The Soviet assault the the entrenched Italians resulted in their breaking their breaking through in the center and capturing a total of three entrenchments. The downside for the Soviets was the heavy casualties the took left many of their units at reduced strength. The Italian reinforcements were able to recapture two of the entrenchments from the reduced strength Soviets with the help of German close air support for a minor victory. The mistake the Soviets made was in spreading out their assault groups, leaving them unable to exploit their breakthrough (plus some lucky die rolls). Definitely worth a replay.

Here's a well-balanced, smallish scenario with just a little bit of interest added by a) entrenched positions and minefields for the Italians and b) the Don River; regardless of the map all hexes north of the river are forest - an ideal place to retreat to and regroup.

That's exactly what the Soviets did in the early going; well-placed Italian HMGs and a few good arty strikes had the Soviets reeling, losing steps and dashing back to the forest on the other side of the river. Taking the emplacements was dirty, dangerous work for the Sovs; their arty chipped away at the Italian positions and the Soviet infantry closed & engaged in close combat, and the tide began to turn. The Italians get reinforcements but only 2/3 of those units managed to get into position quickly enough to engage the enemy. Even so, a stack of 4/3 Infantry helped maintain a draw by denying complete control of the village to the Soviets. At the end control of the town was split and three emplacements had fallen to the Soviets, so neither side had done enough to earn even a minor victory. Still, a fun, close-fought battle.

This is a fascinating little battle. A battalion of Italians are holding a section of the Don River against three battalions of Soviets. The Italians can expect reinforcements during the fight. The Soviet goal is to take Italian entrenchments and gain control of the town. The Italians seek to deny the Soviets their goals. Helping the Italians, in addition to their fortification is the fact that the Don is a particularly difficult obstacle which causes the Soviets to be exposed during the crossing and delayed once they do cross. Unfortunately it is frozen solid so it does not require engineer support to cross. In addition, the Italians get several minefields to use.

It is very important to follow the supplement rules carefully. Towns are not as strong defensively as in other PG games. They are not as tall either. These differences should make for some substantial changes in a standard setup for the Italians.

I felt that this would be a simple matter of the Italians hanging on grimly, waiting for the reinforcements and played the first two hours in exactly that manner. Once the reinforcements came on board however, I found that the Soviet artillery was strong enough to cause signficant morale loss and delay to keep the reinforcements from affecting the battle significantly. Certainly I could have had less powerful strikes or better morale rolls but in the end I feel that the reinforcements will rarely arrive at the front in large enough numbers to make a big difference in the result. What they did do, though, is take the artillery strikes away from the front lines for several turns which permitted the original defenders to recover and take matters into their own hands.

In the end, the Soviets did not control a single entrenchment and had been whittled down in the down sufficiently to permit a lodgement of Italians, thus denying them their victory condition. The game was very suspenseful and has a lot of extras in terms of the rules and the detail of the game. This is my first play of a Little Saturn scenario but it is completely identical in quality to Fronte Russo, which is a sterling supplement. I give this one a "4" with an edge towards a 5.