I liked this scenario. There were several moments where I really had to sit and figure out my next move for a minute or two.

In response to Mr. Townsend's criticism, my reading of the set up conditions are that the prime movers have to move in from the north along with everything else.

I initially planned on trying to sneak out the southern edge. However, Soviet tanks moved into positions where they were hidden yet commanded large fields of fire. Some "reconnaissance by fire" by one of the panzergrenadier units revealed the closest tank hidden in some trees which was taken out by a lucky artillery hit, at the cost of the grenadiers.

At this point there were a few turns where it was pretty much a stalemate. The soviets already had 3 step losses and so decided to try and storm the large town where the 105s were deployed, just to see what would happen. The remaining grenadier stand ended up destroying two T-34s with panzerfausts and assaults while a single reduced T-34 held up the artillery for several hours. Neither the reduced tank nor the guns could really hurt each other, and stacking limits prevented the grenadiers from helping. This coupled with some poor rolls meant that the game ended with the Germans fairly intact and the Soviets reduced to two, half strength units.

The German 105's tried to make a break for it and exit the south edge, but were wiped out by the Soviet T-34's when they were only two hexes away from exiting the board and winning the game.

After the German 105's were wiped out the first time I tried this scenario, I decided to give it another whirl and change their strategy to see how (or if) things would turn out differently. This time the German 105's set up in the southernmost town and waited for the T-34's to approach. The Soviets moved north along the road and had a couple tanks knocked out by AT fire as they approached the German held village. The German AT fire was very accurate as they continued to knock out advancing Russian tanks. The remaining T-34's made an attempt to enter the town but the German infantry assaulted and destroyed them. In the end only 1.5 Soviet tank platoons remained and the Germans had a crushing victory. This is one of those small scenarios that can be very dependent on dice rolling. A lucky shot or two here or there can drastically alter the outcome.

The Germans have two possible approaches to victory in this scenario. Run like heck or shoot it out. By playing the way I did I can say without fear of providing incorrect information that "run like heck" doesn't work. If the Soviet player is halfway decent they will have sufficent force south of town to attack moving SK7s or trucks with +6 AT rolls at a minimum with opportunity fire. This is generally not survivable.

Therefore only pursue a southern exit strategy if your opponent has decided to brin all of their forces on board north of the larger town. Otherwise you will be forced to fight it out where you are and hope for the 4 step losses to occur to the Soviets.

I give this one a "3" since there are different approaches for both sides. It is worth playing again to see if a more contentious German strategy would be successful.

Please note that the setup conditions are very important. If you usually set up your transport with your guns you will note that the German Transport is off board at the beginning of the game to the German is faced with an immeidate decisions that can affect the entire path of the game. Should he/she pursuea run or fight strategy.

This looks like a pretty fast, fun playing, puzzle of a scenario except if I setup one of the 105mm Batteries already truck loaded, I can move is almost off the map board in one turn using the road from the southern town on map 17 to the exit point on the southern edge of map 18. The Soviets T-34/85’s have to come on the map from the Eastern edge with no roads, so unless they activate first the Germans will be able to exit one 105mm Gun unit off the map for an easy victory, as in my first play, if not, it’s an interesting scenario. Maybe the required fix in the setup for the Germans, is that the Artillery needs to start unloaded to give the Soviets tanks time to engage.

Author	t1M0t8yk (Germany)
Method	VASSAL
Victor	Draw
Participants	richvalle
Play Date	2015-01-29
Language	English
Scenario	RtBr068

This scenario earns a solid "meh" from me. Neither side seems motivated enough to take a chance at victory. Rich and I generally kept our distance, waiting for the other to make a mistake. Fortunately, despite one such mistake that cost me a gun much a little cost to the Soviets I hung on to the last gun long enough to salvage a draw.

I've got nothing against the small sizesmall scenarios; see my other AARs to convince yourself of that. I was happy to play to continue up the PG learning curve. But I'm anxious to move on to bigger scenarios with more combined arms, which I think I'll like a lot more.