Another relatively small scenario, this one appealed to me because of the first use of the Tiger tank. Muddy conditions took the fun out of that. A company of infantry on foot with HMGs, 3 37mm AT guns and a 50mm AT gun, but transport for only 3 of the 4 meant an infantry unit dragging a 37mm and falling further and further behind, and all those guns and their wagons seemed good for was drawing fire. The Russians need to hold a large town, and have a batalion of troops with HMGs, ATRs and mortars, plus 2 45mm AT guns and a 76.2 gun, and can set up 2 entrenchments plus anything not in town or entrenched can set up dug in. I started with the Germans on the road, which gave them a little more speed than off the road, but not by much, tanks leading with the German captain leading the stack next in line, and placed the wagons with their AT guns in the column, with a flank guard element of an LT and SGT each with 2 infantry. Russians were set up with entrencments to either side of the road intersection, each with an HMG and one of the 45mm AT guns, and each with a leader. West of the western entrenchment I placed 2 dug-in infantry, one of which was one of the single step units in the order of battle, with no leader but adjacent to the entrencment to fall under that leader's influence, while the second similar dug in force with 3 steps of infantry, and the town fully occupied by the rest, with an AT rifle in the northernmost and southernmost town hexes, and the 76.2 gun with the last single step HMG in the eastern town hex. First blood was drawn when one of the 45mm ATs took out one step of the Pz III, demoralizing the remaining step and sending it running to the rear much of the rest of the game. The Tiger succeeded in moving off the road and was joined with an infantry/HMG force to attempt to assault and destroy the eastern entrenchment. The German arty had little impact but one turn of direct fire destroyed the Russian AT gun in that entrechment and reduced the HMG. The only serious Russian casualties then took place as the Germans succeeded in taking the entrenchment, but assaults toward the western enrenchnment started costing the Germans dearly, and at the end of 8 turns, the losses were 10 steps for the Germans to only 2 for the Russians, with most of the German infantry fleeing. Even the German commander had been killed by then, so fearing the loss of the Tiger in any unsupported assault, the Germans chose the better part of valor, to live to fight another day. I had chosen the German victory of eliminating 16 steps as I thought I had a much better chance of that than in taking the whole town, but came nowhere near achieving either result. Still, a good game.

The German player gets to choose their objective in this scenario. As the Russian doesn't know whether the Germans will be attacking the town or the troops themselves but they do know that the Tiger tanks are something new to be dealt with they deploy to maximize their ability to gain crossfire bonuses on the Tiger (their victory condition requires the elimination of the Tigers).

Since the conditions are for terrible mud the Tiger's movement factor is reduced to 2. This basically confines the Tiger to movement on the roads so I chose to go for control of the town as my victory condition. This would take the Tiger directly through the heavily targeted crossroads and into the face of the largest number of Soviet infantry which could attempt to assault the Tiger.

The scenario notes indicate that the actual loss of the Tigers in this battle was due to their foundering in the mud. Luckily, mine did not (there is a SSR for getting stuck) and advanced through the intersection. The sound of AT rounds bouncing off of armor must have been terrifying to the Soviets. The best shot they could muster was a minus one and that was only available on one turn as the Tigers motored on towards the town.

Once arriving at the town the Tigers stood off and started firing to reduce the morale of the defendes as the infantry came up. The Soviet captain in the town was a staunch defender of the Motherland and brought his troops out to menace the odd machines. A well placed DF attack demoralized his troops and resulted in another martyr for Communism. Now leaderless the potential attackers were quickly dispatched by DF and artillery fire. The infantry now moved in and with the help of the tanks chased the Soviets out of town.

All in all a very one sided affair. At first I thought that the choice of victory condition would hamper the solo play but the Soviets, without knowing the objective have to defend the town heavily which means that either objective will cause the Germans to attack the town in some fashion. I ended up destroying 17 steps despite the fact that my objective was to control the town.

If the Tiger had foundered in the mud this would have been a very different scenario as the Soviets would have been able to pursue an attack on the prostrate tanks. My play was more of a "2" but I give it a "3" for the might-have-beens.

Setup: The Soviets hold the town with all their units, with at least two units in each hex. The AT guns are as close to the Germans as possible. The Germans setup as close to the Soviets as well, choosing to go for sixteen step losses to win.

Play: The Germans move towards the town quickly but the mud rules slow them down and half the game is wasted just driving to the town. The Germans immediately assault and start to do damage the Soviets. The three guns go away quickly and the Soviets trade step losses for time, but the Soviets continue to lose steps at a quick rate.

But turn ten the first three town hexes are cleared and the Germans move into the next two, hoping to gain the three steps they need to win, but can only force two out of the Soviet defense, stopping short of sixteen by only one. The Tiger prototype is put to good use and does much damage to the Soviets.

Result: Soviet Victory.

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.

My local wargaming opponent and I played this one. The Soviets set up as far back as possible and made me (as the Germans) come to them. The special rule for mud made the going slow to say the least. I advanced slowly (not by choice mind you) toward the town but because of the distance I needed to travel before getting there it was many turns before we came close to combat, much less try to take a well defended town. In the end it appeared there just wasn't sufficient time for the Germans to accomplish their goal and the Soviets had a relatively easy win.