The Soviets used a flawed strategy that still almost worked at stopping the Germans. The Soviets split their weak battalion, deploying half in the southern woods while sending half up the western flank to try to flank the attacking Germans. Unfortunately, the Germans put all their forces in a column of companies charging down the east side of the board. The flanking Soviets never caught up with the attackers and so played little role in the battle. The main Soviet defensive line, significantly weaker than the attacking Germans, nevertheless acquitted themselves well. They failed to contain a breakthrough by the Germans, but nearly inflicted enough losses to claim a draw against a much stronger enemy. In the end the Germans exited more than enough troops and avoided further loss, for the victory.

This was played across Skype with an opponent from Italy. Unfortunately, he never came back to PG thereafter only just a few games played. Maybe it was the bad Skype connection that day.

Anyway, in our game, the Germans thrust forward and by the time the session was coming to an end, they were already looking at achieving VC's by turn 6. This was down to the inexperience of the new opponent and it is a shame he hasn't been able to come back for whatever reason it may be. He's missing out on a great series.

As far as the game went, I found it a fairly standard game which may have been more exciting with a more experienced opponent. I rate it '3'.

Also, if the player I have left un-named does fancy completing it and attempting to change the result. Write me an email :-)

My pre-battle worries of how to get 6 German units and/or leaders off the southern edge of the map without losing more than 4 steps were alleviated by the conclusion of the second or third turn. Soviet mortar fire assisted by the bold advance of a forward observer was responsible for this straight away as I allowed a triple stacked hex to be spotted after my first movement. I expected to possibly take in damage from this error but did not fathom that "snake eyes" would be rolled and thus causing a step loss on turn 1. The same mortar fire would continue to reduce that stack until there was just one step of 6 steps left! By turn 3 it was clear that I would be playing for draw.

Both my opponent and I's strategy and tactics would change the remainder of the battle but a lot of stress was lifted as I still need only exit one unit off the map to prevent a total defeat and force a draw. A Soviet victory seemed much tougher in order to prevent just one German unit from exiting the south edge. Eventually I would lose 6 steps total by battle's end but did manage to get 4 units of infantry and two leaders off before the conclusion of turn 13; so both sides met just half of their victory requirements. So what could of been an easy German victory was denied by my own poor judgement from the start. Had I forseen that the Soviet forward observer could easily spot that triple stacked hex and moved one click further west on the first turn, or at least reduced the number of units in it, the outcome may have turned out much differently. Once German units had made their way past the first forest area a nice little skirmish took place and though inflicting Soviet step losses were not part of my objective I did manage to eliminate one RCN and two HMG steps along with disrupting or demoralizing units positioned to block my escape attempt.

Overall though, my opponent played his hand much better than I and made it very difficult for most of my units attempting to exit. We both agreed that it is very hard for either side to lose this scenario but that it would be much easier for the Germans to win it than the Soviets. I'm still adjusting my playing style after over a year of playing solitaire and a lot of old, bad habits still need changing but I enjoyed this shared play with Wayne; at least it wasn't another loss! I suppose that this play helped judge my overall PG performance which is maybe progressing with shared plays but still needs a lot of improvement. I give this one a hairline, low '3' as it seems a bit tougher for the Soviets to win it though a draw is a lot easier to obtain.

This scenario was played over Skype in less than 4 hours against Brett. A outnumbered outgunned Soviet force has to prevent a German force crossing length ways down Board 6 and exiting 6 leaders or units in 20 turns. The plus side for the Soviets is that they only have to inflict 4 step losses to prevent a German win. For the Soviet player to win he has to inflict 6 step losses and not allow a single German unit to exit the board. A quick glance at the VC shows that a Soviet victory is unlikely, the Germans should get at least 1 unit off the board given his OBDA, morale and firepower advantage, but can they do this without losing 4 steps? The Red Army's plan was simple advance over the East-West road and then trade space for time while look for any advantage during the German advance to get those step losses. The German advanced towards the dark threatening forests, Brett discounting the Soviet MTR's and OBDA kept his units stacked three high and to be fair they could not be spotted from the Soviet lines initially. However Lt Pavlov and his aide ran out of the woods trailing a field phone wire behind them to get into position to spot the German units. What followed was as big a surprise to the Red Army as it was to German's. Highly accurate MTR and OBDA rained down on the Germans ( Double 1 X 2, followed by a Double 6) This resulted in two step losses initially followed by a further two steps gone with double demoralization. This of course meant that by the end of Game Turn 2 the German player could not win. This needless to say changed the dynamics of the game. The Soviet player retreated to his start lines and tried to build a defensive line in order to stop any units slipping off the board. The German commander after getting over the shock realized that step losses were less important advanced at a rapid rate, although the Russian tried to skulk in the woods eventually the German artillery began to make its mark although not causing losses disruption and demoralization caused gaps in the Soviet lines. The German tactic of advancing on a broad front now paid off as there was simply not enough Soviet fire power to stop steady German advance. By GT 13 the German had managed to exit 4 units and 2 officers for the loss of a further 2 steps, the Red Army had lost a mere 3 steps but had failed in its bid to claim a very unlikely win. This scenario just scrapes a 3 rating from me. Mainly because its a interesting little puzzle for both players and perhaps of some use as a training scenario for new FtF players. There may be a way for the Soviet player to win this one without a lot of luck but I can't see it myself.