Perhaps the Germans learned a few lessons from Zelva in handling masses of Soviets attempting to break through their postions. In this case it looked easy enough for a combined force of infantry and armored units to get roughly a third of their numbers through and the Soviets had plenty of leaders to assist them; even the Soviet morale was better than usual at an 8/6 rating. Of course one of the problems was that a good deal of their force consisted of reduced units. This was not to be the same as Zelva though and the bumrush tactics would not work this time. The Infantry Regiment Gross Deutschland had sufficient forces covering the southern area of the maps and proved to be highly efficient. The Soviet units attempted to breakout in three different directions and all three advances were put in check. Very few units made it past the east-west road and once those did they were easliy picked off. In fact, by the time the slaughter was over only one reduced Soviet INF unit had escaped off the south edge and only after fleeing from a demoralization recovery failure. The Germans had very few activations spent where they weren't either using DF or AT fire, or engaged in some sort of assault; OBA helped out a lot too. Most fire was concentrated on full strength units and effective in reducing them, dropping their morale from 8 to 6 and once reduced there was no hope for those units. The Soviets spent just as much time attempting to rally units as they did attempting to move them off map. The German 75mm IG was placed just so that it kept fleeing demoralized units having to keep an 11 hex distance away from it, sending some units all the way back to the north edge. German casualties were very light and only lost two steps of INF; both of those from very lucky Soviet OBA shots. In short, the Soviets were all but decimated and by the conclusion of the "battle" most of the Germans had left their original defensive positions and were advancing north to pick of the very few remaining stragglers.

Despite the rollover and knowing well before the first half that the Soviets had no chance of winning, this was an enjoyable play. Usually I don't do too well with preventing breakouts or on the defending side of an enter/exit scenario. This time everything clicked along with a lot of great dice rolls for the Germans when using every type of fire or attack. In one turn alone, either the 5th or 6th, at least 6 Soviet steps were eliminated. Fog of war very rarely occured either. I really thought before play that with so many Soviet units scurrying down the map that surely 10 units would be able to breakout and was literally dead wrong. I think on a good day however the Soviets could pull off at least a draw if they actually attempt to engage one portion of enemy in a few futile assaults to help make good the escape of others. Some of the faster moving Soviet tanks got close to breaking out, just a hex or two away from safety, before they were overrun. Surprisingly, the sluggish KV-1 platoon was the last armored unit to perish and with it's slow movement rate of 4 still managed to get just two moves away from an exit bfore it was annihilated. There were a lot of Soviet "almosts". Even scattering trucks loaded with weapon units got very close in their desperate escape attempts. In just about every case the Germans would smugly wait, yawn and stretch and then pick off units with ridiculous ease. This one gets an easy "3" from me and is definitely worth a future replay. One thing for sure is that in this case, the Soviet bumrush of the masses was not the way to go this time around; at least not up against the mighty IRGD.