Author	treadasaurusrex (Soviet Union)
Method	VASSAL
Victor	Soviet Union
Participants	Tubac52
Play Date	2024-01-04
Language	English
Scenario	PGdm001

This was a costly, but fun, 4-session play-through with the ingenious & playful, Tubac52, leading the attacking elements of the German 6th Panzer, and me playing the defending elements of the Soviet 355th Rifle Division. While the result was a Russian victory after 16 bloody turns, the outcome was in doubt for most of the game. Our leaders draws were middling, with the Germans having a slight advantage. We used the defense-favoring FOW, as well as the smoke-illum, extended assault and excess initiative optional rules. We lost count of the number of combat 7-die rolls, but there always seemed to be one or two in the mix whenever there was a crucial fight in any of the 3 entrenchments or town hexes. Playing the Bolshevik side with no armor as penance for past sins, I had surprisingly lucky armor piercing, and morale recovery die rolls with the Russian 45mm AT units. All but the last 2 steps of Pz-IVe tanks were eliminated by either AT fire or close assault during this battle.

Others has described the action in this scenario, so I will only summarize. In the early going, the German thrust was aimed primarily at the town, but effective Russian OBA and long-range AT fire caused a change in plans, and a portion of the attacking force was drawn off to the ultimately successful conquest of the nearby hill. It proved comparatively easy to exceed the required German step loss minimum of 7, and thanks to hard fought Soviet counterattacks, only one town hex was controlled by the German side by the end of the battle. Mostly, the Axis side just ran out of leaders and combat units by the end of game turn 13.

This early scenario's "all or nothing" victory conditions are indeed very hard for the German side to pull off. This battle simulation is better suited to SOLO play, but we give it a generous rating of 3.