A Soviet battalion supported by a company of KVs approaches a bridge held by a company of engineers who receive three batteries of 105s as reinforcements. The Soviets have a variable entry roll with the quickest being the least likely, the most exposed the most likely and the other hidden by a stretch of woods.

The Germans start out with only the bridge guard on board, a company of engineers supported by HMG, 20mm, and 37mm (fat lot of good they'll do against the KVs...) weapons. The Sovets ponderously move forward with the infantry conforming their "speed" with the slower KVs (no road) and HMGs. This gives the Germans the time to get the 105s on board and set up.

The Soviet leaders bring their units into contact and are immediately thrown back with disruptions and demoralizations. One assault does go in against an ENG platoon but after some German reinforcements is thrown back. Meanwhile the 105s manage to get some hits on the Soviet tank leader who demoralizes and removes himself from the scene.

At this point in the play it seems as though this will be a simple, straightforward German win with the Soviets never even getting a sniff of the bridge. Obivously something else happened...

The Germans had taken a bit of a risk to move some support to the assaulted hex in order to turn that back. This left a hole in the defensive ring around the bridge which a single Soviet INF platoon took advantage of. Despite ahving three separate M and M1 checks on the way with no leader present the INF made it to the bridge and survived two turns of 18+ assaults and ended the game on the bridge but not in control of it. The KVs which had been stranded could not advance but kept up a withering DF on the German HMG and 20mm eventually killing the German Colonel )a 10-2-2!) and decapitating the Germans towards the end of the game.

Honestly I don't see how the Soviets will win this one but my play of it was certainly entertaining. I give it a "3".

This was a refreshing change of pace - we played this scenario on an actual table at my home in 2 longish sessions. I was played the hapless Soviets, and the dauntless & stimulating, Sonora, played the ultimately successful German commander. We used the FOW, Smoke/illum, consolidation and excess initiative optional rules. There were 6, very disheartening, FOW-shortened turns in our 12-turn play-through. Together we threw SIXTEEN, combat 7-die rolls. the Germans drew a good set of leaders, the Soviet leader draw was awful.

This fight started out with the Bolsheviks getting the worst possible - most exposed - of the three potential entry points, where they were under fire from the get go. Another entry point might have turned this one into a slightly better opportunity for the Soviets. German artillery was deadly through out this fiasco. At times it looks like the Soviet KV-1 platoons might have been enough to ensure a win in combined arms attacks, but this was not to be. However, it was great fun using these mighty tanks to eliminate the nasty AT & AA guns that supported the German pioneer contingent at the doggone bridge. This was until all the German 105mm artillery units moved into range and began slowly decimating the Soviet infantry formations, stunning the heavy tanks, and killing their leaders. The vicinity of the bridge hex was hotly-contested for most of our play-through. There was very little room for maneuver and Russian converging attacks were repeatedly discombobulated. Both sides suffered senior leader decapitations during game turns 9-10, which provide a short-lived glimmer of hope for the Soviets. The Germans were too strong to overcome in the end. Call this one a hard-fought, but-well-played, German victory.

This one is simply too unbalanced for the Russian Commies to have a realistic chance of winning. I suggest that this is best played in SOLO and not in SHARED mode. It was fun to play face-to-face with a challenging opponent, but it only gets a generous 2, from me in shared play.