The Soviets set up in the town as that is where everything hinged upon for victory. The Germans used the fields and one turn of smoke to close in strength, even though Soviet fire held up one company. The Germans set about assaulting the forward town hexes with infantry, disrupting or demoralizing the Soviet AT guns, holding the armor back. As the Soviet defenses crumbled, the armor entered the town, ending any chance of Soviet victory. Hard scenario for the Soviets to win, but doable.

What on paper looked to be easy pickings for the crack Grossdeutschland vs. lower morale RKKA forces, turned out to be a bit more of a challenge.

Not much subtlety here. As the Soviets had only one leader with an attack bonus, their major, they set up a series of dug-in strongpoints across the line of advance. The sides were anchored by ATR + 45mm ATGs (to keep back the German SPWs). A 2xHMG held the center with 2xRIFs two hexes away on either side. The town held the 76.2mm gun + 2xSMG and the remaining RIFs.

Russian artillery and mortars again proved distressingly (to the Germans) effective (i.e. they didn't seem to know how to roll 6-8's). The Germans were constantly making morale checks in addition to the usual challenges of having to advance against a dug-in opponent in open terrain. The savior for the Heer was Leutnant 10-2-2 holding of the Knight's Cross with Oakleaves and Swords. Until the last few turns, he was occupied mostly with rallying German troops frustrated with Russian artillery rather than leading assault charges.

On the other side of hill (plains) a brave Russian LT rallied his HMGs through several turns of German artillery and DF. Finally, though, his brave men cracked or were overwhelmed at the final assault.

Infiltration and reduction of the town occurred during the last three turns. The Germans didn't have a much time to soften things up as they might have liked, but bringing up the ENG platoon (which had stayed in the 20-m hills for "safety" until needed) and the panzers did the job. Some town hexes were still contested at game end, but the Germans had sufficient VPs to attain the victory.

Played this one in a single sitting, scenario has elements of the Grossdeutshland division carrying out a raid on a Soviet held town to draw other Soviet units away from the main battle. The German's have armour support for this task and higher morale and initiative than their Red Army opponents. The Russkies have set up some dug in outpost with 45mm A/T guns and ATR units supported by INF to delay and hopefully cause some casualties on the German forces. However the main German enemy is time they have only 12 turns to carry out the attack and will need to take part of the town at least to ensure a win. The German units enter the board from the south and mainly avoid a frontal assault by moving to the right flank and using the fields as cover against the 76.2mm guns in the town. These guns however were soon destroyed by accurate OBDA, the small Soviet outposts were overrun but did cause some disruptions to the attacking force and destroyed a SPW platoon. They had though delayed the German units enough to make the last hour of battle very exciting, the Germans troops did not have time to encircle the town and had to charge through some accurate Soviet machine gun fire before assaulting the garrison. As the assaults went in the Grenadiers started to incur casualties, by the end of the game not one town hex had been cleared of defenders and the German forces withdrew having inflicted many more casualties than they had taken but unable to claim a victory. Another exciting tussle going down to the last turn and on counting the VP's it transpired that there was only 1 VP in it not enough for any side to claim a win. In one town hex a reduced disrupted Soviet SMG still held out against overwhelming odds to deny a German win. Good scenario

Played solo.

A 12-turn urban assault scenario.

The German attackers have 8 SPW 251 and I believe they are the key to the success of failure of the operation. Get enough of them into assaulting the town and the Soviets will have a really hard time. Lose too many to the Soviet AT guns and the Germans may run out of time.

The first 57mm AT shot resulted in a SPW 251 kill. The Germans replied with their OBA and demoralized the gun (which never recovered). The second 45mm AT gun suffered the same fate after it also killed a SPW 251. With only the 76.2mm gun available, the Germans rushed forward. The 76.2mm reduced a panzer but never got another shot off afterwards.

The Germans quickly took control of 2 town hexes and contested 3 others. With the Germans ahead by 11 victory points, I decided to throw in the Soviet towel.

German major victory.

I rate this one a "3". It is the right size for Skype and would likely be a much more tense affair if the Germans OBA was not so lucky.

in this scenario a worn down battalion of RKKA infantry, boosted by the normal AT guns try to keep a battalion of Grenadiers mounted in SPWs and with tank and engineer support out of a town. The scenario is small in counters and turns so everything matters. The Soviets set up to deny the German armor (both the tanks and the SPWs which can be critical force multipliers) access to the town. The problem is that they have to set up and as usual, once in place they are hard to move.

The Germans work to flush out an AT gun in the fields to the SW of the town and notice that, once the fields are cleared, they will be able to put the bulk of the town between them and the AT guns. The town is terribly crowded with RKKA troops so moving the guns without exposing some of the town hexes to advantageous assault is troublesome for the Soviet player.

There are plenty of burning SPWs on the advance, however and the RKKA puts up a strong fight for the town with plenty of disruptions and demoralizations for the Germans (even the tanks which sucumb to DF morale checks (X results), leaving them open to a counterassault. The Soviet losses, however were substantially higher than the Germans and the resulting victory points leaned heavily towards the Germans once they contested enough town hexes.

This is a quick and fun scenario. Nothing terribly out of the ordinary and it leans towards the German player, just as happened in real life. I give it a "3" but as a quick Skype or ftf scenario it is well worth it. It plays fine solo but I think that it perfectly fits a single session shared play.