Author	treadasaurusrex (Soviet Union)
Method	VASSAL
Victor	Soviet Union
Participants	CavDo
Play Date	2023-01-19
Language	English
Scenario	BluD010

This was a 3-session play-through with a relatively new-to-PG rookie leading the better-morale and officered Spanish force trying to hold way too much ground in the face of a significant number of low-morale, but hard-charging Soviets. Once again, I am doing additional penance by playing the Red Army side, with no accompanying armor in sight! We used the FOW, consolidation, excess initiative and smoke/illum optional rules. The Soviet leader draw was middling, the Spanish draw was far better then average. Between us, we threw 12 combat-7 die rolls, and there were 6 FOW-shortened game turns. By mutual agreement we decided to call this one on game turn 15 as a Red Army victory.

Others described what this 2-map scenario is like. One that featured a mad Soviet rush for the starving infantry to exit. The bulk of the Soviet force enters from the west, while their cavalry come in from the east. By the middle of game turn 4, some Soviet platoons are already slipping through the porous Spanish line. The Soviets steadily lost step-after-step to the well-led and equipped Spanish defenders whenever they got within range. Like Wayne describes elsewhere, the Russian Cavalry were able to greatly improve the lot of their scrambling infantry with a pair of successful close assault chargse over open terrain against a scattered counter attacking set of Spanish units in the open. This move, and accurate Soviet OBA provided the opportunity for multiple steps of Soviet infantry to escape off the east edge of the battle map. The Spanish side simply cannot be everywhere and hope to contain the small number of Red Army steps required to exit for a win in this battle. Spanish step loses totaled 9 by the end of the 14th game turns. By that point, the Soviets had already exited 8 steps and there were 5 more steps with range to exit.

The victory conditions in this unbalanced scenario are virtually impossible for the Spanish to achieve. In our play-through, the advantage of substantial Red Army OBA made almost all the difference. As others have reported, the best the Spaniards can hope for is a draw. This one is too long and should probably be about 18 turns in length, max. I give it a 2 as a shared play option, mainly because it was fun to play online with a determined opponent. It is really only merits a 1, as I doubt that it was play tested, but is a good choice for SOLO play.