A Soviet force of a reinforced company with plenty of HMG support has garrisoned a town and an outlying hamlet. The Germans have sent a battalion of Grenadiers to take the town back. The Soviets are bolstered by a Sgt. who never has to make a morale check. Helping the Germans is that the attack is at night so their average morale will not be a problem until they get close.

The Soviets set up with one platoon each of INF and HMG in the small town with the invincible Sgt with the remainder of their troops in the large town. The Germans decide to try to deal with the Soviets in detail and advance on the smaler outlying town with the intention of taking it and then turning their attention to the larger town.

In keeping with the nature of the scenario I chose to have the Soviets be aggressive. Rather than wait for the Germans to come to them I advanced the Sgt and his troops into the fields in front of the hamlet in order to give the Germans a bloody nose before they got to the assault areas. This worked like a charm with three platoons becoming demoralized. The Soviets then fell back into the town and accepted an additional INF platoon and Lt. transferred from the larger town. This still left the Germans with a 3-1 manpower advantage.

The Germans were able to enter the hex with the Sgt who ably avoided any negative morale checks, but not so the troops with him. The HMG demoralized quickly and the INF suffered a step loss. The Germans, however, were also disrupted so the assault stalled for the time being.

In the meantime, the Germans were having trouble getting their troops in the fields to recover and opportunity fire from the reinforcing Soviets had killed one of the German Lts. Seeing an opportunity for even more aggressive action the Soviets emptied the large town of troops and pursued a counter attack against the Germans in the fields. In three turns the counterattack managed to decapitate the German force and kill a Sgt as well as 5 steps of units. Three reduced and demoralized units (a face value morale of 5 so a roll of <4 required to recover) remained huddled south of the fields for the rest of the game.

Back at the town the Sgt continued to have morale problems with his troops. They were locked in an ineffectual assault with three German GREN platoons. The Lt. managed to get the HMG recovered while the Germans were decapitated and back into the town where they joined an assault which ultimately crushed the Germans. At the end of the scenario the Germans had NO leaders and only one non-DEM unit contesting one hex of the hamlet. A clear and striking Soviet victory and one which surprising had little to do with the hero himself.

This was a great little scenario and one which could easily have gone quite differently. The German rolls were hideous for morale. I give it a "4".