I'm starting to get the hang of these battles. When you are defending against an enter and exit force it is imperative to shape the battlefield. This means that you are looking to funnel the advance somewhere where you can create a bottleneck. In the case of cavalry versus cavalry this has to happen quickly but you have the force and speed to do so. In this case it was important for the Lithuanians to hold back their HMGs until the path of the German cavalry was clear.

As the Germans slogged through the swamps after an abortive attempt to break the roadblock the HMGs set up a gauntlet through which the Germans would have to run. With opportunity fire against cavalry disruption and demoralization was quite likely. The only wild card were the armored cars which quickly sped around the swamp and avoided the AT fire. The Lithuanians chose to ignore the ACs which almost resulted in a loss.

Behind the HMGs the Lithuanians were running a large group of cavalry to close off the German exit. It was this group that the German ACs attacked. After a turn or two the Lithuanians were able to close in on the German cavalry and get into an assault. In the final analysis the Germans were unable to get the ten or more steps off the board to avoid the Lithuanian bonus, with only seven steps exiting (including the ACs). The slaughter of horses and men in the kill box was extensive.

I assume that the Germans could have been more aggressive in trying to destroy the blocking force but that would have taken time and there was precious little time to spend fighting if they were to be able to exit the board.

All in all a very good study of cavalry. The Lithuanians were careful to avoid getting too close to the German cavalry in order to maintain their ability to have devastating opportunity fire. The Germans had less of a chance to pursue fire tactics and had to absorb the Lithuanian fire and keep moving. In addition the poor DF of the German cavalry made such fire anemic anyhow. I give it a "3". It is a tough road for the Germans but some good morale check rolls would give them a real chance. They were only two units away from a win.