Teutonic Soil is one of the first advances for the Soviets onto German territory. But given the state of the army they will be hard pressed to hold off the massing Soviets and this scenario shows it. The Germans have a fair about of infantry, HMG and AT guns but their morale is lacking. They also have the terrain and entrenchments to try to hold the roads with. The Soviets have a mass of infantry, tanks and OBA. They have better morale but they must advance on prepared positions as well as clear at least one east-west road across two boards. Leader selection was fair for both sides having some leaders with modifiers as well as good morale.

The Germans dilemma is setup, do they mass units to try to stop the advance on the board by the Soviets and have no reserve or setup to force dispersed and have some reserves and have the Soviets fight alot of little battles. I choose the setup to stop the Soviets coming on the board. The Germans setup a line around the woods and towns on board 18 and 21. Entrenchments were placed on the roads and in area to support cross fires by the AT guns. Mortars and a handful of infantry were placed on the other boards. The Soviets concentrated their forces to attack board 18 will a smaller group attacking board 21. Tanks carried several guard INF platoons and HMG's to try to speed them into the towns to dislodge any German counter attacks.

To start, the Soviets advanced onto both boards 18 and 21. Loaded tanks rushed forward to try to capture the towns, German Op fire was effective to force them to jump off the tanks early, but Soviet OBA was called in on the firing Germans, disrupting and demoralizing them. A German AT gun hidden in an entrenchment fired on the advancing JS-II's missing and more Soviet OBA is called in to disrupt the guns. Other Guard infantry units move on board 18 as well as the Colonel and the reserves. On board 21 the Soviets rush forward to the town, the Germans try OP fire without much effect. A German Stug fires on the advancing Soviet KV-85 but misses. Several rounds later the KV-85 moves away from the fire after two near misses. A German major tries to hold out from Soviet onslaught but a JSU-152 moves up and fires point blank on the Germans, destroying and demoralizing the rest. The Soviet advance get on the board and start taking some of there initial objectives.

German mortar fire from 81mm and 120mm prove to be very effective against the Soviets. As the Soviet Colonel in charge of the field moves the reserves to a position to support the attack on board 18, he is hit by 81mm mortars, demoralizing several units. A second rolls of shells hit again and generate step loses. The Colonel in caught in the open and is mortally wounded in the shelling. This stops the assault on the woods on board 18 as units are stunned by the loss of the Colonel. Later the mortars hit Soviet guard units in the woods and the Major needs to stop his attack to recover the units that keep disrupting further delaying the assault.

But for all the German shelling the Soviets did much more with their OBA. With three sets of artillery that could mount attacks of 42,42 and 30 it would be tough for Germans units. The first dramatic result was on a entrenchment with an AT gun, HMG and INF. A direct hit on the 30 column for the AT gun gave a 2X loss to the German units. The remainder were demoralized. Then several turns later another attack destroyed the demoralized units. A second entrenchment was hit by tank fire then OBA that double demoralized two of the German units.

In the end the Soviets were able to surround the German units in the towns and woods on the two boards. Once this happened the Soviets could race beyond them to capture at least on road. At this point, the Germans had no chance of victory and the game was called at turn 15.

I found this to be a good scenario, although it is slightly tilted toward the Soviets with the volume of units and morale. I would play this one again as the other defense might have a better attempt at saving the Prussian soil.