I'm currently re-reading Chris Bellamy's Absolute War, about the Soviet Union in WW II. It is a fascinating study of the Soviet decision making process. Zhukov comes in for heavy scrutiny (and suffers in comparison to Rokossovsky) and his handling of the Mars offensive is particularly hammered. By playing this scenario one can see why.

In this scenario, a dispirited Guards unit (morale 7/6) must assault a well defended town and gain a foothold in the town. The actual action was fought towards the end of the Mars operation and resulted in a decisive repulse of the Soviets; so decisive that the Germans only mention a "skirmish" in their reports.

Determined to outdo history as the Soviet commander I reviewed the field and the German deployment. The Germans set up a trip wire of five dug in locations, some containing only an infantry platoon, some containing strong fire teams and one containing a platoon of tanks.

The field is without any significant features with the exception of a small hill in front of the town and some woods behind the town, therefore caution was useless. The Soviets advanced in a block on the northern end of the field away from the panzers. They were able to overwhelm one rifle pit and gain an adjancency to the town before being shooed away. Their entire force was either eliminated or demoralized.

There were, however, moments of "victory" for the Soviets as they were actually able to come to grips with the German forces (something they were unable to do historically), cause some actual losses (3 steps) and chase a second force into the town itself before being destroyed within 400 meters of the town. They even had the opportunity to try to cause German losses and thereby deny the Germans a victory but fell short.

All in all a much "better" result for the Soviets and yet still a debilitating failure. the force wasn't decimated, that indicates one out of ten eliminated. This was far more complete. OBA, opportunity fire, direct fire and the occassional stray assault led to massive losses for the Soviets at the hand of the highly competent mixed German force. Despite outperforming history, I could not feel but appalled at the losses caused by a reckless assault over featureless terrain.

Very instructive as a primer on why the Mars offensive failed. The chance for a draw is real and a Soviet player who is not supremely lucky will find themselves looking for that draw as a "win" (control of a town hex) is probably beyond their capability given their relatively small force and short timeframe. Still a 3 for a clean explanation of the objectives and the study of the situation.