Setup: the Germans spread themselves evenly on the North side of the river by Turn 3, while the Soviet tanks and 4 SMG's, moved to the town on Board 4, and waited for the aircraft to soften the German defenses, and then move in.

Play: For the first ten turns, consisted of soviet airplanes and artillery to bombard the germans near the east bridge, hoping to make a dash attack in the latter half of the scenario. After the bombardment had stopped, the germans had only taken one step loss, and only a couple of units where disrupted. By this time, the Soviet player decided to engage the Germans. The heaviest tanks moved down the road, while the Bt-7's flanked the heavies. The German tanks began to fire at the Soviets, but after two turns, only one step of Soviet tanks were destroyed. The heavies slammed into the roadblock, while the Germans fired from each side, signaling the forces to the forces west to move in and counter the soviet attack. However, the countermove stalled when a soviet BT rolled a 12 against a PzIIIF, destroying the lead element. The next turn, the assault on the roadblock turned to the favor of the Soviets, when they rolled a 6 on the 30 col, eliminating the remaining steps in the assault, clearing the way to the bridges. The heavies then continued towards the bridges, while the other tanks and SMG's moved to secured the road, defending against further German attacks. In the last turns of the game, the Germans launched attacks on the remaining Soviet forces around the bridge on Board 7. Unfortunately, Soviet OF cut down what was left of the German forces. In the end, the soviets were able to recapture the bridge, and defend from the Germans.

Soviet Vicotry -- 5/5

Vers Ostrov. Les allemands doivent prendre deux ponts. Quelques tanks mais en face, les russes ont une grosse force de blindés (des éléments de la troisième division) mais par contre presque pas d'infanteries. Au bout de douze tours, les allemands se sont enterrés devant les deux ponts, mais les chars russes ont éliminé tous les blindés allemands, au prix de fortes pertes. Les allemands ont déjà gagné au vu de ces pertes, les russes vont essayer de prendre un pont pour arracher un match nul, mais je ne suis pas sûr que des blindés quasi seuls puissent déloger une infanterie solidement accrochée.

Les russes vont donc essayer de prendre un pont pour arracher le match nul, puisqu'ils avaient déjà perdu aux points. Eh bien, ça n'a pas marché. Les allemands enterrés sont restés impassibles devant le bombardement à distance des chars lourds KV1, et ceux-ci n'ont pas tenté l'assaut frontal vu le faible soutien d'infanterie.

This is a huge scenario (mapwise) and gives the Soviets the chance to have significant armor superiority. The key for the Soviets is to understand that with virtually no infantry they are very vulnerable to assault. The Soviets had terrible gunnery luck in this one which led to an earlier demise than normal but the lack of infantry is so dramatic that they simply didn't have the right force for the task. Interestingly the expanse of the field is such that it tends to suck German forces away from the key points as defined by the Soviet thrust.

Author	t1M0t8yk
Method	Solo
Victor	Germany
Play Date	2010-08-24
Language	English
Scenario	EFDx026

Germans dug-in infantry up to three lines deep around both bridges, backing up the eastern bridge with their AT batteries. Soviets sent a majority of the BT-7s and T-26s at the eastern bridge defenders to soften them up and lure in the panzers. KV-1s forward-deployed into the town on board 7, backed by a couple of BT-7s to provide flanking shots.

The Germans declined to take on the KV-1s and instead flanked the trees on board 4 and targeted BT-7s and T-28s in the board 4 town. A few turns of exchanges reduced armor on both sides. The Soviets were gaining the upper hand, but at too much of a cost in tanks. Also, their attempts to soften up the eastern bridge defenders yielded only modest results - two infantry step losses. Note though the Soviet OBA and aircraft destroyed the German mortars and AT guns.

After about halfway through I called it for the Germans. They needed to knock out only two more Soviet steps, and the Soviets had far too much work left to make a meaningful dent in the eastern bridge defenders.

In conclusion, the tank battle was really interesting, but the severe lack of Soviet infantry rendered the infantry engagements inconsequential.

If this one was merely a tank battle then in time the Soviets may of prevailed but there is much more required than just winning an armored engagement here. The Soviets had to take control of at least one of the two bridges on the southern portion of the battlefield but in order to do that had to get through a mass of German foot units that chose to dig-in around each bridge area. And before they could attempt that they had to get through a sizeable amount of panzers first. The Soviets had a few platoons of SMG units and just two leaders to support a very large armored contigent and keeping those foot units intact to support an attack on either bridge area proved to be futile. The Germans recieved 3x16 increments of OBA each turn and that artillery support combined with the on-board mortar units quickly took a heavy toll on the Soviet foot units and also managed to disrupt or demoralize a few armored units as well. Rather than wait for an attack the Germans go on the offensive with panzers supported by some infantry platoons. The KV-1s become the prime targets for infantry assaults as they are the only Soviet armored units that the panzers cannot really handle on their own. Early on German OBA was able to disrupt one of the slow moving KV-1 platoons and wipe out it's supporting foot unit and it soon became isolated and chased down by German infantry. Soviet airstrikes were highly ineffective at slowing German foot units down even when they received two aircraft every four turns; in fact, by the time the battle was over all those annoying aircraft had managed to do was eliminate one demoralized German Lieutenant and cause a few failed morale checks but even then much too late to make a difference. As for the actual tank v.s. tank portion of the battle the Soviets did have the upper hand to start. The one good ordered KV-1 platoon easily picked off a few PzIIIGs that had dug-in on the north-south road while the BT-7s that had taken up defensive postions in one of the towns managed to also eliminate a few panzers. However, in time, with Soviet numbers diminishing and after all of their leaders and SMG units were eliminated more German INF units left their dug-in positions near the bridges to successfully assist the panzers at the crucial moments. Soon it became clear for the Soviets that taking either one of the bridges would be impossible. A few platoons of T-26s made it to the outer defenses of the eastern bridge but were checked there before they could press further. Even one of the German 37mm AT guns deployed on the southern bank of the river was able to get one lucky shot in with reduced firepower and extreme range; rolling the needed "12" to knock out one of the T-26 steps. Then with further OBA and infantry assaults those remaining T-26s attempting to threaten the eastern bridge were easily dispatched.

By 10:45/turn 20, there wasn't much left of the Soviets and soon it came down to the Germans chasing around one demoralized platoon of T-26s and a reduced and disrupted KV-1 platoon; all other Soviet units had been destroyed. The SSR #4 states that any units fleeing the board are eliminated and that is exactly what became of the last of the T-26s; chased off the eastern map, fleeing from where they entered and the remaining KV-1 was successfully assaulted and eliminated by German INF. So this battle ends at 12:15/turn 26. All the Soviets have left are air units but they cannot take control of either bridge let alone even take out an AT gun. I don't know what the best strategy for the Soviets to win or even get a draw in this one; the only way is to take control of either bridge and they never even really came close. I suppose they could of entered the more cautiously and further north but eventually both the panzers and German INF would catch up with them anyway. With a potential 50 turns the Soviets can take their time but most of their tanks, apart from the BT-7s, only have a move rate of 5 so they can easily be tracked down. Even then I don't know what the Soviets can do to protect their foot units or armor against German OBA. Triple stacking Soviet units was out of the question as German OBA on the 42 column was efficient enough. I suppose that someone could get a lot luckier with Soviet air-support as to what planes get drawn and actually hitting their targets. It was frustrating enough when single, lower rated aircraft like the Po-2 biplanes were drawn and even more so when more powerful aircraft like the IL-2s missed their targets. It will very interesting to see how further plays of this one turn out through future AARS, especially with potential Soviet wins. In my solo play the Germans brought the battle to the Soviets rather than sit back, yawn and wait for them to attack and that seemed to pay off. At one point I thought all of the panzers would get wiped out and all but one step of the PzIIIGs actually did. But the remaining PzIIIFs held on and even the scorned PzIIs survived this one and managed to take out one step of BT-7s at point-blank range. Not a bad scenario, it gets an average "3" but was really amazed this one was over after just 26 turns out of 50 allowed.