At the Gates of Viipuri - Critical Hit Jatkosota 2
Andy Young and I played a brief game of this one from Jatkosota. The scenario has a lot of eye appeal as a band of mostly green Finns who are tragically short on MGs, but who do have PF and MOL capability, defend their hometown in 1944 from a Russian Horde (tm) supported by three T-34/85s, two JS-IIms, and an ISU-122. Against this formidable force, the Finns have what could only loosely be called armored support in the form of four BT-42s, which are captured Russian BT-7s equipped with a 114* gun firing HE only.

As the Finns, I spread out thinly (which is really the only option) across my front, hoping to get the best possible FL opportunities with my two HMGs. I put my 50L and 75L AT guns right up front in some grainfields. I knew they wouldn't last long, but I wanted to give them the best possible opportunities for a side or rear shot before they died.

None of this worked. Andy came at me with primarily a "board-edge creep" on my right, and it worked beautifully, especially when I miserably gacked almost every shot, including a malf on the 75L on its first or second shot. Andy had some nice dice, too, which KIA'ed my PSK-armed Hero as soon as he lost HIP and fired his first shot. In a sense, Andy gained the critical upper hand during his first PFPh when he broke one of my HMG crews and burned a couple of my tanks.

There's not much need to go into all the gory details. I conceded after 2.5 of the 7 turns, after I'd lost 50% of my infantry, 75% of my armor, and both of my Guns without causing a single Russian casualty. Andy was well into the multi-story buildings he needed and a few half-squads and routed gun crews weren't going to stop him from wrapping all the way around my flank and tagging his bases.

Tactically, Andy did exactly what he needed to do, given my defense. He applied overwhelming force (which believe me, the Russians have) at a single part of my line, allowing him to penetrate deeply in a very short period of time.

My defense was the problem. Besides the fact I suck on defense in general, I think what I missed is that the Finns can't meet this attack up front; they've got to hide out in the buildings, skulking around the upper stories, and develop a line of resistance they can actually manage.

If I were to play again as the Finns, I'd put up a delaying defense in the foremost buildings, then fall back quickly and save the real fight for the area behind the road running from 21A6-C6-H8-L7-Q9. Kindle fires in the buildings (remember those MOLs) outside that line so he can't use them for cover (don't worry about control, you're going to lose them anyway), then make 'em come to you and shoot PFs at Russians in buildings and Street Fight his tanks.

As far as replay value goes, I dunno. Ray Tapio (who designed the scenario) played it at the other end of my table at WO '97 and the Russian attack seemed to develop similarly. I should note that Ray was playing a new version from his Christmas Special; the only difference is that in the Christmas Special you get new BT-42s with slightly thicker armor. Against an IS-IIm, I don't think it's that big a difference.

John Frazer