Soviets set up in town and with a perimeter defense 400 yards outside of town. AT guns were also placed in the field west of town. The Germans entered from the west, north of the east-west road. They lost a platoon of trucks/infantry to AT fire, but the Soviet guns were silenced by artillery. The Germans moved to the north of the field to attack the town. The Soviet perimeter defenses slowed the German advance but 2/3rds of the way through the game the Germans had advanced adjacent to the town. The Germans then began assaulting each of the town hexes. On the last activation of the last turn the Germans gained control of the final town hex to gain a major victory. The Soviets had also eliminated eight German steps by games end to get a minor victory. The final tally was a minor victory for the Germans and a great scenario. Definitely well worth replaying.

Finding ourselves with some extra time at the end of our most recent adventure into South America, Daniel and I played this scenario from Eastern Front. The key selection criterion was that it play quickly as we only had a couple of hours. This one fit the bill. I ended up playing the Soviets and Daniel played the GD regiment. He is currently playing through Panzer Lion so it seems as though the choice was appropriate.

I set up a strong infantry line covered with some AT guns through the fields and to the road. As the Germans advanced I dug in my men and got off a lucky shot, knocking out some halftracks. As the German advance resolved into two attacks at either end of my line I was able to destroy three more steps. As my line buckled and the survivors fled to either the town or the center of the fields I was able to use my artillery to kill a fifth step. One more and I would reach the Soviet minor victory condition. It came from a long distance AT shot against advancing transported German artillery. One positive result of the line, in addition to causing losses was that it tied up the Germans for an extensive period of time given that their objective was the town itself.

Halfway through the scenario, with substantial forces still fighting along the field line the Germans began to disengage to move towards the town. My Soviets, still dealing with the effects of facing an elite unit were trying to recover their morale in the fields. I was able to send a couple of platoons back to the town to assist the defense but four platoons remained in the fields for the remainder of the game trying desperately to be in any morale state other than demoralized. At turn 17 (of 20) their recovery became academic as they no longer had the ability to participate in the fight for the town.

The Germans initially assaulted the northeastern corner of the town and gained a lodgement as the Soviets failed over and over to recover morale. The troops retreating from the field line were able to assist greatly in the defense but the poor morale (7/5) caused recovery failures over and over which ultimately led to the last Soviets being evicted from the town by the Germans. With ample firepower, engineers, AFVs, morale and leaders the Germans were often able to assault at the 30 column, even despite the 2 column drop for town assault, while my Soviets were rarely able to muster a 13 column. While the Germans lost another step or two it was clear that the couldn't reach a major victory and that, once removed from the town the Soviets did not have the strength to get back in.

So, despite reaching a minor victory, the German major victory trumped the Soviet "win" and thus the Germans win the scenario.

This was a fun, short scenario. I believe that it is tipped against the Soviets somewhat but the short time does force the German to expose themselves to losses. Once the town is reached however, the game is up as the Germans have too many advantages to avoid taking the town in short order. I give it a "4".

It was incredible how this battle panned out, almost like pages from a book turning themselves. The German victory conditions were pretty much all or nothing: seize control of all five town hexes and lose no more than 11 steps of units up against a sizable Soviet force to secure a minor victory and the same conditions with no more than 5 steps lost for a major win. The Soviets placed 45mm AT guns between the northern woods and central fields to deter use of the east-west road in order to slow the German advance with a few supporting units of infantry while the rest of the force deployed in Kamienka with some units digging-in on the outskirts of the town, which seemed logical enough. The advancing elements of the IRGD likewise avoided use of the road and dismounted most of their units right away taking the slower approach through the fields to reach the town. Right away the main concern for the Germans was that time would slip away and that they may get held up and disorganized before being able to mount a full urban assault. So whatever the case the Germans had to keep forces moving on even if that meant leaving a few disrupted or demoralized units behind.

Soviet resistance in the fields was crushed with relative ease and without much loss of time while the units poised in the woods were avoided and soon Kamienka was in sight. Those Soviet units in the woods loaded up the 45mm gun and relocated it while their Captain led a futile charge from the north with the infantry. Those units were easily brushed away, demoralized and sent fleeing back to the woods while the last AT gun was easily demolished from German OBA. Now there was just the town to take. The Germans advance in two groups; one from the north reinforced with the 2 platoons of StugIIIBs and the larger assault group from the west, effectively encircling the town. All the while I kept on expecting the Germans to take severe losses from concentrated opportunity fire and/or Soviet OBA; a few German infantry platoons were demoralized and sent fleeing but the much needed engineers and HMG units were kept in good order for the urban assault. Rallying and keeping German units in good order wasn't much of an issue as two of the German leaders had morale modifiers of 2. The Soviets had so many opportunities to blast away thier attackers with opportunity fire on the 16 or sometimes 22 column of the DF table but could not generate any X results or even force compound demoralizations for German losses. So despite a few units having to rally most of the IRGD were easily able to weaken and storm the town's defenses and once the assaults began with the combination of ENG units and a higher overall morale there was no chance of the Soviets holding out for too long, just a distant hope that one unit would be able to hold out long enough to force a draw. Virtually nothing was working in the Soviets favor on this day though one of the StugIIIBs was demoralized from some infantry small-arms fire advancing towards the town, which must of been briefly, morally uplifting. Soon enough, block by block, town hexes fell under German control while at least 6 steps of Soviet units were simply evicted and sent fleeing to be trapped in the southeast corner of the map with nowhere to run. By 15:00/turn 17, all of Kamienka was in German control with no real chance of a Soviet counterattack. Units that were trapped in the corner were easily picked off. There was one futile effort from an isolated platoon of Soviet INF led by a fanatical Captain which emerged rallied from the northern woods. The platoon actually survived initial opportunity fire attempting to weasel it's way into a vacant town hex but had to stop two hexes away after it's movement was completed. Of course the vacant town was immediately occupied by German units while mortar fire blasted the platoon demoralizing it and it's leader but it was all the Soviets could do at that point as pathetic as the attempt was. So far, up until 15:15/turn 18 there had not been one single German step lost at all and was contemplating a perfect, major German win when a random event in favor of the Soviets intervened, giving them one air-strike. A Pe-2 was drawn with a 16 DF rating and it not only hit it's target, a reduced and demoralized German INF unit, but eliminated it for the only German loss during the battle. In kind, the Germans ultimately decided it was not going to leave Soviet units or leaders on the map. The last, reduced, disrupted and leaderless Soviet INF unit left behind in the woods tried to make a break for it but was chased down, spotted and annhilated by German OBA at the last moment at 15:45/turn 20, leaving no survivors to tell of this bloodbath. The end result: a virtually undisputed, major German victory.

I believe that despite any possible balance shift in favor of Germany that this is one of the best that 'Eastern Front' has to offer for the sheer enjoyment of playing it and merits a "4" rating from me. A Soviet victory or draw is not impossible here on a better day, with perhaps a more imaginative deployment and most importantly, better dice rolls. Also, the 20 turn length kind of gives the German player the hotfoot to keep units moving and makes the first half of this kind of tense for them. There are so many ways this one could go with a lot more losses on the German end, perhaps with some of the Soviets going on the offensive before the town is attacked instead of mostly remaining static? Once the urban assaults begin, provided the engineers are still around the town will likely fall under German control but time is of the essence and could see the German timetable getting disrupted earlier on. However, this day belonged to the Infantry Regiment Grossdeutschland and they literally got the red(s) out like Visine!