Fortress in the Snow - The Matrix Games version of East Front II

Velikiye Luki, 220km NW of Smolensk: [Best played as Allied] By mid December, 1942, The German defenders at Velikiye Luki had been surrounded by the Red Army and cut off from outside supplies for over a month. Several attempts to relieve the desperate defenders had failed. Inside the fortress were 7500 German troops under Lieutenant-Colonel von Sass, defending a front line of thirteen miles. They were elements of the 83rd Infantry Division reinforced, or had simply been joined by other units who found themselves inside the "fortress" after their retreat from the Russian onslaught. Having repulsed multiple attacks and with supplies nearly nonexistent the situation was becoming desperate! On the second day of Christmas the Soviets attacked again from the south and southwest with the 46th Guards Rifle Division and armored forces from the 45th and 92nd Tank Regiments.