I would have to put this scenario as being one of the best I have played with PG. A rather big statement, but very true. Mike Perryman has created a wonderful puzzle of a scenario. The forces and the victory conditions work very well together and highlight the major issues with controlling troops in PG, morale. In the scenario the Germans must hold a road and prevent the Soviet troops from controlling and moving off the west edge, but the Soviets must do this without suffering more than 16 step losses or demoralized troops at the end of the scenario. With Soviet morale at a sub-par 7/6 this will be tough. But the Germans are at a 2 to 1 deficit with troops, no AFV's and only a couple of mortars. This will make stopping the T-34's and troops very tense. Terrain is on the German side with a good amount of woods as well as deep snow so the Soviets will have to plan their action.

The setup has the Germans with a couple of INF's and LT's in the woods on board 15 to try to take some pot shots at the advancing Soviets. The bulk will be behind the woods on board 15 as well as at a major roadblock on board 6 in the woods. The German lone AT gun is hidden to be revealed later. The Soviets will advance up the road. Given the need to hold the road and the snow, they will need to concentrate they forces.

The Germans score a quick kill on an advancing HMG as the Soviets are moving on board. They soon close on the German and they pull back into the woods. Given that they could reappear the Soviets send INF's after them. They soon close on assaults with these pickets that will last the entire game due to good German leaders and poor Soviet morale never being able to kill the German units. Meanwhile Soviet units move up the road and discover another picket unit in the small woods to the north of board 15. Closing on them they discover the lone AT gun. The Soviets storm into the hex but are demoralized and a cycle of fresh units are brought in as the demoralized ones recover. But this is not as easy as it sounds as the low morale takes several turns to get them back to good order.

Soviet units that were demoralized coming up the road are "helped" by the Kommissar, but with his low morale the units reduced rather than recovered. Who's side are these Komissars on, one wonders. The Soviets also push around the south of the major woods on board 15 with INF and T-34's. They advance on the town to the south west of the woods but are hit by German OP fire demoralizing more troops. The T-34's are brought up but OP fire from the HMG disrupts and demoralizes the tanks. More recoveries, but even more of a worry these count toward VC's.

The Germans have not been fairing any better. Soviet OBA as been accurate with three kill strikes on INF and HMGs. Assaults take a toll on others and the pressure by the volume of Soviet troops keep the Germans pulling back. But they stay close to the road so that they can disrupt the flow of Soviet troops moving forward. German mortars get a chance to engage and score demoralization on many Soviet INF's with recoveries being slow.

The Soviets eventually work their way around the Germans on board 15 and move to attack the major roadblock on board 6. This will be tough as the Germans have two HMG's and the commanding Major dugin on the road, flanked by supporting INF's. The Soviets cover the area with OBA and mortar fire, disrupting and demoralizing some of Germans so that INF's can advance. With the help of the now lone T-34, the other remains demoralized throughout the game, assault the German position. Slowing reducing the hex, but the Major is able to keep a reduced HMG in the hex to deny the Soviets the road. But the Germans are very clever and peal out the locking assaults on board 15 making their way to the road and wind up with 3 road hexes controlled. The Soviet losses are high and there are several demoralized units left on the board. These conditions as well as failing to get any troops need the west edge, give the German a Major victory. But the German force is destroyed, out of the 11 INF's starting 4 remain with one being reduced, one a reduce HMG is left from the starting 3, and the mortars are reduced to 1. Of the German leaders four are killed or captured. With victories like this the Germans were going to "win" with nobody left.

In this scenario a horde of Soviets bear down on some scattered rear guard troops. The Soviets have to cause losses, avoid losses, exit units and control a road. The more of it they do the more likely they will win.

In my play the Soviets ran along the road and also around a large forest in order to take the town on the far side of the woods from behind. The Germans, with a morale advantage and truly awful Soviet leaders were able to cause significant losses on the Soviets with the result that the Soviets were looking at the need to both control the road and cause enough German losses to meet the need. Since they didn't have a morale advantage (and that there were no bonuses for RKKA early war combined arms) the Soviet tanks and a gaggle of infantry were able to exit the board and nail down that condition.

There wasn't anything elegant in the Soviet attack, it was simply a case of rolling into and over the defenders with waves of troops. The fact that the "exiters" were able to leave the board early and that the Soviets still had sufficient force to credibly challenge for the road control is a testament to the numerical superiority they had.

A minor victory was tantalizingly close for the Soviets but on the last turn of the scenario the Germans who were on the road were able to pass their morale check and deny the Soviets control of the road.

This is a finely balanced scenario based on my play. Anything that comes down to the final turn with both sides actively pursuing victory is a good one. I give it a "4".

This is classic Eastern front action, a small highly motivated German force has to slow the Russian Hordes to enable their comrades to escape and regroup off map. The Soviet's have tank support, OBDA and lots of leaders, the Germans have better morale, better leadership and better individual fire power. hey also have the weather on their side deep snow slowing the Soviet advance. VC are set German objectives, hold the road, inflict step losses and prevent Soviet forces moving to the west in significant numbers. The Red Army steadily advance along a broad front, pushing the German picket line back, and the early stage of the battle looks good for the Russians, no losses and almost halfway across the maps. Suddenly though German defence stiffens and losses begin to mount coupled with the Soviet command being disrupted by the terrain and weather. The Soviet tank force s pushes too far forward away from Infantry support and get ambushed by brave German troopers who over the course of the next hour first DEM and then destroy the entire Soviet tank forces, this coupled with the normal attrition from German mortar and direct fire push the Soviet losses over the 16 step limit. The Soviets could however still claim a win if they exit 16 steps and clear the east west road, the steps all INF were exited but the road remained in German hands with a German unit dug in every other hex for the last km of game board. The result was a German minor victory. ***A fighting withdrawal is one of the harder things to pull off in PG but this German kampgrupe did just that, the key is to be prepared to give up strong positions and fall back before the enemy get too close. Of course the snow and better morale helps as well. Good solid PG scenario ***