This was another interesting battle from Road to Berlin. The Russian beat the Germans to the Bridge hex, but at night, the Germans were able to take advantage of the situation and basically destroy the Russians first force, pushing the small remnant into the woods with nothing to do but wait for reinforcement to arrive, as they were far too weak without them. Next the Germans went on an aggressive defense by placing armor far ahead into two forces, into two layers of ambush defensively, waiting on the Russian reinforcements. The Russian Reinforcements didn’t arrive until almost turn 0715/turn #37. Now visibility was up 8 hexes followed by 10 the next turn, perfect for the Germans plan. It was an armored battle but left the Russians with very little armor and only truck mounted Infantry to make it all the way across two boards, to attack a well defended town and some German armor still alive. No chance, I throw in the towel for the Russians with 7 turns left and the Germans to celebrated a major victory!

This was actually played out like two separate battles. I knew the Russians were in big trouble when the first group was ground up but when the first JS-2 from the second group was shot at the entry point by a couple platoons of Panther tank, it was a sign of the beginning of the end. I should have sent Infantry to assault them in the town hex first. My play as the Russian was poor and my dice rolls for the Germans was hot, as normally, I think the Russians would have the advantage here.

This scenario is a contested river crossing at night with T34/85s, Panthers and Russian Guards units. Sounds exciting, but its not. Both sides race for the bridge unhindered by fire as there is only one hex range to LOS. Whoever wins the second initiative will get to there first and if that is the Germans then the Soviet forces will struggle to win this game. If its the T34's then the Germans will struggle to win. In my FtF game the Red Army got to the bridge, the Germans counterattacked and although cleared the hex adjacent to the bridge suffered some losses, the Soviets in turn tried to move over the icy river with inf and HMG units and also suffered losses. Both sides then dug in, the Soviets to wait for 27 turns for their reinforcements the Germans to wait for the onslaught. We both looked at each other after about 5 turns and agreed that this was a boring way to spend a couple of hours and called it a draw. I note Vince has given this a 1, I give it a 2 rating because there may be some game play we both missed.

This was played against Wayne Baumber and for me at least, attains that rare score I hate giving of just 1 point !

I have little to say about it really other than that our game boiled down to whomever stuck their neck out in the dark would get blown to bits. Both sides tried it once and both sides got burnt.

Then, both sides dug-in seeing the futility in any attack, though the Germans did send some troops east across the river to block off the road against any future Soviet reinforcements, and that was about that.

The scenario demands 34 x 1 hex visibility night turns followed by just 14 slowly getting lighter turns. With a 1 hex distance of sight, it means any potential attacker will have to move adjacent to the enemy and take a shot or two at point blank range..... few peoples choice of the offence.

Made me think that maybe their should be a chance of unspotted night movement, say a 1-2 on a dice, but that enters the realms of changing per taste of player.

Anyway, with a complete Mexican stand-off, the game ended in a miserable and quite frankly, waste of time draw. Avoid unless playing solo and you are happy to throw one side to the lions !