I lived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania as a child. Pittsburgh is a city built on top of and around a series of ridges in the western part of Pennsylvania. Frankly many of the neighborhoods resemble the terraced rice paddies of China (without the water and with houses, but you get the idea). During my early childhood and before parents were told they were not to permit their children to do remarkably stupid and dangerous stunts, we used to ride wagons down these hills. If you have even tried to steer a wagon you realize exactly how stupid this truly is. No matter how you steer you won't turn, no matter what.

At the bottom of the hill was a line of bushes whose root system was far stronger than our reasoning ability and we invariably ended up in a heap, strewn through the bushes, laughing and picking sticks out of our hair.

As a teenager I remembered this experience as I read Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card for the first time. While I can't imagine that there is a wargamer who hasn't read this novel, if you haven't please do. Many of the sequels get far afield but the original is a tremendous read. In any event, one of the "games" in Ender's Game is a zero gravity capture the flag type game where a critical skill is to think of the enemy's gate (flag) as "down" thus orienting oneself to the task at hand. In one memorable encounter our protagonist manages to "win" the game with nearly all of his troops slaughtered (figuratively, such as the "dead pile" that accumulates on every eastern front PG scenario) but with the opponent's gate (flag) in hand. Seemed similar to our headlong wagon rides in Pittsburgh.

I had forgotten much of this until I had the chance to play a couple of PG scenarios where the objective is to get troops into a town that is down (south) on the mapboard (see, I really did play this one and the preamble does have something to do with the game itself). Fronte Russo #6, the Fall of Petrikovka and the Grediakino (see Heroes of the Soviet Union, Red Warriors and, of course, Tank Battles) battles seem to fit that bill. To keep the Germans from winning the Soviets must throw themselves without caution towards the town, accepting any and all casualties in order to get sufficient force into the town to avoid the German win (control of the town until turn 15).

The Germans set up in a rough semicircle around Grediakino with sufficient force within the town to withstand the assault of any Soviets who made it past the picket line. The Soviets, seeing the inability to maneuver (there is heavy snow on the ground hindering mobility), opted for the strategy that caused Operation Mars to fail, a straitforward headlong assault. They were able to invest but not destroy portions of the picket line, permitting an assault party including five KV-1s and five other platoons of Guards infantry and HMGs to contest control of some of the town. Before this happened though the Germans were distracted by the attack of some 25 T-60s to the east of Grediakino. Although these tanks reached Grediakino their lodgement only lasted 15 minutes before they were removed.

The Soviets had successfully oriented their attack and their reckless assault enabled them to counter the Germans tactical superiority. Given that they could not win the Germans immediately began looking to exit the board to avoid losing 10 steps. The difficulty in pursuing such a strategy is that the Soviets have all sorts of artillery which just can't wait to hit mobile troops out of cover.

A second route to a draw, however, was open to the German. An ahistorical choice but extremely effective. The Germans simply made sure that the Soviets, who had lost substantial numbers of troops, could never establish control over Grediakino. Indeed, the Germans reestablished control over the town later in the game and chased the remaining Soviets troops back north.

In the end analysis, a lot of dice being rolled here. The Soviets took a chance and it paid off. Perhaps they were unlucky to lose so many troops but they were able to get enough troops into place to keep the Germans from winning while the Germans were able to pursue an unexpected strategy to keep the Soviets from winning as well.

I can only imagine the two commanders as children, having just taking that stupid, stupid wagon ride, pulling themselves out of the bushes and asking each other if they wanted to go again.