Having reviewed Matt and Daniel's AAR for this one:

Soviet Set-Up: 2xSMG + ENT + LT hill 0612; Mine(1) hill 0513; 45mm + KMG hill 0512; 2x82mm hill 0511; INF + ATR + LT hill 0412;

ATR + Truck hill 1015; HMG+INF+LT town 1010

INF + 45mm + KMG town 0605

SU-122 + SMG field 0404 (“reserve”); INF + LT field 0403 (“reserve”)

INF + HMG + Cpt + ENT hill 1004; INF + FLM+ Maj + ENT hill 0804; Mine (1) hill 0905; 2x76.2 hill 0902; 2x76.2 hill 0903 (with 8-1-0 LT to combine); 2xKMG each 1002 + 0802 to cover artillery.

Elements of the Eicke panzergrenadier regiment set up in eastern and western attack groups. The latter has the 4xHMGs and accompanying SCH; whereas the former contains the majority of the SCH and the two StuGs. Each group has one ENG platoon.

Early Stalinist artillery fire is ambivalent: DIS two of the 81mm platoons, but a friendly fire attacks kills a step of ATR holding the south-eastern hills. Turn five is decisive for the Waffen-SS. Two sequential '12' rolls for soviet morale leaves the forces holding the 1010 town DEM incredibly also the 10-1-1 leader. Compounding this, the Germans roll a '12' - different set of dice (a red set for the Soviets; a green set for the Germans)! - on the 11-DF col kills an SMG in the western entrenchment and the leader there (also 10-1-1) suffers a casualty. So both "strong point" of the Soviet "front" fall quickly.

The following turn, however, the Soviet artillery part gets into action obtaining a 2X result on the 42-col (using a 8-1-0 leader to combine along with self-spotting bonus). On the following turn, they DEM a 2xSCH stack.

By turn 9 (of 30) however, the SS control the 1010 town and the SW hill complex. Germans have taken five step losses (some in assault; another by OF) and the Stalinists 16.

The SS push forward 4xSCH along the Eastern Board edge and have the OBA now pummel the Russian 76.2mm park. The 81mm mortars and soft-skinned units now move up to "holding" positions on the captured hills and town. The SS have a sufficient force to hold/pin the 0605 town/0404 field Soviet units from the hoped for counter attack.

The Soviets fight well for the two entrenchments on the 0903 hill (major objective). Unfortunately, the SS could simply envelop at range once the artillery was finished off and roll for five turns until a "lucky" DF result weakened the holding force.

The Soviets did kill 11 steps by game end earning themselves a Minor Victory, but the Germans held all of the hill terrain for a Major Victory with remaining Soviet DIS/DEM in the NW fields or bottled up in town 0605. The Germans might have been able to take the major NE hill with fewer step losses had I been willing to risk a few more rounds of softening DF, but to satisfy any VC, the Germans had to have sole ownership of that hill area ... so, better a Major vs. Minor than risking no Victory at all.

I rated this a 4 mainly from the structure of the attack/defense problem. Perhaps this one is better as a solo game as a Russian player might feel underwhelmed with limited freedom of action.

Daniel and I played this scenario in about 3 hours of playing time. Despite the long playing surface the Soviets really aren't defending all that much except the large hill to the very north. Certainly there are places to delay the Germans along the way (2 smaller hills and two single hex towns) but the large hill is the prize.

With a significant force advantage and a morale advantage I decided to change my normal, hell-bent for leather, approach and decided to be a little more deliberate. I figured that, early on in my playing of PG I played a scenario of EFDx which had about 40 turns and I raced to a conclusion within 15 turns. I think I named my AAR "Patience". Here, about 300+ scenarios later, I decided to take my own advice.

Daniel set up with his AT rifles dug in as a delaying force then the towns held some infantry and AT guns. The mortars were in the northwestern corner of the board and absolutely everything else was on the large hill with three entrenchments lined up behind the minefields and the 76s dug in on the back edge of the hill.

My troops started out completely in the fields and moved to overwhelm the poor AT rifles, done within the first hour or so. At that point my forces were pretty much hidden on the two smaller hills, including all of the vehicles and guns. The next movement was to take the eastern town, helped immensely by artillery and mortar strikes which shook the defenders and then an assault accompanied by engineers finished it off.

While that battle was ongoing two companies of SS troopers moved to the northwest, across the front of the second town to envelope the mortars. While they were moving there were sporadic shots from the massed 76s. After a few shots, though, the German artillery moved to silence those guns and had some effect, finishing one of the batteries after two hours and then continuing to keep them disrupted or demoralized throughout the rest of the battle. Daniel did have terrible luck with his artillery strikes while I had incredibly good luck, hammering the Soviets again and again.

After the first 2 1/2 hours, my troops had reached the mortars and were reducing them. At the same time the larger force of infantry had been able to approach the second town and entered it relatively untouched. By four hours into the battle I was beginning to approach the large hill with no outlying Soviet forces remaining unoccupied.

This is nothing like me. I'm sure that at this point Daniel was wondering what organism had taken over my body and was playing this game. I have often been in the position of rushing forward with insufficient force in order to begin the assaults as soon as possible, taking horrendous losses but forcing the issue. I have never been careful and dispassionate about movement and preparing assaults with strong fire support, etc. Frankly there were times when it didn't even feel like me but when we hit the 22nd turn and the Soviets had lost all but a few steps and I had only lost 5 I began to think this might be a little more effective when there are enough turns...

In any event, I ended up approaching the hill from the northwest, avoiding the direct assault. Eventually, Daniel had to use the SU-122 and immediately after it fired my StGs were in position to reduce it and then move up to participate in the assaults, especially since the direction of the assaults took them directly over the remaining 76s. It was all over except for a few running Soviet leaders by turn 25.

While I really enjoyed the results of my more conservative attack the play itself was highly one sided. As I mentioned above, the Germans only lost 5 steps and no weapons or vehicles while all of the Soviets were eliminated. A chunk of these results were certainly the result of luck but it seems very hard for the Soviets to do more than hunker down and hope for the best in this one. I would suggest it more as a solitaire study but would defer to Daniel's judgment as the Soviet player. In any event, it didn't have a ton of tension. I give it a "3".

There was no way to stymie the Germans in this one. They rolled over my Russians quite easily once they got into position. Even my 76.2's couldn't seem to hit anything in this one.