A quick game over coffee this morning. The ski movement makes movement quick, tho the visibility was only two hexes due to nighttime. The Soviets arrtemlted to bring the entire force around one flank, hoping to catch the Finns as they were spread out along the road. Ski movement allowed the Finns to avoid being flanked and they confronted the Soviets with all but their 37mm. The Finns with superior FP and morale simply outgunned the Soviets for a 6-2 victory.

For my first encounter with the Finns and Arctic Front Deluxe, this scenario fit the appetite. Finns start anywhere on the north-south road, Russians enter from east, west or both. I put the Finnish Ltc with an HMG and Infantry and the 37mm guns on the road towards the center of the board as a reaction force, with an Lt and 2 Infantry 5 hexes north on the road and the last LT with the last infantry and HMG 5 hexes south on the road. I split the Russians to enter with the Captain and Kommissar with 3 infantry coming in from the east and the LT with 3 more infantry coming in from the west. The whole board is woods, with open terrain treated as light woods, regular woods as regular and the darker dense woods as heavy woods. All troops are ski troops with a movement of 5. The Russian captain came in along the south edge of the board hoping to grab and hold a road hex and perhaps spread his forces north a bit to hold more road hexes in the end. The Russian LT came in center board from the west, hoping to divert the central and northern reaction forces to give the Captain a better chance of holding against a smaller force. While he succeeded in focusing more attention on him, it didnt help much as the Captain and his troops got chewed up when first hit by direct fire and then assaulted by the southern Finnish force. The Russians in the south took heavier losses and in the end, only the demoralized Kommissar was left wandering in the woods. In the center, casualties were lighter but morale was destroyed and never regained, the LT pulling back out of range hoping to regroup and make a dash for a road hex on the last turn. His attempt failed and 3 demoralized steps of Russian infantry walked through the woods back the way they came, smelling sausage soup cooking somewhere nearby. Great little fight.

OK, the Red Finns were terrible troops with exceptionally terrible morale. The key question in all reality has to be, "How the heck were they able to infiltrate the White Finns' lines to this extent?" In this sceanrio, the Red Finns tried movement rather than combat but the second that the White Finns gained contact the battle was over. It is quick though, if by movement the Red Finns can gain the road in a fashion that preculdes all of their troops being destroyed then perhaps they can win.

En este pequeño escenario, de apenas ocho turnos y que tiene lugar sobre un mapa nada más, se enfrentan algo menos de dos compañías de infantería finlandesa a dos compañías de infantería soviética (al parecer exploradores del llamado "Ejército del Pueblo Finlandés"). El objetivo de ambos bandos es eliminar unidades enemigas y ocupar hexes de la carretera norte-sur.

La partida es más interesante de lo que podría pensarse a primera vista, ya que ambos bandos deben meditar bien sus movimientos para evitar ser destruidos y situarse al final de la partida en la carretera. Los finlandeses tienen en principio ventaja, gracias a su mejor moral y a la calidad de los líderes. Los finlandeses prosoviéticos deben evitar en lo posible al enemigo, burlarlo, alcanzar hexes de carretera y resistir allí los ataques del enemigo.

Al final se produce la victoria finlandesa, al obtener 11 VP frente a 5 VP de los prosoviéticos. Interesante escenario que ha resultado más divertido de lo que cabría esperar.

A very fast playing low unit count scenario and I had almost forgotten about the Dense Wood, as this scenario was three types of Wood: Dense Woods, Woods, and Light Woods. Kind of a fun scenario but it favors the Finnish player hands down as the Soviet have a very low 6/5 morale which never really give them a good chance unless you really blow it with your Finnish units. The Finnish win this 15 to 4 and the only reason the Soviet received 4 points, is that I didn’t bother to go knock off the 2 step Soviet unit off the far south road hex, as they were so far ahead that, that Infantry units wasn’t worth it.

Played solo in about 1 hour.

Finns set up spread out along the road with the HMG near the middle. The Soviets enter and assault the AT gun 30 minutes later. Two Soviet INF and a leader with a bonus and lone gun disrupts them all. The Finns reinforce the assault and quickly eliminate the Soviets. The rest of the Finns makes a "V" shape approach to corner them and, on the 6th turn, assault the remaining units. There were no Soviet units left after 7 turns.

I rated this one a "3" as it was short and bloody, and a good change of pace after all the box defenses I played lately.

This may be a good candidate for a starter scenario - with the veteran taking on the Soviets - if one is OK with terrain mods. The new player should win easily and if not, it should be easy to point his mistakes and try again.

Finns set up spread out along the road as they did not know where the Soviets would enter. Their slower 37mm AT gun platoon and HMG's were more centrally located as they are slower. Soviets entered from northeast corner since the light woods would make a faster march to the road. The Finns moved their southern forces north along the road to meet the Soviets. By winning the initiative rolls the Soviets were able to make the road relatively undamaged, but the Finns soon caught up with them. Fierce firefights at close range ensued. The Finns assaulted the Soviets with three platoons that were practically unstoppable and were able to eliminate a number of Soviet steps over two assaults. In the end the Soviets couldn't overcome the much higher morale of the Finns and the Finns took a convincing 13-2 victory. A fun solitaire scenario that warrants replaying sometime to see if the Soviets can possibly make a game of it.

A Solo Effort Not Inspiring

Having only been PG'ing about 3 years (as opposed to any other wargaming beforehand) I have only clocked up around 50 odd scenarios, all against opponents across a table, on email or via live internet. This would be my first solo recorded play.

Well I was a bit hungry for a completed game last night and decided to use PG-HQ search engine to find me a short quick play scenario with few turns and counters and also, straight forward VC's. Of the choices offered, I took this one. This would be my first venture also onto the 'Arctic Front'.

The Soviet force must enter a completely wooded board, (light, normal and dense woods) and ski their way to occupy the main road and either stay on it or jump on it at the last turn. The Finns also have to do the same, albeit they own it at the start. Casualties inflicted also add to points.

The Finns have a 2 morale point advantage and of the 3 leaders selected, two had +2 morale mods and another a +1. They also had between them a 9,10 & 11 morale. This was a super- commando force !

I tried to manouvre the Soviets into an advantageous position, but of the 8 turns in this scenario, my random electric dice roller never rolled lower than a 5 for the Finns in initiative. Therefore,each time or turn they needed to, the Finns were just simply able to rule the battlefield. On top of that, unless shot to death, they could practically advance anywhere unharmed due to the 'premium' morale factors of their leaders added to their base morale. This was accentuated by the fact that every hex is a wood and it is night ... so therefore, not a great time for small arms fire columns. Looking back, maybe I should have simply made this a game of Ski-Tag. Let the Finns try to close with the Soviets and then slyly have the Stalinites ski-away ?

With all that written above, the Finns thrashed the hide of the Soviets winning by 22 pts to 1 point. I was at first going to say that this seems impossible for the Soviets to win, but two things stayed my hand.

Firstly, somebody has already logged a Soviet win, so it can be done.

Secondly, with super initiative throws and leaders the like of which the Finns had here, it appears I may have been playing with some rather exceptional circumstances rather than the average norm. Would like to try this again with somebody playing the Soviets to confirm or deny my view.

At present rated a 2 by me : Not a 1 because it was not boring and had some funny moves and things going on. But not a 3 or more as my version was just too lob-sided to provide any real excitement.

Not one of the better ones in Arctic Front, and I didn't play the White Finns well. The Reds are hopeless in combat, but the Whites didn't cover the road well and allowed a Red victory through poor planning.

Ma che diavolo di scenario è ? I russi non hanno nessuna possibilità di vittoria. Il morale basso, e il numero di unità limitate rendono impossibile la vittoria sovietica.

I sovietici avanzano cercando di attaccare le posizioni più deboli del nemico. Dopo primi turni di solo movimento i russi riescono a portarsi adiacenti alle posizioni nemiche. Una unità sovietica viene demoralizzata. I finlandesi non riescono a far più di tanto con il fuoco di opportunità causa l'oscurità e il movimento nel bosco. Dopo il primo assalto i russi perdono 3 step, 2 unità demoralizzate e un leader disrupt, i finlandesi resistono senza perdite. E' un suicidio. Non ha senso. I russi riescono a portare altre unità in assalto ma nulla riesce a scalfire le unità nordiche. Il russo si ritira.

Uno scenario a mio avviso inutile.