Shad's Note: I'm dumping in a bunch of my old BGG AARs. If you've followed my "work" on BGG then you've read these before...

SETUP CONSIDERATIONS

Because the Soviets must equally divide their forces between the two boards, the Germans - at least in the beginning - are roughly evenly matched as they attempt a breakout. The Soviets get a fair bit of artillery (26, 24 OBA, and 10 if placed intelligently) but the Germans will be rushing right past them so friendly-fire risk will likely restrict opportunities there. The Su-76 will be a pain in the ass, but in open terrain it moves just as fast (or slow) as infantry (7MP / 2 in Clear) so if the Germans can get behind it, they have a chance. German morale is also freakishly high - 8 for reduced platoons! - owing to their determination to break out, so they can still run through the gauntlet and have a chance.

This was solo play, so I had plenty of time to consider my setups. As the Germans I elected to entrench the 2 AT guns on the main East-West road to prevent the eastern half of the Soviet army from catching up with me too quickly. The Germans lack wagons/trucks so those guns are gonna die anyway.

With the remainder of my forces, I sent the HMGs and 2 GRENS to the south and kept the remaining 6 GRENS in the north, dividing the officers more or less equally among them.

As the Soviets, I placed my western artillery centrally to cover both exit paths, countered the southern force with one of equal deployment, and loaded up the north with the armor and remaining 6 INF. All units on the eastern map were placed as close as possible to the edge and tasked with simply catching up before everything was conclusively resolved...

BATTLE BEGINS

The scenario lasted 11 turns before the outcome was no longer in question. The southern force came charging slowly ahead (2MP HMGs...) and simply ran right past the Soviet platoons tasked with stopping them. One GREN platoon was lost along the way, but the 3 remaining units all managed to exit the board. The Soviet commander (also me!) made a serious tactical blunder here - he expected to stop the enemy with Direct Fire, not respecting the 9/8 morale's potential for bullet-dodging. The Germans danced through 2 or 3 turns of incoming fire without firing a shot in return, and then were out of range and gone. Oops.

In the north, learning from his mistake, the Soviet commander ordered all units out of their town & forest positions and into the clear to stonewall the advancing Germans. Body-counts were irrelevant, after all.

One particularly lucky German GREN & Officer managed to elude repeated pointblank & opportunity fire to exit to safety, but the remaining 5 units couldn't break free. By Turn 11 only 2.5 steps and 1 officer remained and the Soviets from the eastern deployment had reached the scene and encircled the enemy. The Germans surrendered and were promptly shipped off to Siberian deathcamps.

Shad's Conclusion

The three southern units escaped with relative ease, but the fourth from the northern contingent was unbelievably lucky. There is definitely room for either side to win, depending on approach. I would be curious to play it again with all the Germans formed up together trying to blast their way through rather than just running like crazed ferrets. Nevertheless, I enjoyed this short scenario immensely, and recommend it for both solitaire & face-to-face play. These sorts of interesting bits of WWII lore are what really make Panzer Grenadier great in my eyes...