Did the balance swing it? or maybe having the Russian AFV far from the objective?
Tuomo L. never moved them further than a Half a MPh away. Concentrated FP...
You are outnumbered... getting swarmed by AFV's especially if you have one less Stuart is just suicide.
Tuomo did at least three things magnificently: His AFV's were massed and placed such that he got the first shot; His Infantry was able to get to the VC area pretty much un-scathed; he was super patient, letting Tom bring the game to him as Tom needed to be the aggressor. Meanwhile, the rest of us got the benefit of watching Tom try to crack the nut and recognize some of the challenges.
Sight unseen--without the benefit of having played it or seeing it played--I think this favors the Russians at least in the 55- 45 range, maybe as much as 60 - 40. I think the Germans "take more skill" to play, but that impact is debatable as I generally think the attacker takes more skill to play overall. APCR is too unreliable. On the 50L, the TK# for APCR is 17 making the kill shot against a Lee still somewhat iffy (17 - 8 = 9 to immobilize). On a 50, the TK# for APCR is a 14. You can push the TK# up by getting close but then you remove your TH advantage (American Lend/Lease use Red TH#'s prior to 1944 (A25.32). Given the TK#'s, I think this scenario is subject to the dice, but early war scenarios are like that. The better you play your armor, the better your TK#s are (the difference between a Frontal aspect and a side aspect it big, especially for the Germans).
With all of this said, among equally skilled opponents, I think the Germans are more fragile. If they break an MA on a single 50L MA, they are in trouble. The Lee's have a LOT of options in the dance-of-death. Sure, the Germans have them out-numbered in tanks, but the Russians have more Gun tubes, an ATR that is uncomfortable to face, and an 82mm mortar that can shock/immobilize on an IFT DR4 (DR5 against the PzIIIG's) with a ROF of 3. -- jim