| Bloody Movement to Contact Costs the Soviets | ||||||||||||||
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This too long, 28-turn, snowy battle took us 5-sessions to complete. Reconquista boldly led the attacking Russian force seeking a breakthrough, and I played the defending. mixed-morale German side. Fortunately, there was just enough armor to keep things exciting in this rather dull & sluggish scenario that the Axis ended up winning in what seemed like slow motion. We used the FOW, excess initiative, smoke/illum, tank riders and extended assault optional rules. Both sides drew middling leaders, and the Soviets really could have used a Komissar or two in the counter mix. The Russians poured across the board using a broad front approach aiming to get at least 25 steps off the east edge. The leading edge of this advance had little trouble clearing Map 2 and driving the forward elements of the Germans back. This came at a relatively high cost (18 steps) for the Soviets as they moved east, since the first Germans step loss did not occur until game turn 10. Multiple morale crises occurred as the Russian stacks got into decisive range on Map 1, along with a number of successful armor piercing crossfires that eliminated all but 2 platoons of T-34 tanks. Russian reinforcements did arrive on 2 widely-separated game turns, but by the time that the dice fates decreed their arrival, it was too late for them to substantially bolster the Russians advance. Both sides suffered senior leader decapitations, that caused quite a bit of havoc and confusion among the leading elements of the Bolshevik horde. Some demoralized Soviet units reman in that condition for the entire scenario, including the BT-7 light tank platoon! Oddly, the 7-step contingent of reduced German units proved remarkably resilient and fierce - much more so than the full-strength landser platoons. Axis counterattacks began in earnest during game turn 20, which spelled doom for the original batch of Soviet units. The final step losses were: 16 & 2 leaders for the Germans, and 31 for the Soviets & 3 leaders. Only 17 steps of Russians were able to exit the battle map as time ran out. We think that this scenario is probably best saved for SOLO play, as it is very frustrating and slow to play in SHARED mode. I give this one a generous rating of 3. |
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| 1 Comment |
I concur.
Sadly, the Soviet approach march was too costly and probably cost them the win in this very frustrating and poorly play tested scenario. The victory conditions should be rewritten.