A fun scenario. Very tough for the Finns to attack and drive deep enough to capture all of VC buildings.
2022-05-26
(A) Jeff B
vs
Steve Etzelmueller
Finnish win
Played this very near to the finished product (v1.6), with the only subsequent changes subtracting two ATRs from the Russians and granting Russian MAs B11 despite extreme winter. Unfortunately my recap is lacking in Finnish MMC casualties as the original counters have been replaced in VASL. I remember aggressively pushing in from both the west and south under cover of one my least favorite ASL rules (Light Woods), smashing a tank into the trees to freeze the Russian mortar crew (who subsequently died). I broke the MA on one of the captured T-28s. Turn 2 saw a couple more Russian squads break as I bulled my way forward. Turn 3 saw a Russian squad captured and my captured T-34 (a veritable beast at the time), led by my 10-2 AL, win his showdown vs the Russian AT crew. One of the BT-7s must have fallen into a cellar because I don't see a wreck. My Postjuna fixed its MA, but the other bogged down in some woods. I grabbed my first VC building. Next turn saw my Postjuna remain bogged, to be joined by the other while smashing into a building. But the Russian casualties started to mount, losing 2.5 squads and a LMG. A second VC building was being held by a thread by a broken squad in the cellar. Another two Russian squads and a crew went down on Turn 5, joined by a BT-7 flamed by my Sotka. Three more Russian squads (and the commissar) fell on Turn 6, as I grabbed two more VC buildings. Turn 7 saw another Russian crew lost, as well as a berserk squad run to its doom, and another BT-7 flamed up (by one of my INF guns I believe). The Sotka made it behind the Russian line to produce some encirclement and hopefully mess with routs. But with only one turn left and two buildings needed I would have to be both extremely aggressive and extremely lucky. The fates must have favored me, because at the end of the turn the Russians were four squads and a 7-0 less, and I had secured both buildings with the only good order Russians left on the board being a crew manning one of the ARTs and a BT-7. Pretty straightforward smashmouth ASL, that will probably not be as much fun for the defender as the attacker. I expect to see the Russians with more wins than the Finns as those last two buildings are quite far in the rear, but I remember this being a very fun game.
