Tout d’abord, un errata donné sur Consimworld. Le scénario est censé débuter à 2030 mais les règles indiquent comment la visibilité décroît à partir de 2000. En fait, le scénario commence bien à 2000. Pour ma part, je l’ai joué en commençant à 1830, donc pour une grande partie en plein jour. Mes résultats ont donc sûrement peu à voir avec des parties plus officielles.

Un scénario assez conséquent, qui se joue sur trois cartes. En fait, seules deux seront utilisées. Les deux joueurs doivent attaquer et occuper des objectifs, deux villes. Les allemands sont au nord-ouest, tout près d’une grande ville, les russes au sud-est dans une forêt. La petite ville au sud-ouest est plus proche des russes qui peuvent y arriver par route plus rapidement que les allemands. Au centre, une plaine dégagée où les chars vont s’affronter.

Très vite, il apparaît que même si les tanks russes ne bougent pas à tous les coups, les T34s surclassent tout. En à peine trois tours, presque tous mes chars allemands ont disparu. J’avais écarté les chars allemands pour faire des tirs croisés plus efficaces. Les allemands ont pu prendre un seul pas des russes de cette manière.

Pendant ce temps, l’artillerie allemande pilonne la petite ville au sud, dans laquelle les russes ont essayé de s’enterrer. Les allemands eux ont le temps de s’installer dans la ville du nord. Au tour 7, un événement aléatoire assez spectaculaire : les russes peuvent tirer deux avions, et je prends les deux plus puissants. L’artillerie allemande installée sur une colline qui domine la plaine est éliminée, ainsi qu’une infanterie qui attaque la petite ville au sud. Les forces restantes, voyant en plus arriver quelques chars qui ont fini de liquider leurs opposants allemands, décident d’abandonner pour renforcer le gros de la troupe allemande dans la ville du nord. J’ai joué sept tours en trois heures environ, j’arrête là ma séance.

Les allemands ont déjà perdu la partie suite à toutes leurs pertes, mais je décide de continuer, pour voir si les russes peuvent prendre facilement la ville occupée par les allemands enterrés. Une erreur de débutant : un char russe KV 1 passe à l’assaut seul, sans soutien d’infanterie, car quelques unités allemandes n’ont pas eu le temps de s’enterrer. Attention, les chars sont sensibles à l’infanterie uniquement lors des assauts. Je perds très vite ce peloton de KV1. Je décide de passer à l’attaque prudente, mais la nuit est tombée, impossible d’avoir de l’artillerie, et les tanks n’arrivent plus à avancer (une règle spéciale du scénario fait que les tanks n’ont qu’une chance sur deux d’avancer, pour simuler probablement les problèmes matériels des russes à l’été 41). Trois pelotons de tanks pilonnent hors de la ville, à bout portant, un hexagone où deux pelotons allemands sont enterrés. Il faut cette concentration pour arriver à obtenir une colonne assez meurtrière. Comme les allemands sont enterrés, j’imagine qu’ils ne vont pas quitter leurs positions pour passer à l’assaut. Après 4 tours, j’arrive enfin à démoraliser une unité, et à disrupter l’autre. L’infanterie peut passer à l’assaut, et expulser les allemands après deux tours de plus. J’arrête là, après en tout 23 tours. Les derniers tours étaient plus rapides, car concentrés sur une seule action.

Scénario très intéressant, car les deux camps doivent attaquer. Et vive les T34 ! Je vais peut-être chercher à faire une bataille de tanks maintenant, ou alors jouer avec les roumains.

Russians were on the verge of victory, until a random event changed their orders.

A fun large armour battle.

Escenario muy difícil para los alemanes, que tienen una fuerza mixta de tanques (Pz35t), armored cars, artillería pesada e infantería. Deben conquistar dos ciudades sin tener 12 o más steps de bajas. De lo contrario pierden la partida. Los soviéticos tienen una poderosa fuerza de tanques medios, pesados y ligeros (T34, T28, KV1 y BT7), pero con movilidad limitada por averías mecánicas. Los soviéticos ganan si conquistan dos ciudades o eliminan 12 steps enemigos. Ambos bandos tienen moral similar. La batalla se desarrolla de noche (visibilidad de 2 hexes casi todo el tiempo). El combate es muy interesante. Los alemanes no deben precipitarse. Tienen que actuar lentamente y utilizar la mayor movilidad de sus tanques y la artillería pesada para desgastar al enemigo con el menor coste posible. En esta partida el jugador alemán se precipitó y envió sus armored cars por delante. La mayoría fueron destruidos por los cañones AT soviéticos. La partida se acabó en el turno 11 al sufrir los alemanes la baja número 12. El escenario es excelente, un desafío para el jugador alemán. .

In this scenario, both Germans and Soviets have lofty territorial objectives but not enough time or materiel to get the task accomplished. The Germans have to control all town hexes on maps 1 and 2 to win and the Soviets have to control all town hexes on all three maps but the catch is that the Soviets can also win by eliminating 12 or more German steps (tanks counting double). No matter how many town hexes the Germans control they cannot even get a draw if they lose those 12 steps, so this scenario very much favors the Soviets but is still a fun play.

With the Germans I first used the very fast moving armored cars, the SdKfz222s and P204fs, to race into the larger town on map 2 to gain easy control of it before the Soviets could get units in. The Soviets on the other hand race into the smaller town on map 1 before German units can gain control of it. What results is two separate town battles with the one side attacking against one and then defending in the other. This also required both sides to divide their forces up and in that case the Soviets had the edge in numbers of both foot and armored units. The one handicap for the Soviets was that to move any of their formidable tanks they had to roll 1-3/d6 each time for each group of tanks. I ended up keeping all the German Pz35ts in the larger town, on the defense, gaining some protection from the limting terrain and drove armored cars around in circles harassing the thinner-skinned Soviet tanks. Ultimately, the p204fs were the only German armored units able to eliminate any Soviet ones, easily eliminating 3 steps of the Bt-7s in the course of the battle.

Only the T-34As were lucky enough to move as soon or often as needed while the KV-1 and T-28s remained stagnant most of the time and when they were able to move didn't get very far with the movement of 5. The Pz35ts defending in the larger town tried in vain to inflict damage on the T-34s but needing to roll "12s" they weren't successful and even with a -1 defensive bonus of being in the town they didn't stand up too well against the T-34's AT rating of 5.

The German attack on the smaller town on map 1 didn't go very well once an assault was made and for every Soviet step loss inflicted the Germans lost an average of 2 steps. Somehow though, being as cautious as possible as the overall attacker in the battle, German step losses did not reach 12 until 23:00/turn 13. It was then that the Soviets were able to claim a victory with no chance of the Germans getting a draw but with still 11 turns to go I finished the scenario out in it's entirety. This gave me time to practice setting up crossfire opportunites with the Germans. With the Soviet tank movement handicap I was able to set-up crossfire twice with the assistance of the remaining armored car units. However, by this time, late in the battle, the German initiative levels had dropped a few points and with both chances at crossfire the Germans had to get two activations before the Soviets. In both cases the Germans only got to activate once before the T-34s could return fire and both times the Pz35ts that would of benefited from the crossfire were easily eliminated before they could fire!

By the end of the battle the Germans had been driven out of the smaller town on map 1 with INF units chasing after them but the Soviets were not able to take the larger town on map 2. A triple stack of T-34As did get into the town but all the Soviet foot units outside kept getting whittled down from German OBA and none of them were able to support their tanks. A German combined arms urban assault with a reduced P204f, 1 HMG and INF led by leader with both a 2 combat and morale mofifier was made on the triple stack of T-34s (18 v.s 24 on the assault column) and one step of the T-34s was eliminated at the cost of two German steps and then it was all soon over. So in the end neither side was able to control the required amount of town hexes and from that aspect it was closer to a stalemate. I don't see how the Germans attacking or defending either town could get any remote success without losing 12 steps though I'm sure it is possible somehow, just beyond my capabilities. Germany lost a total of 35 steps, tanks counting double but 12 of those steps were foot units alone so even if all armored confrontations were avoided to prevent step losses my play still would of ended with Germany losing it. In rating this scenario I had to decide if or how much I enjoyed playing it. It was enjoyable enough to get a '3' rating for a solo play and what I got out of it the most were chances to attempt crossfire more than once thanks much in part to the Soviet SSR tank movement handicap and the swift and sometimes effective German armored cars. Also liked the way it played out as two separate battles going on at once for two different towns with each side having a go as attacker and defender. I also think this is may be a good training scenario for bigger armored and urban battles to come in EF.

Author	t1M0t8yk
Method	Solo
Victor	Germany
Play Date	2021-08-29
Language	English
Scenario	EFDx008

I added a tie-breaking victory condition determined by majority control of the town on board 02. Germans set up everyone outside that town to move in if possible before the Reds and take advantage of the town's defensible terrain, including perhaps most especially for their overmatched armor. They foresake the other town on the reasoning they don't want to give the RKKA the opportunity to concentrate on a portion of their force for the RKKA casualties inflicted victory condition.

RKKA plan is to attack the board 02 town with armor in the waning daylight hours, hiding a bulk of their infantry in the board 01 forest to limit the meaningful German OBA until after dark. They will focus on their enemy steps eliminated victory condition. An exception is the regular rifle platoons, deployed just outside the forest to be able to move quickly toward the town if the Reds are lucky on turn 1 and gain the initiative. Else they will also retreat into the forest and wait for dark.

The Germans got the turn 1 initiative. They were able to deploy to strong defensive positions in the town. After dark the Soviets started moving up, but as I anticipated they were too vulnerable. By turn 14 there were 12 RKKA steps lost, and only two German steps lost. Seeing how this was playing out I pulled the plug and declared German victory.

As I played this scenario, it's not the greatest. Predictable results with sleepy action; urban assaults are long and drawn out dicefests.

Rassinye : 26th June 1941

Scenario played : Saturday 3rd May 2008

At the town of Rassinye the advanced elements of the German 6th Panzer Division met up with the hastily raised Soviet 34th Tank Division. What made this encounter so interesting was that it was to be the first time that the Wehrmacht were to encounter the Soviet T34 tank, soon to become known as ‘The Hammer of the Proletariat’. To win the encounter, the Germans were required to capture not just Rassinye, but also a small village further on very much controlled by the Soviets. The Soviets would need to take Rassinye and inflict an agreeable level of damage upon the Germans. The rivals came within view at 2000 hrs.

At this time, the Germans were just busying themselves occupying Rassinye and preparing a defence whilst the Red Army forces advanced towards it. A German battery of 150mm guns fired at a range of 1km but was ineffective. Meanwhile, German 37mm AT guns let off some rounds at an advanced BT-7 squadron and managed to destroy some of their number. The German Artillery battery soon became demoralized as Soviet infantry closed in and began loosing off small arms fire at them on the edge of Rassinye.

By 2030hrs, the Soviets were enveloping the town, though not without a few casualties. Russian tank forces were very uncoordinated as the dark drew in and were mostly unable to carry out maneuvers as a single mass. Despite this, the crews of the German 150’s had seen enough and fled for the cover of the Town centre thus abandoning their guns. This was to the great disgust of the local commander. It only took 15 minutes, but in this time, a large number of Russian dead lay around the town’s edge as the German Infantry and Machine gun fire cut through them. German casualties were absolutely negligible and as a result the Soviet attack was called off by 2045hrs.

By withdrawing, the Soviets formed a defensive line of their own a kilometer away from Rassinye. This line shielded the smaller village further on and controlled the centre of the ground being fought over. Some platoons of German infantry plus some squadrons of Czech built Pz35t’s edged out of Rassinye towards the Soviet line. By 2115hrs, both German infantry and tanks came into contact with Soviet armour as well as some of the infantry too. A platoon of KV1’s brashly rode alone to move the German infantry but came to grief once they were swarmed over by the enemy foot soldiers whilst the tanks lacked any infantry support. The Pz35t’s exchanged some rounds with their Soviet counterparts. The Germans got off more shots but either missed or saw the shells bounce off the enemy. In reply, a T28 platoon fired and brewed a few 35t’s. The effect of this being to send the Pz35’s scurrying back to Rassinye in the realization that their tanks were seemingly inferior to the enemy’s.

Both sides came to the conclusion that their opponent was going to be too tough a nut to crack with the forces available to each commander. With the night and its darkness taking over the field, both sides thought it prudent to stay as they were and await more troops in the morning. It was an indecisive result.

Casualties for the Germans amounted to 2-3 tanks knocked out, a loss of an artillery battery crew and maybe 40-60 infantrymen, including a renowned Feldwebel that was crushed by an over-running T34. Red Army losses were heavier. 6 KV1’s knocked out as well as a further 6 BT7’s, but none of those losses due to the Pz35t’s. Approximately 400 infantry dead, including 2 fine budding lieutenants, one a casualty of an artillery barrage, another missing in action after a brisk firefight he was directing against opposing German infantry