J'ai fini Final Panzer battle, dernier scénario de Road to Berlin. Le 7 mai 45, les Soviétiques essaient de fermer en Moravie un corridor par lequel les Allemands évacuent vers l'ouest. Je suis arrivé à faire sortir par le bord sud 3 pelotons d'infanterie et demi et cinq et demi de chars M4A2, soit 29 pas. Il en faut trente pour une victoire soviétique mineure ! Bon scénario où les chars peuvent s'échapper en passant de zones couvertes en zones couvertes. Les rares PzV sont dévastateurs (tir AT de 8 contre blindage de 3).

This scenario I played when I was on the road work a couple of years ago. This one I found to be interesting as the German tanks can run out of fuel as well as the Soviets are using American lend lease tanks. The Soviets have the victory conditons control the roads and towns or exit units. I had opted for the control, a little harder as well as more action. The Germans setup is to control the roads and towns as this will need to controlled for denial of either conditions. The advance was quick, tank riding SMGs and INFs quickly moved to attack the infantry in the town. The German Panther ran out of gas on the first turn, so he was out. The other German tanks put up a fight knocking out several M4A2's but the Soviet numbers overwelmed the Germans. Even though the Soviet KOM decide to kill an demoralized HMG. The soviet Lt. Col. was ready to drop all the OBA on the KOM position. The Soviets took the last town and road hex on turn 22.

A force of Soviet RKKA, 17 infantry and SMG, plus mortars and machine guns, and 12 Lend-Lease Shermans are approaching from the north, attempting to exit the south edge or take control of the road and the two small towns on it. Opposing them are 12 grenadiers plus machine guns, along with 6 tanks, mostly Panzer IV's but with one Panzer V.

The Germans set up first, in woods and towns on the southern of two boards. Most of the infantry sets up in the southern town, and in the two large woods flanking it along with the tanks, hoping to set up a crossfire on the approaching Soviets. One smaller group, with tank support, sets up in the northern town. A second small group sets up in the woods to the west of the northern town.

The Soviets approach along the road, and then deploy just out of range of the German tanks. The Soviet commander impatiently sends his tanks forward to attack the German tanks in the northern town from both sides. Big mistake. The German tanks take out several Shermans as soon as they get in range. The Panzers survive the return fire on the next turn and wipe out several more Shermans. Belatedly, the Soviets bring up their infantry. They take several losses approaching the town, but take it after several assaults. The Germans lose a tank unit when it runs out of gas attempting to retreat. The Soviets have cleared the Germans' forward positions, but have taken three hours (of a six-hour scenario) to do it and have lost more than half of their tanks.

Not giving up yet, the Soviets re-form to the east of the road in fields, out of sight of the defenders. They hope to take out the German force (two infantry and two PzIVH) in the eastern woods, then use the woods as cover to approach the town and assault it for the win. They send forward infantry and tanks in a rush, losing some infantry and a few more tanks on the way in. Unfortunately for the Soviets, the Germans get two activations to start the next turn and light up the adjacent Shermans and infantry before they can assault.

After that, the scenario is basically over. The Soviets can't clear the woods, although they do manage to destroy one PzIVH and demoralize the other. They've taken too many infantry losses to defeat the remaining defenders. At the end of the scenario they are left with only one reduced Sherman.

This was a pretty good scenario, but I'm not sure about balance. It may favor the Germans, or it may just be me. I seem to be better on defense than attack, and made some errors with the Russians. I'll have to try it again and see if I can do better with them next time.