" Tank Battle At Ostrov - Day Two "

This is not an AAR, but more a scenario opinion.

So what can I say for anyone who may wish to take this one on ?

It was, as usual, played face-to-face over two meets. It requires the Germans to eliminate 30 steps (over 50 turns), and the Soviets to capture one of two bridges.

On the subject of balance (which we know is not a criteria for these games). It was pretty poor (unless the Soviet player got it very very wrong in our particular play?). On the subject of enjoyment and utter East Front ambience, it was spot on !!

BALANCE : The balance is too far to the Germans (whom I played - surprise !!) They have a very strong force including their reinforcements that add up to over 24 INF platoons (2 to 3 battalions), copious tanks (PzIII's 35 & 38t's) and a ton of OBA.

Had the German reinforcements had a harder time to enter then the game, then it could have been far more balanced. In this scenario, the Germans just need to roll a 5 or 6 from the 1st turn to bring on their reinforcements. Obviously, if you delay this roll (remember it is a 50 turn game), and/or then even made the roll a harder one to obtain, ie, 6's only initially, I believe the scenario would be dramatically levelled out.

ENJOYMENT : Fortunately, we both played along enjoying the battle itself. It was a tank battle 'Royale'. The Germans taking out the lesser Soviet tanks such as the BT's and T26's, but really struggling against the KV's, which when encountered, the German shells were reduced to the level of 'door knockers'. Meanwhile, the Soviet tanks bit back and continued to make the Germans pay with their aggressive armour tactics.

Elsewhere, there was a frantic blood-thirsty battle in the woods to the extreme North of the battle-field. Mainly Infantry involved with of course the associated bits and pieces of everything else thrown-in. We even had to laugh (though I know we should'nt) when his Kommissar considered one of his Major's to have been far too cowardly and 'shot him' on the spot. This was the first time we'd seen a Soviet officer despatched on the spot. In fact, the Soviets lost 5 'star' officers in the battle in various ways. 1. The COL was blown to bits by OBA as he directed the battle as he had been for some time from his HQ located in the Northern forest. 2. The MAJ shot by a Kommissar for cowardice. 3. A LT captured as a POW 4. A SGT, though initially brave, then deserted when all appeared lost 5. The KOM, pretty brave himself it turned out, KIA'd during an assault !

So as can be seen, there was a lot of incident and enjoyment.

The battle/scenario is a real brain hitter. The amount of thinking, planning and decision making (What do I do first and then what about the rest and in which order) with so many options really does stretch your powers of wargaming I felt. Especially with troops being eliminated all round the board!

Casualties were LARGE in just 16 turns! In steps they were as shown GERMAN :16 FOOT (+2 leaders), 18 AFV's (plus another 4 APC's) SOVIET :21 FOOT (+5 leaders), 24 AFV's, 2 GUNS

So my recommendations for this IS : PLAY! If you want a wargame brain-ache induced by over-thinking and a frantic battle. Expect a German win UNLESS you consider a change on the German reinforcement entry which should obviously be sorted before it's decided who plays for which side. Be prepared for a true East Front experience We devoted two sessions to this before the Soviet conceded (about 20 hours). We knew long before that he could not win, but enjoyed the enactment rather than any victory conditions. A thumbs up from me

Elements of two German Panzer divisions take on a Soviet tank division supported by a rifle divison. If the Soviet player accepts he can not win this scenario and plays for a draw form the outset this could be a better scenario. When the German reinforcments enter the balance swings very much against the Russians, not only are the Germans mobile and numerous they bring with them more off board artillery, this coupled with the game length give the Germans plenty of oppertunity to destroy 30 Soviet steps. However I do remember enjoying this battle even though I knew I was going to lose from a very early stage which lets face it is the idea!

I pulled the plug on this one midway through turn 42/16:15 with 8 turns still left to go but at that point the Soviets had grown tired of dying and the Germans tired of slaughtering them. Actually the Germans paid a very high price for holding the two bridges and it is very hard to imagine this one not ending in a draw considering the carnage.

The Soviet plan was to have the armored units of the 3rd Tank Division (entering from the east) merge with elements of the 111th Rifle Division (entering from the north) somewhere in the middle of the map and then make a decision concerning which bridge or both to attack once they linked up. This well may of worked if the German reinforcements from the 6th Panzer Division hadn't of shown up at 06:15/turn 2. Instead the Soviet tanks were intercepted by armor from the 1st Panzer Division while the horde of foot units were stopped and contained in the fields in the central-western portion of the map from the reinforcements. Like the day before the Soviets held the upper hand in the initial tank battle, this time having 3 platoons of KV-1s but the Germans had superiority in numbers and speed. It took a while but eventually all of the Soviet tanks were eliminated with the combination of crossfire, easily set-up against the T-26, T-28 and KV-1s with their deplorable movement rate of just 5, and infantry assaults.

The 111th Rifle Division held out longer but could not successfully break out from the fields in any significant number and pose a serious threat to either bridge. Soviet OBA and air-strikes did cause a lot of German casualties but German OBA available at 7x16 and 1x20 caused even more Soviet losses. Sometime after turn 20 I knew without a doubt that even a Draw was impossible for the Soviets but tried to be a good sport and continue through the motions as long as it looked like there was enough of a Soviet force left to make even a half-hearted assault. However, once all units of the 3rd Tank Division were wiped out by the eastern sector those freed-up German units came storming the 111th's eastern flank. By turn 42 all that remained of the 111th were 3 reduced INF units in poor order and a disrupted 82mm mortar with one of the reduced and demoralized INF units fleeing back up north towards the safety of a town and the remnants of the 111th were surrounded.

This scenario had it's good and bad moments but really started to lose it's spark after 20 turns. That, and the fact that it may just favor Germany a little too much kept me from rating higher than a "2". This may have been more interesting in a shared match but honestly have no desire for a replay. However, if you like gigantic battles that will consume your playing space and time; don't care about scenario balance and like to blow stuff up, a lot of stuff then by all means give it a shot. The price Germany paid for this vitory after 42 turns was:

1 Colonel, 1 Captain, 4 Lieutenants and 1 Sergeant along with 27 INF, 4 ENG, 4 HMG, 6 MTC, 1 x 75mm IG, 1 x SPW 251, 4 SdkFz 222, 4 P204f, 2 Pz35t, 4 Pz38t, 5 PzIIIF and 10 steps of PzIIIGs. Hard to believe with casualties that high that it was deemed a German win but they held on to both bridges and kept them well garrisoned despite the losses.