The Soviet Army in Operation Mars is monstrous. It is, however a fragile thing as it is still relatively undermanned in officers. They have plenty of soldiers and by now their training has picked up but they are still lacking enough officers to make sure that they have the tactical flexibility to take advantage of situations that arise. Add in some deep snow and they have LOTS of problems.

The Luftwaffe forces are well aware of the problems that the Soviets face and liberally slam the Soviets with artillery as soon as the pull into view. The Soviets realize that a single thrust up the road will run into a roadblock so they send the larger part of their force cross country around to the west of the woods. After 2 hours or so the Soviets begin to come into range and it was at this point that both of the Captains became demoralized. This effectively stopped the advance as the remaining Lieutenants were too few and far between to manage the long string of disrupted and demoralized troops, trailing behind the front line units and still keep the front line moving towards the goal.

In the end the Soviets never got within two hexes of the town in good order and the Luftwaffe troops would have reached a major victory but for an early FOW on the next to last turn and a loss of initiative on the final turn. Still a clear minor vicotory was reached and the Soviets had taken some significant losses.

I find this one difficult for the Soviet to win but nevertheless it is fun to play to see the inflexibility of the Soviets (even Guards units) at this point in the war. I give it a "3" as it clearly leans towards the German player. This would be a good one for a training scenario for infantry fighting. Give the experienced player the Soviets.

Looking for a short scenario to test some defensive strategy, I found this one that looked interesting. German Luftwaffe troops defending a town in the midst of the Russian winter. The Soviets are looking to retake the town from the airmen, but have to overcome both the Germans and the weather. Deep snow impedes off road movement and reduce all foot movement by 1 point. This makes it very limiting for the Soviets and they need to stick to the north-south road. The Germans can create quite the defensive trap for them to slow if not stop them.

As for the forces involved the Germans INF troops are lower quality then regular army INF. With a fire power of 4 it will make them hard to stand up to the Soviet INF. The Germans have good support weapons including an 88mm AA gun. Although you will not use this against tanks, its bombardment factor will be useful. Mortars and OBA round out the arsenal. For the Soviets they have numbers. They have a good amount of INF and HMG, but lack SMG's which would be useful in the assaults in the woods. For support weapons they have 81mm mortars and OBA, but I don't see why they have 45mm AT guns as they have no direct fire capability and the Germans have no tanks. For both sides leaders were average with no great modifiers. The Soviets only had one with a morale bonus and the Germans had none. The was a few with fire power bonuses for both sides.

For the setup the Germans began in the woods on board 6 and the town on board 10. In the woods the Germans had HMG's and INF's setup in mutual supporting fire at the bend in the road with several supporting INF on the flanks. In the town the 88mm and 81mm mortars were setup to cover the advance from the woods on board 6 to the town as well as some reduced INF and the last HMG. Leaders were disrupted in the woods and the town to provide command and control.

The Soviets advanced up the road and to its sides. The deep snow really limited there movement. HMG's could barely more one hex per turn off the road. The Germans had a nice trap of Op fire from the woods. Several Soviet INF's disrupted and demoralized as the troops moved forward. Diving into the woods the shaken troops looked to recover. Soviet OBA started on the German HMG's in the woods and soon they were disrupted too. German leaders used their OBA and 88mm effectively to demoralized the Soviet troops. Several Soviet step losses were from double demoralization. But the lone Soviet leader with a morale bonus move to take control of the shaken troops and slowing returned them to good order. Meanwhile, Soviet HMG's took positions in the woods to provide fire on the German positions. After scoring step losses and M2's the Germans were fleeing into the woods. The Soviets could not followup as their INF's were still recovering. Eventually, the Soviets pulled enough troops together to charge the German position. At that point the Germans moved back into the woods.

But time is not on the Soviets side, after clearing the German positions they had already gone through 13 turns of the scenario. They would need to at least clear board 6 of Germans and advance up the road to the outskirts of the town. But the Soviet force was scattered and weary from the initial attack. Lead elements made it up the road but were stopped by the 88mm and the defenders in the town. Scattered German troops in the woods had the Soviet hunting them down, but in the end the Soviets did not achieve the objective of the town and the Germans were able to keep troops on board 6 to win a major victory.

I gave this one a lower rating because I feel as a game scenario it is unbalanced and requires a very skillful player as the Soviets. The limited maneuvering will have the Soviets needing to advance up the road in all plays so it will play the same every time. For the forces, I believe that it could be better with SMG's instead of the useless 45mm AT guns. Even the Germans have a 50mm AT that was never used. I understand that these units would have them as equipment, but from a game perspective I would leave them out. Last point to make is that from a purely historical perspective the scenario is true to form, but beyond that it will not be interesting to play again.