In my initial set up, I put almost all my infantry and all of my MGs on the crest of the hill on the middle board, with the mortars on the reverse slope of the hill and the other weapon assets were tucked way back in Protosavo, in the tiny town behind the big hill, and on one of the little hills at the north of the board. I thought that my infantry would be able to repel the Russians easily and that the AT assets would prevent any super quick breakouts by the T-34s.

As it turned out, this was a very lousy set up because I didn't consider the power of his artillery. Every one of my MGs was reduced by artillery (being spotted by the artillery cancels the dug in benefit- duh!); and on some turns the Russians would fire those dinky 82 mm mortars one at a time at my demoralized/disrupted units still surviving on the hill. Basically, I isolated my groups, and left them to face the Russians (and die) without mutual support. I tried to pull back in good order, but that never seems to happen. I still cannot fight an effective withdrawal- which is really what I needed to do here.

It also would have helped if the Elefants had shown up prior to turn 14! The Elefants couldn't just ride up the road into Protosavo- the Russians were all around the town and blocking the road!

Nevertheless, the Germans' better morale saved the day. Even though they were battered and nearly all in assault hexes by the 16th turn, the Germans held on the hills and to Protosavo, and no Russians left the board.

If this game had had more turns, the Germans would have lost; it was one of the rare games where I felt that time was on my side.