First few turns started with the 3rd SS being rather bold and foolish. They rushed on the board transported, showing eagerness as well as inexperience. Big Mistake! RKKA aircraft and OBA, guided by well placed observers, made a mess of things right from the start. The lone Tiger unit moved exactly 3 hexes to enter the board, and was immediately killed by a rather lucky Ilyushin 2. This feat brought the German player to a cry of desperation, his first but not his last!

The German plan to rush the table, to get the necessary troops off the table at the other side before the arrival of the Russian reinforcements, was easy enough on paper. But the Russians had other plans! They used their resources to perfection and guided the front of the main German assault to where they wanted to fight, the Pilis Hills. Here they awaited the onslaught with 10 dug in T34’s and a whole lot of supporting infantry and AT.

By turn 14, when the reinforcements (another 12 T34-85’s and other stuff) hit the table, the first SS troops were exiting the board and claiming a minor victory. But the reinforcement breathed new life into the Russians, giving them an enormous amount of fresh firepower that engulfed the board like a tidal wave. Within a few turns, they bagged their minor victory condition as well. What happened next was pure slaughter!

Still having to move off 2 steps to claim a major victory, the German Standfr led the first piercing move himself. The southeast attack was stopped dead at 2 hexes from the board edge by some extremely accurate Russian bombing! On the other side (south west), a PzIV and a PzV platoon tried to cut through an unguarded piece of the Soviet curtain as well. After a few turns of cat and mouse play, bloody cross fires and downright gung ho tank assaults, a crippled PzIV made it across to claim the major victory! (turn 29)

All the German player now has to do is to consolidate the lead, and deprive the Russian of his major victory conditions by having some fighting troops on the Russian side of the table until games’ end. But at this particular moment, the Germans have very few tracks and troops left to hold out another 11 turns. All that is left is 1 StuG III, 1 PzIV, 2 PzV, 3 HMG, 3 81mm, 5 GREN and an SPW! These troops are scattered across the board with a large part of this rugged bunch desperately trying to defend a large wood.

The Russians, although largely overpowering the Germans, have trouble as well. They still have an impressive lot of tanks, APC’s and infantry scattered all over the place, but only 3 commanders alive to lead them! Their quickly assembled assaults on the defending SS remnants, run badly and not as hoped for. On game turn 35, the Russian player recognizes that clearing the board will not happen and reluctantly tosses in the towel. A pyrrhic major victory for the 3rd SS!

There are some play events that will get stuck into our memories for years to come:

• A disrupted 2 step PzIV that misses a roll of 7 or less, to get rid of the disruption, for an amazing 17 turns in a row.

• German artillery being superb in hitting their own troops

• A Russian leader stepping in an adjacent wooded hex to spot for artillery, and dying seconds later when the adjacent troops occupy the same hex seconds later

• A tenacious lone Russian infantry platoon that would not give up the highest hex on the board, it took several hundred points of artillery and 2 separate assaults to make it flee

• The Tiger incident mentioned above

• The sheer terror on the German players’ face every time an aircraft hit the board

• The agony on the Russian players’ face every time that same aircraft turned out to be a waste of an action

In the end, we both surpassed the 100 steps killed mark, which in my book stands for pure brutal slaughter. But the game was a blast to play! A near run thing, with every turn filled with excitement. Things hanging in the balance all the time. With both players having several bouts of desperation and defeatism during the course of this great scenario. A scenario I can’t recommend enough, you should try it one day!