I would like to describe an exciting game of "Forests of the North" from CH's Jatkosota. This is another early war Finnish/German vs Russian game set in August of 1941. The Finnish are supported by SS. Boards 5 and 32 are in play.
What did I like about the scenario:
Some of the things I liked about the
scenario was the Russian conscripts and T-35 Tank, as well as the potential
Russian 10-0 Commissar and 9-2 leader. In addition, the Russians receive some
nice infantry guns, of note the little 37mm not often seen.
To Balance this the Axis player has 8-3-8, 6-4-8 and 6-5-8 SS. Leadership is nothing great, in fact it is rather poor with only one -1 leader. However, since the finns have self rally capability and the SS recieve an SSR given -1 DRM to their morale, they are more than compensated. Oh yes, and cant forget the 105 OBA, demo's and FT.
By SSR the Russian are allowed to place three open ground overlays to represent fields of fire. This is a nice touch to help simulate the action, and make the overly used board 5 fresh as well as adding some replay value.
What didnt I like about the scenario:
Several things did bother me about
the scenario design and the Jatkosota module. The Germans are given three
Kettenkrads and three 37L ATG. However, the forest is thick enough to make it
very difficult to tow guns through them, and since I setup far enough back, the
37L guns never saw play. very dissapointing. Some may say what about using
Paths (all roads are paths by SSR) using the Double small Kettenkrads.
Unfortunatley, there is a KGP SSR only allowing this, but nothing in the rule
book or Jatkosota.
Another thing that could have been cleaned up is the board Configuration. It would have been better to reduce the game one turn and start the axis units on the board edges of 5/32 and just have hexrows A-Q in play. We spent one turn just moving with no possibility of firing or action.
Finally, one thing I caught after playing this scenario is the Jatkosota special rule on the back of the module under heavy MG stating that Finns do not pay captured use penalties for russian MG's. If this was meant to be in effect for all scenarios, it should have been put on the scenario cards, not in some obscure place like HMG on the back cover.
On to the game:
Quick note, there is errata on this, and it is simply deleting 2 of the three german HMG's. My opponent Cloyde Angell screened the movement of his larger stacks with half squads to search for HIP units. In addition, he tried to bring the 37L up and manhandle them through the woods. he would later try to overrun my consripts entering the board with these unarmored/unarmed kettenkrads with 1-1's. Even managed to break one. Seems like these tractors should have had a better use than suicide overruns.
The axis moved up to the edge of the cleared forest (overlays I placed) that I had covered with the HMG and MMG in bunkers. the SS came down the center of the two boards and the finnish flanked the edge of board 5 to go around my bunker.
I quickly responded to his flanking attack by redeploying my units and evacuating the bunker and trenches I was in. I would do well in slowing him down with 3 squads, MMG, LMG and 7-0 leader. My 10-0 Commisar stayed put in the other bunker with the HMG ready to lay down a fire lane.
The Finns were slowly working their way to the buildings on board 32, of which they had to capture 4 of 6. Another way the axis could win was by clearing all of the pill boxes and trenches. Just as the SS were ready to cross the road, the Artillery drew red. The SS waited for the artillery another turn and faced the INF guns instead.
Meanwhile the manhandling of the guns through the woods was not going fast enough even with the help of HS's. So they were abandoned and the crews and HS joined the Main SS force.
The Russian reinforcements entered the victory buldings without problem with the T-35 sitting in front. Finally, the German Smoke came down after the SS had advanced into the open and taken fire from a HMG, MMG, LMG three squads, ATR and two INF guns and only broke one unit. Very dissapointing fire phase.
As the Two axis forces converged on the buildings the 9-2 stood in their way with a MMG and two consripts. The initial axis assault was broken up. However, when the German HMG and MMG came up, a ROF tear went on pinning the 9-2 and destroying the mg crew and two consripts as well as breaking two other squads. I couldnt believe the number of 3's rolled by the HMG. This was a critical fire phase. However, cloyde was still in trouble as I advanced a HS up to the 9-2 and now unpossessed MMG. Then his shot caused the 9-2 and HS to go berserk which would turn out to be the decisive factor in my opinion. By knocking the 9-2 out, there was not enough fire power to slow down the 8 morale troops rushing by into the buildings. Despite the fact that the T-35 was facing his units across open ground, Cloyde just took the 2-2 and 45L gun shots and had no effect. Many of his 6+2 shots proved deadly to my consripts. My final defense centered around the last two buildings, I moved my pillbox forces back into the buildings, but his MG cut of a full reinforcement, including breaking my assualt moving 10-0 from getting into a building and rallying two units. This was another decisive roll. Cloyde charged his finish and (super SS) at the building and I gacked my HMG fire shot. My other final fire was also in effective and his advancing fire finished off what I had defending the buildings. Axis win. The T-35 was never destroyed, only immobilized. It survived a DC, FT, and several lahti hits.
Very close game, could have gone either way. This scenario was alot of fun, and one of the more innovative aspects is the use of overlays as a defensive "weapon".
Brian Abela
I played "Forests of the North" from the Critical Hit "Jatkosota" scenario pack yesterday with two buddies of mine, and it was great. For those who don't know, "Jatkosota" is a packet of Finn vs Russian scenarios that comes with some special un-mounted counters for Finnish vehicles and SW not included in BV. I own and have played a lot of Critical Hit products, and I think this scenario set is the best one. Two of the scenarios have errata, but it is conviently posted on the CH website. Anyway...
Overview:
As the name implies, this is a slugfest in heavily wooded terrain (boards 32 and 5) between the attacking Finns and German SS vs some Russians dug-in in some serious fortifications with lots of MGs and INF guns. In the neat toys department, a Russian multi-turret T-35 shows up as a reinforcement with a bunch of conscripts and a 9-2 (who must have been saying "what the hell am I doing leading a bunch of 426 clowns?"). The Russians get 10 squads and three open ground overlays to set up as "cleared fields of fire," which is kind of cool, and opens up the woods somewhat for the defense. However, the Russian fortifications do not set up HIP (good recon). The Finns/Germans attack with a force of studly Finns (7 x 648, 3 x 838) who come toting flamethrowers, DCs, and a 20L ATR. The reluctant SS troopers (ELR 2) come with 6.5 squads, two MGs, a 105 OBA battery, and three 37L AT guns towed by those crazy half motorcylce / half tracked SdKfz 2s. In seven turns, the Finns/Germa! ns have to clear the trenches an d bunkers of Russkies or take four buildings in the board 32 village.
Setup:
We diced for sides and Bryant got the Russians. He set up a mostly linear defense with the trenches and bunkers forming a 13 hex-long trench line mostly along rows I and H (looked like the Argonne in WWI) with his open ground overlays in front of the trench line. He had 8 wire hexes strung out in front of the overlays to further slow a head-on assault down the middle. The trench ended down at 32H4, leaving a 6 hex gap between the board edge and the end of his visible defense. His HMG and 37* INF gun covered this area, setting up HIP in the woodline just behind the shallow stream running from M6 to K10. I think his over-all plan was to scare us away from a frontal attack with the wire and open ground, and bottle us up on the flank or flanks we tried to attack. One of the things I like about this scenario is all the choices. The Russians can't close down the entire area with entrenchments, so they can set up in the center and cover the flanks with mines, HIP guys, etc.! , or setup more to one flank, an d use the variety of SW to cover the other spots. Very cool.
Frank and I decided to attack both flanks, figuring one had to be weak with him showing so much strength in the center. Frank took the SS to the south (board 5) flank, and I gave him one 838/DC to help. On the north flank (board 32) I took the remaining Finns and one of the 37L guns, hoping to push it into place and bring some covering fire on whatever he had in that area. Our primary goal was taking the village, which we hoped to do with the SS breaking through and laying down support fire and artillery from the woods around 5F8 and FC9. The Finns would be the assault force coming from the other direction, through the woods around 32E9. As with most things military, it didn't work out quite as planned.
Early Turns:
On the SS front, Frank searched his way through the woods along the south board edge and met no opposition until he reached the road at 5I1. There he found the road mined, and covered by fire from a 458/MMG and two other squads still in the trench-line. After a series of terrible dice, Frank managed to clear the minefield in I1, but got hammered doing so. Bryant had skillfully set up to tempt an attack on that flank, but had placed his mines and defense so Frank couldn't deploy all his firepower effectively to cover any assault across the road. The only real success on that flank was the SS managing to bring up two of the 37L guns through the woods (great Bog rolls by Frank), which helped out some with their high rate of fire. Still, the SS were bogged down and couldn't turn the corner of the Russian defense.
The Finns were meanwhile making swift work of the Russian defense in their area. A combination of opportunity fire, high Finn morale, and crappy Russian rolls soon found the Russian HMG in the hands of a Finn 838, and the 37mm INF gun malfed and captured. The Finns were across the stream in force by turn 2, and driving through the woods toward the village. Bryant wisely fell back slowly into the end of the trench line and the town, not wanting to take on a hoard of 648/838 squads in the woods at close range. With an eye toward the T-35, the Finns were also able to get the 20L ATR into position to cover the road into the board 32 village.
Middle Turns:
The Russian reinforcements came on in Turn 3, and Bryant sent the T-35 to the south to help contain the SS and the 6.5 squads and the 9-2 into the village to counter the Finnish attack. The SS futility continued, with the OBA dropping a smoke FFE which was off-target. The T-35 moved into position to cover the road but didn't expose itself to the AT gun. The cramped SS and the Russians continued to trade shots with little effect. (Side note: With a SSR, these SS are basically 659s, so don't be afraid to go toe to toe with the Russians, I think Frank wasted a turn or two being a little cautious vs a few 447s and 458s). The end of turn 5 saw the SS still held up, but Frank had pulled a platoon back and regrouped. He then began moving them north toward an open part of the trench line.
Down in the south, the Russians finally ran out of room to fall back and a fierce firefight got going around the village, with the Finns mustering 20 FP attacks at pointblank range vs the Russian conscripts. I though it was over when I lost a heroic Finn leader and a 648/lmg squad to a lone 447 in CC (He needed a 3 and rolled it, I needed an 8 and blew it!) I was able to spread the finns out and despite ridiculously good rolls by the Russians (lots of 3s and 4s on 4+2 attacks) and crappy rolls by me, I bulled my way into one of the buildings by the end of turn 5, and I had the Russians routing across the road into the remaining ones.
Late Turns:
This one was going to come down to the wire. In the South, the SS finally got some good rolls and blasted most of the Russians to their front. The T-35 accidently moved up two hexes from a 37L he thought was unmanned - oops! With the T-35 burning, and the Russians pinned in the trench by some 105 HE, the SS were able to flank them to the north and start clearing the trench out. It was getting late though, and I had no hope of the SS getting into position to help the 5 remaining Finn squads dig out the 8 Russian squads in the victory buildings. We had a slim chance to clear out the trench of GO MMCs, but that plan quickly fell apart when Bryant's 76mm INF gun got a critical hit on a 838/9-1 stack I had moved into an adjacent bunker - dammit!!! The slugfest in the town continued on, including the most hair-raising CC I've ever had to attempt. Bryant had a single 426 in one of the buildings with his 9-2 leader. I moved in two 648s and an 838 for a seemingly safe attack.! With the combination of CX, no ambush by me, and the 9-2, Bryant ended up needing only a 6 to kill THREE Finnish squads. I rolled a 5, needing only an 8, and Bryant rolled a 7 !! Once my heart started beating again, I realized I still had only one turn left to get into two more buildings across a street covered by an MMG and the 76 INF gun - not going to be fun. To make things worse, the Russian barrage of 3s and 4s continued in Russian turn 6, breaking two of the three squads I had in position to make the charge across the road. At the start of turn 7 I was down to two 648s and one HS to go for it. The first 648 got blasted by the MMG, but the other one assault moved beside a building holding nothing but broken russkies. The 248 then moved adjacent to the MMG which sustain-fired and broke!! In CC I was able to take out the crew manning the MMG and occupy the other building in advance for the win. To be honest, Bryant had missed the word "immediately" in the VC and had held back a couple of 447s fo! r a last-turn human wave to take back the buildings, but it isn't the first time one of us has mis-read the VC.
Analysis:
Overall a fun and interesting scenario. Lots of cool toys and choices for both sides. In retrospect, I think a joint attack by the Finns and SS could punch through the trench line, but it would still be risky. With three MGs, two INF guns, and two mortars, the Russians could really hammer a frontal assault if their ROF rolls were good. Our divided attack had its risks also, but it did force the Russians to redeploy, and the attack toward the village got them out of the trench line and made it a fair fight in the woods and buildings, where the high fire power, high morale Finns had a big advantage. The Russian player can setup a solid line of trenches or go for a strong point type defense, using the overlays to allow the strongpoints to support each other. The options for both sides have good and bad points, a hallmark of a good scenario.
As an aside, I had the seemingly standard "idiot squad" which miserably failed every MC and rolled an 11 or 12 on each attack. Luckily he wasn't in too important a spot. Anyone else experience this "idiot squad" ASL phenomena?
Like I said before, this is the third scenario from the CH "Jatkosota" pack I've played and all have been great, so I highly recommend it. We are going to do a four-player with JATK 4 "The Gods of War" next. 200mm rocket OBA!
Doug