Colonel Talvela's force of 9,100 Finns faced 45,000 Soviet soldiers, supported by hundreds of guns and tanks. The Russians clung to the roads, surrounded by dense woods, frozen lakes and snow plains. From this vast wilderness, the Finns would attack and vanish at will.
Attacker: Finnish (No more details)
Defender: Russian (No more details)
5 turns
Players: 2 OBA: None Night: No
Unit Counts:
Squads: A:18.0 D:22.0
AFVs: A:0
AFVs: D:4
T-26 M33 x 3 T-26 M32 LT
Guns: A:0 D:2
76.2mm P obr. 02/30 x 2
Misc Rules:
Ground Snow, Extreme Winter, Russian Early War Doctrine, Winter Camouflage, MOL
Finns tried a westerly approach, looking to join forces on the Board 74 road. Russians had heavily protected the northern part of this board, as it offered the most cover for the attacker. Two purchased mortars helped, and the initial assault was like a beach landing, with the initial entry hexes heavily contested. By the end of the turn the Finns had a bloody nose, with 3.5 of their 9 squads down for the count. Russians for their part saw two squads go down, one disrupted without a leader in sight. Things fared much better for the Finns in the south, where they approached uncontested through the valley with all but a squad/LMG in the middle of Board 62 to keep me honest. The Russians of course had to scramble all their eastern defenders over to the action on their half of the turn. The northern gun tried to push itself until position to matter., while the southern gun kept its cloaking hoping to bag the sole Finnish squad in the middle. The peace in the south was broken by the Russians shooting from the ridge, and 1.5 Finnish squads were killed. Turn two saw the Russians lose a vital MMG in the south to the extreme cold, while their sole tank able to move was blown to bits by the Finnish mortar. A key Russian squad was broken by a desperately thrown Finnish DC, subsequently having to surrender. But a conscript managed to take down a Finnish squad in CC. The next turn was relatively quiet as the Finns licked their wounds positioned some units a stone's throw from the road, while the much-needed Russian reinforcements entered from the west. Turn 4 saw the northern Finns settle in a comfortable position between the woods, while the southern group (all HS by now) inched their way slowly toward the road. By the end of Finnish 5 there were 20VP next to the road, plus another 2VP from the tank destroyed earlier. It looked like the Russians would have a difficult time knocking them down. When their mortar broke on its first shot, and the two other squads in the east both whiffed, it looked even worse. A 4+0 shot took down a stack of 5VP, but three other 4+0s came up empty. A 1KIA took down another stack of 3VP. Going into moves the Russians needed to account for 3VP more. One tank was immobilized by a Molotov, but another was able to drive in and freeze 2VP more, needing to survive the ensuing CC. With the Finns exhausting their fire potential trying to take down the tanks and hold off the charging Russians, the Russians opted to position themselves for a couple key shots and a couple possible CCs. When a 3+0 encircling shot took down 1VP, and a 6+0 took down another 3VP it was game over. Perhaps a bit gamey at the end with the mad-dash reckless charging, but overall a very exciting and interesting scenario.
2022-03-19
(D) Andy Beaton
vs
Bruce Stevenson
Finnish win
Down to the wire, Finns pulled it out on the last half turn with a MOL kill against a moving tank and an ambush that allowed the 3 VP's they needed to get over the line to escape and remain good order.
2021-12-11
(D) patrick palma
vs
Fabio Mazzucchelli
Russian win
2021-12-10
(D) nathan wegener
vs
Wes Vaughn
Russian win
Crazy swirl of a scenario. I got hot with my baby mortars and did some damage to a spread out attack.
