Both sides started by entering the board and meeting on the middle board, just east of the town. They both took a couple of turns getting into a linear formation, the better to begin the battle with everybody lined up for action. The RKKA began by charging from their left (western edge of the board). The fighting quickly developed into an number of Assaults along the defensive line. At times the fighting grew hot and heavy, with no quarter asked or given. After six turns of gnarly battles the time came for the RKKA to break off the fighting.

On turn 12 they began falling backwards, slowly giving ground each turn, until by turn 20, they were lined up just outside the city on board 2. The Armata Romana managed to end up spread out over far more territory than they had leaders to manage. I called the game on turn 20 since the Armata didn’t have the leadership and time to prepare any kind of move on the city. They had been stopped, but at a bloody cost. The casualties had the Soviets losing 25 steps while the Romanians lost 20 steps. The Armata had failed to enter the city which would seem to be the point of this exercise. By casualty VC the Armata wins despite not entering the town.

The victory conditions clearly emphasize the city’s capture by the invaders. The Soviets don’t receive any such compensation for holding the line. In this case, the VC seem have a flaw in the way they are written. While they don’t have to get 5 points per town the RKKA should receive something for their defensive stand. Since they don’t they lose by 5 casualty points. That sounds counter-intuitive to me.