The Soviets put up a good fight in this battle and had a win within their grasps until the last moment when the last parting shot from German OBA pushed Soviet step losses to 12. Both sides were able to claim a victory so it ended in a draw.

The battle began with both sides racing for the town but the Soviets had the edge in being closer intially and were lucky with early initiative rolls in getting there first and being able to organize it's defense and control more town hexes than the Germans could after the first two turns. In order to prevent successful German assaults against unsupported tanks in town hexes, SMG units were dispersed into hexes with two tank units pushing stacks three units high but with the night-time and town defense modifiers it never really caused much of a hazard. The Germans put a lot of faith into the one unit of StugIIIBs expecting that it alone, with it's high AT rating versus Soviet armor would easliy push enemy step losses sky high. As it turned out only 2 steps of T-26s were eliminated before return fire eventually took out the only German armored unit, making a 50/50 trade-off in steps lost. This did not serve the German cause well as they could not afford to take more than 5 steps lost and the loss of the StugIIIB cost 4 steps. German units also piled two stacks, three units high, to get better direct firepower capability without too much of a risk in defense and also began to prepare for assaults. However, as turns passed, Soviet losses stayed at a safe level while German losses exceeded their limit. It really looked as if the Soviets could hold out until the end and celebrate a rare, early war victory. In the end, on the final turn, the Germans only had two reasonable chances of inflicting 2 more required step losses to force a draw and both did not seem highly probable. However, one direct fire result did yield a Soviet step loss but one more was needed. Thinking the German options were finished I then realized that one demoralized and reduced Soviet HMG unit had fled outside the town away from the protection of the city walls. An unactivated German Captain was able to chase after it with no opposition and call in the last OBA fire and an M1 result is scored. The reduced and demoralized Soviet unit only has a morale of 5 in it's state; an 8 is rolled and it is eliminated from compound demoralization. So with the last German activation a Soviet victory is denied.

I really enjoyed playing this scenario out hence the high rating and believe that it would be good for a shared play as well. I believe that both sides have a good chance of achieving their VCs and that play is fairly balanced. I was so close to winning with the Soviets and believe that I made the right defensive decisions with them. As for the Germans, losing the StugIIIB unit really cost them their chances of a victory; had it not been lost they would have just barely won this one.