Proper protocol for intellegence gathering?

[HMCS Rosthern]

I used to think that it was better to play a scenario blind, until I played a game of Smolensk '41. I had a really great plan where I was going to do a pincer action on the German postion featuring a Russian Calvary Corp on the left pincer. It was working until I found out that all the German reinforcements were coming on the edge of the boardboard in the rear of the corps. My corps was surrounded and I ended up losing the game. My thoughts are that it is a good idea to at least take a brief look at the other side of the sceanario just to make sure you are not doing something dumb.