I've been meaning to learn Multiman Publishing's
Standard Combat Series
for a while now. I own Karelia '44, which is a module detailing the
major Soviet offensive on the Karelian isthmus during the Continuation
War in the summer of 1944. As the anniversary is upon us, I thought it
was high time to give it a go by myself.
For those of you unfamiliar with the
Continuation War
(can't blame you), Finland and the Soviet Union had been at war since
the beginning of Operation Barbarossa, yet the war had been slowed down
to a stalemate for a couple of years. In the summer of 1944, to coincide
with the Normandy landings, the Soviets launched a major offensive in
Karelia to finally break Finland. The scale of the offensive caught the
Finnish by surprise and they started a fighting withdrawal across the
Karelian isthmus to buy enough time for reinforcements to arrive from
other parts of the front.
There was a succession of
fortified lines on the isthmus. When a line broke, the Finns retreated
to the next one to regroup. The first two lines were broken in the
opening days of the offensive and the city of Viipuri lost. The
defensive line the Finns now occupied, VKT line, was not the last in the
succession, but if it would fall, it was unlikely that the last one
would hold either. In the
Battle of Tali-Ihantala,
the gradually reinforced Finns finally managed to stop the Soviet
offensive. Failure would surely have meant that Finland in it's entirety
would have fallen behind the iron curtain. The Soviet attack stalled as
all available reinforcements were directed to the push on Germany.
Peace was ultimately made and Finland remained independent.
Karelia
'44 contains scenarios to cover the entire summer offensive, but I
opted to play the small Tali-Ihantala scenario. It was small enough to
fit in the lid of the game box when I made a copy of the area, which was
nice as I didn't finish the game all in one go.
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| Opening setup
of the Tali-Ihantala scenario. The Soviets outnumber the Finns by a wide
margin, but the Finns have water obstacles to protect their flanks, a
defensive line to get a bonus in defence and reinforcements on the way.
The Soviets must also reduce troops on the field depending on Stalin's
whims. |
 |
| When the "boss
point counter" nears zero, the Soviet player must reduce troops on the
table to appease the high command or the scenario ends. Here's the
reduction to keep the Soviet player going for one more round. |
SCS seems really simple to learn for a hex
& counter game. Basic movement and combat are as simple as they
come and won't give any trouble for anyone who's played anything similar
before. The effective use of "exploitation capable" forces takes some
plays to master though. These troops are able to mount more than one
attack in a turn and are able to exploit gaps made by other troops
during the same turn (hence the name). This capability is mostly for
tanks, mechanized infantry and elite formations.
There
are a lot of module specific rules and I think these are the ones that
took most learning. Finns in Karelia '44 are able to make some extra
actions and so on, and some rules override the normal series rulebook.
Nothing too difficult but it takes time to learn how to use them
properly. Here's how I did:
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| The Soviets easily drive back the Finns on their right flank but are unable to cut them off from the main force. |
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| The Soviets
play their only "prepared offensive", which allows them more efficient
artillery barrages and additional exploitation capability. The Soviets
fail to make any gains on that turn. |
 |
| Two turns of
pounding and the Finns do break however and the defensive line between
Tali and Ihantala is broken through. The Finns retreat once more to a
bottleneck between the lakes. |
 |
| The Soviets cannot be stopped at this point. |
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| I called the game at turn six as there was little more than artillery left on the Finnish side. |
The game took me six turns and was a
pretty straightforward slugfest. The Soviets hammer the Finnish
defensive line and the Finns try to plug any gaps that appear. The
victory conditions of the scenario oddly state that the soviet player
needs 8 victory points to win the scenario when the boss points run out,
but this doesn't make any sense as the Soviet player is the attacker
and he already has the requisite points to win at the start of the
scenario! Anyway, I reasoned that the Soviet player has to exceed the
historical result to win and set out to see whether the Finnish line
could be overcome.
For the first three or four turns it
looked like the Soviets didn't have a chance, even with all their
numerical superiority. The protected Finnish flanks and good defences
meant that it was really difficult to get a good odds ratio against the
Finnish anywhere. Even the prepared offensice just fizzled into nothing
and the red army had to reduce troops three times because the boss
points kept dropping. At some point the Soviet luck turned however and
the Finnish line was suddenly broken in two or three places at the same
time. This signaled the end of the battle.
All in all,
the scenario was not very good gameplay-wise, even if the history behind
the battle is interesting to me. It gave me a chance to try out the SCS
rules but there was very little manoeuvering to do and I couldn't
really give the exploitation rules a good go. Maybe the whole campaign
will cement the rules for me. I have a chance to start the full scenario
on vassal against another player so maybe I'll give it a go.
