Great video topic. Please continue to do the PanzerBlitz scenarios!!!

Trucks do not provide wrecks when destroyed. Only armor units do.

2 words: Overrun. The german A factors are counted at full value, and you get 1 col shift in your favor. Also the 'threat' of overrun means the russian will either have to move in large groups, or otherwise concentrate. Your overrun range is 7 hexes. the transport is key, kill those first. The germans have 3 stacks of armor that can attack at 2-1 against a open single infantry unit, shifts to 3-1. but watch out for close assault retaliations. BTW what did the gamer guide have to say about this scenario?

perfect analysis, including the satire with the victory conditions

nicely done!

Overrun is the Holy Grail of PB, and it is the rare or inexperienced player that will allow you an opportunity to make one!

Yep, this one is a tough nugget! For the Germans anyway, lol... My PzB partner and I have played this situation maybe 7ish times. I've usually been the Germans, at least 4 of our games. In situations with orthogonal victory conditions like this, we judge the degree of a win by the difference in level. So holding the Russians to a tactical W while getting a marginal W is roughly the same outcome as allowing the decisive W while getting a tactical W. My somewhat successful (never a win, only a draw iirc) German strategy is to seek and destroy the Russian AFV and the trucks, prioritized in that order. While doing this you can usually sow mayhem and confusion and pick off some units, primarily with overrun, but that's mostly just a threat to force the Russian player to stay in reaction mode. German units will perish, but the goal is to eliminate more Russian units in the process. As far as the "seek & destroy", it helps to have a local volume of units that can physically surround and trap (to then spot & kill) the AFV (especially when it hides against 1 or 2 green hexsides), but you've gotta watch out for the other Russian units (artillery & infantry) blowing a hole in your envelope that the AFV can zip out of. Dashing forward to threaten any commitment of the Russian artillery is essential. Now that I've blathered my two cents on this much-discussed topic, I will freely admit that I think my executions of this strategy have been wanting, but my partner and I are just getting back to S2 after a long hiatus and foray into S4 and then back again in S1. My Russian strategy: I like to launch the "sticky" regular/guards infantry (DF 16/18) forward on the AFV and the trucks (after releasing the latter by committing the artillery, usually to a "Gun Town" setup right there in Grabyosh at the north end of board 3), ferrying as many of them forward as quickly as possible. They're so hard to kill when in cover (unless they're somehow dispersed by lucky fire from the underpowered German artillery and enough German infantry platoons converge for a decent CAT attack) that getting one or two forward can be the long-and-slow version of the turn 9 or 10 dash with the AFV or a truck. And if they aren't killed by the German forces, they will consume German tempo keeping them disrupted to avoid the steady hex-at-a-time drip-drop toward hex row R. Finally, just generally: one thing I've found crucial to remember in this game, is that the result of an attack is modified by an additional -1 on a dispersed defending unit. This makes fire-then-CAT (or fire-then-overrun) a very powerful tactic, because when the defending unit is dispersed it's also already subject to elimination from a DD result. So a 1-2 CAT attack against a dispersed target in the open has a 50% chance of eliminating it outright. Put another way: the weakest attack ratio (1-4) against a dispersed target in the open has a 1/6 chance of eliminating the target! (A -2 result maps to the -1 entry of the next higher column. Can't recall where I saw this clarification, but I don't think it's in the rules-as-written.) Sorry, long comment. Probably better placed on BGG, lol... But I couldn't resist when y'all requested viewers' comments on the strategy for this situation, heh! Anyway, loving this series. I've actually never played S3 before, so I'm excited that it's coming next!

Thanks

Situation 2 is such a tease! I continue to puzzle over how to use the German's mobility to unlock a "killer" strategy. I am intrigued by trying to beat this scenario. And your vid has given me a fresh idea. Perhaps there is value in situation 2 as an exercise in psychology? The Russian player benefits from a cautious and deliberate play style, husbanding those precious few mobile units for a last minute dash. Slow and steady. The German can try to bait and trap, hook and jab, hoping to get the Russian player to make mistakes. I almost think the article does the game a disservice by painting such gloomy German prospects in evaluating situation 2. Of course I am probably kidding myself. Yeah, that is the appeal of situation 2 for me.

This is very much an asymmetrical scenario. It's possible that due to the age of the game the authors didn't have a lot game sources to draw from. Maybe they relied on actual military scenarios where sometimes, "Sorry, you're screwed." is the only answer. EDIT: Also, this could be a lesson in Soviet doctrine. They emphasized pushing forward along any axis of advance they could. Any road is a good one if you can advance along it. Even slow progress beats no progress. Casualties are inevitable plan accordingly and keep pushing.

What is the program you are using that has these classic AH games digitalized?

I haven't played this scenario myself but I have some thoughts for the German side even so. I think the key to this situation is on the "Situations Introduction" card. The key paragraph is as follows: "In many cases it is possible for both players to achieve a level of victory in the same game. In that case, the player with the higher level of victory is declared the winner. If both achieve the same level of victory, the game is declared a Draw. Players may concede a Decisive victory to an opponent before the game is actually over." So! What this tells us in this scenario is that there is no way to prevent the Russians from achieving their marginal victory condition. It's not happening. However, the German player can still win IF they achieve a marginal victory of their own (forcing a draw) or a tactical victory (which would be a win). That's probably deliberate on the game designer's part, to prevent the Germans from simply bunkering in order to hold the Russians in place. That causes a loss. The name of this game is MOBILE defense. Thus, the German player can't play a passive defensive position and grind out the clock. Instead, the German player must be aggressive and use local superiority to snipe vulnerable units as much as feasible. Kill the mobiles without which Russian decisive victory is impossible. Let the Russian infantry advance out of woods into open plain, get disorganized, where they can be overrun. Use the greater mobility to form hunting packs and smash up vulnerable formations. Don't try to block the Russians -- force them to retreat by eliminating their units, causing them to fall back and regroup. Combine attacks, setting them up with fire to disperse, then following up with close assault/overrun. That said, I don't see any way for a decisive victory to happen barring a very good German commander, a very bad Russian commander (say, your 6-year-old nephew) and a lot of very, very lucky die rolls. Even so, well played on both your parts!

Is my memory bad, or do trucks *NOT* leave wrecks? I though it was halftracks and armor only that left wrecks...?

I wonder if starting far forward,, then fighting a controlled retreat by the Germans would cause enough KIAs for a German victory and slow the Russian army down enough to avoid their victory conditions?

Are you guys playing this game on a computer? Is so how?

1:13 "in ten turns" i thought you were saying "in con ceivable"