After playing a lot of FtF PG, I decided to play someone I can beat for a change. Why I decided though to play the biggest scenario (I think) in my collection is beyond me. A major brainstorm. However with Vasal at least you don't have to worry about storing the game and you can take your time. This one took three months to complete playing for an hour or so every day. The scenario depicts a major Soviet attack during Op Mars, objectives of the attack are to drive the Germans out of various towns and villages and inflict casualties. The scenario uses 9 maps and is 216 turns long taking place over three days in late November 42. The Red Army pushes onto board 12 to attack Bortniki and within the first hour have entered that town in forces, German units withdrawing however losses were heavy, with the Soviet commander having to take cover and reassess the situation (In game turns Lt Col DEM for several turn just and only just surviving German OBDA attention). The battle slowly moves eastward toward the small village of Palatkino, German reinforcements start arriving and three hours after the attack all the Soviet turn 1 units are actually on the board. While the Soviet forces regroup to launch a dual attack on Palatkino (Board 11) and Bruikhanvo (Board 10), the German commander pushes out volunteer FOO's to spot for the German artillery, this is successful in the terms of keeping casualties but soon all the FOO's are captured. The first two attacks on Palatkino are repulsed but by early evening a third attack under the cover of smoke succeeds. However the first push to Bruikhanvo is repulsed by the Stugs and Panzers reinforcements who had been rushed to the area. There was no a lull in the battle with Soviet units regrouping and the German forces digging in around Bruikhanvo. But during the night of 26/27th November the Red Army launches an all out assault on the Bruikhanvo and Plechanova (Board 19) while clearing out the final resistance in Palatkino. Illuminating flares light up the sky and chaos reigns for a while but this ill coordinated night attack peters out at about 0100 hours. The second day begins with the Russian commander concentrating on clearing the woods north of Briukhanovo prior to beginning the major assault on that town. This was a successful operation however a hasty assault on Plenchanvo was repulsed by two reduced Stugs. By 1000 on the second day the GD division had arrived and were being used to reinforce Plenchanvo and launch a counter attack if possible, the Soviet plan was to launch a two pronged attack on Briukhanvo and then plan a second night assault to take Plechanova. In essence the Soviet plan succeeded however it took 32 turns to take Briukhanvo, on the plus side losses eventually were about equal but it was very slow going even using the massive KV2 as a block buster. The night assault though was successful and as day dawned on the 28th November on GT171 both sides took stock. With taking four of the five objective town and putting 123 step losses the Soviet forces were now ahead in VPs and could take cover in the towns and await their final reinforcements. The German having inflicted 226 step losses could be proud of their efforts but were too weak to mount any attack to take one of the lost villages. Therefore a Soviet victory. I have rated this game a three, however during the game there were moments of great excitement and a real feel for operating large forces to gain certain objectives, but on the downside there were game turn specially at night where the only rolls being made were to rally troops and wait for FOW. In fact this game shows that FOW is such an important part of PG specially in large games that only the truly sadomasochistic would not play with Fog of War in a scenario of this size. This scenario is worth playing in many ways but boy its a bit of a slog.