The Finns, seeking restitution for the Winter War of 1939, had erupted across the borders and breached the Soviet Karelian front even as the crisis to the south of Leningrad came. In a desperate attempt to salvage something and form a new defense line along the Sestra River, orders went out to break off and retreat southward. One such unit was the 131st Border Battalion, which was to serve as a rearguard. At 1530, orders arrived releasing them to save themselves. . .if they could. Behind them a bakery was on fire, the town hall was ablaze, and ammunition was dwindling. Nevertheless, their young officers organized a fighting withdrawal towards the hills in an attempt to reach newly established lines.
Attacker: Finnish (Elements of 1st Parachute Regiment)
Defender: Russian (Remnants of 131st Border Battalion)
7 turns
Players: 2 OBA: None Night: No
Unit Counts:
Squads: A:16.0 D:14.0
AFVs: A:0 D:0
Guns: A:0 D:0
Misc Rules:
Building Blazes w D: Ammunition Shortage
Map Board(s):
21
Overlays:
NONE
Errata (source)
Players wanting to play this game/Request a match:
jayouzts: Looking to re-enter ASL after a long absence. VASL PBEM
I had hot dice on the first game turn while the Finns had to try to force their way across the street and stacked up a bunch of casualties. This bought me time to withdraw to the middle of the board, where my rearguard slowed the Finns again. The foot race was on once again, so that by turn 5 I was ready to exit most of my force but stopped just short of the board edge to delay the Finns. A well placed LMG allowed me to put down a fire lane through which few Finns could pass and I won by exiting just a couple more squads than Steve. Great game, well played by both sides.
2021-04-22
(A) M T
vs
T.L.
Russian win
2021-04-22
(D) Tommi Lehtinen
vs
M T
Russian win
Very eventful game. First two turns looked good for the Russian. They held 3 superior Finnish squads in Melee and slowed the Finnish progress down. On third turn the Finns won all the Melees and together with some lucky shots manages to neutralize several Russian squads and making good gains. However, on turn 5 the Russian dice where hot where it counted, i.e. in -2 shots, and the Finns lost several squads and their almost guaranteed breakthrough on the west flank was slowed to a crawl. Turns six and seven turned out to be as eventful as both teams rushed to the exit. Finns on the western flank and Russians on the eastern flank. Finns had only 5VP available on the west to exit, so they needed to prevent Russians exits on the east flank, where they had not breached Russian line. Everything was culminated to the last move of the last turn where the Russian 8-1 leader dashed to the exit and took a 2-2 shot from a Finnish LMG. The LMG missed and the Russian were able to exist as many VPs as the Finns, so a tightest possible victory for Russians.
2021-04-17
(A) Dave Mareske
vs
Ben Kacirek
Russian win
The Russians delayed the Finnish just enough that they could not get any EVPs. A good use of HIP and then the SMOKE from the blazes changed direction to limit movement on the west side. Great game for Ben's first game of full ASL!
