The Germans need to take towns, take hills and take on the Guards who defend them. The Guards do not have sufficient force to defend all the threatened areas and have to decide where and how to defend. The Guards do have substantial artillery but it is all on board and therefore subject to counterbattery fire. This means that the Germans can expect some slow motion advances early with improvement as these guns are knocked out.

My Germans decide to sweep the southern end of the field as the first step as the Soviets left only minimal force there to hold up the Germans. At the same time they are able to open fire on the Soviet artillery park taking out several of the guns.

The Germans after capturing the southern hills turn north, take the first village and come up against the second village and simply run out of gas. Too many units were disrupted or demoralized by the Soviet artillery early in the scenario and lagged behind the advance as a result. The assault on the second village was therefore done on the fly with whatever forces could be put together. These were insufficient to gain a result.

With more time, the Germans could have put together a strong attack but that is the reason there is a time limit on these things. If Citadel was to work, time was of the essence. It just wasn't on the Germans side in this one. I give it a "4", this is a tightly contested scenario and suited for any type of play.

This is a quick-playing scenario, particularly when the dice go as badly as they did for the SS in this play.

The Soviet Guards dug in on the hills and occupied the eastern town, leaving the western town open. The Germans entered in two groups, intending to attack the two larger hills and, once the hills were settled, either go for the smaller hill or the remaining town.

The Germans moved up to within three hexes of the dug-in Soviets, intending to soften them up while remaining outside the Direct Fire range of the Soviet infantry.

Unfortunately for the Germans, the dice went all the Soviets' way, and time pressure forced them to move up to the assault too soon. The German off-board artillery made no impression on the dug-in Soviets, and the Soviet artillery achieved several disruptions and demoralizations. The Germans recovered quickly, and moved up to assault the good-order troops on the hills. They survived the Opportunity Fire, but not the assault. The Soviets got First Fire due to being dug-in, and in two assault hexes, eliminated two steps of SS infantry and demoralized the lone StuG before the SS could attack.

From there it was all downhill for the Germans. The Soviets counterattacked, eliminating more infantry. The StuG failed its Recovery roll and fled the assault hex. The Soviet infantry then assaulted the Demoralized StuG and eliminated it. With the Soviets in firm command of both hills and nine SS step lost, the Germans gave up the game with one-third of the turns remaining.

I was really trying to win this one by coming on the board on either side of the hill. But the Russians just wouldn't budge and I just got careless- putting leaders in the wrong hex, pressing forward when I should have retreated, the usual mistakes you make when you get frustrated.

I don't even know if this one would have been any fun. It was over in about 7 turns.