I haven’t been into a Tank Battles scenario for a while so I chose this one. I don’t remember when I last played with Penal Troops either and this scenario has lead lease tanks & Bm-13 rocket trucks, so why not play this! The whole scenario was based on control of the town and eliminated units. Neither side controlled the whole town but both sides had enough eliminated steps to achieve a victory status, so it was a Draw. If the Germans hadn’t destroyed a BM-13 unit with off-board artillery, the Soviets would have won this scenario as it counts triple! A straight forward blood-bath scenario and forget controlling those Penal Troops, they are leaderless and just attack!

Author	triangular_cube
Method	Solo
Victor	Germany
Play Date	2023-01-07
Language	English
Scenario	TaBa016

Much like the other MARS scenarios, this sees a soviet force marching across mostly open ground in heavy snow under withering fire with a town to take at the end. Also, much like the other MARS scenarios, the Germans rack up a body count without too much trouble.

Germans deploy in an infantry/HMG line dug in in a semi circle around the town, while the AT guns, armor, and mortars deploy within, allowing flexibility to hit the Soviet armor from whatever direction they come. Knowing the Soviets don't have much time, they don't have to worry about flanking infantry so a straight up defense maximizing firepower is the goal.

Soviets mass their INF blob along the road ready to hit as quickly as they can, while the BMs stay out of sight behind the hill, but within range of the Germans. T34s accompanied by riding INF will flank left, and the Soviet Stuarts flank right. Any hope for a win is going to depend on OBA and BMS doing their job. Time limit and snow movement dont really allow much else.

Attack moves forward, with the Soviet artillery concentrating on a HMG stack but gets no return for 3 whole turns of firing. Infantry blob gets broken up by the unsuppressed Germans, and the 37s tear up the stuarts. The T34s get shot up by the Stugs and the whole attack falters on all sides. Better dice would have given a closer result, but it seems unlikely the Soviets take the town here either way. Unique showing of the Soviet stuarts is a plus factor i guess.

Finishing a scenario on April Fool's Day invariably will raise a question about the AAR and the results. This one really did end up as a German victory, trust me!!

The Operation Mars scenarios seem to be dedicated to the proposition that the dead pile of Soviet Union units can NEVER be too high. That does not mean that they aren't interesting. In this one, as in the other Grediakino scenarios, a large Guards unit with substantial armor support attempts to take over the town of Grediakino from a mixed force of Germans. The Germans can (and do) dig in in a semicircle covering the immediate vicinity of the town and the Soviets, given the short (17 turn) scenario are compelled to attack straight at the town. The only positives for the Soviets are that the approach to the German picket line will be screened by heavy snow and that once the units can see each other the Soviets really do have a LOT of artillery.

The German picket line is loaded with infantry/HMG stacks and one dug in StuG and the Soviets let their Penal troops advance and take fire while their Guards lag behind. The penal troops are, of course, decimated but manage enough decent morale throws to get into assault with the picket line, permitting the Guards to infiltrate beyond the picket line to the town itself. At the same time their armored thrust swoops in from the west to overwhelm the StuG before being hammered themselves.

At this point the Soviet commander is feeling pretty good with his situation. He has crushed some of the German armor, he has his troops passing through the picket line and the town is about to be invested as well. But (readers of my AAR's know that the other shoe is about to drop), at this point, the German picket line throws off the lightly armed penal troops which had tied them up and the Guards are trapped between the Scylla of the town and the Charybdis of the picket line. Shortly 40+ steps are in the dead pile and the Germans feel comfortable that the Soviets cannot see a situation where they can capture Grediakino.

At turn 14, however, the Germans have lost 12 steps and have a severely dented picket line. The Soviets spend the last hour of the scenario firing artillery at the picket line but cannot cause enough losses to get to get to a draw.

I give it a 2 because as Grediakino "I" there are three others in Tank Battles, each one resembles this one. The situation is interesting because the challenge to the Soviets is quite high but the chance to gain a draw and bleed the Germans is real. Red Warriors deals with the situation mroe reasonably by looking at all four of them together and forces both sides to consider their total resources rather than to pursue a bloodletting right off the bat.