SCS Karelia 44

I haven't played any Hex & Counter games in a while. I'll post this so this doesn't turn into a 100% miniatures blog :)

Finnish troops hold the line (SA-Kuva)

At the end of August we'll be playing the new Standard Combat Series monster title from MMP, Day of Days. I have little experience with the system so me and another guy who will participate in the game thought we're going to need some practice beforehand. I have on SCS game, Karelia 44, and have played one scenario from it by myself before, so we put the whole game in the table this time.

The scenario is set during the 1944 Summer offensive of the Soviet army against Finland., which happened at the same time as the Normandy offensive. For historical details, check the wiki.

My camera hadn't recharged when we began the game so I don't have a picture of the opening setup. The pictures start from the Finnish first turn after the Soviets have launched their first "prepared offensive". The prepared offensive is a special turn the Soviet player can activate every three turns or so, giving him a lot of extra artillery power, better offensive strength and greater mobility.

Commentary is in the photos as usual.

We had to stop as it was past one AM on a weekday. We wouldn't be able to resume the game later because there was no space to leave the game open. At this stage the game was still undecided. The VT line was about to break and the Finnish army had taken a lot of damage, but they were far from beaten. The Soviets still had a long way to go in the way of victory points. Oddly enough, Stalin's patience was still good as it hadn't decreased a single time yet (the Soviet leader's patience is tested every round an it has a 50% change of decreasing. When the boss point meter reaches zero, the game ends and VP's are calculated. This forces the Soviet player to rush forward as capturing the lines is the only way aside from disbanding troops that replenishes the meter). It would have been interesting to see how this would develop. The game did however reveal that the boss point mechanic is a low point in the design of the game as a relatively few rolls on a D6 have a huge impact on the tempo of the game.