Lets play RED WINTER

What no figures??*

This time I had a go at some hex and counter wargames, maps based with no figures, in the form of the Red Winter from GMT games. It is unusual in that it is a grand tactical (Company level) game.  Most of the other games seem to be very small at squad level or the other end of the extreme at Army/Corps/Division level with very little in between.

Red Winter is a re fight of the Soviet invasion of Finland in 1939 specifically the battle Tolvajavri 8th-12th December where the Russian tried to flank the Mannerhiem line At Tolvajarvi the Finnish defenders stopped the Russian advance and started to push it back to its starting lines. The mediocre Russian performance in the Finnish invasion, was I think, one of the contributing factors to Germany’s decision to invade Russia in WW2.

Anyway, games wise we tried the “what if” intro scenario. The game lasts about twenty minutes real time and represents four and a half hours of game time. The scenario is relatively simple the Russian have nine units (1st and 2nd battalion 609th regiment) and have orders to capture the Village of Hirasvaara or destroy two Finnish units. While the Finns have six units (7th bicycle battalion and some additional companies) with five of the units being depleted ie damaged. The Finns have orders to hold the village and not lose two units.    It is a simple scenario but it allowed us to get use to the main rules mechanics.  For the Russian the challenge is to get their men into position fast enough to launch a successful assault while for the Finns the challenge is keeping hold of the village with some very brittle units.

The Russian are coming (1st and 2nd Battalions 609th regiment with support start moving North)

The Finns try to regroup at Hirvasaara (with two depleted infantry companies and a MG company)

The depleted Finnish 7th (bicycle) battalion moves to reinforce the Finnish defence. 7th battalion has already been in action for several days and is pretty beat up as a results.

Russian 1st Battalion starts to leave behind the slower moving units in a bid to get to objective quicker 

The Finns at Hirvasaara opt to repair their depleted infantry companies while the 7th Battalion moves into position

Russians being staging south of the village

Russain launch their assault. 1st battalion moves on to the frozen lake and provide fire support along with Mortars, artillery. 2nd battalion move north to the village and tries to push the Finns out.  

We actually got to play six games (switching sides each time) of the intro scenario with the Finns winning five of the six games. Apparently they are pretty tough but in usually it boiled down to the Russians not having enough time to break down the defense. I am really looking for to getting up to speed on the game and trying to fight out the entire 5 day battle

That is all for now thanks for stopping by.

 * image from GMT games used without permission