Jay and I squared off in this monster deluxe scenario over the weekend. A roll of the dice give me the defending Germans.

Just looking at the OOBs this is a win/win no matter what side you get to play. You either get Fanatic SS (when they are in Himmler's House) lead by a 9-0 "Party Chief" (commissar). It is the kind of force you don't really start to worry about until till you get into the 3MC range. On the other side is a meaty late war Russian force with 3 infantry FTs and 2 FT OT-34s plus your assorted IS-2ms, DCs, MGs, etc. Lots of toys to play with.

The game begins with placing 8 rubble counters. Each side alternately places one counter and then checks for falling rubble. There is really only one no brainer spot to rubble as the Germans. It is the stairwell in the multi story building just across the Boulevard from the victory building. This pretty much forces the Russians to rubble the other two location to provide LOS from buildings further back. The other rubble is pretty much pick your poison with plenty of options to make the game different in multiple playings.

My plan was to harass the Russians on the German right (where the tanks enter) and fall back to the victory building. I was hoping to get one or two 658s and an 8-1 I had over there back to the building while sacrificing the 6+1 and a couple of 447s. It was working pretty well for the first 3 turns with an ISU-100 flaming from a PF shot and one of the IS-2ms immobilized from a 105 Deliberate IM shot. The 88L I had over there as well was causing his infantry fits and making his tanks cautious.

On the German left, I should have moved my 9-2 lead MG nest to the first level by turn 2 to harass the Russians swinging around the back side of the building. Instead I had him guarding the front door out of LOS but ready to hammer anyone coming through. He eventually moved to the first level and provided very effective fire against anyone who tried to move closer from my left. By this time my screen of infantry outside on the left was broken and running away. They never could make it back to the house because of skillful DMing and pushing by Jay.

About turn 4, Jays 9-1 MMGx2 machine gun nest went on a ROF tear and chewed up my 8-1 and 658sx2 stack on the German right. After it was all over I was left with a wounded 8-1 and a 348 both broken. This opened up the entire side and gave Jay a nice opportunity to press the assault on the house from 3 sides.

Flush with the success on the right side and having two OT-34s burning a hole in is pocket, Jay decided to make a move on the Victory building. Fate smiled on the Germans as Jay rolled the T-34s up to nice HD positions to help avoid the flurry of PF shots which would surely greet them. The bad news is those are bow mounted FTs so they could not add their nice 32 FP shots to the Russian attack. After far too many PF shots, I flamed both of the T-34s to remove that threat. I was also able to throw out all the Russians who tried to enter the front door except for one Berserker.

That guy really caused me problems by tying up my MG nest for a turn in CC. This allowed two FT toting squads and a few other friends to get into the building the next turn and forced me to abandon one of the stairwells. The one stairwell allowed free access to the upper levels. The next several turns saw wave after wave of Russians pour into the building and finally over whelm the Germans. I defended two of the stairwells very well but losing the third was one of the keys to Jay's victory. He was able to press from both the lower floor and the same level. This was just too much firepower for the Germans to stand up to even with 9 morale. They died to the man inside the building in the top of the 8th giving Jay the victory.

The German SAN of 6 really helps. It tied up several Russians squads for several turns in the beginning just acting as sniper bait near his MG nests. My sniper slept most of the mid game but woke up near the end to make Jay nervous on several occasions. Nothing bad happened but there was certainly potential.

On the "Bad Luck Side", I bet I killed 3 full squads by rolling 12 on a MC or Rally attempt. The "Party Chief" died to a 12 on a MC as well. I also had some untimely Berserkers to make life interesting.

On the "Good Luck Side", I created 2 heroes, battle hardened several squads and only broke one LMG because of ammo shortage. I had some nice ROF on several occasions as well.

In the end, as happens with larger scenarios, I don't think the dice were really in favor of either side.

All in all, it was a fun scenario. It was very close and could have gone either way. If you have an entire day, this is a good choice. Jay and I play fast and it still took us 11 hours. I was exhausted.

Walter "I did not want that dang hat anyway" Eardley

Jay's side of the story...

They died to the man (well one half squad was kept dm'ed outside so they were able to live), but they put up a heck of a fight. Walter started out by defending the house strong with HMG and MMG's set up to repulse all comers.

I decided to threaten a frontal assault for the first 3 turns while waiting for my flankers to get in position. Thanks to a rate of terror with my MMG stack, I was able to break Walter's SS on my right left flank overrun his positions using Russian tactics (throw more troops at him than he has shots left). None of Walter's men were able to make it out of that maelstrom of Russian steel. On my right flank, Walter was able to keep me broken and unable to mount an assault.

After some lucky shots on my turn 4 prep broke two of his four defenders in the front, I figured it was time to start the main assault. Well, to make a long story short, it wasn't the right time... Following three squads dying and a fourth berserk, it was looking grim, not to mention both my FT T-34s on fire!.

Well, every cloud has a silver lining, and the berserk squad was it. That bad boy survived all shots and was able to tie his ground floor MG nest up in CC for all of turn 5. That allowed me to get in the front with two FT's and about 5 squads, and my left flank was able to also get in thanks to a lucky CC. The ugly side was my right flank where his main MG nest continued to knock of Russian squads left and right.

Turns 6 through 8 saw swirling melees, Russians time and again shooting into melees, German point blank 36 FP shots, Russian FT shots as we battled along the stairwells. The key point in the final assault was the Russian ability to wrestle control of one stairwell from the Germans thanks to a combined two FT assault. This allowed me to get up to the first and second floors for a pincer attack on his big kill stacks. The last Germans fell on my CC phase of the last turn.

It was a brutal battle, and I would rate this scenario highly as there are multiple avenues of attack. The only drawback is the lack of placement options for the German 88L AA guns and 105 art pieces given all the paved roads and buildings.

Great game, Walter!

Jay "drained after that battle" Harms