Arctic Front: Fury at Viborg Bay (3 x 3 Team Game)

[Crossroads]

Work is progressing nicely on the final part (June 20 1944) of the Leningrad Front's 1944 Vyborg Offensive trilogy



The three sectors of the 3 x 3 team game represent the arrows marked with (2), (3), and (4) in the above map.

Chronologically, the scenario is in the middle of the trilogy.

Prior scenarios:
** Across River Vuoksi LWM (July 4 1944) [Marked as (5) in above map]
** Bitter Kuuterselka LWM (June 14 1944) [Marked as (1) in above map]

...other LWM scenarios:
** Crusader's at Hango LWM
** Delaying Action At Ylimaa LWM
** Enforcing The Line LWM

According to my own house rules, the newest scenario needs now to start with "F". Can't think of anything...

** Face-Off At Vyborg ...or
** Fury at Vyborg Bay (sounds like a proper Pirate movie!) ...or
** Fight for the VKT Position ...or
** Forward the ...err ... Vodka Rations? ...

...

Whatever the name, the OOB is pretty much completed, and the work on the map can begin.

The three Soviet players get (elements of) an Army Corps each, from West to East:

- 59th AC (Vyborg Bay "island hopping" operations),
- 108th AC (City of Vyborg and beyond), and
- 30 Guards AC (Eastern pincer towards Tali and Ihantala)

The three Finnish players get (elements of) a Division each, again from West to East:
- German 122."Greif" Division,
- 20. Bde + IR 61, and
- 18. and 6. D, with
- one division (Armoured) in reserve, especially as the center area is weakly defended.

Some serious downsizing (- 30% to -40%) to troop intensity to take place, in order to keep things playable and fun.

Area of opearations will be 35 km x 35 km, or 140 x 140 hexes, to keep it playable... Although at the moment I am considering adding a couple of clicks to width, to have a bit more area for maneuver in the East, where the heaviest action will likely take place.

I will improve the actual infrastructure a bit, to allow for strategic alternatives, in comparison to simply re-playing the historical course of actions.

Google Earth, with three layers of maps to go with the hex layout...

i) Google Earth
ii) Large scale general map of the area
iii) Google Map view of a smaller area of Vyborg Bay
iv) A couple of digitized 1:100 000 maps from 1938 on top of that
v) a 140x140 hex grid, although I would need to upgrade that to a 160x140 map.

I also have access to digitized 1:20 000 maps from 1938, to get Vyborg area properly implemented in detail! Of course, I will not go into that detail at forested areas to get this done in reasonable time.



Map making turns out to be great fun again!