....We never knew as we departed,

...who can ever return

Well the Koskela Detachment didn't make it this time in today's FaceTime game. The conceit was that a reinforced infantry company (11 rifle sections, 2 LMG, 2 HMG and 1 mortar team) was resting up by a small river somewhere in East Karelia in the Summer of 1944. The rapid Soviet advance had broken the Finns' line in several places and an advanced infantry battalion was emerging from the forest when lookouts from both sides spotted each other. The Finnish officer commanding had to get as many of his men and heavy weapons as possible off the western end of the table (about six feet away).

I have no in-game pictures from today just a couple of set-up pics. The whole thing took not much more than an hour, which considering a lot of time was spent clarifying positions and intended movement is pretty quick.

Looking west to east towards where the Neighbours will come from. The Finns will start around the fields and buildings at the top.

Closer look at the deployment area. The Finnish commander placed most of his men in the fields with a couple of sections in the hamlet and himself in the easternmost fields (left). I added a couple of scratch built bridges made from matchsticks at each crossing point.

The soldier's eye view of the way home.

My son commanded the Finns and I took the role of the Neighbours come to move the fence back again. He had 15 turns to extract as many of his men off the eastern edge as possible. Sadly for him the dice gods were with the Soviets who rolled higher on about 10 occasions sometimes by a margin of 7 or 8 to 1 or 2 (we used D8s). Also what hampered him was he couldn't resist the temptation to mortar the opposing mortars, using up valuable command points slowing down his own exfiltration.

In extracting himself and one platoon from the east side of the river, Koskela inadvertently placed his troops in a tight concentration around the village. A temptation for the Soviets who bombarded the village. To no effect! But they had the range now. Meanwhile the right Soviet hand column had troops across the river (at the bottom of the middle picture). Again rather than extract his men, Koskela chose to bombard the Russkies on the west side of the bridge, to some effect. However the foe was soon pressing in and the Finns were ordered to make towards the forest.  This coincided with the Soviet commander getting another high command roll and he used it to call in an airstrike. 7 bases were within an area 5 x 20 cm centred on where the estimated point was. So that meant 7 dice rolls! The Finns got lucky with 5 misses and only 2 pinned bases. Still that would slow them down a little.

As the Finns got men into the forest the Soviets got more and more men across the bridge and they began to fire at the retreating Capitalists. This had some effect - the mortar team copped it first, then other sections were pinned allowing more Soviets to catch up. They now began to close assault the Fascists' Lackeys and took out 3 more sections. I probably need to tweak this bit of the rules as it is relatively easy to get up close with an unpinned enemy. It was then that my son's expectation that the road would give him a move bonus was dashed (not reading the rules properly!). I think perhaps a small tweak is in order - I reasoned that whilst a road (actually forest track in this case) makes easier going and is a clear route, one has to proceed with caution especially in a forest.

Ignore the lads in triangular formation near the stream!

The decision was then taken to keep two separate groups, one in the forest and one in the open countryside for speed. Soon after, more Soviet bases had caught up and were taking potshots at the retreating Capitalists. By the end of turn 15 none of the Finns had made it off the western edge, Koskela and 3 sections were in the forest, two MGs teams were in the western hamlet and a few more rifle teams were in the open country. 8 bases had been lost against the Soviets' losses of about 5. The best that Koskela could now hope for was nightfall - but darkness can be a long time coming in those Summer months. [Incidentally 10 turns would have seen the majority off the board if they'd just legged it].

I made some of the same mistakes in my playtest on Saturday. When the Soviets made it across the river on the Finns' left, a Finnish MG opened up wiping out the first section over. Nearby rifle sections couldn't resist the temptation and stopped to join in and slowed the extraction right down - the objective was not to kill Russians but to escape!

The playtest. Bunching up in the open. Suitably punished by airstrikes in two successive turns.

The playtest. Neighbours sneaking around the side.

Feedback afterwards from my son: The game was much more dynamic and faster paced. The simpler rules and fewer bases makes it more appealing to a younger audience. Think it could work really well if you’re both in the same room or both remote from the table as it offers a huge advantage when one commander can see everything and the other can’t. [Me: Yeah, I didn't really get the hang of simply 'automating the Russkies'. I didn't really think that one through].

An idea regarding movement could be a similar system to firing twice in one go. I.e if you roll a high number of commander points and get most or all the force moving, they could gee each other along and move say and extra 50% distance that move but then be enforced stationary the next. Would help with the long retreat the length of the board. [Me: Bear in mind the rules are not scenario specific]. Possibly a small move increase on roads providing a scout was sent ahead to confirm it safe. [Me: agree].

Overall very enjoyable and quick pace means it could be completed quickly.

A thought regarding remote command could be a grid system over a map on a laptop to allow easier visualisation. [Me: as you said earlier, you've spent your last few years mapping things! These things come naturally to geographers.]

It's a good point about making it into a gridded game. I think for remote games, using a grid makes it much easier and having an editable grid even easier. And this applies doubly so for modern warfare where the troops will not be deployed in nice neat lines. The tricky part I guess is creating a hexagonal grid in the usual desktop software, so maybe a square grid for next time. There are a couple of gridded rules to try so maybe Tigers at Minsk to get an airing. In the meantime I'll probably pop up a copy of my one-pager rules.

Thanks for a lively game again to the newly liberated Liverpool Geographer!