There's a phrase that has to make you wonder what the originator was thinking about, but I digress. This one was a course in force management. A regiment of SS infantry along with a battalion or two of armor and the heavy tank battalion (all Tigers) face an entire regiment of RKKA men backed by a Guards armored battalion with reinforcements from an RKKA battalion. Needless to say there are a whole buncha units in this one and Fog of War could be significant. As a result the German, who is on the attack has to be very judicious in his force management.

The Germans have four goals, don't lose too many units, control the road on the eastern boards from north to south. Capture the town on the southeastern board and capture the town on the northwestern board. They have 30 turns (one of the longer KSF scenarios).

It might be possible to focus on the southeastern town and the road control as goals for the Germans and hope for low losses. My experience indicates that this would be a mistake, however. There just is too much Soviet force and too many assaults that can go bad to keep the losses low through 30 turns. As a result, I decided to split my force sending a couple companies of foot soldiers and most of the armor towards the northwestern town while forcing the issue in the southeastern town with a lot of infantry and some Tiger support. By the time the scenario was halfway over I had managed to take the southeastern town and brushed away some of the defenders on the direct route to the northwestern town. But I had also already lost 30 steps (I would end up losing 63, 42 of them from armor, including 2 Tiger steps).

I immediately sent the Tigers and two more companies of infantry on a board spanning march to get into the battle for the northwestern town (meant to be Gresnoe). The remaining Soviet forces which could challenge for the road were pursued by one and a half battalions of infantry and a company of Pz 747s (T-34As). These forces were slowly reduced and the final position on the road was destroyed on turn 28.

Meanwhile, since losses were no longer an issue my Pz IIIJs had exposed themselves to some nasty AT fire from the Guard and RKKA tankers who were then gunned down by Tigers. The exposure and fire were not rash as the Germans needed to get rid of the defenders as quickly as possible to make room for the assaulting columns, meanwhile the Tigers were the most fearsome units on board and while they were shooting they weren't advancing to a position to weaken the town's defenses which depended heavily on T-34cs. Ultimately the town fell on turn 29.

The late acheivement of the two remaining goals by the Germans indicates how very very close this scenario played. As a matter of fact I felt that a Soviet win was virtually guaranteed after playing about 20 turns and only a series of very powerful attacks through the woods to the east of Gresnoe indicated that I was wrong.

A large force must be detailed with the task of capturing the large town to the eastern side of the German line. This town will be captured and forces will immediately begin moving north to capture the road. At the time the town is controlled, a sizable component of the good order troops must be sent towards Gresnoe. The German cannot, however, ignore the western side of the board until they have secured the southeastern town as this will be an invitation to the Soviets to reinforce the road sector and make the fight more difficult. The western German force must be substantial enough to threaten Gresnoe and take it if too much Soviet force is sent to contest the road.

The Soviets, for their task, must kill Germans at all points. It is a given that the Soviets will take massive losses. The bulk of their force has a lower morale than the Germans and will be caught in assault after assault. That is fine, just make sure that you can fight on a column high enough to have a good chance of inflicting casualties. With enough casualties you will eliminate one possible victory condition for the Germans and make it very tough for them to meet their other two victory conditions.

Lots of challenges, a very tight, tense battle. I give it a "5" as one of the better Kursk, South Flank scenarios, and that is saying something.