Fire & Sword, scenario #27: Attack from the South.

First let me state, the Mire special rule killed this scenario for me, as the attacker will have little chance for success especially if the other side have minefields. So I will not play scenarios 24-29 with the Mire rule. I played this scenario and forgot the Mire rule on page 38 is optional and played with it this time before I realized it was optional. It just takes too long, 4 turns to get a vehicle un-mired, just to get stuck again on the next movement hex. No fun at all!

The Soviets have three victory objectives in this scenario and depending on how many they achieve or don’t achieve determines the victory level for each side. The German Force is about half the size of the Soviet force but have entrenchments, minefields a JgPzIV/70 unit and Panther tank reinforcements on turn two. The Soviets have twice the Infantry force and ISU-152 & ISU-122 Guard units and a dice roll for air-support each turn, both sides have off map artillery support.

Because I used the Mire rule in this scenario, my Soviet armor had to go down the road until it hit mines and had to exit into the clear mire hexes where most got stuck and picked off. The Soviets Infantry made it to the main line of German defenses where they were blunted. On their right flank, they were barely able to exit 10 steps of Infantry steps off the north edge of the map, avoiding a German Major victory but giving the Germans a Minor Victory as the Soviets lost three times as many steps and did not control all of the east-west railroad.

I think if I had ditched the Mire rule, this would have been a closer match and certainly more fun scenario. I’ll be interesting to see other players take on the Mire Rule.