I constantly pass cars with a bumper sticker shaped like a paw with the legend "who rescued who?". I get this at a very personal level as I won a rescued Great Dane (although how any animal that big needs to be "rescued" sometimes stretches the imagination, I can assure you that rescuing was necessary). The applicability to this scenario is that the Spanish are tasked with rescuing some German remnants who are holed up in a town and being besieged by a small but good order Soviet force. The Soviets expect a larger force of reinforcements sometime during the early part of the scenario.

As previous players have noted, the scenario looks to be set up to flow as follows: Soviets beat up Germans, Spanish beat up Soviets. Reinforcing Soviets and Spanish end up in a fist fight over the town. Everyone is supposed to be exhausted at the end from the swings of fortune. The idea that the tremendously undermanned Axis force could consider sending off half of the Spanish force seems ridiculous. Yet that is what happened, the Axis made off with a major victory.

It all starts with the Germans holding the town. The Soviets attacked the town from the east and were savaged by the opportunity fire. As the Soviets maneuvered to gain access to the town the Germans moved within the town to preclude an easy entry. The German leaders both had morale modifiers (as did all the Spanish) and were able to keep their men in hand while the Soviets ran around like chickens with their heads chopped off. The Germans were responsible for 4 of the first 5 step losses the Soviets experienced. Rather than needing any rescuing they were able to keep three of the four town hexes free of Soviets and set up the last for a long running urban battle. More on that later.

The Soviet reinforcements took their own sweet time arriving, apparently having read the previous AAR's and believing that they would be able to walk up to the town and begin fighting there. The Soviets arrived on the last possible turn for the reinforcements.

Meanwhile back north, the success of the Germans meant that two platoons of Spanish skiers could move south to block the arriving Soviets. They schussed by leaving the HMG and one SKI platoon to move the remnants of the initial Soviet force out of the town with the help of the Germans. The heavy snow caused the Soviets to move up the road through board 6 (heavy woods and a road running through it. The Spanish platoons set up at the exit to the board, forcing the Soviet to either assault them or move through the woods to get around them, either way signficantly delaying the force.

The Soviets chose to assault the Spanish and paid the price with significant losses. The assault, however, freed up more than half of their force to move on towards the town. As time passed the Soviets in the assault died out and the remaining forces in the area proved incapable of stopping the Spanish and their choice to exit the board. This choice was made possible by two key factors, one: the town was finally cleared of Soviets by the Germans and Spanish after the Spanish proved incapable of clearing it themselves and needed the German support to absorb potential losses, and two: there really wasn't enough time for the Spanish SKI units to get back north and contribute to the battle. As they slid past the Soviet mortars, whose support was denied to the town assault by the blocking role played by the Spanish.

As the Soviet reinforcements came into view the last Soviet soldier in the town was expelled freeing up the Spanish and Germans to conduct a second and more succesful denial of entry to the newly arrived troops. As turn 20 came to a close there was only one good order Soviet unit near the town and it was in an assault hex, pinned by Germans.

A very enjoyable ride in this one. Certainly the Axis had some great luck to gain a major victory but the swings are built into the scenario. In addition, it is a small scenario both in terms of units employed and turns and is easily playble in a single sitting. I highly recommend it. I give it a "4". It would go five but for the missing vehicles...

Note: Score will be denoted by (x-y), where x=Soviet casualties, y=Spanish casualties.

BATTLE SUMMARY

The Germans begin, depleted in the town with Soviets approaching through the woods to the west.

Spanish Ski Company is approaching from the north while the Soviet reinforcements will appear in the south (on turn 2)

Soviets approach the town and direct fire is exchanged with the Germans. They have little effect before the Spanish Ski Company approaches the north side of town.

Feeling the pressure, the Soviets assault into the town to minimal effect.

The Spanish enter the town. Germans and Soviets begin to rout out of town. Spanish brace for the impeding wave of Soviets still 1km to the south.

an hour and a half in (6 turns out of 20) and still no casualties (0-0)

Spanish chase the Soviets into the woods and half a platoon is eliminated. (1-0)

A depleted German platoon is eliminated along with another Soviet half platoon (2-1)

The Soviet reinforcements flood into town!

Soviets come under fire in the town and the Spanish mortar battery routs half a platoon before the Kommissar can rally. (3-1)

The assault takes a nasty turn for the Spanish as a Ski platoon is eliminated! Soviets get lucky! (3-3)

Spanish continue to attack and both sides suffer further casualties. (4-4)

Soviet HMGs get ready to fire. The Spanish are now in dire trouble.

Soviet fire eliminates a reduced German platoon. The Soviet Kommissar evens up the score. (5-5)

Spanish are now desperate as their troops are tied up in close assault. They initiate the attack and lose 2 steps to the Soviet 1 step!!! (7-6)

Again, the Kommissar evens the score (7-7)

The Spanish have taken too many casualties. They do their best to hold out.

German reduced infantry is eliminated as Soviet HMGs enter the town. (8-7)

5 turns to go. Spanish hang back defensively. Soviet HMGs are disrupted and have difficulty rallying. They can’t make any further advances. But they have captured enough of the town to gain a minor victory.

SOVIET MINOR VICTORY!!!

Aftermath

German SGT with +2 +2 modifier made the Germans much harder to crack than expected.

Spanish had some poor assault rolls, which ruined their chance to gain some “momentum”.

Soviet reinforcements rolled a “1” and came in as early as possible (turn 2).

I expected the battle to go like this:

1. Soviets crush Germans
2. Spanish crush Soviets
3. Soviet reinforcements arrive and theirs a grand finale!

But the German SGT stopped #1 from happening and the quick Soviet reinforcements and poor Spanish rolling stopped #2 from happening.

Still, a good battle that played very quickly.

Scenario Rating: 3/5. Quick battle with some interesting elements.

Author	treadasaurusrex (Soviet Union)
Method	VASSAL
Victor	Soviet Union
Participants	Miguelibal
Play Date	2023-01-08
Language	English
Scenario	BluD006

This was a fun-filled, 4-session play-through with a witty & clever newbie to the ranks of the Southern Arizona Beer & Jolly Foils group leading the Spanish/German side. I played the attacking, Bolshevik Commander as has become the norm in this extended Blue Division series of group plays - with the added bonus of my side not having a single tank! We played using the awful FOW rule, in addition to the smoke, consolidation and excess initiative optional rules. The Spanish side drew a good set of leaders. In contrast, the Germans & Soviets drew a middling-to-very-poor selection of leaders.

This scenario plays quite fast and is basically a rescue mission for the Spanish ski troops to bail out their wretched German allies trapped by onrushing Soviet hordes in a small town. My badly-led, proletariat soldiers approached the town in question via the woods to the west. Later Soviet reinforcements approached from the south edge of the battle map during game turns 2 and 3. The rescuing Spanish skiers moved to contact from the north, while the Soviets prompted a fast - and mostly ineffective - fire fight with the German garrison. The premature & ill-ordered Soviets began rushed, close assaults just as the relieving Spanish begin entering the town. They draw first blood on game turn 3 as a German platoon is shot to pieces. Not surprisingly, the Germans begin routing and fleeing just as the Spanish begin moving to cover the town before the arrival of the mass of Soviet reinforcements. The fresh Spaniards were able to drive off the initial Commie wave and push them back into the woods, before the mass of Soviet reinforcements close the town. The overeager Soviet Kommissar is killed on game turn 7 along with a platoon that he was trying to rally. Slowly the Soviet mass assault begins to add momentum at a heavy cost to both sides. The heroic Spanish gradually are reduced in number and effectiveness as they are pinned in-place, while the last of the original German garrison is eliminated. By the end of our 4th session, the Soviets have liberated enough of the town to earn a minor victory. Between us, we managed to throw a combined 15 combat 7-die rolls, which repeatedly undermined Spanish counter attacks in close assault. The Russians were able to feed fresh, reserves into the close assault maelstroms, to keep up the pressure until the Axis forces gave way. In all, we experienced 8 FOW-shortened turns that materially benefited the Axis side of things.

This scenario could use a rewrite as it was rather easy for the Soviets to achieve their minimal victory condition, and a bit of additional play testing would also have helped. However, it was fun to play with a gracious and hard-fighting, online opponent. I give it a 3.