This scenario was played FTF with Wayne Baumber over 6 heavy sessions taking a total of 32 hours 15 minutes of actual play. That was no surprise given that it is the 5th biggest scenario in PG history to date (as far as counter count goes). There was also a pre-game session where we had to sort out leaders, errata and just general game preparation. Before attempting this scenario both players should make sure to get their heads together to thrash out the various errata. Wayne has already alluded to some of the counter-issues in his AAR and also the outrageous omission of the missing board. There are other matters too such as the frozen river not being mentioned (but they are frozen in all the other MARS scenarios). But once all that is through then it is time to get on with the game itself.

This monster battle is supposedly set on the 30th November 1942, but scenarios elsewhere and also within this Tank Battles book seem to show the battle fought anywhere between the 27th-30th. Whatever the facts are, what we have here is a huge attack of Soviet Guards, supported by tanks of all shapes and sizes ranging from T34s and KVs down to the weedier T60s. Added to this are numerous cavalry forces and RKKA infantry & SMG’s troops. There are also no less than 6 x BM13 batteries and 4 x 76mm batteries. In all, there are 195 Soviet combat units. Facing these and required to defend 5 x towns is a fairly upbeat German force that will be definitely (or should be) well-disciplined and hardy as their morale of 8 equals that of the Soviet Guards forces. Unfortunately for them each of the towns needed to be protected are each on one of the 5 boards, so the German will have to decide where to be weaker and where to add weight to his defence. His reinforcements of mainly AFV’s will enter over a 19 turn period. Heer forces including reinforcements come to 78 combat units of which 15 are AT, AA & IG units. The set-up is very interesting as both sides will need to write down their entry points and set-up positions as it is a dual set-up.

For victory, it is a simple question of whom gains most points. There are points for eliminating enemy troops, hardware and trucks. For each 10 steps eliminated the Soviet gets 7pts the German 5pts. The 5 towns combined are worth 45pts to both sides. To gain the points for a town, it has to be completely controlled and not disputed. So with the large intro onto the battle itself. Rather than write a blow by blow account I thought it would be simpler to write about each town and what went on around those.

The setting is 0900 hours on a Monday morning 30th November 1942. The snow has been heavy and will inhibit any troop movements, especially off road. The Soviets Operation Mars has been raging for around 5 days now and the garrisons in this cluster of towns have been waiting for the Red Wave to surge against them. Now was their time.

NIKONOVO: This 5 hex town was really where the whole brunt of the main battle took place. It is the most forward located town to the Soviet entry on board 3 and is in south-east corner of the map. There is also a large wood to its north. The German forces here consisted of a SrG platoon backed by an AA & 50mm gun. The rest were a mix of infantry and HMG’s. Each town hex was set up with 2 units in it and a strong-point in 2 of the hexes. As the battle kicked off at 0900 hours, these German counters were about to face the largest onslaught of troops Wayne and I had ever seen on our PG tables. Coming into sight from the east and leading the attack were 3 battalions of Soviet Guards with a smattering of some Penal troops. Tanks were also advancing cautiously, aware of the guns of the StGs located in Nikonovo. The lighter tanks, artillery and BM13’s advanced out of sight behind a line of woods. The snow laden terrain slowed the Soviets down and whilst the Germans could, they directed their OBA into the ranks of this immense throng of Red Army strength. In general the OBA was reasonably accurate and a number of Soviet steps were blown away with the artillery power. Crossing the frozen river and finally coming into range of German direct-fire, the small amount of Penal troops took the first salvoes of enemy fire. Being killed, breaking or simply hugging the ground, these poor souls, neglected by their commanders would advance no further. Then the first wave of guards closed in. Fire from point blank range and OBA caused the leading guardsmen to reel back and waver. Counter Soviet fire from their own guns, rockets and rifles also caused losses and disruptions to the German troops in Nikonovo. Furthermore, in the woods to the north of the town, the German troops were suffering in the early exchanges and had retired westwards to the wood’s edge.

By 1030am the town was effectively surrounded and under severe pressure. German OBA kept ploughing into the enemy and the garrison were firing furiously as the Guards kept attempting to close into the town. A KV1 step was also destroyed by the StG’s. Meanwhile German reinforcements in the form of 3 x PzIV plns were ‘speeding’ (at 2 hexes per turn) from the west edge eastwards towards the town to assist. All the time the Guards were attacking Nikonovo yet more Russian troops were entering behind them on the east edge. Guards cavalry and RKKA infantry and MG’s. It seemed the hordes were endless. Nikonovo itself was now resembling a scar on the terrain rather than a town. OBA, Rockets, wrecks let alone thousands of bullets had turned the once innocuous village into a scene from Dante’s Inferno. The initially hard pressed German infantry in the woods outside Nikonovo had staged a comeback and were now carrying out counter-attacks against their tiring enemy. For a time, this resurgence had Soviet troops there on the back foot. Back in Nikonovo assaults abounded in every hex and slowly the Russians were wearing the defenders down and reducing their numbers. The PzIV reinforcements came to within around 400m of Nikonovo to assist in its defence, but they were pounced on by a useful T34 force that had been committed to take them on. At one point, the ensnared Panzers looked as if they would lose all 6 steps, but supporting StG’s, some good luck and an aggressive counter helped extricate the PzIV’s with 2 of the platoons reduced and the other keeping full strength. The T34’s also took losses and were forced to retire out of sight into some woodland.

The battle around Nikonovo lasted all through the 27 turns played (1530 hours) and had still not ceased when Wayne conceded. The Germans were located in just 2 hexes of the 5 hex town. These were both in assault and each consisted of a demoralized reduced INF platoon and a leader. There was no doubt they would fall soon, but we had been saying that throughout the game. In all they had been holding position from 0900-1530 and had been cause of a huge frustration to the enemy. I could not even estimate how many Soviet troops fell around and in Nikonovo. Perhaps 30-40 steps?. One can only imagine the carnage of the place. Bodies around the whole outskirts of the town. Houses and streets smouldering pot-holed shards of wood and brick. Wrecks on many street corners and even more dead in every street, house, garden and square. German casualties here can be calculated to some accuracy and probably came to 15-18 steps. On reflection, Nikonovo’s refusal to fall was what put the rest of the Soviet plans into flux. (Resulted as Soviet control with 8 turns remaining)

MALOE KROPOTOVO: Located exactly on the south of the map and the next town westward from Nikonovo, this location was probably the second objective of the ill-fated Guards attack. The town itself was well manned at the start with infantry, HMG and strongpoints and would receive reinforcing PzIII’s later on. The attack from the east never materialized from the Guards as they were struggling to take Nikonovo. However, from the north, the remaining Guards battalions did begin an advance towards the town. This advance was badly coordinated, using lone officers to try and stretch their command boundaries. In turn, many of these officers were blown away as lone targets in order to remove the brains from the muscle of this Soviet attack. Officers also died during bombardments from normal leader loss and the attack petered out about 600m form the town as there were no leaders except one demoralized one to try and carry it forward. The reinforcing PzIII’s also proved useful with their HE and DF support against any would be advancing enemy. Maloe Kropotovo did receive rocket and artillery bombardments but the accuracy of these against the German positions was poor and did little to no harm. (Resulted as German Control 10pts with 8 turns remaining).

PODOSINOVKA: This town is in the south-west. Quite small but manned of course as Soviet cavalry and other forces were due to enter along here as reinforcements. Sure enough, their cavalry entered this area early on forcing German armour reinforcements to take a slow detour in the snow around them in their trek to reinforce Maloe Kropotovo and Nikonova. The cavalry however stood in the woods doing little. Understandable at that point of the battle. When they received further support in the form of some tanks and foot troops around turn 19 or so an attack was launched on Podosinovka. Like all the other attacks it resulted in high-losses and complete loss of cohesion but inflicting little damage on the defenders. This turned out to be another town easily held. (German controlled 10pts).

MALOE PETRANOVO: A small four hex town located in the far north-west corner of the board. Its initial garrison is a couple of pieces of ordnance and 2 x HMG units. Its position so far in the corner means that it cannot really be realistically supported by personnel reinforcements as getting there will be a treacherous journey over the snow bound terrain and will probably result in such a journey being pounded by Soviet OBA. It is therefore at risk when the Soviet reinforcements from the west enter. This proved to be exactly the case around turn 20, 1345 hours when such reinforcements entered. They wasted no time on advancing on the town led by the rather frightening KV2 monster platoon backed with KV1’s and a few T60’s, followed by the infantry. Coming under a 30col DF attack, the German machine-gunners luckily survived and backed themselves into a corner section of the town. Their only hope lay in entering assault against enemy infantry in the town in order to stop the KV2 and friends laying down their heavy fire upon them. At the time of Wayne conceding the game we disputed whether this town would have fell or not. I could see the machine-gunners and officers with a 24col assault defence being a tricky obstacle to budge given Nikonovo’s stout defence. But Wayne conversely, could see that the weight of numbers and his firepower would whittle them down. Whether that would happen quick enough over 8 turns is the point of debate and when completing this report I shall show the scores with both the German and Soviets in control of the town.

BOL’SHOE KROPOTOVO: Located in the north, this is the big town of board 2. I positioned a good few troops in here but not enough to cover it all. My feeling was that if it was attacked by a full and determined force of Soviets, my troops would not be able to protect the whole town but there would be enough to be a major Soviet headache to get rid of. It was laced with HMG’s and AT guns. Long range INF guns a StG’S completed the support to the infantry. In the event, the Soviets only sent a paltry force mainly consisting of Penal troops to probe the town’s perimeter. After these were duly cut down, some Soviet guards kept a thin line to the south of the town on the only hill on the boards to counter any excursion the Germans might make from the town. The StG platoon ventured out a couple of times once the town was not under threat. It assisted in taking out Soviet armour heading for Maloe Kropotovo and then afterwards, towards Maloe Petranovo to deter the KV2’s becoming embroiled and then spotted by the StGs thus making themselves a target. The early game end meant we never got to that part but it did knock out a couple of T60 steps involved in the attack on that town.

SUMMARY: The final result of town control after Wayne conceded meant that the Germans definitely controlled 3 towns, the Soviets 1 town and 1 town was either Soviet controlled or disputed dependent on opinion. The scenario was a huge beast using 5 boards and with the Soviets controlling around 225 unit counters and 40 leader counters. These forces enter or can enter on all points of the board and thus are a challenge of a player’s ability to logistically control and direct them. I think Wayne must have found this a serious challenge in itself let alone the VC’s especially as many of the turns went the full distance with no FOW interruption. Wayne has dangerously claimed this as an unwinnable scenario for the Soviets, where such previous claims have sometimes been proved awry. It will be interesting to see if 2 players ever take this scenario on again. Again Wayne believes that there won’t be another dual play of this. I hope he is wrong here because I think there are some tricks that the Soviets may have missed this time round. Entry points for example may be worth re-considering and though I do not wish to give other clues (for my own benefit in future games), some other resources could and may be used differently. One way to look at the kind of swing that may be gained with the capturing of certain towns is that 3 of them would result in the Germans having to eliminate 60 step-equivalents just to retain parity. Add to this the forces the Germans lose when losing those towns and the chance of closer points results can be seen. I set up in hedgehogs protecting the towns. The tactic definitely has merit, but if they do become ensnared and trapped, there is no way to help them. With a 35 turn game and with many of the towns (3 of them) close to entry points, the Soviets must make sure that their command chain is secure and not open to being picked off as happened in our game. Of course the theory and reality are two different beasts, but with one complete play of this scenario in the book, any future Soviet commander can take a more patient and deliberate approach.

CASUALTIES AND POINTS: Casualty points are awarded to each side for inflicting step-loss equivalents in batches of 10. The Soviets get 7pts for each 10 inflicted and the Germans 5pts. Then both sides have 45pts available from control of the towns.

Soviet step losses amounted to 68 FOOT, 14 CAV, 31 AFV, 3 GUN, 6 TRUCK and 17 Leaders. Equating to 153 step equivalents, this gives the Germans 75pts. German step losses amounted to 18 FOOT, 7 AFV, 2 APC, 4 GUN, 2 TRUCK and 1 leader. Equating to 36 steps equivalents, this gives the Soviets 21pts.

There were two counts for town control. Germans control Maloe Kropotovo, Podosinovka and Bol’shoe Kropotovo = 30pts Soviets control Nikonovo = 10pts (and if Maloe Petronovo is controlled and not disputed then they receive another 10pts).

Therefore final tally with towns and casualties is Germans 105pts, Soviets 31pts or 41pts. As Wayne said, this is a hard scenario to rate. Errata and pre-game set-up and preparation take up more time. But once it got underway I had a lot of fun with this scenario. It will certainly be memorable which would usually garner a ‘5’ rating from me. But the errata instantly lose it a point. Is it as lop-sided as Wayne says? I really do not know until there are more plays (if they ever occur). Destroying 5 KV1 and 23 T34 steps in a 1942 scenario is some pay back against the Soviet monsters from the 1941 scenarios. Unsurprisingly, this game produced the most allied foot casualties of any scenario. The 68 lost beating by around another 54% that of the 44 lost in “The Utmost Vigour” from South Africa’s War. Gates of Komorn still hold the highest allied AFV loss though. The Soviet Guards losing 43 steps alone of INF plus 8 HMG’s means their 51 losses alone beat the SAW INF loss record just mentioned. This IS a very tough scenario for the Soviets and with complete hindsight it seems to me that the Soviet player must decide on 3 towns he can take the easiest and set up with the sole intention to take those. Assign the forces assiduously and make sure the tools for complete command control and reserve control is there as best as possible. If it comes off, the Germans will be under pressure. For me, this was exciting and when the game started I had no idea how it would run. Therefore, my ‘4’ rating is based on my own personal experience and the memory it will leave with me RATHER than the quality of the scenario writing. I’d love to see another pair take this one on.

Looking for a monster scenario for a very wet weekend, I found this one and it proved to be just that. First, the scenario has alot of errors and corrections were required. I have added them to the scenario errata in PG-HQ. Second was the vast amount of counters to push, nearly 400 and this is what made it tough. Many turns when 40-50 or more activations and some turns were well over two hours. Others short with the FoW rolls. The traffic jams were very though to navigate but it did show how hard it was to move large bodies of troops.

As for troops the Soviets get everything Guards, Penal Troops, T34's, BM-13's and plenty of then, but you need to get them on the board and into the battle so be prepared for playing traffic cop. The Germans are defending and have a good amount of troops, OBA and a bit of armor. Morale tends toward the Germans but the Guards are evenly matched against the Germans. The Germans did get the setup and will have the position on the advancing Soviets. By the way there is heavy snow on the ground too.

The Germans setup mainly around the towns on all the boards with some other key hill and woods terrain occupied to slow the Soviets. Reinforcements will appear quickly for the Germans and this will be most of the Germans armor. The Soviet main advance was onto board 3 with a small force forcing board 2. A small RKKA cavalry end from the west to give the Germans something to think about. The main force pushes on the board and the penal troops charge for the town with other Guard units advancing behind them. The Germans are forced to OP fire on the Penal troops with some success in slowly them. But the price is allowing the Guards to get up and position for assaults. German AT guns go for the BT-7s and knock out a couple of platoons, but there is just too many Soviets and they overrun the AT guns and infantry defending the town. A fighting retreat is organized, but Soviet rockets rip apart the retreating troops. But this attack has taken time to get organized and then to sort out after the capture.

To the north the holding force takes on a hill with the German Stugs on the hill south of the town. They are able to advance under heavy fire are able to force the Stugs back off the hill and occupy it. But just as they do German OBA hit the hill hard killing two platoons. Fire from the large town to the north keeps these troops out of action for the rest of the game, but they also block the Germans from moving south to help the southern towns. To the west the Soviet cavalry charge into the town on board 1. Heavy OP fire disrupt/demoralize many units but enough get into the town to assault and push the Germans back. Heavy fighting continues and both sides are lock in combat in the town and who ever get reinforcements to the town first will have the edge.

To the south the reorganized main force attack the second town. Heavy AT and OP fire keep the Soviet assault moving very slow. Soviet OBA hits the town over and over but the German defenders stay in good order. T34's rush forward and destroy German PzIIF's defending the town and giving the Soviets a small window to get Guards INF close to the town. Bloody assaults occur in the town, twenty-two steps are lost in the town causing both sides to reorganize after the first few attacks. Soviet reinforcements appear to the west and the Germans pull out of the second southern town.

All of this attacking has used up alot of time and units. It is turn 28 and the Germans side hold one northern and one southern town. One northern town is contested and two southern towns are are Soviet controlled. A small German force has moved to reinforce and the Soviets are racing T34's to help the cavalry. Both reinforcements make it to the town by turn 32 that gives 3 three turns to try to capture it. The Germans start with HMG fire on the Cavalry that forces two out of the town and German INF try to occupy with INF but are stopped by T34 OP. Good order Soviet Cavalry charge into the town but are slaughtered by a 20mm AA gun. Both sides are back to the same point. But then German Stugs fire at long range hit one of the T34's forcing the others to reposition. German INF take advantage of to assault another town hex. Last turn occurs with lots of OBA and assault fire but the town is still contested. So in the end 2 towns for each side and one is contested, a draw.

In the end I was a bit disappointed, not by the actions but by the shear size of it and the need to do a lot of counter maintenance slowing the game. This could probably be broken down into 3 or 4 manageable scenarios for solo or two player games. It may possibly be interesting with 4 players, but for me it would be a bit impossible.

This games was played FtF over six sessions plus a session to prep for the game. This is a truly massive scenario and will need two sets of EFD and Red Warriers to play. Even at first glance though problems rear their head, the map of the scenario shows only 4 boards (including 2 Board 4's) but also mentions board 3 which is not shown on said map. Where does it go? It actually goes on the East edge of the eastern board 4 to make an L shaped map configuration. Other problem's arose while sorting out the counters, Gds Cav have two differing values from Red Warriors and RTB as do Gds 76.2 artillery, these can all be sorted out reasonably easily but highlights the issues I have with APL and their lack of even basic proof reading let alone play-testing. Anyway rant over, how does it play? Well not overly well actually. VP's are awarded for enemy step eliminated and control of towns. The Germans start on the board and are in control of all the towns, they do have to set limitations which basically mean they have to have units on all 5 boards. Vince set up all his units in hedgehog defenses in the towns apart from one company covering the woods to the North of Nikononva, his 2 Stugs covering the two east-west roads. One slightly odd aspect of this scenario is that both sides appear to set up simultaneously as no one side is shown to set up first. This of course favours the defender more than the attacker. My set up and plan as the Soviet commander was to take the high ground south of the town on Board 2 then swing south to take Podosinka joining with the eastern thrust on board 3 who were to take Nikonova these forces would then push westwards to greet the trapped 6th Corps who were tasked to take the town on board 1 and assist with the final assault on Maloe Kropotova. That would mean taking 4 of the 5 towns for 35 VPs and hoping that I would lose no more than 2 steps to every German one. This proved far too ambitious for several reason. German OBDA could deliver 2 X 55 shots per turn The snow slowed the advance to a crawl There was never enough time organise units which had been disrupted/demoralized back into line. In fact given Vince's set up I do not believe a Soviet win is possible without a lot of bizarre die rolls. As this game took in real time over 6 months to play I am not going to even try and describe in any detail of how the action went. So in general terms my easterly thrust after losing massive casualties finally overwhelmed the stout German defense of Nikonova, the south-easterly thrust took the undefended high ground but the attack against the middle town never got going, thanks mainly to leader casualties, at one stage the German commander was dropping 55 barrage's on sole leaders, the attack against the town on board 1 was successful in as much as that was the only area where German casualties exceeded Russian casualties although the town was still being contested by the end of play. The 6th Tank Corps attack was beaten off with ease and they would have been almost wiped out if the German had gone on the counterattack. I called the game at the end of GT26 although my own belief was that by the end of our second session the scenario was lost already for the Soviets. **I like them big and meaty, scenarios that is not women, but does this scenario repay the time and effort that we put in. The short answer is no. Yes we had some laughs and there were even some exciting moments but this was far too easy for the German in my book. I am surprised that Vince rates this as highly as he does but I can not recommend this scenario. **

Author	triangular_cube
Method	Solo
Victor	Soviet Union
Play Date	2023-01-17
Language	English
Scenario	TaBa023

This scenario is complete nonsense unless you do a near complete rewrite of the instructions. For that reason I give it a "1" as a broken scenario, regardless of how the user written scenario plays, as it is in fact a user written scenario. That being said, using the scenario errata of adding the extra board (despite the assertion specifically that the board diagram is correct in the book) this was quite interesting. It is sort of a combo of Hells Fury I and Hells Fury II, but with a different (either pre or post eratta) board set up. Because of this the Germans must come up with a coherant defense plan, as they do not have enough strength to defend everywhere against the massed Soviet offense.

Germans set up heavy on board 3, with plans to either fight tough their or fall back once the Soviet plan is determined. A skeleton force in on board 2, hoping they can survive long enough for reinforcements, while Western 4 has the recon force ready to defeat the Soviet Cav probe, and the rest combined in East 4 and 1. Soviets see the strong 3 and weak 2, so they mass the entire Guards force on 2, with the RKKA entering on 3 to keep the Germans busy and in place.

Rather than turning into a novel of this massive rewritten scenario, the general flow was the Soviet Guards taking board 2 prior to the full arrival of reinforcements from German Armor, and the reinforcing recon force after defeating the cav. They then sweep East 4 and West 4 while the RKKA grinds out 3. Bloodbath on all sides, but the Soviets, with measured patience, "win" this one.

I must again reiterate, my rating is based on whats in the book. And it is completely unusable as is.