Hello all, in honour of the excellent Baker Company Winter War Kickstarter, I decided to sit down and throw some dice in a battle over the Karelian Isthmus with my brother today. You can find the full album here: Winter War Album. Enjoy!
Surrounded in a Motti, the Russian commander Kapitan Limonov decides to make a tactical retreat back to the rest of the Regiment. Hearing about this clear mutiny against the Party, Commisar Pichuskin promptly shoots the captain and orders Leytenant Nuriyev to lead a breakout full-frontal assault on the Finnish lines. After a failed tank assault, the russians send infantry sections up two flanks with a Maxim gun to support the left flank and a OT-26 to support the right. Nuriyev and Pichuskin take up the center.
Burning T-28 from the previous assault. The anti-tank position is seen in the background.
Pressed with defending a long frontage with few men, the Finnish commander Luutnantti Koskinen directs the deadly M/32-33 heavy machinegun and the SMG squad on the Soviet's right flank.
Opposite the Finnish commander is the Soviet right flank, with a regular and confident rifle section and the dreaded OT-26 chemical tank, nicknamed "Drakon" by the troops.
The Russian commander surveys the battlefield.
The Finnish command card goes first, as the defending player measures out the distance from his Lieutenant to the 37mm Bofors anti-tank gun.
http://theminiaturespage.com/
The Maxim gun takes a high-explosive round from the Bofors (seen in the distance). Shaken, but not defeated!
With the commencement of the action, the Finnish LMG section on the left flank take up position in the forest, near the burning T-28.
The Finns on the right flank take the initiative as well, putting fire down on the Soviet rifles caught in the open.
The Soviets respond by advancing the OT-26 into clear firing range of the Finnish SMG section.
Being cautious to keep in the dense cover of the Taiga forest, the Soviet riflemen advance on the left flank, hoping to catch the Finns unawares. The round ends suddenly with Finnish squads in vulnerable positions.
At the beginning of the new round, the Finnish HMG suppresses the OT-26 with a hail of bullets bouncing off the small turret. The Soviet commander does not look happy at this insolence.
Seeing their moment, the Finnish SMG section runs up to the crest of the hill and hurls grenades at the OT-26. The first grenades bounce off and fall harmlessly to the side, but the third lands cleanly on the front deck of the tank, shredding the thin 6mm armour and killing all inside in a massive explosion of flames! The Finnish lines cry "Hurrah!"
On the Soviet left flank, the rifle section charges through the thick pine forest undaunted, eager to catch the Finns in melee.
After a few snap shots, both sides are entangled in gritty hand-to-hand combat on the left flank.
Trying to offset the weak left flank, the Finnish commander and his Suomi SMG-totting adjunct join the forces there as the Bofors struggles to reload while shaken by enemy machinegun fire.
On the right flank, the Finnish tank-hunters emerge from their hiding place near the burning chemical tank and join melee with the Soviet riflemen there, just as the Finnish SMG section charges over the crest of the hill. A bad time for the DP light machinegun to be out of ammo!
Capitalizing on the Finnish tactic of suddenly pressing the attack, the Soviet right flank is in danger of being overrun.
The Soviets hurl a grenade onto the hill, devastating the Finns and causing four wounded and one killed soldier. Nevertheless, the SMG section bravely completes the assault, taking out nearly all the startled Russians in short order.
On the left flank, the Soviet HQ rushes to assist the melee there, passing through the fire arc of the reloading Bofors gun.
At the beginning of the next round, the Finnish SMG section finally succumbs to the terrors of close combat, even on the verge of victory, and flees from the grizzly scene. In Over There!, when a unit becomes panicked, the commander has less control over how the squad acts.
On the left flank, the Soviet attack does just as poorly, as the Finns cut through the riflemen in melee and push on to the Soviet HQ team.
It does not look good for the Soviet HQ team as the Finnish LMG section consolidate their position. Commisar Pichuskin goes down to close combat fighting as Leytenant Nuriyev considers his service in the Red Army.
On the right flank, the now lone Finnish tank-hunter carries on the assault undaunted against the shocked and huddled remnants of the Soviet rifle section. A scenic struggle over a bayonet ends in another riflemen dead.
Luutnantti Koskinen returns again to the mangled left flank to support the dangerously weak position there. Every man counts now, and the assistant's Suomi SMG might be put to good use in the fighting.
Yet the reassuring words of the Finnish commander cannot stop the fleeing SMG section.
On the left flank, the Finnish LMG section, down one man from the combat, continues the charge to the Maxim machinegun position.
We called the game at this point. Although one of their sections was fleeing from the battlefield by the end of the game, the Finns only took 6 casualties. The Soviets were devastated by a remarkable 22 infantry casualties, 4 prisoners and a destroyed tank and its crew.
The lone Finnish tank-hunter receives commendation for his bravery as a surrendered Soviet huddles behind a nearby tree.
The Finnish 37mm Bofors crew rests after a tense fight.
