The German 3 Tiger II platoonshad a very tough mission. They were outnumbered and outgunned by sheer numbers. The Germans gave a good fight, but at the end of the battle, they were swamped and destroyed. Soviet victory.

This is a historical scenario that makes you scratch your head and wonder why the Germans abandoned their own doctorine. Heavy Tiger II tanks are sent into attack against cavalry with AT Guns. The Germans must eliminate units then leave the board. The Tigers are in no condition to meet these goals. First, morale and initiative are low. The Soviets will get the first move in the beginning and most of the scenario, which will make it tough on the Germans. The Soviets just need to keep there AT alive to kill 3 steps. In my play the Soviets were able to get a long range kill with the 85mm, then as they moved closer the cavalry tied up the tanks and the AT's just kept firing eventually two more kills were achived.

In the end the Germans have little chance from a good Soviet defense, although this is good to see that these tanks were never really an offensive weapon like Hitler wanted.

10 or so King Tigers (5 steps) are sent to "run" through a battalion of Soviet cavalry adequately equipped with AT support (including an 85mm). They have no infantry support and incredibly low morale (6/6). Added to that is the fact that they virtually have to move into a position to permit a long range crossfire which can actually end up giving the Soviets one shot per turn with a +1 modifier.

In my play six of the Tigers were destroyed by turn 9 and the remaining tanks decided to use the rule for honor satisfied and pursued a "retrograde advance".

This scenario is a great example of why combined arms were necessary. The King tigers are certainly impressive weapons but they can't do everything and in this case they couldn't even breach the Soviet line before the losses were too significant and forced a retirement.

I give it a "2" for the example but the play was uninspiring.

It looked kind of intresting. Tiger 2s V Cav. Oh and some Russian off board artillery. Well its not intresting. The German player has to exit of the board and eliminate a soviet step. A tough ask and Vince managed to kill some of my A/T guns due to an error on my part. My role was keeping the Cavalry intact and hoping to get a morale check on the Tigers with the artillery. I rolled double one with my off board my cavalry charged out the swamps and swarmed the tanks and thats all she wrote. I was bored, my opponent was bored and I think even my cat who sat watching was bored!

Unlike most of the scenarios I play, I will not leave a battle AAR in the normal sense, but more my thoughts on this scenario.

Balance is not so much a factor for my ftf opponent and I, AS LONG as the historicity of the scenario is interesting and provides for exciting and stimulating gameplay. I only award a 1 rating (lowest) to scenarios that are unbalanced AND boring.

Any new players to the game I absolutely recommend that you DO NOT play this as one of the first up games. You will totally miss the depth and richness of the system.

This sets 5 steps of King Tigers, with only a 6 morale against a regiment of cavalry, an array of ordnance (albeit mostly ineffective unless a crossfire is achieved) and 16 pts of OBA. The tanks are to try and either get off the edge of the board or destroy up to 6 or 10 steps of the enemy. I had no intention of getting off the board as the Germans as they would never make it. The reason being is that they have an initiative of 1 and the Soviets 3. This means if you advance too close before the cavalry move, they will then have a chance to attack AND follow it up next turn by the more than likely event that they win the initiative again.

All went well until turn 8. Unfortunately, the OBA rolled double 1 and forced morale checks against the 6 rating. This demoralised and disrupted allowing a window of opportunity for the Soviet cavalry to pounce. The Tigers still took out 5 steps of cavalry but were soon swamped in assault. Having knocked out some ordnance earlier,the Tigers gained a level of 'minor victory', but getting wiped out gave the Soviets a 'major victory'.

Poor scenario, little in the way of options for the Germans to take and woe betide if the OBA comes up 'snake-eyes'