Background
The Soviet Vistula-Oder offensive was designed to strike west to the Oder River, cross it, and then drive on to Berlin. The lightly-held German defenses initially faltered, but as the Soviets reached the Oder River itself, German resistance strengthened. Although the Soviets were able to establish several bridgeheads on the western bank the Oder, the key transportation hub of Küstrin on its eastern bank stubbornly held out providing the Germans their own bridgehead in the Soviet rear areas. Hitler declared Küstrin a fortress city on 25 January 1945 setting the stage for a lengthy siege.
Rather than attempting an immediate assault of the city, the Soviets initially built up their own trenches to prevent a German counter-attack from Küstrin while simultaneously attempting to compete the encirclement of the city. Many key German units including 25. Panzergrenadier Division fought through February and most of March 1945 to keep the key supply corridor to Küstrin open, but by 19 March 1945 this key unit was exhausted and was pulled from the front allowing the Soviets to complete their encirclement on 22 March.
The Germans continued to try and reopen the corridor to Küstrin for several days after the encirclement was complete, but by 28 March it was obvious that Soviet forces in the sector were too strong and the city was abandoned to its fate. The Soviet 8th Guards Army spearheaded the advance into the city with the final unit of Volkssturm surrendering on 30 March 1945 at 0500 hours by which time the city of Küstrin had virtually ceased to exist.
https://www.flamesofwar.com/hobby.aspx?art_id=4465
The Game
We ran the Kustrin scenario from the Flames of War site. As the game was designed under version 3, we decided to enlarge the table a little to play using version 4 (we though the greater move distances of infantry needed to be taken into account). So, instead of a 4′ x 6′ table, we set up on a 5′ x 9′ table (this also gave the Soviets a little more room to deploy). We decided to leave the artillery the same, albeit we had some concerns with how multiple templates in version 4 can make it too difficult for a defender.
Recap
The game set up was in accordance with the scenario limitations. The Germans split up their forces equally, but assigned all their AT assets to the front facing the oncoming Soviet tanks. The game begun with the Soviets on each end moving into position along both rivers. Some lucking shooting by the Soviets resulted in the destruction of the 88mm AT battery (never even fired a shot!). This pretty much made it so the Germans played most of the game gone to ground facing the tanks. On the other side, the Soviets dug in and just shelled the German infantry for the next eight turns. The Soviet tank attack moved forward carefully, trying to reduce the German artillery and Volkssturm. The German Pantherturm shot once killing a T34, only to be destroyed quickly by the Soviet tanks.
Without most of their support arms, the Germans were very vulnerable and the Soviet began their attack with their infantry and tanks. To take off some pressure, the other Soviet force began attacking with their infantry also. The Germans were able to maintain a spirited defense on both side and break both Soviet infantry companies. This came at a high cost, but they held on. Unfortunately, there was nothing that could be done against the Soviet tanks as long as they say outside Panzerfaust range and could pick off the infantry with impunity. At the end of turn twelve, the game was called by the gamemaster. It was clear that there was nothing the Germans could do. The game ended as a Soviet victory.
– Manteuffel