Block Busting in Bokriusk - Combat Mission: Red Thunder

i can be tough for the Russians to get into the buildings wise use of AFV,s is a must . For the Germans stop the Russian AFV,s you stand a good chance of defending

I enjoyed this scenario enormously and would recommend it to everyone. My big mistake was allowing my armor to get wrapped up in a gunfight with Jeff's Marder. The Marder was well positioned, and I could not kill it without loss. My advice to anyone who plays the Russians is treating your armor like glass if you want to win. Thank you, Jeff, for a great game.

Played this as the SOT 12/2018. Small violent city clash. Germans defend against floods of angry Russians. We all know the limitations of urban combat with the x2 engine but this scenario works. Small scale urban warfare was fun to play.

I have a lot to write about this battle, but first I want to address how this particular one, with it's heavy urban flavour, exposed the weakness in the CM pathfinding system. IMO, the default move for a subunit ordered to enter a building SHOULD be from the friendly side, which is almost always the shortest distance to the nearest doorway into the building. I would probably be conservative in saying that 6-8 times in this battle, when I ordered a squad, to move into a section of a building, the squad would run past the nearest door, run around to the other side of the building in the open (in enemy sights) and get slaughtered. We all know this has been a continuing issue with CM, but never better illustrated than this close quarter urban battle. I hope someone with Battlefront connections may use this to hopefully get this fixed.

Now to the scenario proper. I am an ASL player, so immediately this scenario attracted my interest. Bravo to the creator for re-creating this one. Like no there, this CM battle is an excellent lesson in LOS (line of sight). There are precious few LOS in this battle. As the Russian player, I had a devil of a time trying to find and fire at Germans. There is so much intervening foliage and buildings, that forming a simple firebase was not going to happen. So if you want some experience in finding LOS, this battle will serve you well.

Without doubt, this scenario favours the Germans. I was very lucky to occupy a single building (building A) at battle end, and it was almost contested by the Germans at game end with a final charge. IMO, I believe the creator of the scenario should amend two things to correct this imbalance:
1) there are too many Germans in excellent cover in an excellent defensive position. The German platoons are currently 4 squads in size. I recommend that this be reduced to 3 squads each. I also recommend that either both AFVs be removed, or both ATGs, or one of each to make two anti-tank heavy weapons available instead of four.
2) adjust the victory points awarded. In order to bring the Russian AFVs into action effectively, they have to get in close, and this exposes them to 2 x ATGs, 2 x AFVs, several panzerschrecks, and scores of panzerfausts and grenades. Inevitably there will be Russian AFV casualties, and each one is worth so many victory points as to make this scenario extremely difficult for the Russian to win. I was lucky to occupy one building at game end, but this was not enough points to surpass the few AFV losses I had. I would recommend increasing the building points awarded and decreasing the Russian AFV points.

All that being said, this was one very entertaining fight! A tip for the Russian player - watch your ammo. Halfway through the battle I noticed that some squads had only grenades left to fight with, some MGs were empty, and one HQ unit had but a single pistol with 9 rounds! Ammo is always a factor, but the Russians in this battle will go through their meagre supply very quickly.
Thanks to my opponent for a hard fought draw and to the scenario creator for designing a battle that left scores of dead brown and grey pixeltruppen all over my map :)

Overall, a neat little battle and fun challenge. ChappyCanuck has provided a very detailed assessment that covers a lot of issues. How VPs are awarded is critical in this battle and one must remain cognizant of that objective regardless of what the narrative may say! I believe the following tweaks would also help balance this battle:
1) Change the supply from limited/scarce to full so that there is enough ammunition for the attacker to provide suppressive fire.
2) Add another 15 minutes time as clearing house to house requires patience and care if one is to avoid massive casualties.

A challenge for the Soviets but certainly not impossible. Requires careful use of their tanks. Also a scenario that highlights Soviet tanks' lack of smoke rounds. All in all an entertaining scenario for both sides.