First off “Steppe Terrain” is easy and in fact we should be seeing it a HECK of lot More than we do.
The problem with our normal EST boards is that they rarely represent real terrain across Europe and Russia.
Every book I've read on the Eastern front offers a picture of a virtual sea of grain stretching limitlessly as far as you can see. Of course that's not really true, but the 'essence' of the Eastern front is Grain, Open Ground, Shrubs, Brush, Trees
“FLAT”, “Lightly Forested” or “ROLLING” terrain
K, ASL just does a weak job of Flat/Rolling/Open, but that's not because of poor board design.
ASL needs “more space” to properly scale to real life battlefields. Battles did happen in confined areas in towns but theater engagements just are lost in the ASL scope.
So I spent an hour or so setting up (again) “No Crying in Crimea” (shameless plug for the BBQ), what peeps don't see typically is a 40 hex (range) area fire shot. That's 'hot' IMO. Ever used a 120mm Mortar as a direct fire platform?