My recent plays:

• 2011-03-03, Desert Rats #47
• 2011-03-05, Jungle Fighting #41
• 2011-03-17, Jungle Fighting #19
• 2012-03-15, Iron Curtain #8

364 days between plays! (it's a leap year) How did that happen? On 2011-05-02 I became a daddy!

Fortunately, as my son approaches one year of age things have settled down a bit at home and I was able to finally play a small scenario at a pace of about a turn a morning as I had my coffee before the rest of the house awoke.

The battle was satisfying, but does not merit a blow-by-blow account. Instead, I'll highlight some points of interest:

• this was my first battle using smoke. As the Soviets are assaulting a town atop a hill, successful use of smoke to blind NATO firing positions is critical to advancing in good order. Smoke went well initially for my Soviets, but that only allowed me to get closer to NATO guns, and when the smoke started failing us we were in prime position to be shot to hell, and we were!
• NATO has one very nice field gun, and the Soviets have one platoon of AFVs. A bombardment-induced demoralization and subsequent failed rally removed the field gun from the game very early, leaving the Soviet AFV basically invulnerable. However, it became demoralized in an early assault action and never recovered to rejoin the battle. This loss of concentrated firepower was a big blow to the Soviet chances.
• Both NATO and Soviets have 7/6 morale, which makes playing the NATO (American) side interesting as one is not used to seeing GIs routinely fail morale checks and rally attempts.
• The incredible Soviet artillery, something like 100+ points of combined on- and off-board firepower, will force NATO to keep their heads down, and prevent them massing to repulse attacks. But, as this AAR's title says, artillery does not capture towns, and ultimately my Soviets simply could not get enough boots into the town to secure it. (Stalin knows we lobbed enough shells in!)

I rated this a 3 because for a 20 turn, 1 map scenario it makes for a satisfying solo game. I wouldn't play it head-to-head unless you're prepared to beef up the Soviet OOB across the board by about 50% and increase the turn count. Otherwise it's just too hard to get up that hill and dislodge the NATO forces. Only very impatient and reckless NATO play should result in a Soviet victory.