This game started with the Russians entrenched completely around the northern town, which of course was my objective. In addition, the troops had dug in along the road moving south out of the town, and again with artillery on the east-west highway. The Germans didn’t care as they massed along the northern edge of the map…

It was that last moment of night, where the darkness is so ripe that it cannot help but break into dawn. Off in the distance we heard a lone aircraft doing runs over the marshland east of us. The Lt. Colonel ordered the move forward to the east, mostly along the road with a wagon pulling a gun and loaded with men. Most of the troops moved along the road, while a solid but smaller contingent headed northeast through the lands towards a distant marshland, the idea being to round it and come up through the rear of the Soviets dug in along the main road.

Instead of moving directly at the dug in Russians, the main group suddenly shot south, aiming for the field cover, where there was a small token defense set up. As the enemy struggled with decisions of what to do, we took the field quickly and kept the enemy artillery busy with our northern troops. His planes were mostly ineffective, and before he knew it, our northern group was at the marsh.

Our off board arty was pounding his front set of dug in arty troops and we decided at the last minute NOT to go around the marsh but instead go right at him, the main troops moving out of the field and coming from the other side, ignoring the town for now. This is when it got interesting! The enemy decided to retreat and move toward the northern intersection, and had my off board artillery not pounded him, he would have made it. If he’d made it, regrouped and moved north, he would have entered the area of protection by his entrenched troops. Thankfully, however he did not and we destroyed that contingent, which left only the town.

Then all he&^ broke loose. Entrenchments can be tough, and in this case, they were! The Germans won, but only after assaulting and assaulting and losing many troops in the process.

The point of this scenario, I think, is that the Russians can hold back a lot, and know that they still have room to defend the town. The Germans have much better off boards and that is what saved the day, absolutely! If the Germans did not have that, they would have been weakened enough to have never taken the town. Also, the Russians had dug in so much that it was too easy for the Germans to go around them, not that they cannot just climb out and run, but they hesitated a little too long in my opinion.