This game was played over Skype in one session against Alan Sawyer and was chosen via our random scenario pick system.

The battle strangely uses two boards, but for the life of us, neither of us could figure out why board 8 is part of the set up area because all fighting must surely be on board.2 ? The battle is night-time with only a 2 hex vision distance. Both sides need to either capture all or large parts of the big town on board 2 and/or inflict a certain amount of casualties on each other. (Germans must inflict 12, Soviets must inflict 6). The OOB's have a Soviet force sporting around 10-12 foot units and 8 tank platoons, 7 of which are T26. The Germans have 14 foot units, 1 StGIIIB and a number of AT guns. They also get 30pts OBA. In our game, the Soviet leader pull was awful, no modifiers and even a 600 '14 year old child' LT as Alan called him. The Germans got 2 x leaders with a '2' morale modifier laced with their usual spread of modifiers amongst the others.

Both sides start with the inevitable rush for the town from either end of the board. The Germans send their StG steaming ahead up the road and partly into the town but also out of support range of the foot units. They believed they would get initiative next turn and took the risk. However, turn 2 began with a Soviet initiative win and the aforementioned StG, whilst patrolling the streets of Kelme, suddenly found itself surrounded by Soviet SMG units. The Soviets, with this initiative win were able to take control of a substantial amount of Kelme as well. For their part, the Germans pushed forward with intent that they would do all they could to extricate the StG and save it from its now very precarious situation. Once more, the Germans hoped their initiative advantage would assist in this attempt.

Turn 3, and again, the Soviets against the odds win the initiative. They wasted no time in mercillesly thrown a '3-stack' of SMG's and their commanding officer (a Captain) in against the StG. Inflicting a step loss against the unsupported armour (2-0 Soviets), the StG only disrupts. The StG's MG's and cannon in return also inflicted a step of SMG casuaties (2-1 Soviets). Though not much effect on the Soviet units morale, the Captain did demoralise. In return, the Germans pushed forward HMG's and INF into the now vacated hex that the SMG's had left in their attack on the StG and also called in a mortar and OBA attack on the assault hex. The bombardments left the Soviet infantry in differing states of morale, but worse still, the commanding Soviet captain suffered a compound demoralisation and was eliminated. This now froze all Soviet units (their whole force was within 3 hexes of him) in their current locations. The Germans took advantage of this by edging into useful positions including deploying AT guns to fire at Soviet AFV's on the perimeters of Kelme. Light Soviet mortar fire did disrupt the German 75mm AT gun though.

Turn 4 and finally the Germans win initiative substantially. They use this to ignite the current assault hex with the StG by 'noisily' reinforcing the hex. Surprisingly no casuaties are taken by either side but the StG looks as if it will be saved. Soviet morale in this hex looks to be on the rocks. Another assault is begun in another part of town as other Germans attack two plns of SMG's that have no officer. More luckily for the Germans, the disrupted 75mm scores a hit on a tough looking T26 '3-stack' (2-3 Germans) demoralising the remainder of the platoon. The Soviets, due to their inabilty to be commanded by an OIC (decapitation) to move, have to make do with fire activations only and recovery where able. They do also manage to deploy their 45mm AT that was limbered adjacent to the StG assault hex.

Turn 5 and another substantial German initiative win. Once more, the dead-eye dick disrupted 75mm AT hits another T26 pln (2-5 Germans) and sends another damaged unit into demoralisation. The Soviet AT gun fires a shot of its own into the StG assault hex, but misses. The Soviets also change the personel in the assault hex to make it stronger, but the Germans respond by retiring all from the hex except an HMG unit and officer. German OBA fire manages to score a friendly hit on this HMG unit and demoralises it. Causing some angst, the Germans send another infantry unit into the hex before trying to recover the HMG. This proved a good move as the HMG unit failed and had to flee out. But the Germans had better luck elsewhere. In the other assault, they reduced an SMG unit (2-6 Germans) and managed to inflict another step loss on lone T26 unit (2-8 Germans). Soviet will to fight was beginning to crumble at this point.

Turn 6, and the Soviets do whatever they can to try and resist and cause problems for the Germans. Their rejuvenated assault stack attempt to damage the lone German infantry unit in their hex, but the assault fails against a strong German resistance and they all become demoralised or disrupted. Three more T26 units are destroyed (2-14 Germans) and the 'boy' LT is also eliminated. With just two leaders remaining, a ragged desperate line being all thats left to hold, the Soviets throw in the towel and concede. The Germans had achieved their 12 step target of Soviet casualties and were gradually making sure the Soviets did not hold the majority of the town hexes.

Though the final tally was quite a marked German win, it was a shame the leader mix was very different for each side. This scenario has the potential to be a real-humdinger if both sides play well, but the German leader mix here did help them very much so. The Soviets on the other hand will rarely get to the town first, so they did gain a small advantage here than they might in other plays. For my own part, I was pleased to rescue the StG platoon (or its remains) and the loss of that step was the 30th StG step I've lost in my 140+ PG career. On a lighter note, whether I am winning or losing, I instigated a self-imposed rule last year that I will always play out at least 75% of game turns in a scenario before giving up. This was so that any genuine casualties will occur and can be shown rather than avoiding them with a sudden surrender. Unfortunately, Alan does not subscribe to my 75% rule, so had the game gone to 12 turns of 16, it could of been a whole lot worse by game end as far as blood and metal being destroyed is concerned. I rate the game a '3'. As said, I think there is a good battle in this scenario when perhaps less '2' moraled leaders are involved, but it will always favour the Germans regardless. Despite the 'minuses pointed out, I think both Alan and I enjoyed this one