In this scenario, played on two mapboards (1 and 7), Soviet INF and tanks units (510 Rifle Regiment, 154th Rifle Division) face up to elements of German 1st Cavalry Division. Game lenght: 28 turns. There is a river in mapboard 7. (The instructions do not indicate anything. I consider it a minor river). Order of battle. German: 8 x CAV, 2 x 81 mm, 1 x 37 mm, 5 x wagon, OBA 1 x 16. Soviets: 11 x INF, 2 x HMG, 2 x T-26, 2 x 82mm, 1 x wagon, OBA 3 x 12.

Moral: Germans 8/6, Soviets 7/6.

Victory conditions: The Soviet player wins if at the end of play no German unit is within two hexes of the east-west road, AND at least six German steps have been eliminated. The German player wins if the Soviet player does not and at least 10 Soviets steps have been eliminated (tanks count double).

German tactics: German cavalry is very vulnerable to direct and artillery fire. In special, the Soviet OBA is very dangerous, since it can use column 42 of the Bombardment Table: 3 x 12 = 36 (column 30) + 1 (target is cavalry) = column 42. This column hat a 25% lethality. For that reason, the German cavalry must be all the time under cover in the woods and field in map 1, both next to the east-west road. With OBA and mortar batteries they must cause the maximum possible damage to Soviet units during their approach to the center of the battlefield. Once the Soviets reach the wooded zone, the cavalry will attack with charges. It is certain that as once the Soviets are in the woods, the German cavalry will be vulnerable to artillery fire, but the Soviets will be affected as well by "friendly fire". If they are able to resist and to stay in the woods, the Germans will win the game, since the road is very next to their positions.

Soviet tactics: The Soviets have no alternative but to be very aggressive. They must dislodge the German units from the woods and the field. Once outside there, the German cavalry will be destroyed easily with artillery and direct fire. The Soviets will use their main arm - the OBA- to disorganize and demoralize the enemy. Once demoralized they will be able to assault it and to destroy it. The Soviets will use tanks as support to the infantry, since isolated in the woods they are very vulnerable to enemy charges and assaults.

Development of the game. As was to be expected, the Germans deploy all their units hidden in the woods and in the field. The Soviets enter by the east edge, near a wooden zone, out of sight of the enemy. The approach is made safely until the passage of the river, when the Soviets are at sight of the Germans. Then these begin to shoot with artillery and mortar batteries. The fire disorganizes and demoralizes some units, but does not inflict losses. The Soviets cross at full speed the no man´s land that exists between the river and the enemy-held woods. The Germans try to prevent it with their artillery and mortars and the fire of a HMG platoon, but without success.

Finally the first Soviet units arrive at the woods and immediately are charged by German cavalry, that was on the watch. The charges are partly successful in the beginning and destroy and demoralize some Soviet units. But little by little arrive more Soviet units, that reinforce the assaulted hexes. At this moment the Germans begin to undergo considerable losses, because they must leave the assaulted hexes. The situation arrives at a balance point. Many units of both sides are disrupted and demoralized. The OBA and mortar fire play havoc with both sides. German cavalry retires to an edge of the forest to reorganize and returns to charge, but with little success. The German cavalry is semidestroyed. Nevertheless, the Germans resist in a point.

In this point there are two HMG platoons directed by a lieutenant with a moral modifier of 2. These two platoons protect two mortar batteries that also shoot effectively at the Soviets. The Soviet tanks are demoralized and disorganized by the fire of the German HMGs. The time pass and the Soviets are debilitated. The Germans, however, maintain their HMG "strongpoint" intact. At 1345, three turns before the end of the game, the Soviet commander realizes that their forces will not be able to reach the objective. The Soviets leave. The Germans win. Germans losses: 10 steps. Soviets losses: 10 steps. Interesting scenario.

This one is a tough nut to crack for the Soviets. They have to prevent just one German unit from occupying a hex within 2 hexes of the east-west road at the end of play and manage to eliminate 6 German steps along the way; the Germans have to eliminate 10 Soviet steps and just keep one unit within 2 hexes of the road for the win. The Germans deploy most of their forces in the fields, setting up both the HMGS and support units within 2 hexes of the road to begin with as the bait. The German Major and three other platoons of cavalry deploy in the woods south of the road to wait and see what becomes of their main battlegroup before attempting any heroics. By dividing their forces up in two areas the Germans have the advantage already but the prime advantage is the swift movement rate of the cavalry alone along with plenty of limiting terrain to run to and hide in. The Soviets on the other hand do have the (+1) fire modifier advantage versus the cavalry, especially with the OBA and mortar units; but for those to be effective they have to be able to spot the enemy first to be of any use.

The Soviets enter from the east along the road in plain sight with their T-26s leading the way. This makes the foot units vulnerable to German OBA and mortar fire but they have to be able to move in fast with just 28 turns to accomplish their mission. Immediately one wagon carrying a HMG unit is disrupted before it can cross the river and two platoons of Soviet INF get demoralized on the bridge from German bombardment, tying up 3 platoons before contact is made. The German mortars are hidden in the fields with the LOS to them blocked so the Soviets send their SGT back to the town in the northeast town to act as a spotter. This should of been done right away and may have prevented some casualties earlier on but I am still learning the terrain, that towns are elevated to 20m and that if a unit in fields fires it can be spotted from that higher level. The Germans make a few mistakes early on as well, not digging in either their mortars or AT gun before firing with them. The 37mm AT gun is quickly eliminated after exposing itself firing at the T-26s from extreme ranges having no effect whatsoever.

Soon a bold attack is made on the German HMG units in the fields that did manage to dig-in before firing but it is easily repulsed on the first wave. Some Soviet INF units attempt to flank the fields to get at the cavalry hiding out there. German indirect fire weakens those units and the first cavalry charge is made with some intial success. Meanwhile, the German units in the woods keep on the move, sometimes moving to the edge so that the Major can spot for indirect fire but only when the Soviets are far out of DF or spotting range of them. The Soviet's begin to fail a lot of morale checks with their morale at 7/5 and once units become reduced and demoralized they stay inactive for a good duration attempting to rally them. The entire Soviet force was brought to bear on the field postions with no units going after the cavalry in the woods. Eventually the German HMG units were dislodged and pushed back away from the road with the assistance of the T-26s on the western flank and all other German forces were pushed back from the road. But this not only took a lot of time to do but it took everything the Soviets had. All the Germans had to do was keep moving and wait for time to run out. Eventually about half of the Soviet foot units are eliminated and the other half of those are in poor morale, so there wasn't much left of them to work with.

It becomes clear that the Soviets cannot take on or remove all the German units as they are now spread out everywhere as the battle nears it's end. The Germans have managed to spread-out into 4 separate locations to make a last dash for the road. A small stroke of luck does occur for the Soviets in the form of a random event that gives them air-support but it will not be enough. The Pe-2 does manage to zoom down and demoralize the German Major and disrupt a cavalry unit in the woods at 13:15/turn 26 but is too little, too late. During the next turn all remaining, good ordered German units leave their cover from many different direction to occupy hexes within the 2-hex radius of the road. Nothing seems to stop them, neither Soviet OBA, mortar or opportunity fire. At 13:45, the start of turn 28 there are a total of 9 German steps by the road and there is no way that the Soviets can eliminate all of them on the last turn. In the end the Germans maintain a total of 5 units there to take the win.

Though the VCs do appear to strongly favor the Germans in this one it was still a fun little scenario to play out, so I give it a "3" rating. As easy as it seemed for the Germans to win they just barely met their enemy step loss VCs to keep the battle from ending in a draw; the Germans needed to eliminate 10 Soviet steps and they just made that with a total 11 Soviet steps eliminated. So while a Soviet victory seems unlikely a draw is quite possible; one thing that kept me from rating this scenario a "2". One thing for sure was that it was not a bore and the battle was far from static; most of the game was very much like a good chess match. Nothing is entirely impossible in the PG universe and would anticipate reading a future AAR in which the Soviets manage to win this one