This is the 6th of the NKVD scenarios I've played and they have acquitted themselves well throughout. In this case they must hold two towns and keep the Germans from exiting 10 steps. As in most of the NKVD scenarios, they have no HMG or mortar support, just some AT guns, light tanks, and some backup RKKA smg's to hold back s tough German infantry force with plentiful OBA and a company of StuG's.

The Germans advanced in two prongs, one to hit the northern town, one to act as blocking force to prevent reinforcements from the southern town from aiding their comrades to the north. A strong Soviet company from the south advanced to meet the blocking force and were wiped out. Things were looking up for the Germans as their assault force came to grips with the northern town, with two platoons of Soviet light tanks wiped out by AT guns.

Then a series of Soviet counter assaults tied up the Germans, who were unable to get a secure foothold in the town. The blocking force turned north to throw their weight in, but some good Soviet AT shots and a timely assault blunted this force as well. With no way to secure a path for their 10 steps (vulnerable arty and infantry in trucks), the Germans gave up after 2.5 hours. Major soviet victory.

This scenario was played against that well decorated veteran Alan Sawyer via Skype. I chose the scenario and he had the choice of sides. He took the Soviets,a wise move.This is a game of only 15 turns in which the Germans have to exit steps and take a single town hex along the way. However, and here is the crux the German player has to ensure he gets one of his 105 artillery off the board, the Soviet's have 3 X 10 OBDA which will be battering the trucks carrying the artillery plus on board Art and A/T guns to assist. Therefore is is going to take a lot of luck for the German to win this one. The victory conditions for the Soviet player need careful reading but in essence he has to keep a toehold in both town and inflict 10 German step losses. As the German player I went for the draw from the start, in fact I lost 1 105 very early on, which just underlined my comments above. I tried to take all of the southern town and not lose 15 steps. Alan had in fact misread the set up slightly so this gave me a head start but he recovered well and by halfway there was a tough tussle for the "target town" the Soviets losses were heavy but he Germans were also taking losses and each assault ended with the Germans disrupted or demoralized therefore having to recover before continuing the assault. Turn 12 was a major turning point as the Germans although inflicting even more losses on the Soviets also suffered several losses this turn, this meant that the German commander had to try and grab a toehold in the Northern town as it was looking likely that the Soviets would get their 15 steps. A quick flanking move followed by a devastating Artillery strike got the Germans into one hex of the town now all the Germans had to do was clear the Southern town. By the last turn all the hexes of that town were taken apart from one. A demorlaized reduced SMG unit still held out, the assault went in and rolled a M2, a six or more on the morale check would see the town cleared. would see the town cleared and the Germans grab a well earned draw, you could feel the tension across the Atlantic, but a five was rolled and the unit survived and then next impulse rallied so ensuring a Soviet minor victory. This was a blast to play and both of us enjoyed it.The lowish rating is only due to the difficulty the German player will have in trying to win this one.

This was a scenario played with Wayne Baumber who is a PG veteran. Wayne wrote up a nice AAR about this so I will refer to his for the details. I will add my impressions on the game. The Germans have a hard fight with the victory conditions as they are written. The Germans will need to get very vulnerable 105mm guns off the board to win. With the Soviet artillery they will have a hard time to get this done. The Soviet just need to pick off enough Germans to satisfy there victory conditions. Wayne made it interesting by scrapping away at the Soviets to get into the town and almost capture the other. Down to the last dice roll. Here is the link to Waynes AAR, good job...

http://www.pg-hq.com/after-action-reports.php?AAR=1974