Along the Karelian Front, as the Soviets crossed the borders, the Finnish forces executed a planned withdrawal to the Mannerheim Line. In the north, however, the Finns were ordered to oppose the Russian advance at every opportunity. At Kuhmo, the 54th Russian Rifle Division advanced along the Repola-Hukkajarvi road. The 13th Finnish Reinforced Battalion, numbering some 1200 reservists, sought to block its advance. At 1030 hours, a mere nine hours after the Soviets renounced their non-aggression pact with Finland, the lead Russian elements encountered the Finns in prepared positions.
Attacker: Russian (81st Rifle Regiment)
Defender: Finnish (13th Reinforced Battalion)
14 turns
Players: 2 OBA: Russian Night: No
Unit Counts:
Squads: A:26.0 D:12.0
AFVs: A:5
GAZ-MM x 6 T-26S M37 x 5
AFVs: D:0
Guns: A:0 D:0
Lahti m39 20L x 2
Misc Rules:
DS (no roads), FS w A: Tr6 w D: WC
Map Board(s):
2
5
Overlays:
NONE
Errata (source)
Players wanting to play this game/Request a match:
Used German balance.The Russians chose the woods road approach resulting in the infantry getting ahead of his vehicles. Many Russian double sixes helped the Finnish cause.
2021-07-09
(A) Kevin Duval
vs
Dwayne Duval
Finnish win
Made early mistake of splitting my forces into two parts before realizing VC exit was any 'single' road hex. The Deep Snow prevented northern group from linking backup with other group making it's way to the west edge of board 5.
2020-06-03
(A) Jason Wert
vs
Jim Traver
Finnish win
2020-02-19
(A) Jeff B
vs
Phil Wentworth
Finnish win
As one of only 3 scenarios from BV3 I hadn't played, I was happy to play this when Phil suggested it (and even happier to get to play my favorite nationality). As others have mentioned, the softening OBA did nothing to hurt my forces, though it did force me to setup in the dreaded foxholes, as well as limit my Turn 1 reinforcing. Phil chose to push up the southern road. Neither path would be easy for the vehicles, and they are the key to a Russian victory. I played a pretty strong upfront defense, but did not offer him any obvious shots. Phil had dropped the words Human Wave after I brought on a couple HIP to prevent his concealment, and I was very surprised when he didn't open the game with one. After that I made sure to give him no opportunities to revisit that. I believe it is vital for the Finns to swap all of their AP mines for AT, and he discovered why on Turn 2 when a scouting truck got blazed. This, after I had clogged the road with three other truck wrecks from the first turn, would make very slow going for his tanks. He made a mistake not setting anybody up in the hills, and by the end of Turn 3 I was amazingly able to get the rest of my force onto Board 5. He also made, what turned out to be a surprisingly bad move, by taking two Commissars. They probably killed more of the brittle Russians than I did. He had no problem clearing the first AT mine and keeping the fire in check from spreading to the woods portion of the road, but he needed to devote an entire complement of men and a -1 leader to make sure it stayed that way. Meanwhile the Russians bled bodies every turn, while the Finns had yet to lose a man (and in fact wouldn't do so all game). By the time he reached the edge of the woods with his infantry it was probably an even fight and, faced with the prospect of now having to cross OG and cross wire to exit, the Russians called it a day.