First time setting up and playing Situation #9.
At first glance, this looks like a stupendous force mismatch. The Russians have basically juggernaut strength, and the Germans have very little mobility. The Russians have so many units, I don't really know what to do with them.
On the other hand, every unit they don't exit from the west side of the battlefield is counted as a loss, i.e., equivalent to a German kill.
Technically, it looks like a Russian motorized regiment against a German infantry battalion.
As usual, the first time I set up a scenario, I get horrible analysis-paralysis. Sometimes it takes me hours. This is fine when I'm playing solo, except it's a bit aggravating, because I'd like to get the game play moving. Worse, I'm playing a copy which hasn't yet been trimmed or rounded, so I'm wasting time trimming and rounding counters instead of just playing the damn game.
The Germans don't really know where the Russians are going to come in, which makes setting up really hard. The best the Germans can do is lay in the blocks at the north and south end of the map, and sprinkle a few blocks and mines in between to attempt to channel the Russians around Hill 132, while putting enough force on Hill 132 to put up a fight.
Because this scenario is going to come down to a fight, there is no doubt of that.
German force has a couple of stacks of infantry on Hill 129, some stacks down in the woods on the south side, and everything else on Hill 132. The big mortars are mounted, and on the road on the north end of Hill 132.
This looks so ugly.
I'd like to get pictures of these setups and early turns, but the iphone camera is the wrong tool for the job, and I don't feel like dealing with Vassal to acquire screenshots. Bummer. I'll have to explain as best I can.
Russian moves first. The plan is to charge directly up Hill 132 and just wipe all the Germans out.
Armor is going straight across the map towards Bednost, with the engineers attempting to disable the mines in the road.
Halftracks with guards companies are swinging a kilometer south and will drop off infantry for taking on Bednost.
4 infantry units are unmounted and will proceed in from the east for later pickup by truck or track. Some artillery will get dumped along way to make this pickup. On later thought, it may turn out better just to leave four useless unit (ATG primarily) and get the combat capable units in play as fast as possible.
The remaining trucks are on the map and swung out along the north-south road between Grabyosh and Opustschenia, which will let them move very quickly once the road is cleared.
One of the nice things about this scenario, from the German perspective, is there aren't many units to push around, so much less AP.
German move: not much to do, shift some units around and try to get positions favorable to killing Russians when they arrive.
I'm thinking that the initial set up for the Germans should have been such that they could pound away at the incoming column of trucks, instead of positioning further back in wait. The Russians would have no defense on their first turn.
Anyway, that was quick.
Russian move up guards units and dismount from halftracks, which retreat to covered positions. Trucks are moved up along road. Tanks go after isolated German infantry with an intent on utter destruction. The mines were not cleared.
German gets first blood, picking off a truck transporting 12.7mm flak unit. Otherwise, Germans need to avoid fighting. Remember that Russian victory conditions require killing a bunch of Germans. Dispersed a guards unit in the woods which was threatening the ATG (which is probably lost anyway).
Mine is still not cleared from road east of Hill 132. This is not a huge problem, but it would be nice to have the raod completely clear.
SU-152 wipe out a German infantry platoon which got caught out. Lots more positioning, guards units are dropped off near Bednost; the German ATG is taken out.
I can see why opportunity fire is important. With opp fire, I would have blown up at least one of these trucks carrying guards infantry.
Germans pick off another transport. The light howitzers are in the process of moving back to Hill 135 in the hopes of picking off a few more trucks as they cross Hill 132.
Mines still aren't cleared. This is just bad dice rolling now. Another German infantry platoon taken out. Big score on Bednost: close assault at 1:1 dispersed a stack of infantry with 2 engineers units. That really hurts the Germans.
Germans picked off another transport, halftrack with guards this time.
Score: Germans 6, Russians 3. Expect this to change pretty rapidly.
Mines are finally cleared!
Now to clear Bednost of those pesky fascists. SU-76 and a guards unit takes out mortar (ouch!) and infantry unit in Bednost.
Germans suddendly remember that infantry can use direct fire on truck, and that there are a couple of mortars down at the south side which can also pester trucks. Good to know, and worth a couple more truck kills.
Score: Germans 11, Russians 5.
Bednost is 2/3 clear on direct fire. Trucks and tracks moving up. Another lucky shot on the remaining Germans in Bednost: roll 2 on CAT, dispersed.
German 75mm H picked off another truck. That was one the Russians didn't see, as they were hiding from the 120mm on Hill 129.
Score: Germans 13, Russians 8.
Bednost is finally clear on the CAT at 2:1 with Russian engineers. Direct fire from the SU-152 had that stack dispersed already, but rolling a 1 in PanzerBlitz is always helpful. Now it's a matter of really getting everything possible off the map, and killing another 7 Germans without allowing more than 6 units behind.
Germans don't have any firepower to speak of, now it's all about just surviving. One good way is to force the Germans to move to get good shots.
Score: Germans 13, Russians 13.
Russians kind of in a bind, they have to kill 7 more and get a lot of units off the board to get a marginal victory.
Germans are staying put this turn to force the Russians to to chase.
Score: Germans 13, Russians 13; 14 units off board.
Russians attempt a 1:2 direct fire on stack of German infantry, roll 6, whiff. That stings, but probably making up for really good rolls earlier. Really sucks because the follow up CAT was a DD. Bummer. The Russians are going to lose this.
Germans sitting tight.
Score: Germans 13, Russians 15; 25 units off board.
Another Russian direct attempt at 1:2, got the dispersal!
Germans can't make any kills, game over.
Score: Germans 13, Russians 18; 32 units off board, 13 units left on the board.
Final score: Germans 26, Russians 18, marginal German victory.
This scenario sat on the table three full days before I was able to get the energy to work through it. It just seemed way too imbalanced.
But it turns to be really hard to dislodge all the Germans, and really hard to hide all those trucks, which have to get across the map as fast as possible.
This scenario seems fairly well-balanced to me.
Here are a couple of suggestions for handicapping:
Add more mines and blocks for the Germans.
Russians: Everything at Bednost needing to leave needs to be mounted by the end of Turn 8, or it's not going to get off the map.