I had the opportunity to play Chuck Hammond in the scenario #48 "Double or Nothing" by CH. I ended up with the German side attacking across boards 2 and 18 in snow. I did have a powerful SS force with 2 tigers, 3 Pz IV's, halftracks and excellent leadership. Their job was to escort the on board infantry consisting of 4 squads and two leaders, with two AFV's off the east board edge. In addition, a truck column enters (but not in column) that is worth exit VP.
Now, the problem is the germans only have 8 turns to go across a bridge or a pontoon bridge (there is one of each on board 7) with the two AFV's from the at start force and the trucks. The at start infantry can actually cross the frozen river, but by SSR, any vehicle entering the river automatically falls through.
In all the german gets 11 SS squads, 4 1st line and one 468 to guard the bridge. A total of 7 halftracks and 8 AFV's, but only two of which are worth exit victory points.
The Russians get 12 afv's, 11 628's, and 11 447's. So the germans, while having some qualitative advantages, are outnumbered by a whole lot. And the defensive terrain for the Russians is very good.
The German player has to score more CVP than the russian player on top of exiting 27 or more points. After playing this scenario I finished with all the at start infantry exiting, that was 4 1st line, 8-1, 8-0, LMG and MMG. The SW are by SSR worth 1 VP. However, during the battle this force was effectively not fighting becuase I had to be careful with them not to take casualties, so for the most part, I just loaded them onto halftracks and drove them to the edge of the river, where they hiked across (while letting the SS punch a whole in the russian defense). The VC require greater than 26 points, I only got 13. Not even close. On top of that, I get VP for each 5 CVP over the number scored by the Russian player. The russian player scored 60, I scored 67. So my net total was only 15. However, I never did take either bridge, I simply could not get to it in time to clear the enemy tanks covering the bridges with aquistition.
After looking at the point totals, I added the numbers up, and even if I had not lost my two at start AFV's, and gotten them off the bridge I would not have won becuase that would have given me 26 (assuming the same CVP total). So, in order to win this scenario, the German player must get off his entire at start OB, or all of the truck column (which is 5 pts each and there are five) and score at least 6 more CVP than the russian player while being outnumbered almost 2:1 against a defender in hull down positions and wooden buildings on level 2.
One would think that maybe the Germans have the edge in leadership or SW. Well, in this scenario the germans have 6 LMG, the russian 5. The germans get 1 HMG, 2 MMG, while the Russians have 2 HMG and one MMG. Both sides have FT, but the German does have two DC. Each side gets an ATG. Both sides have 9-1 armor leaders. However, in the infantry leader department, the Germans have 10-2, 9-2, 9-1, 8-1, and 2x 8-0. The Russians have a 9-2, 9-1, 8-1, 3x 8-0. Not that much of a qualitive difference, and no quantitative advantage as one would expect in a east front battle.
Finally, although the german player does have two tiger I's, the overall quality of the german tanks over the russians is simple not that great. With KV-1s and t34M43, the Russians actually have a more manueverable force.
I am interested in hearing others comments about their playing of this scenario.
Brian Abela