In this one a small Slovak force is asked to drive into a town which has seen some previous partisan activity and secure the town. Unfortunately for the Slovaks, who are once again under the dubious command of Pilfousek (although he does not make an appearance on board, his incompetence shines through given the situation), the partisan force has not left the area, it has set up an elaborate ambush.

The Soviets set up in a semicircle around Lojev, hanging in the edges of the woods. While it is tempting to set up the ambush along the road through the woods a cautious Slovak player could choose to eschew the road and any Soviets set up there would not be able to get back to Lojev in time to fight.

The Slovaks, sensing the trap that is the road decide to skirt north of the woods and approach Lojev through the gap in the woods to the northwest of town. They began to approach Lojev on turn 4 (of twelve) when the Soviets sprung their trap. Nearly the entire Slovak force was trapped between Lojev and the approaching partisan force. One platoon of cyclists and the armored cars did make it into Lojev but were brutally handled and destroyed. The remainder of the force was hammered within 400 yards of Lojev and left the field screaming.

This is a short sharp action. By the end all of the Slovak and most of the Soviet force, with the exception of the NKVD, were demoralized. It does, however, show the danger of an organized force of significant size in a "secure" area. The Slovaks lost 11 steps, including both armored car steps, to the Soviets 4 steps of partisans and while they did penetrate to the town their hold was untenable.

The victory conditions virtually mandate that the Slovaks try to get into the town otherwise they would have tried to run earlier but they likely would have experienced most of the losses anyway since they were actually trapped by the ambush. A nice short scenario. I give it a 3