Good scenario this. A strong German combined arms has to cross a two map long three map wide board in the face of a Red Army line which is thin in points but Soviet reinforcements are expected. The German commander puts his main strength in a central thrust, hoping the woods would cover his advance with two smaller forces to each flank. The Soviet general opted for a rear defense with mobile units doted along the east west road behind his main line to act as a fire brigade and snuff out each German thrust as it happened. The first few turns were quick and bloodless, the Red Air Force, which was ineffective for most of the game, failed to find any worthwhile targets, the Soviet artillery did cause minor casualties but nothing to slow the Nazi horde. It was to the western flank where the first real skirmish took place, here a bitter struggle between T34c and PZIV resulted in about 5 German unit steps slipping off the board the rest being destroyed, however the Russian left had been badly mauled and more importantly several T34/SMG groups had been rushed to that sector and would now have to redeploy. On the Eastern flank things were also happening, here the Soviet line had been brushed aside easily but the German sector commander had been killed in one of the few successful air attacks and his second in command was slow in realizing the way to the south was open but for one company of Red Army SMG and their M3s who threw themselves forward in a forlorn hope counter attack designed to keep n the SS of balance. Meanwhile the main force in the center swept over the first Russian lines with relative ease, however just as a major German breakthough looked certain the Soviet reinforcements arrived on time. In the east the new T34/85's swarmed around the Panthers and Tigers creating cross fires which caused damage even to the Tiger platoon although at heavy cost to themselves. There would be no German units exiting from this thrust, in the centre the German artillery was now blasting its way through the Soviet lines and although the attack was now a much more fragmented affair German units were slipping off the board in ones and twos not many but enough to see the VP total getting close to a German win. Both sides regrouped, rallying units etc. The German commander then moved forward to force the issue, using artillery to blast through the hastily reformed Soviet lines. Although T34s and T70 rushed to contain this new thrust their was enough gaps for the SS Gren units to slip thru and exit for the win. **This is an excellent scenario which would have rated a 5 but for the fact that I think this is just too hard to the Soviets to win specially now with the increased speed in movement of AFV's. However this was only apparent in the last few turns which considering this is a 40 turn game is in itself good value. There were some great little incidents in the battle, one Panther tank constantly failing to hit any of the T34's which surrounded it even when needing just 7's to hit, obviously straight out of tank school! One Soviet LDR and his company spent the entire game rushing to each threatened sector but never fired a shot. Just good solid fun **