With their victories in the north, Finnish reinforcements were dispatched to the Kuhmo sector to seal the fate of the Soviet’s 54th Rifle Division, whose own advance had stalled in the frozen marshland. To counter, Russia’s only trained ski troops, the 2nd Soviet Ski Brigade did a wide flanking maneuver in hopes of breaking the Finnish grip on the beleaguered infantry division. But, some ten miles inside Finland while crossing open ground, they were sighted by Finnish scouts around noon. Their shots brought the 9th Sissi Company.
Attacker: Finnish (9th Sissi Company)
Defender: Russian (2nd Soviet Ski Brigade)
10 turns
Players: 2 OBA: None Night: No
Unit Counts:
Squads: A:12.0 D:20.0
AFVs: A:0
AFVs: D:0
Guns: A:0 D:0
Misc Rules:
DS, EW (roads gone), Drifts. Both sides: Ski-equipped, WC
What a unique scenario. Both sides are so elite, they take a beating and keep coming back. Both sides made for the central woods mass. I was following a Russian plan found on the internet and was surprised when they did not head for the boardedge as I expected. For eight turns the battle swayed back and forth, both sides hanging onto their edge of the woods. Two platoons of Russians headed for the U row woods, but were leaderless. The Finns kept breaking but were able to rout across open ground to the south, to eventually rally. The Russians did the same within the woods mass. Except for the leaderless squads to the west. Eventually the 8-0 leader made his way to this flank, but the Finns kept the stack under DM from long range. The Finns frequently volunarily broke to rout away, rather than face overwhelming CC odds. The Russians were down by about 15 CVP, but seemed primed to finally to drive the Finns from the woods, when a Finn shot triggered the 10-2 Russian leader to become berserk. He caused both squads with him to also go berserk, so they couidn't advance and he lost his leaderhsip modifier. The Finns abandoned the woods to force the berserkers to change in the open. Even if those units broke they would be able to rout away to safety once in the open. The Russian turn 8 charge faced down a firegroup of 24fp, which generated a 2KIA, taking down the leader and 1.5 squads. The final hs faced a follow-up 24fp attack and alos KIA'd. the victory total was now 25-3 and the Russians conceded.
2022-04-22
(A) Richard Jenulis
vs
Tim Brieaddy
Finnish win
Bitter Ender 2022 - open play - play-test
This is a play-test for George Bates update of the old Avalon Hill scenario. George did a fantastic amount of research and made some very good updates to this classic. The setup lis laborious and takes almost as long as the scenario play time. But the scenario is a lot of fun. The Russian have to decide which VC they will go for and the Finns need to guess right. In this playing, the Russians went for the exit victory and the Finns anticipated it correctly. Still a very close game and the first time I've ever seen a Human Wave on skies.
2021-12-12
(A) Rob MacGinley
vs
Ian Willey
Russian win
Really a case of who rolls lower contest - some snow stuff but low rolls win!
NOT a lot of tactics
2020-02-14
(A) Shane Pask
vs
Finnish win
Russian tactic was to just sprint for the board 34 woods and either get off the board or engage the Finns at close range.Finns tried to stay outside Russian squad range and wear them down. However for the first five turns Finns could not roll under 10 and long range LMG fire directed by SMC was affecting the Finns. A dim light of hope turned on when a lucky sniper shot killed the 10-2. Finns were then able to capture a couple of squads and encircle a couple more to squeeze out a win with 12VP advantage (6VP of prisoners).
2019-01-11
(A) Kermit Mullins
vs
Dan Best
Finnish win
Very unique scenario. My Finns got lucky and were able to put down enough fire lanes to get the necessary CVP for the win.
