Ok a lot of guys have played this in the last year with good reviews and it’s been on my must play list for a while now, so I played this one off and on most of the day today. The Soviets must eliminate German steps and control three boards they setup on. The Germans must eliminate Soviet steps and exit units off the Soviet controlled Southern maps. Both sides have an interesting mix of unit types but the Soviets don’t have their stronger armor reinforcements until after turn 13 or so depending on the luck of the dice rolls.

The Soviets have to setup into two groups, the Infantry, AT-guns and support units on maps 21 & 16 and the Soviet T-34C’s and a few SMG units on maps 16 and 14. The Germans have a very large force of all types of armor including but not limited to Panthers and Tigers with Infantry loaded in both APC halftracks & soft skinned trucks. Both sides have off board artillery but the Soviet have the airpower including those nasty 3 factor, AT types. The Germans enter from the North on maps 19, 17 & 15 with 40 turns to rock and roll!

The Germans decide to divide their forces into two groups to keep the Soviets guessing and keeping their lines thin spread out but also to find holes to push enough units off the southern end of the map. The Germans push their armor ahead of the APC’s which are followed farther back by the loaded trucks.

With both German groups moving forward the group between maps 16 & 14 have the most luck, finding mostly dug-in Soviet T-34C’s which are fine tanks but not against the distance the Panthers, Tigers, PzIVHs and a few types can shot. Also The Germans have armor efficiency which gives them twice as many shots. They punch a hole through which lead to enough points/units getting through plus they eliminated more than their required amount of Soviet steps and the two achievements together would give them a major victory but the Soviets have also eliminated enough steps and their air-force took a toll on the some German units earlier. So if the Soviets can clear the maps: 21, 16 & 14 of Germans they would also have a major victory resulting in a tie. So the Germans only exit enough units south to fill that requirement and have taken full control of the hill and forest hexes on map 14, setting up both armor and Infantry units to await the Soviet reinforcements that seemed to take forever to entry the battle, giving the Germans the upper hand in being prepared. The remaining Soviets on maps 21 & 16 were too weak to attack on their own but once the Soviet reinforcements: T-34/85s, T-70s & SMG units entered from the east, they joined them in one big attempt to clear the Germans from the southern maps or in this case map number 14.

Again the German armor efficiency took a large total on the Soviet armor and the large amounts of the off board artillery really hurt the Soviet Infantry as well. The German stop them cold one the second parts of this battle. The Germans get a Major victory and the Soviets a minor victory, so the Germans win this one!

A fun scenario to play and difficult for the Soviets if the reinforcement take too long to enter the battlefield but that Soviet air-power really hurt at times, taking out two steps of Panther, two step of Tigers and one Infantry & leader loaded truck. What is interesting about this battle; is at first the Germans have to attack and then later the Soviets have to attack. Offense & defense for both sides to try! The German have the slight advantage in forces and morale but they have to do more. Again, a fun scenario to play and everything you need comes out of one box, Road to Berlin, one of my favorites!