Some 3D Printed Finns

 

I have had these figures on the painting table for over a year now, they were 3/4 finished but just seemed to languish there. My first retirement project was to move them off.

They are all 3D prints from Just Some Miniatures, they really are fantastic figures. I would have liked to print them in 28 mm but I game in 20 mm. My present Finns are all metals from Warmodelling and Eureka and these were an excellent match scaled down proportionally unlike the Soviets I had printed. I am not 100% sure but I scaled at either 70-72%. These figures are from the Jakarta, Finnish Officers, and LMG packs. I think the only figure I did not print was the figure with the Molotov, I already have too many of those. Looking back I might of missed one of the officers as well. I would have liked to see more NCO's Officers with rifles, as well as a figure with a MP-18 but that is about it. As you will see I finally got a figure with Lahti-Saloranta M/26 LMG, until now all my Finns had been armed with DP-28's

All my Finns are in all white so I continued with that theme. 

From left to right: LMG team, JL, Rifle team and SMG team.

Warmodelling on the right

I got a bit out of control printing the SMG's, there is also a figure with a MP40 as well as another leader.

I also had some Russian guns that I had to finish up as you can see.

M1942 45mm ATG and M1936 76mm Divisional Gun

I should note that Propylene F. has added many more figures to his Finnish range, including some cooks, a flamethrower team, interchangeable infantry, skiers, ATG crews etc. etc. He also has a Soviet range as well as a Polish range. I am hoping he will do a Norwegian range soon. Finally I should note that he has a very interesting kickstarter with Finnish transports that finished up within the next 24 hours.

Striking Back-Third Go

 

I got together with Tom yesterday to get in another test of Striking Back, an Armoured versus Infantry encounter set during the Battle of the Raate Road in January of 1940. This is the third test now with 3 different experienced CoC players; and the scenario seems to work well. For this third version, I made some minor modifications to the terrain set up, mostly to make it a little simpler. You can find the latest version with the rest of my Winter War campaign material here in my Google Drive.

I played the Soviets this time, which was good, I had previously played the Finns twice and in this game I really wanted to focus on the CoC Roadblock rules to see how they would work in the scenario. We have had a lot of discussion on the TFL forum about Finnish Roadblocks and I had decided to go with the rules as written.

Clearing Roadblocks
A Roadblock may be cleared by an Engineer or Pioneer demolition Team. They are equipped with sufficient charges to destroy a single roadblock in a game. To do this they must spend two Phases in which they are activated adjacent to the roadblock during which time they must not lose any members killed or have any Shock inflicted. They must retire at least 9” in order to detonate the charge safely, which requires one further Phase activated. On a roll of 4 to 6 on a D6 they can declare the roadblock destroyed, after which vehicles may pass without hindrance. On a roll of 2 or 3 the road block is partially destroyed and vehicles may pass it but at slow speed only.

As you can see this is a pretty tough requirement and although I like winning, I was more focussed on destroying the Roadblock if indeed Tom selected one as a support. I was curious how the process worked.

Finns (Starting FM of 10)
Core
2  SL's
4 Rifle Sections (2 LMG, 2 SMG) with JL's
Supports
Roadblock
Sniper
MMG Team
Off Table Mortar
Rifle Section
AT Defense Team
Medic
Molotovs for each core Section
Smoke Pots for each core section
2 Heavy Satchel Charges

Soviets (Starting FM of 8)
As laid out in the scenario, no additional supports

The game commenced with the Soviets going first. The Finns were not able to advance their JOP's that far up the table.

From the Soviet end

The T28 and BT7 lead the Soviet advance

It looks like there is a Roadblock. The cautious Finns start their advance in the forest.

The BT7 rapidly advances to the Roadblock....big mistake. The KhT26 enters.

A Finnish Antitank team takes out the BT7, but the Flamethrower tank advances up the verge and they disappear in a puff of smoke. The battle has commenced.


  
Finnish Tank Hunters

The Soviet commander sends up a Gaz with a SL and a Rifle squad, they disembark and advance to outflank the Finns, they have a tough slog through the deep snow with their average advance being 3"!

The T28 advances up to the road block on the verge but gets bogged down! The Finns have launched a mortar barrage.

The Soviet slow advance on their left flank. By now the Soviets had pulled back their Flamethrower tank but started to advance their T26 platoon. They also send out a 2nd Gaz truck with a second Rifle squad which disembarks and trudges through the snow on their right flank.


 

The KOed BT7 was a real pain as it blocked LOS from the road so the T26 platoon had to advance up the verge. I only could get LOS from 2 of them on the Finns on the right flank (unfortuantely I forgot that the T26 had a top mounted MMG so their fire power utilised was a measly 4HE)

Time to send out the engineers, you can see them advancing along the road accompanied by a truck mounted Quad Maxim team. We played that the Soviets could ditch their trucks after their troops disembarked.

A real traffic snarl which was my main tactical error. The Quad Maxim had no LOS.

 
Some infantry action 


Two Soviet Demo Teams

The Soviets despite sending 2 Demolition teams in with the T28 giving covering fire, they get rapidly chopped up by the Finns in the forest.


Tom pops another Finnish  squad on the table by now the Soviet moarle is 1, time to pull out.

Well it was a good game, with the Finns winning with a FM of 5 to the Soviet's FM of 1. All three games have worked well with none of the experienced CoC players offering any major criticisms. All games were close with the Soviets winning the first time around, the second game was very close with a intial Soviet win but a major error was made at the end with the Finnish SL taking a FM test which he should not have taken at a time when both sides FM was 4. Our game above was a good victory for the Soviets.

I certainly made a few errors and Tom played an excellent game, holding back his Finns until he had a good advantage and then disappearing back into the forest. The Soviet player does have a pretty tough time advancing his AFV's up the road. Having a KOed tank blocking the road right at the road block was a major error as it blocked the LOS for the rest of my armour. It also stopped me from giving good covering fire to the demolition squad when it attempted to blow the Roadblock. I have to say though I think it is almost a futile task for the Soviets to take out this road block.

I think I may modify the scenario to give the Soviets an option to take another Rifle squad rather than the Engineering squad but I will give it a bit more thought. I really do not want to enlarge the game as it is already quite big.

Painting in Four Scales

The fall is here so time to get the brushes out again. Over the last 6 weeks I have been working on several projects, finally got a chance to do some photography today. I had not really realised it but what I have done is in 4 different scales.

6mm Epic Horus Heresy Flying Ships

Blood Angels Thunderhawk Gunship

Has significant transport capacity for both Space Marines and Vehicles and can operate as a ground assault craft

Finally got my other flyers mounted on bases

15mm ACW Union Generals

Blue Moon ACW Union Generals for Pickets Charge

20mm WWII Finland Infantry

AntiTank Rifle Team

Additional Infantry Squad w/ captured DP-28 LMG

Slide Mine!

AntiTank Teams. Most of the figures are from Eureka

28mm SAGA Shield-Maidens

From Shieldwolf Miniatures 

Cost 1 point, Leader has Aggression of 4, unit has determination and Banner rules

It was good to starting painting again, as I have to warm up for the IX AHPC! A new force has been ordered.

Retake Suomussalmi

I finally got in a Winter War game yesterday, the first for 3 years. It was nice to get the Soviets and Finns out of their boxes as well as set up some winter terrain. About a month ago, I connected with a relatively local TFL gamer, Greg. He had put on a Sharp Practice game at Huzzah, I did not get to play in the game but we had a bit of a chat and decided in the near future to have a game of Chain of Command. My regular TFL opponent Mike has been pretty tied up with work and we have not been able to get together much in the last year.

We decided to play at my place, which made it very easy as I did not have to lug a lot of stuff about and rush to set up the terrain. I have been working on a Winter War campaign for several years now and this pushed me along and I now have 4 of the 6 planned scenarios done. But more about that later.

Anyway, this specific scenario is set early in December, 1939 and is as laid out in the following pamphlet.

I took a few more photos then usual and the action was quite straight forward as described in the photos. We diced for sides, I ended up with the Soviets. Lately most games I have played, I have been the attacker so it was a change.

The Patrol Phase was very odd as the Finns got 6 free moves and do not have to stay within 12" of each other. I was pretty stymied as we were playing down the short axis of the table and I had 6' to defend. This is where they ended up. You can not see it but there was a Finnish Patrol marker all the way up the table to my left flank. 

Green Soviet Forces

Force Rating -4, 5 Command Dice, 13 Supports

Force Morale 8

2 Senior Leaders

3 Green Rifle Squads

1 Regular NKVD Squad

3 entrenchments

Maxim MMG Team

Flamethrower Team

Sniper

Pregame Barrage

Elite Finnish Forces

Force Rating +5, 5 Command Dice, 8 supports

Force Morale 11

2 Senior Leaders

4  Elite Jããkãri Squads

Off Table Mortar

? 3 Supports

Greg had the first move as he was the attacker, fortunately I had selected a pregame barrage as one of my supports and with the Soviet National Characteristic of Wrath of the Gods, I was able to get 3 of my sections safely entrenched on the table within the first few phases with overwatch markers before he really could get set up. Most of his JOP points were on my right flank so I felt I could anticipate from where he would attack.

The Soviets look ready, but Greg deploys a FO in the tree line to the far right. ...........

.........and Kaboom before you know it 2 of my squads are under the barrage and I lose a JL almost immediately and my FM drops to 6! Oh dear, I say. I am able to end the turn and lift the barrage but by now.....................

........................Greg deploys a Jããkãri squad from his JOP on my right flank and they rapidly advance on my very shocked squad. The Finns are indeed aggressive......................

...............and in they come. Sometimes however the dice gods are on your side and despite being heavily shocked and pinned I manage to eke out a 1 point victory in the ensuing combat and the Finns are driven back.

Some action missed here but Greg decides to advance a 2nd squad to take out the entrenched Soviets , but this time I am ready and it is my turn....... I pop out a Flamethrower Team which takes care of the advancing Finns and drives them back and I also deploy my NKVD squad directly into close combat (I believe Greg was generous here as I believe I was a little outside of 4") with the Finns in the woods and they are destroyed...............

I have now dropped the Finn's Force Morale down and things are starting to look secure for the Soviets as we are both sitting at 6....................but CoC can be a fickle game, it is Greg's phase and he throws 4xd6.............. 

......................and a random barrage drops down on my left flank! The Finns advance on my right and take out the exposed Flame Thrower team. They are indeed aggressive but the NKVD can be aggressive as well and they advance forward to take the battle to the Finns but I had forgotten about the Finnish FO in the woods and before I knew it another barrage rains down on my right flank.

The game now turned into one of pure attrition where the barrage kept on pounding my right however I was able to fire continuously from my left flank on the exposed troops in the centre, I finally got a double phase and was able to lift the barrage and with constant fire the Finns morale dropped to 2, a Soviet victory was had.

I have to say that I really enjoyed this game, I thought I was done for early on when my FM dropped to 6 in the first few phases. I then got lucky with the dice and with my Flamethrower team and NKVD squad and was able to inflict FM damage on the Finns (I think Greg threw a lot of 6's). In my previous games it was rare to have any close combat, it is bloody.

I also have to say that it was great to meet another local TFL gamer with whom it was a pleasure to play. I am sure we will get in more games. I am also that much closer to finishing my Winter War campaign that has been sitting on the back burner fore quite sometime.

Winter War 1939-40: Finland