A smallish scenario played over the course of a year with richvalle here via e-mail. This looked to be a tough one for the Soviets as they have the edge in armored units (3x T34as and 6x T26s) but all their INF units are SMGs with a range of 1 - meaning all attacks had to be adjacent/assaults. We also played with 4th Ed rules to give it a go and to learn the additional rules and for the most part, I did favor the new rules, however, I have to say that the optional Mire rule does make the Soviet tactics of keeping armor hidden from the Axis almost impossible as it could potentially eliminate the armored group from being effective. As for the battle itself, I tried as the Soviets to approach from the southeast, curling around the woods with armor and leading the infantry through the woods in order to try and get within range to provide artillery spotting to clear the southern part of the the village. This plan ran awry as good rolls on German OBA resulted in step reductions and disruptions and demoralized units that effectively stopped the attack cold in its tracks. With morale being shoddy to begin with and recovery almost impossible, the armor was left alone to try and press the attack. After several turns of firing back and forth, I conceded the game as it I did not have enough time to accomplish any of the victory conditions.

In a face-to-face game, this scenario really tests the mettle of the Soviet player as he has to be able to get his units into position and be able to launch assaults before he can even fire a shot. To me, there was no clear-cut way to get into position to do this and it turned into a game of rolling recovery rolls and moving armor to take pot-shots at the STUGIIIB with little else to do. Hence the 2 rating. Maybe a different approach might have worked better even approaching from the north would have taken half the allotted turns to get in position.