The September Winter War

 Date-Winter 1939

Place-Some Bitterly Cold Finnish Outpost.

 Out to sunny Garvald this evening wondering what game El Presidente had dreamed up and since last week some hints were dropped about the inclusion possibly of reindeer I thought we were in for some unusual game along the lines of Man in the High Castle.Nope,it was actually a pretty straightforward Bolt Action game involving Finns and Soviets.

The Object of Soviet Desires.

Finnish Armour.

‘I told you that there would be reindeer!’

Looking for Soviets.

                            Tonight’s game was basically a lot of Soviets ganging up on a small Finnish army contingent and basically played out like the actual campaign with only the inclusion of some extra armour helping the Soviets to a very narrow victory.Herr O’Brien took charge of the Finns whilst Comrade Gilchristi commanded the Soviets with myself and El Presidente being his underlings.Comrade Gilchristi decided on a long skirmish line advance with myself being placed on the right flank next to some woods to which I thought sounded like an easy advance to contact.What a surprise I had when thinking that the woods would be just full of reindeer only to find it was also full of people who took offence to me invading their territory.

Gallant defenders.

T28-it looks big.

Hidden mortar team.

Getting ready for action.

              The first thing our gallant force received was an artillery barrage which landed plum in front of El Presidente’s command which as well as inflicting pain on his men also gave some of my command a bloody nose.A wheen of units incurred pins with El Presidente’s command unit evaporating which was a bit of a bummer as our units weren’t very good. The only plus side for me was the evaporated unit was transferred to my beleaguered command.

Reinforcements arrive.

Surging forward.

An awful lot of Finns in the wood.

        I decided to move my infantry through the woods and hit Herr O’Brien on the flank.What could be more difficult for as soon as my lads trudged their way into the woods they were pounced on by some hidden Finnish Jaegers who proceeded to charge into my poor beleaguered infantry decimating the whole squad immediately albeit incurring a fair few casualties themselves which actually proved to Herr O’Brien to be not the best option for if he had just stood back and hit me with a hail of lead it would have meant he wouldn’t have lost any of his precious command.

Herr O’Brien’s Jaegers charge in.

Treading warily.

The artillery bites.

Comrade Gilchristi lays out the massive skirmish line.

   The only good thing that was coming from El Presidente’s severe artillery kicking and my mauling  was that Comrade Gilchristi’s forces could advance unmolested and make themselves out to be Heroes of the Soviet Union.He would soon be cut down to size for as soon as he came into Finnish range he was peppered from all sides and with some telling gunfire.

Finns ruling the woods.

The armour outpacing the infantry.

Herr O’Brien’s Jaegers after the first skirmish.

      My next incursion from the nearby woods came in the form of an attack by a Finnish anti tank team armed with grenades and a block of wood.They actually didn’t do any real damage apart from incurring pins on my stalled tank but they kept on attacking this unfortunate tank meaning the pins count kept on rising and I couldn’t even retreat to tend to my wounds.To add insult to injury I couldn’t even fire my machine gun as visibility was limited in the woods. The next appearance in the wood was a Finnish ski squad who having learnt their lesson from their colleagues incurred wounded and shot my second squad down in their prime.One didn’t have a lot left mainly a stalled tank and a machine gun gun which couldn’t see anything.What could be worse?That came in the form of a Finnish sniper team who proceeded to pick out all the valued targets from both El Presidente’s forces and my own diminishing force.

Hidden sniper team.

           My salvation came in the form of a Soviet T28 tank festooned with machine guns and a small gun which was to help prove the difference between the two sides as the Finns didn’t have a lot of armour.The only problem was that it didn’t move very fast and it had to pass the very annoying anti tank team who changed tack from the small tank to try and hinder the better tank(slightly better)with their planks of wood.This they did to start but once it got going it left them behind incurring a casualty on the squad for their troubles.This actually gave space for my smaller T26 to lose all it’s pins and get back into the fray.

‘Booyah!(in Russian).

       Comrade Gilchristi’s forces were nearing the Finns and were met by a hail of lead stopping them in their tracks.El Presidente helped our comrade by doing away with one of the Finnish tanks which helped Comrade Gilchristi but not his poor infantry who were being done away with by the accurate Finnish gunfire.It looked like the saviours of the day was going to be our armour. The appearance of the second Finnish tank found it being hit by tankfire setting it on fire but this was soon extinguished by the gallant crew giving it another chance to stop the invaders.

Here comes the remainder of the Finnish armour.

Drone’s eye view of the woods.

      Herr O’Brien decided to throw in his last piece of armour into the battle to try and stall the Soviet armour but this was met by the attraction of gunfire from all Soviet tanks who were now motoring well.Comrade Gilchristi hit the tank bringing it too a halt with El Presidente providing the Coup de Grace with a telling shot to set the poor unfortunate Finnish tank on fire with its crew bailing out and diving for cover.This meant my tank could now engage some dug in defenders which it did with first my machine guns incurring some casualties with the rest of the squad being decimated by the tank’s main gun. The end was in sight-at last!

The second tank percolates.

El Presidente’s infantry being hammered.

   The game was coming to an end with the Soviet armour now being untouchable even although their wasn’t a lot of infantry left.Herr O’Brien was still causing damage from his forces who were rooted in the wood but they were now bypassed by the armour who had now moved into open ground.To add insult to Herr O’Brien’s injury,El Presidente’s mortar had finally hit something ding away with a few casualties. I think it would have been time for the Finnish forces to retire to the rear and take up other defensive positions off the board.

Heading for victory.

     A great game and it had the added bonus of being able to play a full game without having to be pleasantly disrupted by a visit to the local hostelry.On that note my thanks to El Presidente and the Duchess of Garvald for putting on an excellent repast.All figures vehicles and scenery were provided by a joint effort from El Presidente and Comrade Gilchristi.

        See You All When I See You.

     This has been a Garvald Film Studios Production.