" Tank Battle At Ostrov - Day Two "

This is not an AAR, but more a scenario opinion.

So what can I say for anyone who may wish to take this one on ?

It was, as usual, played face-to-face over two meets. It requires the Germans to eliminate 30 steps (over 50 turns), and the Soviets to capture one of two bridges.

On the subject of balance (which we know is not a criteria for these games). It was pretty poor (unless the Soviet player got it very very wrong in our particular play?). On the subject of enjoyment and utter East Front ambience, it was spot on !!

BALANCE : The balance is too far to the Germans (whom I played - surprise !!) They have a very strong force including their reinforcements that add up to over 24 INF platoons (2 to 3 battalions), copious tanks (PzIII's 35 & 38t's) and a ton of OBA.

Had the German reinforcements had a harder time to enter then the game, then it could have been far more balanced. In this scenario, the Germans just need to roll a 5 or 6 from the 1st turn to bring on their reinforcements. Obviously, if you delay this roll (remember it is a 50 turn game), and/or then even made the roll a harder one to obtain, ie, 6's only initially, I believe the scenario would be dramatically levelled out.

ENJOYMENT : Fortunately, we both played along enjoying the battle itself. It was a tank battle 'Royale'. The Germans taking out the lesser Soviet tanks such as the BT's and T26's, but really struggling against the KV's, which when encountered, the German shells were reduced to the level of 'door knockers'. Meanwhile, the Soviet tanks bit back and continued to make the Germans pay with their aggressive armour tactics.

Elsewhere, there was a frantic blood-thirsty battle in the woods to the extreme North of the battle-field. Mainly Infantry involved with of course the associated bits and pieces of everything else thrown-in. We even had to laugh (though I know we should'nt) when his Kommissar considered one of his Major's to have been far too cowardly and 'shot him' on the spot. This was the first time we'd seen a Soviet officer despatched on the spot. In fact, the Soviets lost 5 'star' officers in the battle in various ways. 1. The COL was blown to bits by OBA as he directed the battle as he had been for some time from his HQ located in the Northern forest. 2. The MAJ shot by a Kommissar for cowardice. 3. A LT captured as a POW 4. A SGT, though initially brave, then deserted when all appeared lost 5. The KOM, pretty brave himself it turned out, KIA'd during an assault !

So as can be seen, there was a lot of incident and enjoyment.

The battle/scenario is a real brain hitter. The amount of thinking, planning and decision making (What do I do first and then what about the rest and in which order) with so many options really does stretch your powers of wargaming I felt. Especially with troops being eliminated all round the board!

Casualties were LARGE in just 16 turns! In steps they were as shown GERMAN :16 FOOT (+2 leaders), 18 AFV's (plus another 4 APC's) SOVIET :21 FOOT (+5 leaders), 24 AFV's, 2 GUNS

So my recommendations for this IS : PLAY! If you want a wargame brain-ache induced by over-thinking and a frantic battle. Expect a German win UNLESS you consider a change on the German reinforcement entry which should obviously be sorted before it's decided who plays for which side. Be prepared for a true East Front experience We devoted two sessions to this before the Soviet conceded (about 20 hours). We knew long before that he could not win, but enjoyed the enactment rather than any victory conditions. A thumbs up from me