Valka, S of Kharkov: 18 August, 1943 
[Best played against Human opponent. Recommend the use 
of optional armor facing rule.]

Soviet Major Izachik dozed as his improvised command car, 
a marginally functional truck, bounced along the rutted dirt road. 
Still it was better than the jolting ride the T-34 crews were 
having to endure. The sun was dipping toward the horizon and 
it was not far now to Valka where his battalion, the 2nd of the 
179 Tank Brigade, would spend the night and wait for the rest 
of the brigade to join them. The fighting around Kharkov was 
going well and soon it would be their turn to strike at the Germans. 
He liked to think of his small command as the point of a dagger 
leading the 57th Army, poised to rip open the soft underbelly of 
Germany's armies in southern Russia. He stretched as he watched 
the sun and considered the chances of finding a hot bath or 
something even more pleasing in Valka. As the Russian Major 
closed his eyes a German Armored car stopped at the crossroads 
in Valka. It was scouting ahead of Major Rossum's mixed panzer 
battalion looking for a quiet place to laager for the night. n.