Played the CH republish of this ASL News Scenario (can anyone tell me if it is substantially different than the OAF scenario of the same name?) as the Germans. The play is set mostly in the familiar board 10 village (Historical note: Zjitomir is on the road to Kiev, and is a city in it's own right. In 1943 it had a population of 95,000 people.) with the Germans driving up on motorcycles, hopping off and invading. The German VC are to control 5 of the 6 multihex buildings. The Russian defensive force is a mixed bag of conscripts and first line troops, with a low ELR.
The obvious German plan is probably the best one: to attack through the woods of board 17 in the rows H..M area. The Russian will be tempted to put his MMG in 10V7, which is not a bad place for it because it prevents easy access to the town up the 10I1..U7 road and also can firelane through 10V1. It should fall back, however, to the 10Z6 building for the final defense. The Russian defense will probably center on two buildings. 10DD5 and 10Z6 are good choices, although a case could be made for 10V7. I don't like it as much, though; it's too exposed. Most of my German force drove into the 17H..M area, but four squads went to the 10R7 cluster of buildings to keep my opponent from shifting toward my main attack, to attack the 10V7 building, and to interdict as much as possible down the 10V6 street.
The Russian force tends to break and/or ELR at the drop of a grenade, so expect to use all your building control sleazes: routing upstairs, re-entering a building in which a melee is in progress, driving into a building with an AFV, spreading out into multiple Locations, etc. The Russian goal is to maintain control over two building Locations, that's all. Also remember that units separated by a rowhouse blackbar can't firegroup, so consider setting up on ground and first level to firegroup.
The Germans have six and a half turns, which means they have to move along at a fair clip, but are not frantic for time. The T26's are more an annoyance than anything else because they have no MGs. I blew up one with an ATR, and the other died in CC (in the last victory building). You can drive right up to them with your ATG & Kubelwagen and unload without being hit (double small, moving, BU firer), but even if your 37mm is hit, it's not the loss of the game.
Overall, a nice little scenario. There aren't enough results to determine if it is balanced, but if it is, it will make a nice little tournament scenario: not too long and not too hard to figure out in a few minutes.
JR