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
AFVs: 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:
An old classic that has stood up for over three decades. If you have not played this one, you owe it to yourself to find out why it remains so popular.
Shaun played a great game and probably would have won if the wind change DR had not blown a wall of smoke across his exit path.
2023-08-10
(A) Shaun Andrews
vs
Jack Wilson
Russian win
Jack's being modest. He pulled a rabbit out of a hat (or should I say burning ring of fire) through pure tenacity and sheer doggedness. Jack's Russians looked to get BBQ but he pressed on enabling him to take advantage of a wind change that cut off my exit path with multiple hexes of smoke.
I chose to press forward through the smoke making the game a running retreat. In hind sight, the second the wind changed, I should have cut east right into the path his Russians were taking. It is called Fighting Withdrawal for a reason. Great game Jack!
2023-07-08
(D) Yuqi Xiong
vs
Warf
Finnish win
A good lesson on how Blaze spread.
Finnish infantry are real supermen, despite no smoke compablity. Just move forward and win lol.
I didn't arrange a safe and orderly retreat, and held fire to keep concealment too often (although hardly will work with 6-4-8 Finns, laying some residual fire is worthwhile). Most of my soldiers were eliniminated by Warf.
2023-07-08
(D) Jeff B
vs
Steve Etzelmueller
Russian win
I had been losing my desire to play ASL, so Steve suggested we play anything I'd like. I debated a few of my all-time favorites, but ultimately dusted off this old gem. Amazingly enough old grognard Steve had never played it. This being my most-played ever scenario, I warned him he would need to maintain a quick pace as the Finns. As most of my line was concealed, he did very little shooting and a lot of AM into the street, with the not unusual result of a few broken Finns and a lost squad. I self-broke my western two squads back to my commissar to avoid CC. Not much further progress was made Turn 2, with the Russians still heavily manning the walls. A crazed Russian conscript ran to his doom and a squad managed to be taken prisoner (a valuable commodity in this scenario), but once again the western units broke to flee back to the commissar. Turn 3 saw another Russian taken hostage, while his comrades fled to their second line of defense behind the eastern wall and within the central rowhouse. Turn 4 clearly saw the Finns move for a western push, as this was my weakest defended area, The Russians in the middle scattered to try and continue holding the line, while the units in the east all bolted to either start making for the exit or get in better positions. Time was becoming problematic for the Finns. Turn 5 saw the Finns completely bust up the Russians in the west, so the Russians brought on both goalline HIPsters to shore up that part of the board. Meanwhile in the east a couple Russian squads with a LMG and the 8-1 moved to the upper levels, while another had snuck around from the north to harass any Finns trying to make haste along the road. The Finn escape attempt proved unsuccessful on Turn 6, and with not enough time left they called it a day.
