The Soviets must cross the board and pass through a line of entrenched Germans to escape off the southern edge. The Germans form a line blocking the open passages to the south (west side and center) and set up fire lanes in the forest road (east side). The Soviets advance taking advantage of the fields and wood in three groups to keep the Germans guessing on where the crossing will occur.

The west group advances and its front line smashes into entrenched and dug-in Germans. Many Soviets perish but some survive to keep the Germans attention while their friends attempt to dash by. With the other two advancing groups pausing the Germans in the center and east chose to remain at their posts.

The center Soviet group swings west and advances to the embroiled west zone while the east group patiently for the German line to thin out.

Several Soviets exited the south edge as they pass assault hexes. The Germans begin to move west to block a possible flood. The east Soviet group swings west to enter the center passage and ... get stuck. Only two hapless platoons managed to move into the center passage and were blasted by OBA and Opp Fire.

The Soviet just need to eliminate one more German step to obtain a win. That's when the game stalled. It took 11 turns to eliminate just ONE German. Almost three game-hours! Once that finally happened the mad rush south occurred and their were just too many targets for the Germans.

By noon (about 2/3rds into the game) there were too few Soviets on board to enable the German to win and the game was called.

This was an well balanced scenario but the Soviets still took heavy casualties. The sides are even in most respects. Leaders where slightly in favor of the Germans. As the conclusion states the Soviets tried to drive right through them, but German OP and OBA fire was devastating, killing 10 steps in two turns. But the Soviets advanced and assault the German units with effect. The Soviets get 10 German step losses but suffer nearly thirty in there attack. By turn 35 it is impossible for the Soviets to win with the heavy losses.

It is worth another play here is the future to see if I can do better.

The Soviets began the engagement in good order and gained early momentum, including the amazing early elimination of German armor. However, by mid-morning the initiative went over to the Germans due to three major factors:

1) German artillery made the superior showing. In one memorable exchange, the Germans laid down a factor 16 bombardment and rolled for a step loss. The Soviets immediate answered on the factor 30 column and rolled to no effect. Such a disparity of outcome was pretty typical throughout the engagement.

2) While morale was evenly matched with even a slight edge for Soviet half-steps, Red Army units broke quicker and recovered slower.

3) Nowhere was the Soviet morale problem more evident than in its leadership. They had a demoralized LtCol eliminated for failure to pass a second morale check, a Lt that spent most of the engagement cowering in the woods, and a Kommissar who deserted when/where he was most needed. This left their troops unable to advance in good order just when it was needed the most.

The Germans took advantage of the Soviet leadership problems to adapt their defenses and then counterattacked at midday. Their plans were thrown into chaos with the loss of their commanding officer. The Soviets, now rallied and regrouped, found a weakness in the German left to that could be exploited.

It was too late for a Soviet victory. The Germans again responded to the threat and inflicted too many losses on the Red Army for it to meet its victory conditions.

In this scenario a large force of Soviets are trying to penetrate the German lines to disrupt the German advance. Nearly a full regiment of Soviets are included against a battalion plus of Germans. The Soviets need to advance across a long sided board to accomplish their victory conditions (get more steps off the board than the number of steps destroyed), however they have tons of troops and some strong OBA to help. Plus, and this isn't a little thing, they have morale to match and exceed the Germans.

I decided to work in echelon, with my left wing of two companies moving into the woods to engage the more heavily manned section of the German line. Another two companies would engage the center of the line next. Once the Germans were fully involved in those two areas the mass of the troops would exit the town and make a dash through the lightly held western section of the line to exit the board.

In retrospect the echelon idea worked nearly to perfection as all German reserves which had been held behind the entrenchments along the road in the woods became involved in repulsing the Soviet left wing. The central attack forced the Germans to reveal themselves in their supporting positions in the woods to the south of the town where the Soviet artillery had a field day.

Ultimately nearly a whole battalion of Soviet troops managed to exit the board but the cost was excessive. They managed to knock out all of the StuGs and destroy another 10 steps of Germans but they lost nearly every step that didn't exit, resulting in a German victory.

It was a fun play but a much more difficult task for the Soviet player than for the German. Interestingly, I think this one would play much better in a face to face venue than in solitaire. The 40 turn length lends itself to a whole lot more cat and mouse than I had the patience for. I give it a "3" but at its height with the Soviet forces passing the German defenses and the count becoming very close for a Soviet victory it was a "4" and only lost the ranking as the likelihood of a Soviet victory faded.

I would strongly suggest looking at this one for a ftf play and will do so myself.