"IABSM: The 4th Panssari Goes to War!" Topic

Had a lot of fun running this little scenario at Broadsword 9 over the weekend, so I thought I'd share it here! We played the Battle for Honkaniemi (Feb. 26, 1940), also known as the only (and therefore "largest"!) tank battle of the Winter War.

As you may know, while the Soviets had thousands of tanks at their command, the Finns had very few indeed. They threw them into a desperate attack late in the war that they hoped would throw back the Soviet forces that were closing on Viipuri (only 15km away at this point in the conflict) and spearhead a larger Finnish offensive operation. Well, it turned out to be a terrible day for the Finns, from losing more than half of their thirteen operational tanks to mechanical trouble, to friendly artillery falling on the heads of the supporting infantry, to a complete lack of reconnaissance that could have revealed the Soviets were planning their own attack operation at the very same place and the very same time!

While a conventional victory was probably out of the question, we decided to judge the results of this scenario against what the plucky and hopeless Finnish tankers achieved historically. And for all that, the Finns did very well during the game! Have a look and see what you think:

imgur.com/a/9FIW48t

Scale was 15mm. Rules were I Ain't Been Shot Mum! (v2). Figures were Battlefront. Terrain was Miniature Building Authority, Battlefront and Hotz Mats.

Beautiful battle board, models and figures. Really well done scenario. I can almost hear the MG fire and rifle shots echoing through the trees….

-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)

Thanks Mark!

Very nice report and an interesting scenario. Bookmarked for copying. Is this a commercial scenario or one you created yourself?

It is my own scenario, based on the historical event and my own research (including combat diaries of the event as well as secondary sources). I should mention that there ARE several excellent commercial scenario packs for the Winter War (one from Skirmish Campaigns called "Skirmish Campaigns: Finland '39-'40-Winter War" and another from TreadHead Games called "White Death: The Soviet-Finish Winter War 1939-1940"). There are also commercial scenarios written specifically about the battle for Honkaniemi, including one in Partizan Press' "Battles for the East 1939 – 1945" and another written for Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy #94 which you can find here:

PDF link

I came to some different comclusions with my historical research than some of the commercial scenarios, so I just devised my own. For example, the magazine scenario above gives the Finns anti-tank rifles, which they didn't actually have at this battle!

I've been slowly, slowly working out my own scenarios for the Winter War (including the Honkaniemi battle), which you can find here:

link

It is a mixture of historical and fictional scenarios with a splash of silly here and there (as appropriate for the tongue-in-cheek IABSM). They are not fully edited or finished, so keep that in mind!

Very nice !

Looks great, Dave!

Thanks

In case my Imgur ever goes down, Robert Avery of Vislardica was kind enough to repost this battle report on his site!

link