There's a phrase that has to make you wonder what the originator was thinking about, but I digress. This one was a course in force management. A regiment of SS infantry along with a battalion or two of armor and the heavy tank battalion (all Tigers) face an entire regiment of RKKA men backed by a Guards armored battalion with reinforcements from an RKKA battalion. Needless to say there are a whole buncha units in this one and Fog of War could be significant. As a result the German, who is on the attack has to be very judicious in his force management.

The Germans have four goals, don't lose too many units, control the road on the eastern boards from north to south. Capture the town on the southeastern board and capture the town on the northwestern board. They have 30 turns (one of the longer KSF scenarios).

It might be possible to focus on the southeastern town and the road control as goals for the Germans and hope for low losses. My experience indicates that this would be a mistake, however. There just is too much Soviet force and too many assaults that can go bad to keep the losses low through 30 turns. As a result, I decided to split my force sending a couple companies of foot soldiers and most of the armor towards the northwestern town while forcing the issue in the southeastern town with a lot of infantry and some Tiger support. By the time the scenario was halfway over I had managed to take the southeastern town and brushed away some of the defenders on the direct route to the northwestern town. But I had also already lost 30 steps (I would end up losing 63, 42 of them from armor, including 2 Tiger steps).

I immediately sent the Tigers and two more companies of infantry on a board spanning march to get into the battle for the northwestern town (meant to be Gresnoe). The remaining Soviet forces which could challenge for the road were pursued by one and a half battalions of infantry and a company of Pz 747s (T-34As). These forces were slowly reduced and the final position on the road was destroyed on turn 28.

Meanwhile, since losses were no longer an issue my Pz IIIJs had exposed themselves to some nasty AT fire from the Guard and RKKA tankers who were then gunned down by Tigers. The exposure and fire were not rash as the Germans needed to get rid of the defenders as quickly as possible to make room for the assaulting columns, meanwhile the Tigers were the most fearsome units on board and while they were shooting they weren't advancing to a position to weaken the town's defenses which depended heavily on T-34cs. Ultimately the town fell on turn 29.

The late acheivement of the two remaining goals by the Germans indicates how very very close this scenario played. As a matter of fact I felt that a Soviet win was virtually guaranteed after playing about 20 turns and only a series of very powerful attacks through the woods to the east of Gresnoe indicated that I was wrong.

A large force must be detailed with the task of capturing the large town to the eastern side of the German line. This town will be captured and forces will immediately begin moving north to capture the road. At the time the town is controlled, a sizable component of the good order troops must be sent towards Gresnoe. The German cannot, however, ignore the western side of the board until they have secured the southeastern town as this will be an invitation to the Soviets to reinforce the road sector and make the fight more difficult. The western German force must be substantial enough to threaten Gresnoe and take it if too much Soviet force is sent to contest the road.

The Soviets, for their task, must kill Germans at all points. It is a given that the Soviets will take massive losses. The bulk of their force has a lower morale than the Germans and will be caught in assault after assault. That is fine, just make sure that you can fight on a column high enough to have a good chance of inflicting casualties. With enough casualties you will eliminate one possible victory condition for the Germans and make it very tough for them to meet their other two victory conditions.

Lots of challenges, a very tight, tense battle. I give it a "5" as one of the better Kursk, South Flank scenarios, and that is saying something.

It was decided to try to hold a line against the German assault to limit their movement and hit them with as much fire power in the initial stage of the battle as possible. However placement of the minefields showed poor judgment. The minefields in front of the town were wasted since the Germans sent a very large tank force against the center hill which was heavily defended by everything possible except minefields to slow the enemy. This was a major mistake since the tank force of the Germans proved to in-stoppable. The moral is town people can die but not your troops. Once the line of defense was broken the Soviets retired from the field.

After the Misfire series of scenarios, I found one with the Germans attacking and though let's see how the Germans can deal with a big defensive situation by the Soviets. My initial thoughts were the RKKA troops would break and run at the sight of the German assault force. Given that the Germans have 29 SCH's and 5 Tigers in the scenario, I believed that they could not be stopped, but my RKKA troops put up quite the fight against the SS troops.

The OoB of both sides are massive and if you like hardware you will get your fill. For the Germans 5 Tiger platoons, 10 PzIIIj's as well as PzIVF2 and 'H' models Stug's and captured T34's. The Soviets have plenty of onboard artillery, 4 120mm and 4 81mm mortars as well as 76.2mm and 45mm and 57mm AT's. Soviet tanks include all flavors of T34 as lend lease Churchills. For men, Soviet FLM and many SMG units and HMG units, the Germans have the 29 SCH as well as plenty of HMGs and ENGs. In my play leaders for both sides were good will many modifiers.

The Soviets have the setup and control the major towns on board 38 and board 37. In my setup the Soviets mass there RKKA troops around the town on 38. Entrenchments and mines hold key hexes while dugin troops of ring the town. Artillery are dugin on the hills given the Soviet units key defensive support. AT guns are sprinkled around the dugin line and dominated 85mm guns are in key entrenchments in the Soviet line as well as the hill to the east of the town.

On board 37, Soviet Guards setup in advance positions in front of the town on board 37. T-34's and Churchills are dugin in the fields with the SMG's supporting. 76.2mm guns are stationed in entrenchments directly in front of the town giving very effective fire support against German infantry. But both setups leave a gap that is between the two boards that the Germans will attempt to exploit. A small group of Germans will push on to board 38 to try to take the small town on the corner to springboard to the western hill of board 38. Taking these should allow the German main force to move behind the Soviets on board 38 and attack the rear as well as clear the road on board 39. To block the Soviet Guards on board 37, tanks and SCH will cover the advance from the fields on board 36. At least that was the plan.

To start the advance the Soviets get two IL-2m's loitering over the attack. Undaunted, the Germans advance with two companies toward the small town on board 38, Tigers and PzIVH support the attack, but the IL-2m's go after the Tigers with devastating results, one Tiger platoon destroyed. Soviet fire opens on the attacking Germans with equal effects, morale checks and step losses on every fire roll. The Germans reel from the fire reduced and demoralized. Leaders are powerless and break as well.

The Germans need to call in forces from the main attack and they too are hit with casualties, but the RKKA units hold firm. Four companies and supporting tanks are committed, but the RKKA units hold. Not until Tigers are driven right into the town does it fall. But there is four companies of SCH that need time to recover.

From the hills and the town artillery and AT take a toll as well. The PzIVH's support are wiped out by the Soviet 85mm guns as well as heavy HMG fire keeping other SCH's away from the hills. German OBA trys to dislodge the 85mm but fails to break the unit. It is not until the commanding Major is killed does the 85mm get silenced, and even then it is temporary.

With the assault force broken, more troops from the main force are committed to the attack on the western hill. They eventually get a foothold and the Soviet losses mount, but equal amounts of Germans are kill, forcing them to lose one of the victory conditions. The Germans have the town and the hill to hinge there main force around the Soviets. But the main force is weakened as well as the defensive force to hold against the Guards.

The Guards have not be waiting for their turn. They advanced t-34's to go after lead elements of the German main force, with success. The T-34's are able to kill a PzIIIj that ventures too far ahead. Captured T-34's are dispatched to fight them and a dead even fight breaks out. In the end both sides take hits but the Germans loses 3 T-34's to 2 for the Soviets, but SCH threaten to cut them off. Under cover of the Soviet guns the T-34's retreat.

The main force begins there move through the gap, but the Soviets have shifted troops out of the town on board 38 to cover the gap. The Germans now have to deal with them in their dugin positions. SCH's advance to attack, but Soviet Guard SMG's move to flank the German attack. Quickly mounted SCH's position for defense, but Churchills takeout their transports SPW251's leaving them weakened and assaults tie up the units, but some SMG's breakthrough. This delays the attack on the RKKA units as the SCH's are diverted to stop the Guards. Tanks push onto the RKKA defenses. Heavy assaults take a toll on the PzIIIj's but the Soviets are forced to retreat. But time is running out and the Germans are strung out in their attack.

The Germans try to push on but in the end the German force is spent and they spend the rest of the game trying to consolidate their forces for an attack, but there just isn't enough time. In the end a Major German victory.

I knew the large hill would be the key to this scenario. Little did I know the price I would pay to take it.

As the German, I grouped my forces into battle groups that I thought had sufficient punch to achieve their initial goals. One group of infantry and PzIII Js, bolstered by two Tigers, was to proceed up the trail. The next group- mostly the poorly armored modified SPWs, the mortars, a handful of infantry and the StuGs were to get through the fields between the trail and the large hill. A third group, which contained the remaining Tigers, a bunch of infantry and 747rs, as well as a few of the heavier Pz types, was to directly assault the hill. A tiny group of infantry was to approach the large town, and a final group of infantry and PzIII Js (and a few more heavier Pz types) were tasked with taking the tiny three hex hill before turning on the larger town.

This was an insufficient allocation of forces, to say the least. I thought I was clever in using the SPWs to scout out the position of AT guns, but I found out I was in a worst case situation- where I had the weakest tanks (on the small hill side of the large town) the Soviets had one of those huge AA guns. AND, a line of minefields, backed up by entrenched machine guns, controlled the only viable approaches to the hill and the town. The other huge Soviet AA gun was right on the top of the big hill, with two 76.2s on either side. All the Soviet infantry and machine guns were massed between the German lines and the AT assets. As such, I had to redirect forces toward the big hill as best I could. It took the Germans ten turns to break through these defenses, at a ghastly cost- over 50 step losses, most of them armor.

On the trail board, the defenses seemed set more to cover the approaches to the hill than to defend the trail itself. Even so, the Soviets proved adept at baffling my initial advances, until I realized that he was hoping I would commit my armor to assaults, only to be ambushed by armor in the next field hex!

Things I realized: Minefields can be breached by engineers, but be careful what you get across. I had six tank platoons without any infantry support on his side of the minefield belt at one point. There were three and a half platoons in just a few turns- due to assaults.

Also, counting counters doesn't hurt. it became painfully evident that there was no depth to the Russian defense. I kept looking at what was on the board and what was left in the force pool... The Soviets had put everything on the front line. Thus, once I broke the initial line, the Soviets retreated and their commander saw no point in letting the slaughter continue.

Finally, even a German infantry/tank combination with higher morale can be taken out in a massed assault.

This cracking scenario was played over 4 long solo sessions. A strong mixed arm SS force have have to clear a road, take two towns and not lose 30 steps in the process to claim a major victory against entrenched strong Russian forces with reasonable armour support. The Soviet set up was to defend heavily the first town (on the eastern flank) with minefields on one flank and in front of the town all covered by HMG's and entrenchments on the other side of the town. On the western flank there would be two lines of roadblocks with a mixture of dug outs and entrenchments. The Soviets Guards units would reinforce the first town and 237th Tank Brigade arriving 90 mins after the commencement of the battle would slot in to the second town. The German plan was to use the Tiger in the front to shield the foot sloggers who would set up fire groups prior to storming the town. The vulnerable PZIII ans Stugs would take cover in fields until needed. As the Reich Division entered the field they took some losses which slowed the advance up, however after 60 minutes of maneuvering the SS were ready to pour fire into the enemy entrenchments, for a while the brave Soviets held their ground inspired by the 5th Guards units pouring into reinforce the town. However heavy firepower slowly pushed the Soviets back into the town while SS ENG units found ways through the minefields. By GT12 the town was almost surrounded and there was fierce fighting in the suburbs. On the western flanks the German attack developed too slowly and it was not till after 3 hours that the first road block line was cleared. By then the German commander realizing that his loss would be well over 30 by even half way released the PZ111, STUGs and SPW's from their reserve role. This helped to almost clear the second line of Russkie entrenchments but at great cost. With disrupted and demoralized units lagging behind the Tigers who had been leading the charge were suddenly ambushed by an ATR unit to the rear, SMG tank killer units on the flank and a 57mm A/T gun to the front. Although all the Soviet units were eventually wiped out 6 smoking Tiger wrecks were left on the field and the survivors had to withdraw. This was the high tide of the German advance on the western tank meanwhile the Guards units in the town on the eastern flank still held out in one tiny street of the town (obviously veterans from Stalingrad). Forced with having to regroup and with daylight running out the German commander reluctantly called of the attack having given the Soviets a bloody nose but failing to meet any of his objectives. This is an excellent scenario, missing out on a 5 because it look very tough for the Germans. The scenario does come down to two separate battles eventually one on each side of the boards. A strong forward defense for the Russian's should slow down the German attack sufficiently to make a German win very hard. looking forward to playing this one against Herr Hughes ( if he is brave enough). Looses were very unequal though with 65 Soviet foot losses and 32 Soviet AFV losses compated to 27 German foot losses and 16 AFV losses (Including 2 Tiger steps). all losses show as steps. Leader losses for both side included the KOM getting captured ( then presumably shot) and one unlucky OSTFR getting strafed by the only successful Soviet air attack in the game. Good fun game