Streets of Moscow. MV in 24 turns.
Start prestige: 556. End prestige: 202.
New units purchased: Recon (turn 2), artillery (turn 12), infantry (turn 13), pioniere (turn 13), recon (turn 13).
Units lost: Four recons, one artillery, one pioniere, three infantry, one Stug, one Panzer, one (captured) KV-1, one (captured) T-34, one cavalry, all core.
Medals: 4. Heroes: 4.
Ugh... what a bloodletting! This scenario made Warsaw look like a kindergarden picnic. I decided to tackle Moscow by hitting the city itself with the bulk of my non-armored forces, while sending one small armored force to the north and one toward the southeast, then up north behind Moscow. At first things seemed not too terrible; I was making decent progress. Then the first big battle erupted around the Kremlin, where I lost several core forces. I finally took Red Square on turn 12 (appropriately enough, with one of my captured T-34s). Then all hell broke loose. The Siberian reinforcements arrived in force, particularly to the east of Moscow, where my armored force there took a terrible beating (it was there I lost my KV-1 and my other T-34). I managed to stop the attack, but at the cost of several experienced units. Those T-34 '41 models and Red Guard units were extremely tough to beat.
I decided that I couldn't afford any more losses, so I settled for the objectives I had; the only two I did not capture were the Northern and Northeastern districts. I was able to hold a decent defensive line through the center of Moscow until the end of the scenario, but it was a bittersweet victory. My core force was devastated, as I had lost nearly a third of my force. I decided to end the Moscow scenario there; I'm going back to my saved game from Vyazma and take the Demyansk route next.
A few things of note with the Moscow scenario:
1. For only the second time in the campaign (since Crete), the AI moved a unit out of good defensive position for a hopeless attack, at Zheleznodorozhny (26,14); it was a Red Guard unit that would have been difficult to force out of the town, but it attacked my stug for little gain and I was able to occupy the city and destroy the unit without much effort. Otherwise, the AI did a very commendable job balancing its defensive responsibilities with any good opportunities it saw to attack my forces.
2. On turns 12 and 13, it seemed I received some sort of prestige dump, both times around 800 points. Was this the case? Or is it some sort of reward for taking the Kremlin?
3. Finally, there was a Yak-1 at 4,5 that did not seem to move or attack. I was able to fly aircraft right up to it and attack it, but it remained at the hex next to its airfield, rather than actually moving over to the airfield to take replacements. Is this some sort of triggered unit that only moves on a certain turn? It reminded me of the inert Polish units at Kovno.
Overall, this is a VERY tough scenario. If I did it again I would do a lot of things differently. As an "extra" mission it is a real challenge -- and offers a nice preview of how much tougher things are going to be in Russia in 1942.
