Both sides approached the east-west road and a confused firefight broke out in both sets of woods. With the low morales both sides suffered from numerous disruptions and demoralizations. After a dozen turns the Germans had eliminated all but one Soviet HMG from north of the road while the Germans had only a pair of cavalry units and the infantry gun south of it. With three turns remaining the Germans eliminated the sole Soviet unit north of the road via an assault. At that point all Soviet units were either disrupted or demoralized and they couldn't mount any sort of organized offense before the game ended. The Germans held on for a minor victory in what turned out to be a very close scenario. A fun, close scenario but with both sides having such low morale, much of the game is spent trying to rally units and coax them into fighting.

Doc and I were looking for a small scenario in advance of our next team battle, and found this one. Forces slightly favoring Germany, victory conditions slightly favoring the Soviets, lousy morale on each side, and both sides get cavalry. Looked like a potential winner, so we threw it on the table. The Germans have the heavier force, eight cav, two MG, mortar and infantry gun, and better OBA. The German cav, with a range of two, is better suited for ranged combat than their Russian counterparts, but they have significantly less firepower per unit, three to five. The MGs are better than the Russian HMG, but not significantly. The Russians, having only six cavalry, are at a numbers and range disadvantage but a firepower advantage when at one hex or in assault. To make up for the smaller force structure the Russian victory conditions are easier; failure of either to win is a win for the Russian. Victory conditions are to have no enemy units on your side of the road without losing too many steps.

The Russians set up two hexes from the road with the HMGs and mortar in the woods forming the right flank. The cavalry set up on the left in open ground using the German side woods to hide any potential view. With a range of only one the cavalry are well designed to work in the woods, and the idea was to charge them across the road, infiltrate the woods, and avoid contact as long as possible, with the goal of surviving long enough to prevent the German victory conditions. The HMGs are fodder, and will fight Germans that cross the road, but their expendable unless the German kills off the cavalry, in which case they need to run across the road into the woods.

The Germans enter at the board sides, looking straight down the board beyond the edge of the woods. The Russian cav charges into the German woods, and moves the officer supporting the HMGs into a spotting position on the German left while staying hidden in the woods. Calling in arty on the cart-loaded mortars disrupts the German mortar unit, and its inability to recover will have a significant impact on the German strategy.

The Germans bring the MGs and two cav on the German right alongside the German woods and dig in, anchoring the German position and covering any Russian attempt to leave the woods. Assaulting them is probably suicide. The other six cav, supported by the field gun, cross the road and start chasing down the Russian HMGs. The Russian realizes the German is hell-bent on killing the HMGs, and is ignoring the Russian cavalry on the German side of the road. Four Russian cav appears to make threatening moves towards the German anchor, but never actually getting in sight. The Germans stay put, and the Russians continue to infest the woods. The other two cav act as a threat as well as a spotter against German mobile forces, and force the German to maneuver carefully against the HMGs.

The HMGs play a space for time game, slowly pulling back whenever the German sets up for an adjacent assault. The German is hesitant to charge due to what would be a terror of an opfire against poor morale units, and then be weak against a massive defensive assault fire. An attempt to call in adjacent arty by the German causes more damage to the German than the Russian. As time goes by, another adjacent arty finally shakes the morale of the cornered Russian, and the Germans go in. It starts bad for the German, but numbers eventually prevail. The HMGs and mortar will die, but Russian cav runs down the German mortars and guns for some vengeance. Killing the Russian HMGs takes too long though, and the German does not have enough time to push six Russian cavalry out of the woods. Neither side meets victory conditions, so the Russian wins.

I wasn’t sure whether to rate this as a three leaning towards a four, or a four leaning towards a three. Neither side has an easy time inflicting steps against the other, and that gets frustrating. Arty for both sides is a disruptor, not a killer. The German disrupted mortars really inhibited German arty attempts, and messed with German plans to disrupt the Russians. Hiding in the woods helps a lot, too. We had threats of cav on cav, but never an actual attack, so that was a little disappointing. But the cav units really flavored this scenario, and each side getting to use them was great. German concentration on their side of the board, using all forces rather than digging in, could have really changed the entire scenario. Overall I really enjoyed the scenario, a puzzle with enough units for each side to be active and attack some while running a defense, but only just. I decided to go with a four rating because we did have a good time, and it felt reasonably balanced with both sides sharing the same struggles and frustrations.

My opponent left for deployment the next week, but during the team event that followed he honored me for my successes as a Russian with an authentic Russian Guards insignia! I’ll be mounting it to a Russian WWII propaganda poster and hanging it in the game room! Thanks, Doc!! Looking forward to your return!

This first shot at a new book I got for Christmas, I had to find one of the shortest scenarios in the book. Interesting small action between SS and Soviet cavalry, the Germans are to control the area north of the east-west road and have less than 10 casualty steps, while the Russians need to have no Germans south of the east-west road and fewer than 6 casualty steps. This was a boxing match from about turn 4 after both sides maneuvered to contact, with 3 or 4 assaults going on at any turn between that and turn 18. Germans constantly took the worst of things but usually managed to recover while Soviets held their own in cavalry combat but lost all the leaders in charge of their base of fire, the two HMGs and the Mortars. Germans advanced into assaults with the Soviet HMGs, eliminated the Mortar and the LT there, but took casualties doing so. Soviets kept fleeing from actions north of the road, but usually bounced back, bringing back other units as they did, while SS started losing step after step and watched fleeing units run off the north end of the board. In the end, the Germans managed to hole the woods in the southeast corner but Soviets held an area in the large woods in the northwest and killed 12 steps of SS troops to a loss of 7. If the end of the game wasn't covered by German or Soviet conditions, it became a Soviet victory, so with Soviet troops north of the road and little the Germans could do about it, since most of their losses were their cavalry, it didn't matter that they had a foothold south of the road,it became a Soviet win. Excellent game.