Author	t1M0t8yk
Method	Solo
Victor	Germany
Play Date	2012-03-23
Language	English
Scenario	EFDx024

Finally, after many years, the first scenario I will rate a 5. But even then the rating is qualified. While I really like what it offers, it was a really long slog.

I modified the victory conditions to provide a VP to the Soviets if they held all hexes of the town on board 1. Consequently both sides advanced carefully, mainly concerned about setting up favorable crossfires in the inevitable armor exchanges. The Reds sent the lumbering KVs well north of the board 1 town, and kept the T-34s near the town. The Germans sent the Pz IVs to the town and their longer-range tanks to square off with the KVs.

Eventually the armor fireworks started. The Germans gradually got the better of it, benefiting from their armor efficiency. It took a while but a path was cleared to close on the town with infantry and the Pz IVs, but of course by now the Soviets had a solid defense set up. As the assaults on the town defenses commenced it became clear the Germans lacked enough infantry in the mix to be decisive. As time was winding down they sent tanks exclusively into the two westernmost town hexes.

It was a very near thing, but the Germans finally prevailed, but only because they had a demoralized tank survive to prevent Soviet control of one town hex.

The Soviets moved onto the eastern board in three big groups: near the north edge 3 T-34 and 2 BT platoons, along with an HMG and five or so infantry; on the south edge, most of the artillery and a few light tanks; in the middle was the bulk of the infantry all of the T-26s and the heavy KV 1s & KV 2s.

The Germans seemed overly cautious early on and allowed the Soviets to get into the small city on the middle board. Eventually, the mortars were brought behind the city, the AT guns were moved into the city, and a number of infantry and light tanks rounded out the garrison. Soviet positions basically formed a line defined by three battle groups, one centered on board 8 around 0503 or so, one on the crossroad and one in the city.

In the center of the board, the Soviets initially dug in. But as the Germans drew closer, the Soviets slowly pulled back to stay out of assaults for the most part. The Germans took the bait, massed their tanks and infantry at the crossroads, and inflicted significant losses on the Soviet tankers- 16 Soviet step losses were accumulated in just two turns! However, by the time the Germans conceded, they had taken 26 step losses, mostly due to getting themselves caught in the AT crossfire that was allowed by pulling back the Soviet center, and even a few T-34s were completely behind the German positions.

played ftf with Wayne Baumber in August 2008

1100 hours - The Russian units advanced in three main blocks as the Germans sent out a couple of platoons of armoured cars. Unfortunately for these reconnaissance units, they went far too deep, driving right into and face to face with T34 and KV1's advancing along the main east-west road. Trying to escape, half of them were wiped out. Meanwhile, the German advance came mainly in one wedge further down the main road and passing through a nearby town. A collection of PzIII's and PzIV's headed forward to set up an armoured line to face their Russian adversaries. German infantry elements also advanced forward to the edge of the town.

As the Russians advanced, German artillery spotters found plenty of targets to bring their fire down on. At the same time, both sides armour jostled for position, and loosed off shots at each other. At such range of 1200-1500m, most fire proved inaccurate or ineffective, though a few Russian BT-7's suffered at the hands of the good ranged 50mm guns of the PzIII's.

Approximately 1245 hours, German armour made a bold en masse strike at the Soviet tanks. In the ensuing battle between the AFV's that lasted about an hour, some 64 Soviet vehicles were knocked out by the Panzers with a loss of just 16 Wehrmacht vehicles. Whilst Soviet losses were mainly armour, the German infantry also suffered 50 or so casualties and several hanomags. The German strikes though over the past hour had rendered any hope of a Soviet victory fruitless. But similarly, the loss of 24 Panzers and 75 troops over the morning and afternoon were a few more than the local German commander would have hoped for.

To retain their gains on the day and to build a launch pad for the following incursions, the Germans retired to a nearby town just to their rear. With nothing to lose now, the Soviet commander had other ideas for the Germans and continued pressing forward against them. He knew that the more casualties he inflicted on the invaders, the more tomorrows expected attack by them would be hampered. Therefore, the Soviet 1st Motorised Rifle Division now pushed forward toward the town. Using well aimed OBA, the Russians placed pressure on the retiring Germans , albeit at a rising cost in their own casualties. In their haste to reach the town, one particular German truck convoy was hit spot-on by the enemy OBA and suffered 50 casualties in the bombardment.

Around 1515 hours, satisfied that they had inflicted enough damage, the Soviets retired themselves. In all, the 4 hour plus battle had brought Russian casualties to a staggering 72 AFV's and around 230 infantrymen lost. German losses were 24 AFV's and 125 troops. This Soviet effort would not of course stop the German advance the next day, but for now, they had inflicted a check on their adversaries for the day but at a heavy cost to themselves. After the fierce fighting, the Soviets withdrew.

The OBA that crushed a truck with the infantrymen in it salvaged the draw for the Soviets and came late in the game. Up till then, the Germans looked as if a win was most attainable. Good scenario, we liked this one and I gave it a decent 4

Massing your tanks to clear the center and not worrying enough about your flank is bad news. The initial success of the attack led to over confidence and when the line of attack should have been reestablished to protect oneself from crossfire a continued assualt led to a disconnected attack that could not protect itself. Death occured at the crossroads where Soviet tank fire from the north, east and south took its toll.

This is a meeting engagement, which if I remember rightly played out exactly as per the conclusion writen in the scenario book. There was a sharp tank engagement which the Germans won and having eliminated sufficient steps to win the game the Germans withdrew to the town. The Soviets were really not in a position to mount an effective attack however a lucky artillery shot took out a truck carrying a platoon of inf. This managed to savalge a draw much to the German commanders disgust.

This is tough one, especially for Germany it seems. The German victory conditions are to control all town hexes OR eliminate 30 enemy steps. The Soviet VCs are to eliminate just 18 German steps regardless of how many town hexes are under their control. Both sides are somewhat evenly matched as far as armor goes; The Soviets have more tanks and even more with higher armor ratings but the German panzers are generally faster and all are efficient so it seems to balance out. Germany has the intiative advantage but the Soviets will be able to get into good defensive positions, occupy the smaller town on the central map and have time to dig-in other units before the Germans make any close contact with them; unless of course fog of war comes in to play early on.

The Germans advanced with caution and the panzers took advantage of the wooded areas to the north and the fields to the south whereas the Soviet tanks just ploughed forward eager to meet the Germans head on. The slower moving KV-1 and KV-2s entered from the central road with the T-34As screening their flanks. The BT-7s split up in the southern sector; half taking advantage of the smaller town supported by infantry and the other half digging-in adjacently. The Ba10M armored cars were to attempt get behind the panzers in the wooded areas to set-up crossfire and the T-26s slowly trailed behind off-road to eventually fill in gaps as an armored reserve. The lack of fog of war early on worked to the Soviet's advantage allowing ideal manuevering as their units were spread out quite a bit, covering a vast area with a wall of steel.

The Germans drew first blood by pinning down a stack of Soviet INF units advancing towards the smaller town with OBA. The Soviet stack becomes demoralized and before they can rally a second blast at 11:45/turn 4 eliminates a total of 3 INF steps and eliminates the Soviet Colonel in the process, immediately dropping the Soviet intiative down a notch and effectively halting the movement of a good deal of units within a 3-hex radius due to decapitation. This initial axis success is followed through with a good deal of Soviet armor churned into scrap metal especially with a platoon's worth of KV-2s eliminated and the remainder of those demoralized and sent fleeing the battlefield. Over half of the BT-7s that were dug-in or in the town were easily taken out but the mighty T-34As seemed unphased, even when taking losses. Three T-34 platoons took step losses but two were able to pass their morale checks and only one reduced unit was disrupted so when it was their turn to fire back their firepower was hardly affected and they gave as good as they got. The PzIVEs did not hold up so well on the receiving end, even with the cover of the wooded areas. The Germans reached their step loss victory requirements easy enough though at 13:15/turn 10 but now they found themselves overextended. The gaps in the Soviet armored line were timely filled by the T-26 reserves that had slowly followed behind. The Germans found their heads in a very bad place; many of their more formidable tanks were reduced and disrupted. A fighting withdraw was attempted but it was deemed futile as some units would have to be left behind to succumb to the hordes of Soviet foot units charging out of the smaller town. So at 13:45/turn 12 the Soviets had met their step loss victory requirements with the German forces retreating in sheer panic towards the larger town on the western map and the battle ends with a irreversable draw.

Had this battle continued on for much longer even more German units would of been eliminated in a senseless slaughter but the Soviets retired satisfied with their results and content with preserving their capable armored units to fight on another day. Though the scenario victory conditions deemed this one a draw the Soviets held the advantage and at least won a moral victory, even after losing their highest ranking officer early on. This scenario provides a very challenging tactical situation for the Germans as to how best to hit fast, hard and run. Perhaps only committing attacking units piecemeal would of worked better than to bring the entire German force out at once. I think this one would be more enjoyable in a shared match than played solitaire but like the challenge to it and give it a "3". I think with the large amount of forces involved that in many plays fog of war will be a huge factor but in this case it only occured twice in the course of 12 turns and only after the Soviets were able to get their masses into ideal locations

This is perhaps a rather weak scenario, although it looks promising on paper. It's basically a meeting engagement between mechanized forces, the Germans want to control towns and/or destroy lots of Soviets, the Soviets just want to destroy Germans but are better positioned to occupy a small town.

In my replay, the Soviets raced to occupy the small town with motorized infantry, while establishing a blocking force of infantry and armored cars to prevent the Germans from advancing into a position where they could attack the town. Their tanks followed up en masse to support the infantry positions.

The Germans sent armored cars ahead of a small infantry force to engage the Russian blocking force while a mechanized infantry company raced to get to the town the Russians had just occupied. They hoped, with their tanks close behind, to have enough strength to eject the Russian infantry from the town.

Instead, the German halftracks were caught by long range Soviet tank fire and wiped out. The Soviet tanks made it into position to support both the town and the blocking force. The German tanks were not quite in position, so they faced a choice: either drive headlong into massed Soviet tank fire or call off the attack. While it is pretty likely the Gerans could have acheived a draw by brawling with the Soviet tanks, it seemed like a poor choice in the broader operational/strategic picture: why throw away a tank battalion to achieve a draw? Better to live to fight another day. So I called the game after 6 turns!

I had high hopes for this scenario since it seemed like a nice combined arms battle, but the single road and the distances that needed to be covered turned it into more of a race then a general engagement. Since the Russians begin a little closer to the town over which both sides were intent on fighting, they were able to catch the german infantry, achieve their VC, gut the German initiative, and then have a great initiative advantage going into turn 7. Had the Germans chose to fight, they would take serious lumps for no t much chance of gain. Once the Russians won the race to the town, it was game over.