The Germans took cover in a small town on the West side of the board. As the Russian forces approached a wheatfield North of the town, German armor moved out to meet them. In the ensuing firefight, the Russian forces were decimated.

Scenario 64 Smashing Guderian was an excellent example of why playing double-blind is so much like life, one never knows what is around the next corner. Trucks and Spw251s move without identifying their contents if any, Line of Sight, Elevation and Observation rules become alive. Occupying Towns and Hills become necessary observation points to watch the action unfold on the battlefield. Scouting and reconniassance actually take time and units away from the main battle. Observations ranges, and limiting terrian allow for hidden movement. This scenario was large enough to allow all of the above to come alive. Setting a trap for the enemy to fall into is now possible and avoiding the enemy's is required. This is now the only way to play.

The Russians learned a painful and important lesson: their forces are too brittle to be divided. The original plan was to grind up the east side of the board using the woods to concentrate my forces. However, I foolishly left only a few infantry and the AT gun to cover the southern road. Then, when i thought I had spotted what I presumed to be the German's "scout" tank, I made the mistake of pursuing this tank into an ambush (accomplished through dextrous manipulation of the rules for double-blind play with observation posts). The Germans closed in on the divided Russians... you can guess the rest.

I would suggest that when you get a tank like the KV2, you make sure that it is FIRING on something every turn, not wasting its time moving only two hexes every turn. The use of such a tank is not about finesse...

Germans enter from the northwest and Soviets enter from the southeast. Each side has a lot of tanks. Each side has a lot of infantry; except the Germans are mechanized and the Soviets or motorized. The Soviets have to avoid having more than five German units on the east side of the map. The Germans just need to hold on.

The German mechanized sprints for the northeast town and sends the armor to the central fields. The tanks will slow the Soviet advance across the fields and the infantry will hold onto the town and force an urban assault.

The Soviets move into the central woods and waits while their armor engages the Germans from the treeline. Their plan is to reduce the German armor then advance the dismounted infantry to engage the Germans in the town.

In the woods the Soviet armor's tough hide required the German tankers to spread out and cross-fire. After an hours long tank battle the Germans were quite battered but the Soviets were rendered ineffective. Nothing left to do but charge the Soviet infantry.

Charging into a stack of APCs and rifle fire ended as you would expect.

A better use of the Soviet tanks would have been to avoid the German tank's cross-fire and attack the APCs. Then cross the infantry to assault. But tactical solutions are not always obvious until the AAR is written.