This scenario is a very close relative of Scenario 7 depicting almost the same situation, with almost the same forces. A Guards unit approaches a German held town in the late afternoon and has to capture the town. The Guards only have 3 hours to cross a heavily snow covered open field, pierce the picket line, enter the town and clear the Germans. Barring insanely wonderful Soviet dice the task is impossible. What is not impossible, however, is a draw. To accomplish this the Soviets merely need to contest control in one town hex, an acheivable, but not simple goal (as you can tell from the German win in this scenario).

Two slight but significant differences in this scenario as compared to the first "From the March" are that we are fifteen minutes closer to total dark which gives the Soviets much greater ability to close with the town and get into a contested situation and the Guards enter slightly closer to the town enabling them to come to grips with the Germans earlier.

In this play the Soviets attempted to pierce the center of the German picket line but were too disordered after doing so to be able to sweep away the German reserves which were blocking entry to the town. On the next to last turn a good order Soviet force advanced to be adjacent to the town but were demoralized by opportunity fire, so as you can see this was a very close run victory for the Germans.

In addition, the Soviets almost pulled a draw off through eliminaing German steps. If they can cause 6 step losses they can pull a draw even if they don't enter the town. The Soviets caused 5 but were so spent from their 15 step losses that they didn't have sufficient power in any decent order to cause the Germans even one more step loss in the last two turns.

This was surprisingly close and the little improvements in the Soviet situation give it a greater playability than Scenario 7 so I give it a 3, not because the Soviets can win but because the Germans don't have a lock on it. The end game is quite frantic as the Soviet pursues the two possible draw conditions and the Germans attempt to block access to the town without exposing themselves to losses.

Again, the manic nature of the Mars Operation comes through strongly. The Soviet player must play desperately and recklessly to have a chance at the draw.

After playing scenario 7, we went to 8 and traded sides, this time I was the Soviets. This did not help the Soviet cause to take the village of Maloe Kropotovo. The Soviets still need to assault a heavily defended town without support weapons. The result was the same as scenario 7 a German victory. Although I did get a couple of more platoons close to the town, there was no chance of success. Historically correct, but that is about it.