Bogadukhov - Mansteins Fire Brigades

[GerryM]

So I am out of space for attachments and I will use a dropbox link for the remaining turns.

For turn 3, on the western flank, I am faced with a choice of hunkering down on the objective or try and block all paths south.  I quickly realize that not only do I not have enough units to do this, but more specifically I have very little AT assets to stop the tanks.  My opponent will soon be able to get past me and go anywhere he pleases.  So now that I know what I have to do, I regret not keeping my units closer so they can't be picked off.  Especially my main AT gun is very exposed and likely stuck.  I also have to figure out what to do with my vulnerable soft skinned units.

On the eastern flank the battle has yet to get going - still a lot of positioning and more enemy units to see.  I don't yet know what he plans to do well enough to adjust my positions.  The good news is I was able to secure good defensive positions ahead of my opponent.  So I have a little leeway around reacting just yet.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ljhdul87gfii4c...3.pdf?dl=0

Don't know if it is OK to ask questions here or start a new thread? Let me know if not OK.

How do you go about planning in a scenario with such a big map (for me it is big)? I assume the victory locations help so you know you have to move north and take and keep some of them. So the designer is helping you in that way? Also there is one Soviet-controlled location at Gurinovka so does that mean there are Soviets in the location now? Or the designer just gave them that location to start with?

I see all the Recon units are south of Maksimovka, rather than spread out over the map. If you split them and move them to different map sections you will incur command problems of some kind, right?

Any recommended books that cover a battle like this? I assume one of the reasons many people have little problems playing large scenarios in PzB and PzC games is they they know the place names, what happened, etc.

Thanks for any help.