So Martin and I put aside a day to get through this one, after deciding Storming the Station was a touch too big. We're not particularly quick players, so although the 12 hour archive estimate looked big, we thought we might get it done a little quicker.

We both hadn't played anything from this pack nor Red Barricades, so we were as new to Stalingrad as each other.

I took the attacking Germans, and came on from pretty much all sides.

My plan was to hit the univerisity (top most strongpoint) with the bombardment as that might hold the key to his defence, and perhaps take out the 10-2 which would prove to be the keystone of the Russian army.

The bombardment was largely ineffective, rubbling one hex and breaking one unit as shown above. It was left to the men on the ground to do the rest.

The Germans get absolutely loads of stuff to get the job done. Flamethrowers, DCs, 6 Stugs and more leaders than I knew what to do with (they were frequently seen grabbing DCs from fallen comrades and lugging them back to the frontline, usually via the RtPh!) - the catch is they have to take 12 of the multihex buildings (some are worth more than others) without losing 50CVP.

The CVP didn't even register with me to begin with. I figured the Stugs were safe provided I didn't risk them in CC (the 2 45L guns will kill on a 3, generally) and it would be more of a problem to get the Russians out of those strongpoints.

The railway fell quickly thanks to a combination of the Germans stumbling into the pillbox (not shown on the image due to our mistake) from behind its CA and a rules error. A critical hit from a stug (24 down 5 we played it as, although I can't say for sure that was the right way to do it) cleared it out fairly quickly. The rules error meant we'd forgotten about the fortified ground locations after the Germans had won the first two locations in CC. Certainly that helped me more than the poor Russian, even if we did continue to play it as they were no longer fortified.

Meanwhile the battle across the Square of the Fallen Heroes was proving difficult. The 10-2 led HMG and a MMG held up the front well, and then a critical from the 45L against the lead Stug followed by a successful molotov kill quickly took away the armour support.

On the left, the attack against what I believed were mostly dummies was showing the flaw in my plan when I lost almost every close combat, deservedly so. 30 Dummy counters don't go as far as you think they do, when they're used for concealment rather than dummy stacks, something that never really dawned on me until I figured out I'd only discovered 3 dummy stacks in the entire game.

A berserk 9-2 leader in CC with a stug that should have known better rolled snakes, (on demand!), and suddenly the CVP was looking dangerously close.

In the middle, the battle for the buildings around the Nail Factory was held up by an awkward 10-2 and squad who kangeroo-hopped into a couple of CC's, wiping out anything that dared advance in (he was out of the Fortified location) and so finally the kill stack of 3 MMGs and 3 Squads directed by our own 10-3 at point blank range broke him. His inglorious demise in the cellars didn't do justice to the pain he caused us!

With the battle in the final two turns, the Russians had racked up 46CVP and were in melee with a German squad and 9-1 leader. The AT gun had two Stugs in its sights and the HMG was still manned by the crew and 10-2. A chance to win slipped by as the CC went in the German's favour and the Russian was CR.

With the Germans unable to take any risks with the CVP cap so close, but empty buildings available, I jumped into these and just had to ensure I didn't lose any squads or buildings on the last Russian player turn.

The brave Russian crew opted to abadon its gun to run into CC but never made it, breaking on an 8+2 shot, so it was down to the 9-2 leader, one squad and a crew. The crew charged forward but ate the full force of the Flamethrower and so it was left to the 9-2 and his squad. They survived the initial first fire so it came down to a thrown DC. The 30+5 was enough to break them both, and after 12 hours the Germans won in one of the most tense game I've ever played.

We had an absolute blast playing this - huge firegroups, big morale, and Martin didn't once fail his personal MC when the German steamroller rolled across the defences. The Russians could have won by rolling <6 in a couple of CCs or had the crew stayed to fire at the stugs (we later rolled to see what would have happened - cue a crazy rof tear and eventual critical hit!)

We started around 11am and finished up at half past midnight, with a break for lunch and dinner. Almost exactly 12 hours' play. The hour's drive home whizzed by as I went through the day's events. A wonderful scenario against a great opponent!