Daniel and I picked this scenario with its odd mix of Soviets and the German mountain troops as a fun one to try while testing out the 4th Edition rules. Despite this being an enter and exit scenario the lack of vehicles and the high firepower of both sides seemed to argue that the choice of Edition would have little impact and upon completion of the play that appeared correct.

Two battalions of German mountain troops with little support (2x12 OBA) run up against a grab bag of high morale Soviets including several of the OMSBON troopers with their very high DF. The Germans are charged with the requirement to clear a six hex town and free up a road running down two long boards. They outnumber the Soviets about 1.5 to 1, give or take, but have a very high margin in the oddball side of things. Yes, the Soviets have partisans, the aforementioned OMSBON fellas and a few confused and lost RKKA infantrymen, but the Germans have bicycles, those fast HMGs that come with the mountain troops, those mountain leaders who are fantastic and an airborne landing. What's not to like?

This was another in my new found desire to learn patience. The Germans get 30 turns to try to figure this out and I told myself that I would take my time taking the town which is in the near front of the action. As a result, my commandos didn't land until turn 16.

Daniel decided to deny me the town and placed all of his NKVD/OMSBON troops along with all his partisans in the town and basically dared me to attack. With a "9" DF the defenders could cause some serious problems as I approached the town (and they certainly did). On the other hand, most of the defenders had very little range so I was able to set up some strong firegroups (using leaders with a "2" combat factor) and blast away. While organizationally clever these firegroups rarely accomplished anything useful so I had to get at the defenders the old fashioned way, through assault.

Complicating the assault was the fact that degrading the units prior to assault was quite difficult. The NKVD colonel was able to continually help rally the troopsby providing a morale bonus in addition to the effect of being in a town.

I was finally able to enter some of the town hexes and bring some strong forces to bear but could rarely get on anything above the 13 column in my assaults. It was during some of these battles that we saw a pattern. Daniel rolled very well for his fire results but very poorly for his morale results. Slowly and painfully I was getting some traction in the town but it appeared that I might not be able to clear the town in time when some artillery and mortar fire chased the NKVD Colonel from the town. This was after I surprised Daniel by bringing artillery fire down on my own troops in an assault hex to take advantage of his overstacked and demoralized troops in the same hex. The friendly fire rules were used to excess and the fourth Edition rules worked quite well.

During the first 15 turns the Germans were completely absorbed in the fight for the town. It appeared that the RKKA units were somewhere else and with a long wooded road that needed to be secured as well as the town it was getting high time to see where these troops were. The German commandos parachuted down (nearly off the board) and proceeded to run from the intersection on the southern board towards the town, finding the RKKA troops after a couple turns. What followed was possible only because I was able to clear out much of the town after 10+ turns of assaults.

A three company force took off down the road to dislodge the lower morale Soviets, managing to eliminate much of the force and chasing away the final platoon. Two companies then moved to exit the board while the remaining company returned to keep some of the NKVD troops who had fled the town from getting to and interrupting the road. They were quite successful in doing this.

The scenario came down to the fight for a final hex of the town and only an insanely lucky attack on the next to last turn gave the Germans a win. The lack of step losses on the higher columns of the assault table makes for a very tense battle and, speaking as the attacker, a very frustrating one when one is used to the third edition table. Assaults which used to be surgical and quick can now drag on for turn after turn and the availability of reserves becomes critical - as does stack management. All of which is actually a pretty good simulation. In addition, the lower step loss results at high column attacks is met be a greater chance of causing casualties on the lower columns.

In any event, the scenario was a tense battle played to the very end with both sides having a good chance to win. We did enjoy ourselves and felt that although there might have been some impact of the 4th edition rules that they were by no means a negative influence on the scenario and in many ways (despite the frustration of assault combat) may have increased the tension of the situation.

We discussed some alternate approaches to the attack and defense. Daniel pointed out that I seemed to be too eager to get into assault (probably guilty but I did raise the issues that in an attrition battle I had the necessary weight to win) whereas I suggested hiding more of the Soviet force deeper in the pass.

Given the hidden units and the imbalanced forces I would strongly encourage playing this one ftf. Without the hidden units the Soviets would be under terrible pressure. I give it a three but I think both Daniel and I were sorry we couldn't give it a 3.5. A solid and quick playing 30 turn scenario with a lot of toys.

Played in a little more than 4 hours with Matt.

Matt wrote a very detailed AAR so I will restrict myself to some general impressions.

Soviet setup. I drew three NKVD leaders with +1 morale modifier. With the NVKD having 8/8 and the Partisans 8/5, I thought my troops be resilient against Direct Fire due to their ability to recover quickly. That was the case in this scenario. The RKKA infantry have 7/6 morale and were not effective as a hidden speed bump to slow down the Germans. It may be better to hide them in a position from which they can threaten the road late in the game because it would force the Germans to recon all hexes within one turn of the road. I set up the mortars outside of town and the Germans discovered them early. Their loss was felt because the Soviets have very few units with range in this scenario.

Play Balance. Any scenario that is decided on turn 29 of 30 is well balanced in my book. It may favor the Soviets with better use of the hidden units or the Germans if they had better luck in town early on. There are plenty of choice as to the Soviets defend and how the Germans invest their troops.

Solitaire Playability. While I am sure it can enjoyed solitaire, I believe having no clue where the Soviets hide their units adds a lot of tension. The fight for the town is very technical – you need to manage your stacks and know when to bring in reinforcements – so that part can be enjoyed solitaire or face-to-face.

4th Edition Impact. Very little other than the urban assaults – and I think this change is a positive because killer stacks are not as effective.

Overall. 3.5 stars. This is a solid medium size scenario with good tension throughout.