A Finnish Winter's Tale

            Wednesday 6th December.

"There's a moose ,loose ,aboot this hoose!"

                                     Being near christmas and snow,we are led to believe, is just round the corner Colin Jack's latest escapade was a winter encounter between Soviet and Finnish forces at the start of World War Two.Bill Gilchrist and myself headed out for the rather windy climes of Garvald and on arriving found a rather nice table set up for our evening's entertainment snowy effect and all.

Artic setting

Not a gritter to be seen.

A couple of Shug,s creations.

                                       I found myself in charge of the gallant Finnish defenders attempting to stem the tide of the barbarous Soviet hordes intending to ravage the placid countryside.Bill with Colin's assistance took charge of the Soviets complete with  some natty tanks.

Frostbite about to kick in.

Russian churchgoers looking for an armchair view of the battle.

Brrr!It looks cold

Sneaky hiding place for one of my tanks.

Posing for the camera.

                                    My army although small was made up of some good lads with some attributes that would go a long way to stemming the evil tide.My armour composition consisted of two small tanks which in reality made up about 17% of Finland's tanks at the time.

One of my tanks with the Finnish Hakaristi suitably rubbed out for our German readers.

                                      My plan was for my regulars with tank support to hold off the bad guys whilst my super duper lads all equipped with skis would make their way into the rear of the enemy.Great plan on paper but in reality sucked as I had nothing really to deal with the Soviet tanks that were hurtling down the road towards me with evil intentions on their mind.

Some of my gallant lads.

And their ystavat(Finnish for friends)

                                               Bill's initial plans came to a halt as a special rule of frostbite was in place and a few of his units succumbed to this rule with units losing figures and tanks coming to a grinding halt.Alas not for long.

The Soviet hordes

bringing their evil dominance 

to the Finnish people.

                                                 I had put a few of my units in ambush but senility kicked in and I forgot to move them giving the bad guys time to get up close and personal.Skirmishes around a wood initially resulted in me getting a slight upperhand but weight of numbers began to tell and one of my squads disappeared into into the falling snow.Revenge would eventually come but to late to save these lads.

Bill's forces emerge from their dastardly hiding area.

                                             On the other flank some of my other lads opened up but couldn't do any real damage to the Soviets and I was keeping my hidden units for a rainy day or in this case snowy day.I brought one of my dinky Vickers E tanks to help stem the onslaught but its shooting was deplorable and eventually after being ganged up on by overwhelming numbers it finally blew up.

"That's a big one(In Russian)"

"forward!"

                                               

Bummer!

 Revenge was finally acheived when one of my elite squads skis and all entered the table right into the middle of a Soviet unit dispatching them to the Arctic winds.No sooner was this achieved when two of Bill's squads began to exert their revenge on my arriving unit but they dug in and held firm from both infantry and tank fire.

Revenge!

Revenge from another angle.

                                                     Bill and Colin's advance in true committee style were slowly making their way to their objectives which were just a few buildings containing the last of my two tanks waiting for its chance to reduce the Soviet tank numbers.

Peppering my lads.

The Soviet steamroller moves on.

                                                        Bill decided to bring down some artillery to maybe help with his advance.His artillery was delayed probably due to some frozen barrels but he did succeed with his second salvo although not causing too many casualties.

My lads appear ready to dish out some revenge.

Which they do in style.

                                                          My other squad finally made its way on to the table just in time to be ambushed by Colin's skulking infantry.I can't blame Donald for that for a change.After crossing gunfire with them my lads rushed them and sent them packing back to Moscow.Now I had a chance for some glory but this was curtailed by a unit of Colin's infantry materialising behind my lines dispatching my machine gun on the way.

My sniper team looking for a target of opportunity.

The magically appearing Soviets.

                                    The final whistle was about to blow as I took a last shot with my remaining tank knocking the turret right of Bill's forward tank.A little bit compensation for my beleaguered
forces of right.

And Santa appeared to see who would be on the naughty list.

                                        A great game played in good festive spirit.
                    Colin Jack supplied all the Finns with Colin and Bill Gilchrist supplying the Russian infantry and armour.I'd painted up some winter Germans only to find there were no Germans involved in the scenario which was also supplied by Colin as was the scenery complete with Russian Orthodox church.
                                              Hoping to have one last game before Xmas so I'm hoping to put on some Xmas type game probably involving some armed elves.
                                                        See you when I see you.