Winter War - Finns vs. Commies - Order of Battle WW2

[airboy]

How are the coconuts? Cold I bet.

Last time I was there the wife and I took the "beer tram" tour.  Better than just looking at frozen coconuts without beer.

[airboy]

Scenario 2 - Turns 20 to 23

We got several days of rain in the South East.  My smoke related chest pain has gone away.  Hopefully we will get some more rain this weekend.

The Northern and Central columns of the Finnish Army have converged on the Soviets around the last victory hex.  To win I have to both capture the hex and eliminate all of these Communist Hordes.  But the way my columns have converged it will be difficult to keep the two support units (the anti-tank gun and the heavy artillery unit) protected from infantry attack. 

Turn 20 - Last Airfield Captured
My two attack columns have converged.  The Soviets are almost surrounded.  The last airfield has been captured.


Turn 22 - The Jaws Tighten


Turn 23 - Russian Armor & Heavy Infantry Counter-Attack
The Russian Armor and Heavy Infantry badly damaged one of my infantry units.  It will retreat.  But my anti-tank gun can now move up and shoot at the tank.  I also have a lot of infantry that can be used in the counter-attack.


Finns Smash the Russian Counter-Attack
The sequence of the Finn counter-attack is critical.  First, I moved up the AT gun and hit the Russian tank.  I then moved individual Finn units up in succession and hit the tank and the infantry unit.  The first shot by the AT gun is essential to knocking down the tank enough that the infantry can handle it.

[airboy]

Victory!

The last two screenshots show the final isolated, out-of-supply, and weak Russian units.  The last shot is the victory flag.

I nailed this scenario.  I lucked into the right force mix on both the Northern and Central attack groups.  The two groups had the right mix of troops.  I did not blunder into any ambushes.  I got a victory with almost half of the turns left.  None of my Finnish forces were destroyed and nothing went below stage 3 on a ten stage unit.



Victory

[airboy]

I've posted the first two scenarios.  I've played and made screenshots of the first 9 scenarios.  Depending on what my wife needs me to do this weekend, I may be able to post the first Mannerheim Line scenario this weekend.

The new Monster Hunter Memoirs book by Correia and Ringo is released next week.  I will download it on the Baen Monthly Bundle on the release date.  Then I'll probably not get any sleep until I finish it.

[airboy]

Scenario 3 - Karelian Isthmus

This is a short, 25 turn scenario where the Finn's defend the Mannerheim Line against the first Soviet Attack.  My goal is to keep most of my units alive; keep a good number of the secondary victory hexes; and make sure I don't lose the major city in the far Northeast of the Map.  I had another objective to blow the Soviet oil depot.  That proved to be impossible unless I bought medium bombers and wasted my air cover defending the bomber on multiple runs.  Instead, I chose to only purchase fighters and keep the Soviets from hammering my ground troops.



Scenario Objectives

[airboy]

Turn 4 & 5 - Two Soviet Attacks

The first major attacks landed on turn 4.  The Soviets attacked on my far left flank and towards my center.  Both attacks initially had local superiority. But for an attack to work you must protect your supply lines.  Getting cut off is death.

In the left flank attack the Soviets used an armor unit to bust my line.  But the support was an infantry unit left beside a concrete fortification bunker.  I chopped up the infantry unit while the Russian tank advanced.  I then shifted my infantry to kill the supporting infantry unit and isolate the tank.  I then hit the armor with an AT gun that I moved up.  If I had attacked the lead tank unit directly it would have been a disaster.

Turn 4 - Russian Tank leads the attack.


Turn 5 Part 1 - Russian Tank Isolated & Infantry Destroyed - 2nd Attack Develops
The Armor led attack on the left flank collapses.  The supporting Commie infantry unit is destroyed.  The tank is isolated.  The AT gun comes up and smacks it.
In the center of the line a strong Russian infantry unit is supported by an almost destroyed infantry unit.  Using the same tactics I attack the weaker unit and surround the strong one.



Turn 5 Part 2 - Attack on the Center Collapses


Dead Commies

[airboy]

Turn 14 - Heavy Tank Attack

This was an attack by a superior Russian tank.  The tank hit one of my infantry units but ended up beside a concrete bunker.  This was a big mistake.  If you look at the screen shot carefully you will see my anti-tank gun is behind the lines where it cannot get directly attacked and would support any attack by armor against the three Finnish infantry units.

Tank Attack


One, Two, Three Punch to Knock Out the Tank
I used three attacks in the right sequence to almost destroy the Russian Tank while conserving my forces.  I first attacked with the concrete bunker.  Attack #2 was with the AT gun.  Attack #3 was with my only Finn Tank.  Russian tank is almost destroyed.  An Armored Car moved up, but it will be clobbered by the AT gun the next turn.

[airboy]

Eventual Victory Without Major Losses

The two sets of screen shots illustrated the entire battle in Scenario 3.  Russians attack with a locally superior force.  Often they use strategic or tactical bombers with fighter support.  My fighter units scramble and hit the Russian planes.  Usually the lead attack elements were too strong to attack directly.  I would tactically retreat.  The Commies would advance too far.  I would hit the weaker units protecting the supply line.  The lead elements would be hit by Finnish units transferred from other parts of the line.  All the commies die or the scattered remnants retreat.

Eventually I got the happy notification that this slug-fest was over.

[Sir Slash]

Congrats on the win Airboy. I imagine the Russians are shooting Generals right about now.  O0

[airboy]

Scenario #4 - Suomussalmi

I'm faced with a lot of tough choices in where to place my troops.  The scenario is 30 turns long and the map is very big.
I have to capture the Northern most victory hex within 7 turns.  There is a potential group of Russians to the East of the first victory hex which could counter-attack if I don't eliminate them.



Worse, I must keep the big block of Russians in the South isolated from a relief column for 10 turns.  The only way I can stop a relief column cold is to concentrate my troops in the South.  But doing that means I won't take the Northern victory hex in 7 turns.

What I decided to do was concentrate my troops in the North and hope to eventually relieve the South. 
1] Concentrate almost all of my forces in the North.  I hope to destroy the three Northern groups of Commies completely, then hopefully head South and take the last victory hexes before time runs out.

2] I put minimum troops in my blocking forces.  My total Southern forces were 2 infantry units and one AT gun to separate the two main groups.  I had one token (fast) ski unit to guard my South airbase.  If there is anything more than a probing attack in the South in the first 10 turns the Finns will have to quickly retreat.

[airboy]

Opening Moves Scenario 4

The Finns swept through light Russian resistance to easily take the first victory hex within 3 turns (4 turns before the deadline).  At the end of turn 3 they are in place to take the second major victory hex.  I should have purchased truck transportation for my sole artillery unit.


I have two shots of turn 4.  At the beginning of Turn 4 there are four defending Commie units - one is heavily damaged.  But I have almost the entire Finn army on the position so I can hit the units multiple times.
Start of Turn 4


By the end of Turn 4 I killed two units and the tank unit is surrounded with only one hit point left.  The seven step infantry unit is surrounded, but a major victory hex acts as a supply point.  I sent an aircraft to the East to scout for Russians.  The news is bad.  There are two infantry units and a heavy tank.  This poses a major problem.  I can send my ski infantry to the East.  They move fast.  I can send my only tank East.  But should I send the slow anti-tank gun east or not?  If I send it east and there are a lot of tanks to the South - I'm stuck.  If I send it South, can I isolate the Russian tank and then destroy it?  If I cannot cut the heavy Russian tank from the supply point, destroying it will be very expensive.

I'm sending my regular (slow) infantry South after reducing and capturing the victory hex.  I'm sending most of the ski troops East in turn 5.  This was a difficult choice.


In the far South (no screen shot) the Commies are not even heavily probing to see if they can link up their two major groups of troops.

[airboy]

Turns 5 & 6

I split my forces.  All of my ski units excepting one are heading East to take care of the Russian troop concentration.  I'm also sending my only tank.  On Turn 5 I come close to taking out the Russian artillery unit.  It will die next turn.  My infantry units, one ski unit, and my artillery are slowly moving down the South road. 

Turn 5


Turn 6
The Russian artillery unit is destroyed in the East.  My troops there are moving to engage.  In the South I'm still moving into position and reinforcing/resupply my infantry forces.  The initial probing attack to the South will start next turn.

[airboy]

Turn 7 Initial Attacks

On turn 7 I make my initial attacks.

NorthEast Initial Attack


South Initial Attack

[airboy]

Turn 8

North East


South

[airboy]

Turn 9 Scenario 4

Turn 9 is the last simple turn I have for a while.  In the Northeast the Russian Tank is isolated.  The last Commie infantry unit is heavily damaged and out of supply.
Northeast Turn 9


In the South I have heavily damaged three Russian units.  I'm not worried about the anti-air unit or the artillery unit.  My aircraft are staying away.  Armor weakens units but almost never does serious damage.  I'm just gradually grinding away the Russians.  But the Finns lack the forces to quickly reduce the Russian defenders.  Still, every turn progress is being made.
South Turn 9


Everything hits the fan in turns 10 and 11.  These turns are very complex with a lot of things happening on multiple fronts.
That's all for today.