before facing others. Despite already owning 3 games, I have owned them for less than a month. I never really knew about the games, but stumbled upon some YouTube videos by group members here and became enthralled. Wish I had known about these at, say, the start of the pandemic. And I teased my daughter for watching others play games and such on YouTube instead of doing them herself, but now I understand how she can enjoy it.
Thanks again for the warm welcome. I'm glad to be a new member.