The first combat in our play through… lets try and get it right.

The Village of Pisarivka is situated South South West of Cherkassy it is defended by the German 1/394th Regiment on Jan 26th 1944. The 394th is supported by Trn/6 & 2/6 also from 3rd Pzr. The Soviet heavy [special]barrage drops on them, which is the combined weight of several Regimental and Battalion level assets. It will play its role as we go through this combat.

The Soviet 25th Gd 1st Gd Airborne and 68th Gd support by 1,2,3/33rd AT guns launch their assault into the village.

Some forces use the barrage as cover to cross the stream on the East flank.

The Soviet atk’s turn 1 are all supplied/supported. The defender allocates regimental arty support, which pales in comparison to the massive barrage from 53rd Army.
Notable that the Terrain halves the 68th Gd crossing the stream, and the village boosts the German defense by 2 strength pts.

The ZOC [Zone of Control] rules further impact the Soviet attack. As the German 39th Engineer Bn is in an Improved Position and is not attacked by 189th Tank or the Airborne 1st Gd, this means that it halves units attacking adjacent, the same effect on the right flank also!!

No armor combat takes place but the Germans receive a -1L odds adjustment for their armor that is present and the use of their sole air formation assets for the turn. This nets them 2 shifts to the left total.

The arty table automatically provides a 3 to the right result for the Soviet special barrage reduced one by the German arty result as they roll a 2 [+1 for special Soviet barrage, a malus against them] net 3 die roll, resulting in a -1L result. The Soviet barrage is thus reduced to just 2 odd shift to the right after Arty. The odds shifts cancel out each other when considered in the aggregate [allowing for Armor & Air].

This leaves the Soviets with 40 combat factors versus 15 or 2.6:1… i.e.  just 2:1.

 

Its notable that the Soviets lost 27% of their attack strength due to river and ZoC rule power adjustments. We will need to keep this in mind for future turns, and combats.

Let’s roll the dice: 7…….exactly Average!!!!

The result is 1/1. One loss per side.

The Soviets rotate their strongest unit from 20 to 16 factors, a net 4 loss. The Germans rotate theirs [ 1st loss is always the strongest unit] so they lose 4 combat factors so also do the Germans on their step rotation from 8 down to 4.
No retreats. The Germans also take a disorganized result for the mega barrage by the Soviets.
But what if…?
What if we soaked off on either or both flanks?
I did the math and die rolls on the alternate approach also:

The tank and AT Gun attack on the left flank where the IP with the Engineers is, ends up it’s a 1:1 attack. Both sides lose a step. On the right the next stack along attacks this time only managing a at 1:2 attack across the stream…also earning a 1/1 result.  Am I receiving an early indication of a meat-grinder ?! 🙂

So which approach would be better in your view?

Minimize losses and chip away, or go 3 losses and knock off 3 steps on the Germans?

Edit – Plus are we forcing supply expenditure upon the Germans to use support [Arty]!!