This one is a tough nut to crack for the Soviets. They have to prevent just one German unit from occupying a hex within 2 hexes of the east-west road at the end of play and manage to eliminate 6 German steps along the way; the Germans have to eliminate 10 Soviet steps and just keep one unit within 2 hexes of the road for the win. The Germans deploy most of their forces in the fields, setting up both the HMGS and support units within 2 hexes of the road to begin with as the bait. The German Major and three other platoons of cavalry deploy in the woods south of the road to wait and see what becomes of their main battlegroup before attempting any heroics. By dividing their forces up in two areas the Germans have the advantage already but the prime advantage is the swift movement rate of the cavalry alone along with plenty of limiting terrain to run to and hide in. The Soviets on the other hand do have the (+1) fire modifier advantage versus the cavalry, especially with the OBA and mortar units; but for those to be effective they have to be able to spot the enemy first to be of any use.

The Soviets enter from the east along the road in plain sight with their T-26s leading the way. This makes the foot units vulnerable to German OBA and mortar fire but they have to be able to move in fast with just 28 turns to accomplish their mission. Immediately one wagon carrying a HMG unit is disrupted before it can cross the river and two platoons of Soviet INF get demoralized on the bridge from German bombardment, tying up 3 platoons before contact is made. The German mortars are hidden in the fields with the LOS to them blocked so the Soviets send their SGT back to the town in the northeast town to act as a spotter. This should of been done right away and may have prevented some casualties earlier on but I am still learning the terrain, that towns are elevated to 20m and that if a unit in fields fires it can be spotted from that higher level. The Germans make a few mistakes early on as well, not digging in either their mortars or AT gun before firing with them. The 37mm AT gun is quickly eliminated after exposing itself firing at the T-26s from extreme ranges having no effect whatsoever.

Soon a bold attack is made on the German HMG units in the fields that did manage to dig-in before firing but it is easily repulsed on the first wave. Some Soviet INF units attempt to flank the fields to get at the cavalry hiding out there. German indirect fire weakens those units and the first cavalry charge is made with some intial success. Meanwhile, the German units in the woods keep on the move, sometimes moving to the edge so that the Major can spot for indirect fire but only when the Soviets are far out of DF or spotting range of them. The Soviet's begin to fail a lot of morale checks with their morale at 7/5 and once units become reduced and demoralized they stay inactive for a good duration attempting to rally them. The entire Soviet force was brought to bear on the field postions with no units going after the cavalry in the woods. Eventually the German HMG units were dislodged and pushed back away from the road with the assistance of the T-26s on the western flank and all other German forces were pushed back from the road. But this not only took a lot of time to do but it took everything the Soviets had. All the Germans had to do was keep moving and wait for time to run out. Eventually about half of the Soviet foot units are eliminated and the other half of those are in poor morale, so there wasn't much left of them to work with.

It becomes clear that the Soviets cannot take on or remove all the German units as they are now spread out everywhere as the battle nears it's end. The Germans have managed to spread-out into 4 separate locations to make a last dash for the road. A small stroke of luck does occur for the Soviets in the form of a random event that gives them air-support but it will not be enough. The Pe-2 does manage to zoom down and demoralize the German Major and disrupt a cavalry unit in the woods at 13:15/turn 26 but is too little, too late. During the next turn all remaining, good ordered German units leave their cover from many different direction to occupy hexes within the 2-hex radius of the road. Nothing seems to stop them, neither Soviet OBA, mortar or opportunity fire. At 13:45, the start of turn 28 there are a total of 9 German steps by the road and there is no way that the Soviets can eliminate all of them on the last turn. In the end the Germans maintain a total of 5 units there to take the win.

Though the VCs do appear to strongly favor the Germans in this one it was still a fun little scenario to play out, so I give it a "3" rating. As easy as it seemed for the Germans to win they just barely met their enemy step loss VCs to keep the battle from ending in a draw; the Germans needed to eliminate 10 Soviet steps and they just made that with a total 11 Soviet steps eliminated. So while a Soviet victory seems unlikely a draw is quite possible; one thing that kept me from rating this scenario a "2". One thing for sure was that it was not a bore and the battle was far from static; most of the game was very much like a good chess match. Nothing is entirely impossible in the PG universe and would anticipate reading a future AAR in which the Soviets manage to win this one