Although the odds of a Soviet victory are slim to none I really enjoyed playing this scenario, hence the high rating despite the inbalance. Every Soviet unit and leader on the map was either eliminated or captured after the start of turn 19/10:30 giving the Germans an undisputed victory with 17 turns remaining. I don't believe there is much of a chance of the Soviets winning this one unless the optional random events are used and the rare result of the New Orders/Withdraw occurs for Germany OR, possibly, if the Soviets forfeit defending the town and spend the whole battle running through forests or fields doing all they can to avoid contact with the enemy, attempting to deny Germany the 20 step loss VC requirements. Of course that wouldn't likely work either as the T-26s only have a movement rate of 5 AND have to roll a 6/D6 to activate and move or fire at the beginning of each turn.

So I deployed 8 of the 10 T-26s in the town; 2 in the city center and the rest each with either an INF or SMG unit stacked with it. The remaining 2 Soviet tanks were deployed at the northern hill attempting to guard the artillery units there while the 2 HMGs and 82mms were deployed in the forest area just south of the town. Not for one moment did I actually believe that this or any other deployment plan would actually work but thought this was the way to go through the motions of futile resistance.

The mobilization rule wasn't the worst thing for the Soviet defenders; in fact, by chance, almost every T-26 was able to mobilize right at the moment when it was needed the most, prior to a German assault and most were able to get a shot at the enemy before being eliminated. Only one of the tanks at the northern hill area failed to mobilize before it was assaulted. No, the true downfall of the defenders was the unforgivable morale rating of 6/6 coupled with poor leadership; all three Soviet Lieutenants drawn turned up with 8-0-0 ratings -no morale or combat modifers!

For once, attacking with the Germans, I did not worry about step losses and pushed full steam ahead breaking off a smaller detachment to the north to silence the soviet artillery there with the larger force hurling themselves at the city defenses. German step losses didn't matter as they were not part of the Soviet VCs and the starting initiative levels were Germany:4 and the Soviets:0. As it turned out, before the end of battle, the German initiative only ever dropped by one point and the Soviets only ever got the initiative once. After eradicating the entire Soviet force and taking the town the Germans only suffered 4 INF step losses.

The battle for the town was almost a total rollover as even M results were dreadful for the defender's morale checks. Eventually what units and leaders that survived the urban assaults were fleeing into the forest areas where they were soon enough chased down and either eliminated or captured. However, one lone, reduced T-26 held out in the center town hex against repeated assaults for almost two hours on it's own repeatedly recovering from disruption or demoralization, refusing to give up. It would be the last unit to fall after the last Lieutenant in the forest was captured on turn 19.

Anyway, I found this to be a great solo play and this scenario exceeded my expectations but as a shared play I would of rated it much, much lower. It turned out to be the quickest and most devastating German blitzkrieg scenarios that I've played out yet.