Summary: The Germans (aided by some ridiculously good DRs) aggressively pushed forward to the victory building, capturing it during the CCPh on turn seven; Russian resistance was spirited but largely ineffective, aided greatly by the sniper and the German's boxcarred rally attempts.
The Germans (me) set up a killer stack of the 8-1, HMG, MMG, and two HS in the woods on the German left. Two commando squads with a FT, two DC and the 8-0 set up in the small building on the German right. Three 4-6-7's and the 9-1, with two LMG, set up in the triangular building one hexrow back to join the right flank attack. The rest formed in the middle, with the 10-2 and the remaining three commando squads (with toys) on the left, and the 7-0 ready for rally duty in the center.
The Russian setup was rather spread out, with no one actually in the victory building. Hex V4 looked like it had a leader, two squads and the MMG, with a backup squad in V5. A leader and a LMG in the crucial stone building on the Russian right seemed evident, along with other scattered squads in a "defense in depth" setup.
Turn 1 German Prep Fire phase was a Deusie. The killer stack attacked V4 with a vengeance, retaining rate several times, leaving a broken 8-0 (formerly 8-1) and conscript HS to escape during the rout phase. The center squads got into their assigned buildings, with ineffective Def. Fire from the Russian squads. One of the 5-2-7s in the complex broke and routed away, and the other one got engaged in CC. Unfortunately, we both gacked our rolls and ended up in Melee. The right flank troops got into the two-hex stone building unmolested, and stripped concealment from the squad in R7(?) during advancing fire.
The next several turns saw the Russians skulking and the Germans advancing, until a sniper attack killed the 8-0 on the right flank, and - guess what happened next - both squads stacked with him failed their LLMC. The sniper struck again, breaking one of the commando squads, which then subsequently lost half its men on a boxcarred rally attempt. As my opponent stated, "My most effective attacks have been during your rally phase, along with the sniper." I must have boxcarred a couple of times, but it was more than offset by snakes. The rally phase (and some morale checks) during the course of the game created a total of two new leaders, three heroes, several fanatic HS and a berserk squad.
During this time, the 9-0 Commissar ended up on the far right Russian flank (where he had run to rally a broken squad), with a road in between him and the victory building. I was looking forward to making some Commissarburger when he crossed the street, but patience and skillful moving on my opponent's part (plus my ineffective roll on my one good shot at him) enabled him to reach the victory building by turn 5.
By turn four, the right flank had mostly petered out, thanks to the sniper and squads who couldn't rally worth a darn, but the left and center were charging down the throats of the Russkies. Turn four saw the first breach blown in the victory building, (the corner behind V4) and turn five had a mass of Germans advance into V4 and V5, then pass the 2MC from Russian Prep Fire with only one pinned squad as a result. These crazy dice rolls enabled the Germans to enter the victory building in force. Several fun close-range firefights and CC's ensued, with victory coming to the Germans with the annihilation of the last Russian forces in the victory building during the turn seven CCPh.
It was a fun game, but my dice were pretty darn hot. I still feel like I don't know how to maneuver as well as I should, because whenever I'm the attacker I always seem to get some lucky breaks. Heck, who needs to learn how to maneuver when a berserk squad charges the enemy position, surviving all attacks against him, and causes the enemy squad to break during FPF? Both FT ended the game in functional order; the only weapon I broke was the captured Russian MMG, during my first attempt to turn it on its former owners. I'm sure my opponent (Hi Troy!) was less than enthused with this game, but it still came down to the wire. The weird thing is that I don't think I used any of the breaches I created. All my entry points were into vacant hexes. At least the DC's made a good distraction.
Greg Redeker