After reading 4th edition rules, I decided to give PG a go with an introductory scenario for the previous edition. Turned out to be a mistake. I went against Dmitry's Soviets. I put my 105 mm artillery at the back along with Panzers IIIs (lest they be eradicated) and gave them a screen of two platoons and a Luff. That left me with a smattering of troops to defend Nizhny Kurp proper. I also put a sacrificial Sergeant on top of the forward hill to serve as an artillery spotter.

Dmitry stormed onto the field in force trying to stomp the Sergeant who managed to call artillery twice before being overrun. Artillery strikes proved atrociously effective, killing and disrupting Soviet limbers and cavalry all around the place, lowering his initiative. When Dmitry's men finally came to grips with the Germans in the villiage, he quickly found he couldn't muster a column on assault table strong enough to hurt me. After some seesaw fighting for about 7 turns we decided to stop because that wasn't much fun.

Well, what to say? Probably the game requires more patience and finesse than we were willing to display. I certainly won't turn sour, but with my propensity to play scenarios per chronology it'll be for a while before I revisit PG (EF is finished at September 1942, RTB is still ahead in January 1945).

AAR in Russian with photos: http://tesera.ru/user/Andreas/journal/1100279