Winter is Coming

[Dog Soldier]

So... the game that Rabbit and I had was a real nail-biter.  Only, we found that it wasn't actually a nail-biter. Let me explain...

I was the Finnish player in THROUGH THE DARK WATERS.  I had lost the lighthouse around turn 6, but I still had Finnish reinforcements coming to the island.  They arrived and we proceeded to conduct a series of back-and-forth attacks & counterattacks.

I managed to get a foothold onto the buildings just above the lighthouse and on the final turn my men surprised both of us and pushed out the demoralized and badly bruised-up Russian commandos.  I was elated!  

However, that elation quickly melted when I noticed that the victory levels didn't change to my favor.  Rabbit searched and found that this scenario had a (in my view) moronic victory condition: Lose the lighthouse and you've lost the game.  It didnt' matter if the lighthouse was taken.  So, while we both thought this was going down to the wire, it had already been decided on turn 6.

Bummer.

I really enjoyed playing this scenario.  Trying to co-ordinate the Soviet pre-assault bombardments, using the planes to harass the Finnish relief force, destroy the lighthouse then embark the raiders to get them off the map, all in the time given was a challenge.  It required some good luck.  In one turn all my artillery strikes landed in the sea, making sushi.  The Finns can be really hard to push out of the lighthouse once roused to your presence.  BTW, the lighthouse will randomly search the sea as the Soviets approach using the defensive fire mechanism in this scenario.  I thought this was a clever design.

FWIW, the lighthouse VP location is a Capture objective.


The manual has a decent explanation.
"Capture – These objectives begin uncaptured and owned by the given side. If they are occupied by the opposing side, then they become owned by that side and their points are awarded to that side. After they are captured, the owning side does not have to occupy the hex to get the points. Capture Objectives cannot be recaptured or change back to the original owner."

A clue is in the scenario description.
"Encouraged by their success at Morgonland, the Russians decided to destroy Bengtskär lighthouse with a raid. The plan was based on an infiltration, destruction of the lighthouse, and retreat before Finns response."

This is just a Soviet raid to destroy the lighthouse, not capture and hold the island.
Hope that explains things a bit better.

Dog Soldier