Having played scenario's 1 and 3 from 'Winterstorm' Gary and I decided to give Scenario 2 a go now that I'd finished off all the things I bought for the station.

It looked a tough task for the Russians with 4 small dismounted cavalry squads, a MMG and a sniper being tasked with capturing the station faced with 3 Panzer Grenadier squads and a sniper.

The view from the Russian lines:

The German train containing the Panzer Grenadiers:

A Russian squad deploys tactically in the village awaiting the German's disembarking from the train:

The Russian sniper takes up position at the other end of the town:

The first German squad appears and opens fire on the Russians. Their aim is excellent as, despite counting as being in hard cover, three Russians are killed and the Serzhant wounded!:

A second Panzer Grenadier squad deploys to over watch the area the sniper is located in:

The remarkable marksmanship of the Germans continues and the Russian squad is wiped out!:

This prompts a strong response from the Russians as two more squads and the MMG deploy together with one of the Leutnents. One squad is in the open but the Russians hope their numbers will pay off against the single German squad:

The Russian fire proves too much for the Germans who take several losses and are pinned:

The Germans flee taking their force morale down a fair bit:

All the Russians are now deployed on the left. Two squads are vulnerable in the open and the Germans still have one squad to deploy:

The final German squad deploys and opens fire:

Russian losses start to mount, the extra German firepower and half the Russians being in the open making up for the Russians numbers:

The MMG is pinned and the Russians are taking casualties at a higher rate than the Germans:

German force morale has plummeted and they only have 3 command dice. However, one Russian squad is down to three men and is pinned. It's going to be close run thing:

The Russian MMG has broken and all three Russian squads are pinned. The Germans are weakened but holding on and the two LMG per squad gives them an increasing advantage in firepower:

The view from the German lines. The squad on the left which was covering the sniper has not contributed much other than a few LMG shots at the end Russian squad:

The Leytnant rallies his few remaining men and unpins them:

Further German fire breaks the remaining Russians, the attack on the station has failed:

I confess I didn't think I stood much chance in this scenario. It probably helped that Gary diced for his support again rather than taking a 4th PG squad (on the basis that he only had 3 squads). After the initial destruction of the first Russian squad my opinion of my chances of success was even lower, losing 8 men in hard cover in two rounds of firing was rather depressing.

In fact after that the Russians made something of a comeback by throwing everything at one end of the train and quickly breaking a German squad. We both thought after that the Russians would win but the final German squad fought well even when reduced to only 3 command dice and made the small Russian squads in the open pay dearly for their lack of cover. I did attempt one 'Uzzah!' to attempt to melee the first German squad when it was pinned but unfortunately the men were very unenthusiastic rolling 3 1's and not getting anywhere near close enough to attack!

Gary and I have now played three scenarios from Winterstorm with all going to the Germans. As they aren't linked the German losses don't carry over, if they did Gary would now be leading a much reduced platoon while the Russians would be able to rely on the plenty-more-where-they-came-from theory!

Gary and I played the third 'Winterstorm' scenario, 'The Defence of Pokhlebin', last night. This scenario sees a Panzer Grenadier platoon from 6th Panzer Division defending a collective farm on the outskirts of Pokhlebin from two dismounted Soviet cavalry platoons.

I accepted the scenario support option to have a T34/76 while Gary chose to dice for his support and managed to gain a maximum 9 support points. The Soviet's then only managed a force moral of 8 compared to 10 for the Germans so overall not a great start for the Russians!

The collective farm has been abandoned by the locals and is under the control of the Germans:

The first Russian squad deploys in the forest on the right overlooking the farm. All seems quiet:

Appearances can be deceptive however! A German squad emerges in the farm and a Panzer III arrives along the road:

A second Russian squad deploys behind a ridge:

The final two Russian squads appear in the broken ground on the left:

The second German squad opens fire from some entrenchments hidden in the scrub:

The Germans in the farm buildings attempted to set up a team behind the wagon but Russian fire quickly killed several of them and broke the remainder:

The final German squad deploys in more entrenchments in the middle of the farm:

The T34/76 arrives and begins to shell the German entrenchments:

The Russian squad behind the hill attempts to rush forwards but makes little progress and comes under fire from a German LMG in one of the farm buildings:

The Panzer III advances and takes a shot at the T34/76. With excellent gunnery the shot strikes home forcing the T34/76 to withdraw:

The T34/76 is temporarily out of action:

On the right another Russian squad attempts to rush the farm, hoping to get into cover before the Panzer III can intervene:

The tank reacts quickly though and machine guns the advancing squad:

The fire is fairly ineffective though and the Russians make it into cover behind a farm building:

The T34/76 emerges from cover again but fails to hit the Panzer III:

On the right the Russians have an opportunity to attack an isolated German LMG team. Raising an 'Uzzah!' they charge forward and cut the Germans down:

The victorious Russian squad charges on into the rear of another German group. The Germans fight them off though:

At this point Russian force morale had fallen to 1 due to the loss of the charging squad and some injuries to junior officers on the left. The Russians decided to withdraw and left the Germans in control of the collective farm.

To some extent my plan worked, drawing out the three German squads and facing each one with a smaller Russian squad while the fourth Russian squad attempted to work around the flank of the Germans.

Unfortunately the odds were stacked against the Russians, having to attack with a force only two men stronger and much weaker in LMG quantity and quality while having worse command and control (Gary used the 4 additional command dice he was allocated very well).

The two difference in initial force morale was also decisive (as it was in the last game Gary and I played). Starting at 8 it took very few losses for the Russians to drop to 4 command dice while the Germans had a much bigger buffer with a 10 force morale.

We both enjoyed the game though and it could have gone the other way with a little more luck for the Russians.

Having failed in my last CoC game to destroy the 04:30 to Kotelnikovo I thought I'd have another go, this time using my newly painted Soviet Partisans. This time the opposition was provided by Jerry's German Panzergrenadiers.

With my experience from the last attempt this time I planned on setting up my force in the woods, weakening the Germans with mortar, MMG and sniper fire while using covering fire to reduce their shooting on my men and then charging in with the large squad to finish the job.

The train is brought to a halt by the Partisan barricade:

Partisans set up in the woods and go tactical awaiting any German response:

A second squad of Partisans sets up on the other side of the train, again going tactical:

No Germans have appeared yet. Achieving a double phase the Partizans throw caution (and my plans) to the wind and rush the train!:

Partisans run forward quickly and close down all the German deployment points. The train is unguarded apparently (or the Germans refused to come out) and is quickly under Soviet control:

So, a victory for the Russians without a shot being fired! This was mainly down to luck as I was able to deploy two squads in my first move, Jerry couldn't deploy anything in his first move and then I got a double phase with enough spare dice to move the two squads already deployed forwards. With poor movement rolls it could have gone badly wrong but the Partisans easily ran far enough.

While extremely satisfying for the Russians the game had taken less time to play than to set up so we reset for a second go.

As in the first game the Partisans deployed in the woods either side of the train. This time however the Germans managed to deploy two Panzergreandier squads very quickly:

The Grenadier squad facing the majority of the Partisans in the open lead a charmed life and despite taking numerous hits was barely scratched:

The smaller Partisan force on the other side of the train managed to pick off a couple of Germans though:

The larger group of Partisans has forced the Grenadiers opposite it to withdraw behind the train, though they have not had many losses. The Partisans have had the MMG and the mortar team wiped out and the infantry are much reduced in numbers:

Grenadiers move to outflank the smaller Partisan squad:

 The largest Partisan squad deploys but the leader is immediately knocked down by German fire:

Another Grenadier squad disembarks from the train and pours fire into the Partisans:

The Partisan Captain joins the largest squad of Partisans, they have already lost a few men:

The situation being desperate now the large Partisan squad is lead by their Captain in an 'Uzzah' charge which gets them into contact with the Germans defending the train:

Sadly the combat goes badly and the Partisans are wiped out. The attack has failed.

Both games were enjoyable (especially the first one!) and all three runs of the scenario have been a little different:

• German victory with heavy losses
• Soviet bloodless victory
• German victory with light losses