When the Winter War commenced on 30 November, the Finns did not expect any significant activity in the northernmost sector of Petsamo. The Soviets, however, had committed their entire 104th Division to secure both the Finnish arctic coast and the Petsamo area. Finnish troops executed a hasty demolition of a harbor and burned villages around Petsamo, then withdrew to a defensive position near a strategic crossroads. On 3 December, the Soviet 95th Infantry Regiment attacked. Although it was morning, the battle was fought in the darkness of the polar night.
The night rules (and their exceptions) really makes this a weird scenario, ignoring many positives that the defenders should receive. Early movement was not punished, either because the Finns couldn't, or because good morale checks allowed the attackers to get in close and threaten an entire flank. By Turn 3, the Russians were in a decisive position to hold the upper left corner and reap all the benefits of the (light) woods facing open ground. The subsequent discussion we had really killed our enthusiasm to keep playing. The scenario hurts itself with its restrictions, and its sad to see two unique counters (all the Guns, essentially) used in a way that you could largely ignore them, and never see them in a scenario afterwards. Were they a waste of cardboard?
Ultimately, not a fun scenario, and surprised to see one that seemingly wasn't workshopped into a better overall product.
2024-04-07
(D) Teemu Niiranen
vs
Finnish win
2023-05-21
(A) Tuomo Lukkari
vs
Mikko Lukkari
Russian win
[Imported from ROAR]
2023-05-03
(D) Todd Cox
vs
Finnish win
2023-04-07
(A) Shane Pask
vs
Russian win
Russians had achieved 12 VP by turn 4 when the Finns conceded. The Russians had captured 1 gun, all of the starting Finnish MG (MMG was malfed) and half of the starting Finns were dead. The Finnish set up was poor and never seemed a threat despite the Russians rolling 3 CR on rally attempts.
2023-02-09
(D) Douglas Leslie
vs
Marc Hanna
Russian win
Early SW malfunction allowed the Russians to cross the board quickly towards the victory area and the Finnish reinforcements couldn't inflict enough damage to restore the situation. Full AAR can be found here:
Weird scenario. Most of the night rules are negated by SSR#2, which allows sweeping troop movement completely unobserved (beyond NVR) by the opposing units. Also, the Russians can take control of a large portion of the Finn reinforcement's entry area, causing the Finn reinforcements to take a long route into the battle. SSR#3 allows Russian to see the two old Finn ART pieces, despite darkness. Just weird. Russians were able to swarm a lone Finn squad on the eastern flank, control the Finn reinforcement area, and then move on toward the two obsolete Finn ART pieces. Russians then swarmed the two Guns while holding the Finn infantry at bay with IFP. The old ART Guns (no ROF and old ammunition that is dud when effects DR is 6) only manged to break two Russian squads. When the Finn reinforcements came onboard, they took too long to become a factor. Result, Russian win.
2022-12-29
(A) Dave Mareske
vs
Ryan Ellet
Russian win
Some Russian infantry were able to rush toward the victory line with only one squad and one ART gun in the way. Once established in the woods the Finnish reinforcements had to start killing Russians and they were unable to kill enough...a Russian victory.
2020-04-30
(A) Eric Partizan Eric
vs
Finnish win
2020-01-03
(A) Kevin Duval
vs
Dwayne Duval
Finnish win
Used Russian balance.
2020-01-03
(D) Dwayne Duval
vs
Kevin Duval
Finnish win
2018-04-01
(A) Peter Palmer
vs
John Knowles
Russian win
[Imported from ROAR]
2017-12-18
(D) Jeff B
vs
Are Erlandsen
Russian win
3.25 hrs
Finnish MMG broke taking its first shot and all the Russians had to do was run right over the initial line of defense. Once broken (not hard to do with the allowance of firegrouping), the light woods made routing practically impossible for the Finns. The pseudo night rules in effect were absolutely stupid, making a magical zone of safe movement due to no starshell availability. This was possibly the worst scenario I have ever played. With full night rules it may not be half bad, as it stands it's a broken PoS. I would certainly love to know how anybody could hold off the Russians here.
