Author	J6A (Soviet Union)
Method	VASSAL
Victor	Soviet Union
Participants	unknown
Play Date	2024-10-21
Language	English
Scenario	FitS006

This scenario was played on VASSAL, and not live, so it took a long time. Our first log was 11/17/2022. There were, admittedly, some lulls.

In this scenario, the Soviets have 8/6 morale, and have a lot of OBA (3 x 24, 3 x 18) and are trying to keep the Germans out of 2 towns and from clearing a road. The Germans also want to keep casualties to a minimum. The Germans get armor support mid game, but the Soviets have a potent AT force in the rear. And decent troops! Being able to actually pass some morale checks and rally on a 7 or less instead of a 6 or less makes a big difference.

In this one, the Germans cleared the western town pretty quickly, and most of the first set of woods. I left a fairly strong defense on the small hill and in the swamps, but did start pulling back troops to the back line. At this point, Soviet defenses started to stiffen. While they were still being battered by the more numerous and better armed Wermacht troops, they were starting to inflict a few casualties. The heavy Soviet artillery concentrations, which more than once fired into assault hexes, caused some casualties and blew up a few APC units. Still, the Germans were grinding away at the Soviet force, and many of the Soviets trying to move to the rear were run down by loaded halftracks.

The decisive moment in this was in the eastern town. The Soviets made the Germans fight for every hex, but by turn 17 the Soviets were down to 3 platoons in a single hex in the city, led by the highest ranking officer, a Colonel. They were determined not to give ground to the Germans. And for the next 10 turns, they gave as good as they got. They made so many morale and recovery checks, while demoralizing and destroying numerous German units. Eventually they started to wear down, but even at reduced strength they refused to yield. Meanwhile, the German tanks were reluctant to attack the Soviet AT gun concentrations, and concentrated on clearing out the swamps. The 76.2mm Soviet guns only took about 1 PZ II step.

With defenders still in the town at the end of turn 25, and not progress at all against the AT guns, the Germans conceded at the start of turn 26. There was no way they could get a victory in this one. They did own more town hexes than the Soviets, but the casualty ration was 33 German steps to 42 Soviet steps, far below the 2:1 casualty ratio the Germans needed to win, and no units had come close to exiting.

A really fun, challenging scenario, which I could see being a German romp as easily was it was a comfortable Soviet victory here.