boersma8 (Apr 14, 2011)
Soloed this scenario (partially) yesterday. the good news is it seems balanced! Soviet deployment is crucial. I spread them out too much, I think and as it turned out I had my three tanks shoot at the German PAK40 using combined fire at long range (unintentionally). I should have placed them one hex further along the road and I would have had normal range shots (PAK set up on hill hex with the entrenchment). I rolled 16 dice and rolled only one "6". Even this one was negated with the red cover dice. Perhaps combined fire was the wrong choice here, but seeing that it's the only threat to the Russian tanks at medium and long range I felt it essential to take it out. This way I fatigued three of my tanks only to have one killed by the PAK outright (5 hits). This went on for a while: the Germans scored 2+ hits every time they attacked any Russian unit and the Russians only killed 2 or 3 German infantry in total. I think the first German casualty didn't fall until round 2 actually. Nevertheless, even with this horrible start for the Russians, the scenario still seemed winable: I concentrated on the neutral objective with I finally took and held with three (badly mauled) squads. This was eesential as the Russian only get reinforcements if they hold this neutral objective. Since these are quite substantial, it could just give the Russians that extra boost they really needed. Unfortunately, I had to break off my solo session at this point, but it was encouraging that even with extreme die results and some bad initial decisions on the Russians'part regarding deployment ( I guess it's better to concentrate all your forces on one side and take one objective at a time than to split your forces and basically not have a numerical superiority over the Germans on either side, really), the scenario still seemed winable for the Russians. Even with a better deployment, it certainly doesn't seem impossible to hold on for the Germans just long enough to win the scenario.
Good, fast-playing and close scenario!
