Situation: Soviet 1st Guards Army have penetrated across the Oder River South of Berlin.

Mission: German - newly formed Kurmark division to stop Guards Army incursion and secure Western 2 of 4 Maps. Soviet - hold at least one of the two parallel East - West roads open from any impending Fascist attacks.

Execution: The Germans opted to split their ample forces in two, concentrating majority Panzer forces (incl Pz Vs) in the more open NW quadrant, and GREN forces with APCs, Armoured Cars and a handful PzIVs in the more thickly forested SW Quadrant. Main Goal for both pincers was solely to clear Sov's from W Maps.

The Soviet Guards' officers realized that their forces were too limited and decided solely on securing the Northern East - West road, leaving a small force in the town/forests in the NE map, the rest to deploy forward as soon as possible to secure the NW map portion of the road.

Aftermath: Despite overwhelming Sov airpower (Random Aircraft every turn), the Kurmark division badly savaged the pride of the Soviet Army (as happened historically at this first engagement). After realizing there were no Soviets on the Southern maps, the GREN's decided on a deep right hook to draw away some of the pressure from the NW quadrant.

The game was ended when it was obvious the Soviets couldn't press the fight, with the step loss count already at 43 Soviet - 20 German, and both Western Maps firmly in German hands.

Opinion: While fun, mainly due to the random presence of airpower, you will be hard pressed to win as the Soviet player. I did, however, opt for an aggressive initial Soviet drive which may have been their undoing. With all the turns allotted for this scenario it may be more advisable for the Soviets to adopt a defensive position and force the Germans to blunt their attack.