Arctic Front: Bitter Kuuterselka

[Death~Dealer]

Bitter Kuuterselkä 2.0

SCENARIO FEEDBACK
This battle is another excellent design from Battle Cat that captures the essence of the Finns desperately trying to check the Soviet offensive into the Karelian Isthmus during the Continuation War. The scenario is slightly in favor of the Soviets. Ideas to achieve balance will be discussed below.

MAP
I really enjoy playing on historical maps, they rarely lack detail and the terrain formations usually ‘make sense.’ On this map, combat between forces is not the only challenge for the players, but also route selection- a necessary consideration to achieve victory. Control and destruction of bridges must be managed by the Finns as the Soviets surge forward to secure these vital crossings. Set victory locations and their values were appropriate for gameplay. However, an adjustment should be made to one of the exit hexes. The southwest exit hex near Neuvola (at 0,47) should be removed because it offers a quick solution for the Soviet player to achieve victory. There are not enough Finns in the area (or enough Finns that could respond to this area in time) to stop massed Soviet infantry from flanking the main defense line and exiting here in great numbers relatively quickly.

OOB
The order of battle features plenty of interesting forces on both sides with enough variation to keep both players interested in the battle. In my opinion, most of the changes need to be made here to achieve PBEM game balance. To achieve balance, I suggest three changes to the Finn’s defense force:
1) The Stu-40 assault guns are not powerful enough to have an impact on Soviet armor in their current numbers. Maybe add two more Stu-40 platoons or a platoon of captured T-34/85s.
2) The Finns have a serious lack of artillery support. I would recommend adding at least 2-3 platoons of light artillery (maybe some captured 76mm Field Guns from the Soviets).
3) Release must be scheduled for three rifle companies located near the northeast section of the map. Some of the platoons were within 500 meters of the fighting and could not lift a finger to help their desperate compatriots.

LENGTH
The length of the battle was also appropriate, 25 turns. As it stands now, there is barely enough time to break through the Finnish line at Kuuterselka to exit any Soviet units off the north end of the map. If the scenario is shortened any more then I believe these northern exit hexes will become completely inconsequential.

FUN
Hell yeah this was a fun battle! It would be a crime for any serious CS gamer to not download and play Battle Kat’s MOD. This battle plays perfectly as a one-on-one PBEM and is not really large enough for teamplay.

SCENARIO DESCRIPTION
Battle Cat’s description is long…but good and worth the read. It accurately describes the current situation in detail for the players, uses a storybook method to keep it interesting, and demonstrates his passion for revealing the sometimes forgotten Continuation War. I think that some readers prefer short battle briefs while others prefer a more elaborate story. I prefer the story- it adds life to the scenario.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
H2H SCORE

- Balance 7 (slightly pro-Allies)
- Enjoyment 9 (extremely fun)
- Briefings 8 (entertaining but slightly long)

From H2H message board:
A scenario is scored in three categories, Balance, Enjoyment and Briefings. The score a scenario achieves is an average of these three scores using this formula: (balance*1.6)+(enjoyment*1.2)+(briefings*0.2)/3

Total for this scenario= 8.0 (RD_DeathDealer’s assessment)