To round off my initial foray into Eastern Front (putting another system on the table tomorrow), I decided to do the last scenario in the book - the debut of the Tiger I. (After all, it's on the box cover!)

Setting up first, the Germans placed their foot troops as far forward as possible, on the western portion of the board, for the shortest path to the town. The tanks, followed by the towed ATG's, started on the central road. In response, the Soviets started most of their infantry in the town. The two ATG's, each accompanied by infantry, were placed along the east-west road near the middle of the board, and the 76.2mm was placed in the eastern woods, from where it could bombard until the panzers were in range and it could use its "5" ATG strength. Finally, at the road intersection at the center of the board, the two entrenchments were placed with 3 INF and one HMG between them - by holding the intersection, they would force the tanks to either attack them or go around them (with the added risk to the Tiger of becoming stuck in the mud.)

Greatly slowed by the mud, it took the Germans nearly half of the 12 turns to close on the village. The tanks reached the entrenchments more quickly, but as they started to blast away at the entrenched infantry, one of the 45mm ATG units reduced and demoralized the PZ-III. The 76.2mm was blasted away fairly early by OBA, while the western ATG was eventually a victim of assault and the eastern one held out to the end (with diminished impact once the Panzer III fled.)

As the second 90 minutes progressed, assaults in the town gradually cleared out a hex, but at game's end the Soviets still held 2 of 5, with two still under contention. At the entrenchments, the Tiger had been leery of entering the hexes, since assault was the only way the Russians could hurt it (plus leaving the road would slightly increase the chance of miring in the mud.) But once the PZ-III was chased away for multiple turns, the Tiger's DF wasn't enough to consistently damage the enemy infantry. Finally, on Turn 12, it entered the entrenchment versus a lone INF (no leader)...and promptly lost a step! This seemingly justified the previous reluctance to assault, since destruction of the Tiger is an automatic defeat.

The Russians lost 1 76.2mm, 1 45mm, 4 HMG, 1 wagon, and 2 INF steps - roughly half of what the Germans needed to win the casualty option - and still held much of the town. So even with one Tiger step surviving, the Germans still lost. (The Germans lost one 37mm ATG, one 81mm mortar, and one step each of INF, PZ-III and Tiger.)

This one is a tall order for the Germans. Slowed by mud, it does not appear that they have time enough to meet either victory condition. It may be that the Germans should be allowed to use either condition, rather than having to choose one of them. That still may not be enough.