This is tough one, especially for Germany it seems. The German victory conditions are to control all town hexes OR eliminate 30 enemy steps. The Soviet VCs are to eliminate just 18 German steps regardless of how many town hexes are under their control. Both sides are somewhat evenly matched as far as armor goes; The Soviets have more tanks and even more with higher armor ratings but the German panzers are generally faster and all are efficient so it seems to balance out. Germany has the intiative advantage but the Soviets will be able to get into good defensive positions, occupy the smaller town on the central map and have time to dig-in other units before the Germans make any close contact with them; unless of course fog of war comes in to play early on.

The Germans advanced with caution and the panzers took advantage of the wooded areas to the north and the fields to the south whereas the Soviet tanks just ploughed forward eager to meet the Germans head on. The slower moving KV-1 and KV-2s entered from the central road with the T-34As screening their flanks. The BT-7s split up in the southern sector; half taking advantage of the smaller town supported by infantry and the other half digging-in adjacently. The Ba10M armored cars were to attempt get behind the panzers in the wooded areas to set-up crossfire and the T-26s slowly trailed behind off-road to eventually fill in gaps as an armored reserve. The lack of fog of war early on worked to the Soviet's advantage allowing ideal manuevering as their units were spread out quite a bit, covering a vast area with a wall of steel.

The Germans drew first blood by pinning down a stack of Soviet INF units advancing towards the smaller town with OBA. The Soviet stack becomes demoralized and before they can rally a second blast at 11:45/turn 4 eliminates a total of 3 INF steps and eliminates the Soviet Colonel in the process, immediately dropping the Soviet intiative down a notch and effectively halting the movement of a good deal of units within a 3-hex radius due to decapitation. This initial axis success is followed through with a good deal of Soviet armor churned into scrap metal especially with a platoon's worth of KV-2s eliminated and the remainder of those demoralized and sent fleeing the battlefield. Over half of the BT-7s that were dug-in or in the town were easily taken out but the mighty T-34As seemed unphased, even when taking losses. Three T-34 platoons took step losses but two were able to pass their morale checks and only one reduced unit was disrupted so when it was their turn to fire back their firepower was hardly affected and they gave as good as they got. The PzIVEs did not hold up so well on the receiving end, even with the cover of the wooded areas. The Germans reached their step loss victory requirements easy enough though at 13:15/turn 10 but now they found themselves overextended. The gaps in the Soviet armored line were timely filled by the T-26 reserves that had slowly followed behind. The Germans found their heads in a very bad place; many of their more formidable tanks were reduced and disrupted. A fighting withdraw was attempted but it was deemed futile as some units would have to be left behind to succumb to the hordes of Soviet foot units charging out of the smaller town. So at 13:45/turn 12 the Soviets had met their step loss victory requirements with the German forces retreating in sheer panic towards the larger town on the western map and the battle ends with a irreversable draw.

Had this battle continued on for much longer even more German units would of been eliminated in a senseless slaughter but the Soviets retired satisfied with their results and content with preserving their capable armored units to fight on another day. Though the scenario victory conditions deemed this one a draw the Soviets held the advantage and at least won a moral victory, even after losing their highest ranking officer early on. This scenario provides a very challenging tactical situation for the Germans as to how best to hit fast, hard and run. Perhaps only committing attacking units piecemeal would of worked better than to bring the entire German force out at once. I think this one would be more enjoyable in a shared match than played solitaire but like the challenge to it and give it a "3". I think with the large amount of forces involved that in many plays fog of war will be a huge factor but in this case it only occured twice in the course of 12 turns and only after the Soviets were able to get their masses into ideal locations