Author	treadasaurusrex (Soviet Union)
Method	VASSAL
Victor	Soviet Union
Participants	Tankodactyl
Play Date	2023-01-21
Language	English
Scenario	TaBa024

This was a 2-session, online, play-through with a fellow Armor type who clearly understands maneuver warfare, but is relatively new to PG. Tankodactyl resolutely played the defending German recon element commander, and I had the attacking Red Army combined arms task force in this "immediate action drill" of a scenario. Setup was almost adjacent to each other, and the German side was made up of comparatively fragile SPW, early war Pz-III tanks, and some armored car units.

The Germans player would be lucky to get a knife-edge draw out of this merciless shoo t'em up. We used the glorious extended assault, smoke/illum and excess initiative optional rules in this one - and skipped the FOW. This time, neither of us were doing penance and both had tanks in our ranks! It was a refreshing change of pace for me and this was a fun-filled encounter, with flawed victory conditions that was not properly play tested. In spite of another batch of crummy leaders drawn, the Soviets shot the daylights out of the near-hapless, Germans in this outing. The Axis only needed to eliminate 7 steps in this one and they only managed to destroy 5. Soviet automatic weapon fire (SMG) was predictably deadly in close range fire fights, and assaults this time. Surprisingingly, I only threw 3 combat 7-die rolls -- there Germans threw 4. The Soviets had a great time killing the scuttling SPW halftracks and the T-34 platoons had a field day eliminating brave-but-doomed, counter attacking Pz-IIIF units, while losing only a single step of light tanks. A complete Soviet triumph ensued, and it was clear by the end of game turn 5, that the ill-fated, German force was on the ropes.

As others have insightfully reported, there is only a minimal chance for the Germans to do better than a draw, even if very well-led and favored by the PG fates. I give this fast-paced, but deeply-flawed scenario, a VERY generous rating of 3. Probably this one should be a SOLO-only play. German recon units are notoriously fragile and no real match for T-34s and a fast-moving attack,