Russians defending in mixed terrain of swamp, woods and a small town. 4 boards. Forces are almost entirely PAR infantry (5-1), with some elite forces OMSB thrown in (9-1) and sparse MG and a single mortar.

Germans are attacking with a small but effective force, 8 inf, 3 mg, 2 pzIVe and 2 pzIIIf, plus 2x16 offboard.

They have 40 turns (fairly long) to clear 2 full boards of all partisan control.

With roads and tanks, you'd think this would be a game of German movement vs. Partisan ambushes, but instead, it is (quite realistically) almost entirely a scenario of movement. If the PAR units ever just squat down to fight they will lose all of their steps in 3-5 turns at that location, max.

So they have to delay, move, threaten, stay out of harm's way, but close enough to victory control locations to threaten to move back into them. Interesting scenario.

It might be a bit grueling to have to play the PAR forces, depending upon your mentality, but with the OMSB units you can threaten to take out German tanks in close combat so you can have some fun too.

Very interesting, well crafted scenario. I played 12 turns last night and the Partisans conceded most of the woods on board 6 and fell back to the swamp and town. The German assault has plenty of time to organize, so the PAR forces need to consider some new movement (just sitting in the town will allow the Germans to overcome them with plenty of time to spare).

The Germans have cleared board 6, although the Partisans didn't contest it so that isn't saying a whole lot...even so it took a good 18-20 turns to fully clear.

Action is heating up on the swamps of board 1, and the bulk of the German forces are closing in on the town and remaining woods of board 1.

However, a Soviet NKVD and Partisan flanking force, featuring 3 OMB (9-1) units, tried an end run via board 5 (in order to threaten messing up the VCs by getting to a woods hex on board 6). The Germans dispatched two platoons of PzIVEs and a full company of infantry. You'd think that would have been enough?

Well I messed it up. I took a chance at running the tanks forward to block a potential end run movement. The OMB demoralized a PzIVE by opportunity fire--then won the initiative next turn, assaulted, and rolled a 6! Damnit! A whole platoon gone...German init. dropped by 1, and for victory the tank counts as 6 steps lost (if you lose 12 steps or more you can't win).

So that hurt.

But still the Germans are closing the ring. The OMB units got knocked down in a counter-assault from the German company. All of this fine action took place in hex 0805 on board 5. Call it the swamp gap...the Germans won't soon forget it.

Looking back, my Soviet setup in this match was terrible...in my current game I think the Germans will eek out a win. But with a better Soviet setup (more spread out, with movement and retreats better considered), I think the Soviets can win this scenario.

The Germans will gnash their teeth over whether to use the armor in combined assaults in the woods, or as mobile police to keep other Partisan units from flanking you or leaking out.

This is a very well designed scenario...no special rules and yet it has a distinct, partisan operations feel to it.

The Germans were going to clear the boards and earn a Major (while the Soviets would only get a minor with 12 step losses having been inflicted)...but I played it out just to be sure.

On the last activation of turn 40 I nailed the last Soviet step! Talk about balance. Technically the German major trumps the Soviet minor, a win.

However, upon reflection I realized that I didn't track German movement closely enough, and it is possible they didn't move through every woods hex on board 6 (there are alot of them). In fact, I'm pretty sure they missed a couple, and they started the game as all Soviet controlled.

If I had taken the time to move correctly through every hex, I probably wouldn't have won at the end, so this reverts actually to a Soviet minor win.

In a rare fit of stuborn-ness I set it up again, and I am rethinking the opening moves. Terribly interesting scenario here. Given the control victory condition I think you do need to create tank/inf stacks to clear the woods as quickly as possible.

The 3.0 swamp rules probably help the Germans a little, but I'm using them anyway (just to keep up with standards).