The Soviet Army in Operation Mars is monstrous. It is, however a fragile thing as it is still relatively undermanned in officers. They have plenty of soldiers and by now their training has picked up but they are still lacking enough officers to make sure that they have the tactical flexibility to take advantage of situations that arise. Add in some deep snow and they have LOTS of problems.

The Luftwaffe forces are well aware of the problems that the Soviets face and liberally slam the Soviets with artillery as soon as the pull into view. The Soviets realize that a single thrust up the road will run into a roadblock so they send the larger part of their force cross country around to the west of the woods. After 2 hours or so the Soviets begin to come into range and it was at this point that both of the Captains became demoralized. This effectively stopped the advance as the remaining Lieutenants were too few and far between to manage the long string of disrupted and demoralized troops, trailing behind the front line units and still keep the front line moving towards the goal.

In the end the Soviets never got within two hexes of the town in good order and the Luftwaffe troops would have reached a major victory but for an early FOW on the next to last turn and a loss of initiative on the final turn. Still a clear minor vicotory was reached and the Soviets had taken some significant losses.

I find this one difficult for the Soviet to win but nevertheless it is fun to play to see the inflexibility of the Soviets (even Guards units) at this point in the war. I give it a "3" as it clearly leans towards the German player. This would be a good one for a training scenario for infantry fighting. Give the experienced player the Soviets.