25 June 1941. CO of 98th Mountain Rgt. and 44th Anti-Tank Bn reporting.

With the Barbarossa invasion finally underway, German ground forces made their way into Soviet-controlled Poland. Just outside Lvov, the German objective, regimental recon teams spotted a company-sized formation of heavy Soviet tanks heading for our position. With nothing more than 4 light anti-tank guns and one 50mm gun, the German forces had to prepare for attack. The defense was centered on a small town that lie on the road to Lvov. The town was occupied by the 50 mm and one 37 mm gun, along with several platoons of infantry. Knowing that close assaults would be needed to defeat the Soviet armor, the commander stationed one HMG team and one infantry platoon on each side of the road, roughly 800 meters east. The remaining 37 mm guns were placed in a manner such that crossing fields of fire could be placed around the German forward positions on the road. One gun was placed in the woods south of the road, one on the hill north of it, and the final gun placed halfway between the town and hill. The remaining infantry platoons were stationed near the guns to provide support and deter armored charges. In this way the German forces could place overlapping fields of fire directly to the east of the town, leaving only the southern approach relatively unguarded. But since any attack from this direction would require a long southern detour to skirt the woods, the commander felt this was an acceptable risk.

The battle opened in what appeared to be a cat-and-mouse game, as the Soviet armor slowly moved west on the road. The German forward defenders along the road and exposed anti-tank guns spent the first two turns digging into their positions. The tanks stopped at a point where they were just in range of the dug-in positions of the forward defenders, but were frustrated when their attacks amounted to nothing. This led the Russians to adopt a disastrously aggressive plan.

After one platoon of T-28 tanks was roughed up by the 50mm gun, two platoons of T-34 tanks and one platoon of KV-1s rushed to the outskirts of the town, while the remaining two T-34 platoons tried to flank the town from the north. This maneuver only exposed the Soviets to deadly cross fire from the anti-tank guns and immediate assaults from the troops in the town. More soldiers stationed in the woods and in their dug-in positions used the same tactics against the T-28s. The result was a bloodbath, as the Germans destroyed all of the KV-1s and T-34s that charged the town, and also destroyed one platoon of T-28s as well. After 10 turns of play, the Soviets had lost 9 total steps, and only had 2 T-34 platoons and a reduced T-28 left, compared to only two reduced infantry platoons for the German side. With victory impossible, the Soviets conceded the battle and retreated to lick their wounds.

As an aside, this is my first PG game in several years. It was good to get the feel of this game again. I played against my son, who was playing his first PG game, and his aggressiveness was his undoing. It will be interesting to revisit this when he is more comfortable with the rules to see how his approach changes. I gave this scenario 5 stars because it is very challenging from either side. The Germans need to pull off assaults to have any chance of winning, while the Soviets can't just rely on long-range direct fire if they want to win. The limited capabilities of the two sides makes for an interesting dilemma for both players.

The Soviets start with a major disadvantage. They have to clear the Germans set up in the forest and the town on map 4, without any infantry support.the Germans have several batteries of ATGs, which they set up to achieve crossfire. The T-28s were the first to fall. The Soviets assaulted the town and managed to eliminate 2 German steps, but lost their KV-1s. The T-34s then had to fall back and try to snipe steps from outside the town. German win.