Closing the Trap - Russo-Finnish AoF AAR

As mentioned, last week my old adversary and I got together and played a Russo-Finnish skirmish game. While I've had the figures (and for that matter, the rules), this was our first time playing a true Arc of Fire game one-on-one. While we had some hiccups, overall I think it went rather well and we both came away agreeing to try again some day. Maybe even get into another theater?

Anyway, we played one of the scenarios in the Skirmish Campaigns book, Closing the Trap. In this scenario, a group of Russians are desperate to break through the Finnish lines and get home to Mother Russia. Not that they would be greeted warmly there, but I suppose that is beside the point.

Jon played the Russians, I took the Finns. The Russians had two rifle platoons, a mortar team, and a political officer. I had a small HQ squad, a rifle squad, an LMG team and an MMG team. As events turned out, the MMG team was the dominant force on the table.

The scenario calls for the Russians to enter down a road, eventually cross an open area, and overwhelm the Finns at a roadblock through sheer numbers. They never came close. The MMG team kept them at bay, with repeated morale failures leading to most of their time being spent rallying the troops. The political officer was useful for a while, until he suffered a K result. Then entire platoons started failing unit morale checks, and the Russians pretty much hunkered down in the woods. The mortar team did some damage, but wasn't as effective as either one of us thought to would/could/should be.

As I said, we really had just a few hiccups. For example, I read a chart wrong on the first turn and got excited when I thought I took out Jon's first platoon's entire command structure with one blast from the MMG. It wasn't so, but that was OE, nothing wrong with the rules. We're still not convinced we handled the mortar correctly, and were confused about what to do when firing into a group of soldiers when some are broken and some are not, but overall things ran pretty smoothly. We both liked the card-driven activation system and the randomness it created. It did play a role.

One other big mistake I made was I thought my table would be too small to put on a decent game, so I went with the small scale distances rather than "large scale." This had the effect of really minimizing the Russian advance speed. Of course, they were struggling through deep snow, but still. We'll definitely go with large scale next time. And maybe we'll have a bigger table.

For now, here's some photos. All figures are Battle Honors.

The Russian viewpoint. Where are those Finns?

The Russian onslaught. Will numbers win the day?

The Finnish MMG team, which really took its toll.

Finnish LMG team.

The Russians tried, but just couldn't do much.

Manning the roadblock: A Finnish rifle squad.

Russian mortar team.

More Russians. Note the broken and confused markers.

Come on, Mother Russia awaits!

More Finns - On Skis!

The workbench focus remains CY6 aircraft, as well as finishing the Guerriere and starting the Constitution, along with that Foyt Olds that really just needs an afternoon to finish, but it seems an appropriate time of year to continue showing some of these Battle Honors Finns.

Today's installment shows some of the ski troops, as well as some of the heavier weapons. At the end is an overview shot of all the Finns I have painted to date. There are no immediate plans to do any more, but that could change if I get a game going. Unlikely at this point, but you never know.

Again, a good word on the Battle Honors minis. A good variety that pretty much covers anything you need for this period, and they are easy to paint to boot. Recommended.

Coming soon: The Russian hordes...

On Finnish Helmets

I've been asked about the fellow in the previous post with the skull motif on his helmet. I'm far from an expert on Finnish WW2 uniformology, but this motif does appear in several photos from the period. Though to be honest, many of those may be Continuation War, not Winter War. As near as I can tell, it was used mainly by dragoons and light infantry, mostly in the Karelian area. If anyone out there knows more, please let us know!

Period photo, but it looks like non-winter uniform.

Reenactor, so take it for what it's worth, but definitely winter gear.

Talvisota - Winter War Finns

Finland has one of the more fascinating national stories to come out of World War II. Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place - Stalin on one side, Hitler on the other. There is no good choice there. Yet, somehow they managed to pull it off. Call it sisu, I guess.

From a gaming perspective, the Winter War has great potential. Small, well-trained and motivated units on one side, bigger, poorly equipped and prepared troops on the other. And darn few (expensive) vehicles and aircraft. One of these days I'll put together some games using Skirmish Campaigns' excellent scenario book and Arc of Fire. I played a few solo at one time, but have never put together a "real" game, despite having painted enough troops for both sides. I haven't been able to justify any additional troops or vehicles until I get an opponent. Skirmish WW2 hasn't been a priority, but if anyone's willing, I'll get back at it.

Hard to see from this angle, but that's a suomi machine gun at left.

Molotov cocktail!

So since I don't have any new pictures of what I've been working on, today let's dig into the vault and look at some Finns I painted some time ago. All figures are Battle Honors 25/28 mm, which I actually like rather well, though you don't seem to see them that often. Painted primarily with Vallejo, along with some Testors acrylics. Based on washers. White is tough to pull off; these are simply white washed with light grey. Good enough.