I don't have time for an extensive AAR but.. The game was very close and unlikely die-roles changed things radically. In the end the four Soviet ATRs dug in within two hexes of the road prevented the Germans from winning. There were three left the last turn. two were taken care of but the last half-strength ATR rolled a snake eyes for a recovery role and was able to stay in place. Had it failed it would have retreated to more than two hexes away from the road and the Germans would have won.

Played face to face with my regular opponent Wayne Baumber and this took 2 sessions to complete. This was chosen randomly from EFD via a dice roll exercise. It requires the Germans to enter the board and basically clear the road of any Soviets. For their part, the Soviets are nicely dug in across it

This involved the 22nd Panzer Division, a dividion formed up allegedly of many other divisions cast offs. As a result, most battles involving these troops often display lower-moraled units. Today, they were to attempt to drive away Soviet forces that were covering the main road of advance, and for once, on the Crimean front, the Russians would have to face a Panzer Division.

The Red Army had deployed right across the road and were well dug-in. These troops were from the 400th Rifle Division and a company of powerful T34's from the 55th Tank Brigade. The Germans 38t's advanced with infantry support close by and set about clearing the first line of enemy strewn out along a kilometre plus. They would do this whilst staying out of the effective range of the enemy T34's. Initially, a couple of BT7's were knocked out with the other two of their comrades sent running away for cover. The attack on the infantry then started around 0900 hrs, and the first enemy casualties began to be inflicted circa 0915. Though casualties were inflicted regularly, it was a very slow and methodical process and the Germans were surprised that the Russians did not try anything offensively themselves. Instead, they stubbornly sat there and awaited there turn to be evicted, albeit under protest each time.

At one point, a few teams of infantry armed with ATR's revealed themselves at the edge of some wheatfields. These then loosed off some shots at the 38t's supporting the German infantry. Though the attack came as a surprise, for the Germans, it was fortunately unsuccessful. The 38t's turned on these hapless gunners, and began to quell them mercillesly, disposing of 3 platoons of them in pretty short order. After this, about 1045 there was a brief lull as the Germans began reforming themselves for another assualt on the dug-in line. Their casualties had been few, just 50 troopers, with the Soviet losses to this point about 125 men.

At 1130 hours the German attack was relaunched, and slowly and surely they grinded away at the enemy defences. However, the company of T34's dug-in on the hilltop inhibited the German tank movements and eventually, as the Panzer 38t's became embroiled in closer assaults, the T34's even began knocking out some of the German tanks. The attack continued for 2 hours, but as the afternoon passed, it became obvious that the defenders would not be dislodged on this day. Similarly, the Russians had shown no intent to drive off the attackers from the area and both sides settled for a stalemate. The battle would need to resume at a later point when one side or other perhaps received reinforcements. For today, the battle would be drawn. Final casualties, Germans 75 men and 6 tanks (9 step equivalents), Russians 380 men, 4 tanks (24 step equivalents)

Can this battle be won by either side ? With reasonable competent commanders, I would wager no side should lose this battle. Though a positive result seems hard to achieve, the battle itself is an interesting one. The Russian has no tank leaders and must therefore set them up in the best defensive position. I think Wayne did this in a place where they could command the field and ward off German tanks from getting too close. For the Germans, with very few infantry available, he must co-ordinate his tanks to work well with the infantry and be prepared to use their MG's and HE far more often than perhaps usual. This gets a 3 from me. A 2 might have been normal in such a no-win situation for each side, but the extra point was gained by the interest value

Dug in Red Army troops with T34 support have to hold the road, against good quality German infantry supported by Pz38t. To win the Germans have to clear the road, for the Soviets to win they have to keep clear Board 5 from German units. Both victories look hard for either player, and I set up to ensure I would at least hold the road with my infantry dug in under the guns of the leaderless T34's dug in on the hills behind them. I was going for the draw from turn one if an opportunity arose to take the battle to the Hun I would grasp it. It did not and although the German commander tried to whittle away my dug in troops and did push the first line back using long range MG fire from his tanks, he could not risk coming into normal range of the dug in RKKA tanks and this scenario kind of petered out into low odds shooting with neither of us wishing to risk much more.