Author	elfram2
Method	Solo
Victor	Soviet Union
Play Date	2020-09-07
Language	English
Scenario	PGdm003

Russia managed to win all but one initiative. germans were very slow at reaching town to repel the red army.

Author	elfram2
Method	Solo
Victor	Soviet Union
Play Date	2020-09-08
Language	English
Scenario	PGdm003

used 4th ed rules and pc demo 4th ( no special rule 4) rules

Author	treadasaurusrex (Germany)
Method	VASSAL
Victor	Germany
Participants	Tankodactyl
Play Date	2024-01-09
Language	English
Scenario	PGdm003

This was a fun to play, quick & relatively balanced, introductory scenario that we were able to complete in one, longish session online. The doughty & determined Tankodactyl led the defending Russians and I played the German side in this "near run' thing that ended in a close German victory.

Both sides drew middling leaders. We ignored the fog of war, but used the excess initiative, extended assault and smoke/illum optional rules. We also experimented with these 3 house rules: 1) Road Movement for Mechanized & Foot Units All FOOT & MECHANIZED units may move on roads at the rate of 1/2 a Movement Point (MP) per road hex, just like MOTORIZED units, and 2) Standardized Movement for Mechanized Units All mechanized units may move through clear hexes at a movement cost of only 1 movement point (MP) per hex, instead of 1 1/2. Add one to this cost if moving up, across, or down slopes hexes., and 3) Firing Through or Over Friendly Personnel Units All AT guns, AFVs, Infantry guns (direct fire), Anti-Aircraft (AA) guns and HMGs may fire over or through friendly personnel units. In the case of HMGs, AA guns & Infantry Guns, there must be one unoccupied hex between any friendly unit that is being fired over and the targeted hex as in the current rule (10.1, page 24).

Many others have filed AARs on this one, so I will only outline the battle. The German side bypassed the bulk of the initial Soviet defense and advanced directly on the farm, which required a costly close assault to push the Soviets out. As always, I enjoyed dropping artillery concentrations on the emplaced AT guns. The Axis force attacked in 2 waves, and were able to hold off the inevitable Soviet counter attacks, helped by a decapitation of the senior Soviet leader in game turn 7. It was almost all downhill for the Bolsheviks from there as their low morale crippled attampts to refrain the farm. I give this one, a generous 3 and recommend it for both SOLO and SHARED play.

As the 4th edition demo game has a duplicate entry in the 3rd edition demo game "game" I decided to give it a go with the 3rd edition rules for fun. It actually makes a significant difference with fields being blocking terrain, so the Soviet artillery, if being held safely in the town, cannot see past the fields in front of them to fire. Scenario/module rules dictating that the 76mm can only fire over open sights.

Without as much artillery interference, the Germans have an easier time more or less walking up to the Soviet defensive line; dug into the fields in order to try and get some decent opportunity fire shots. The low counter density allows the Germans to spread wide and avoid Soviet OBA almost entirely, suffering only 1 distruption on the approach.

Arriving in tact, with combined arms, and better morale, the Soviets are pushed aside without much difficulty, and with a comfortable 3 turn window are removed from the town as well resulting in a pretty quick and painless German victory. If played as intended with 4th edition rules this would give the Soviets a bit more punch, and make the Germans a bit more caution with their Stugs, but I'm going to be playing this one twice more with 4th edition rules in the demo game and the KBT module so I had some quick fun here.

As far as an actual demo goes, this scenario works fairly well as a single player experience. Germans get combined arms and Soviets have a few defensive options to try out. German strength is strong enough to prevent the game from bogging down as well. I feel this was quite similar to 3rd demo scenario #1 in that respect but the Germans have a more completeable task. The old take control of town #2 scenarios were always a pain. The scenario does lack in Soviet Armor though, which probably should be included in a demo scenario, as all 3 scenarios lack such and thus have no tank vs tank action.

Author	J6A
Method	Solo
Victor	Germany
Play Date	2020-02-18
Language	English
Scenario	PGdm003

Played on VASSAL, as part of my Academy process.

The Soviets set up with their HMG and a bunch of supporting INF in the fields awaiting the Germans. The 76.2mm was towards the back of the board, where it had a good view of most of the battlefield, with the mortars in the orchards south east of the State Farm. The Germans approached with an infantry force heading up the center, a little more infantry and the StuG coming over the hill, and the mortars heading for the the hills to set up.

This game was mostly casualty free for the 1st half, with the Soviets getting unlucky on an initiative flip and losing a step with the troops in the eastern field. The Germans could not seem to get the Soviets in the central fields to break, and with only 10 turns didn't have time to lose, so eventually moved in for the assault. The StuGs and their accompanying infantry were harassed by Soviet artillery, and the StuG was afraid to even come in extended range of the AT guns. With the clock ticking down, the Germans called in their airstrike, and the HS129 demoralized the 76.2mm, which fled when it failed its rally roll.

Assaults finally cleared the center fields and the Germans headed for the town en masse, having only a couple of turns to try to take it. Point blank shots disrupted and demoralized the Soviet troops in town, and an assault finally got them to flee on the last turn and the Germans claimed victory.

A very simple, fast playing scenario that did a good job at showing off the system.

Author	Fanghawk
Method	Solo
Victor	Germany
Play Date	2020-04-11
Language	English
Scenario	PGdm003

The Russians dug in in the fields in front of the town with the artillery southeast of town in the orchards. The plan was to harass the approach, tie up as many units as possible and keep feeding bodies into town if necessary to keep the Germans from getting a toe-hold. The Germans came straight at the dug in infantry at first but then skirted the dug in position with the StuG and a stack of infantry.

I made a lot of mistakes in this one, both in terms of tactics and the scenario rules. I misread the rules and thought the Germans got one aircraft per turn instead of on any one turn. It didn't make too big a difference as I kept rolling 1s and 2s on the accuracy rolls. I played this over several days and halfway through forgot that the woods in the southeast were orchards and wondered why I'd dug in with the units there. I randomly missed giving the Dug In units First Fire which may have turned the tide. Finally, I missed dropping the German initiative after their second step loss.

Tactically...as the Russians I exposed the 76.2mm too early which allowed the Germans to drop artillery on them. The wagon was demoralized or disrupted the entire game so the gun was never able to re-position. The positioning in the orchards meant the StuG could use the town as a shield to approach from the northwest with no real threat. With the Germans I got overconfident and tried to drop artillery on the town the turn before the assault to soften up the defenders...it worked but I also landed friendly fire on the assault force. I also spread the assault force out too much (in large part because the Russian artillery was harassing the approach) and ended up with the Engineer out of position, the HMG out of position until the last turn, and the two 81mm mortars out of position.

Despite that, the scenario was a really fun play with momentum swinging back and forth. The German's goal was to pin the screening force in the fields, cut off the retreat/reinforcement to the town, and then flank the screening force and town having a couple turns for the assault with at least one turn for extra troops to jump into the assault hex if needed. Things more or less went according to plan, aided largely by the AT gun being out of position, but the defenders were tough, often giving better than they got and were assisted by OBA raining down on the attackers. The Russians kicked butt in Assault. Turn 9 the Russians lost a couple steps in the Assault and the subsequent leader casualty check fatally wounded the 10 Morale Lieutenant who up until that time had shrugged everything off. It looked like the Russians might be able to hold on for the Draw when the Demoralized SMG was able to recover but the Germans were able to get a 2-step result on their last assault roll in the town to clear it. All the remaining Russians were either locked in close combat in the fields or had fled to the orchards.

It was a fun scenario that showcased a little bit of everything. It was a great way to get my feet wet again after a long layoff from PG and explore a couple of the nuances of the 4th ed. rules.