Author	t1M0t8yk
Method	Solo
Victor	Germany
Play Date	2022-01-21
Language	English
Scenario	EFDx013

Another solid scenario, even with the original victory conditions. This one had some ebb-and-flow; at first I thought the Germans had the upper hard, then the Russians got a lucky shot at the StuG platoon and it looked like things were tilting their way, then the Germans starting picking off RKKA armor and swung things back. I eventually pulled the plug in turn 21 when the Germans had achieved their inflicted step loss victory condition. The Germans barely had a toehold on board 1, but changing that was very unlikely, and even just a few platoons is enough to prevent the RKKA from getting a draw.

Both sides raced to the board 3 town. The Germans got there first, including with their lone Stug platoon. Infantry from both sides squared off in the space between the town where board 3 and 1 meet. The RKKA set up right on the edge, the Germans two hexes from them. The Germans starting dropping their OBA on the Reds. The Reds fired back what they could, a lot from their tanks, but they were still delayed by command control limitations. The Germans started to gain the upper hand, aided as well by superior leadership and morale.

The Germans decided to use their OBA to soften up the Russian defensive line. It became on interesting race between that, RKKA digging in, and RKKA armor moving up. Turn 11 was impactful as a crossfire-enhanced shot by a 76.2 mm battery got lucky and destroyed both StuG steps. This was in spite of it taking shelter in the board 3 town.

However, the Germans got their own good shots on the Red Army armor. The Red tanks closed range to put their abundant firepower on the forward-deployed German infantry. Once there of course I thought better to keep firing. But the German AT batteries got the upper hand, their success contributing significantly to reaching the inflicted losses victory threshold.