Tournament

[Scud]

More then half done, It seems to me to be slightly in favor of the Finns. More, effective fire as opposed to the Russians.

My Finns have the two western objectives and have been largely impervious to Soviet ground troops. The larger Russian armor has appeared, but too early to see what advantages it will give them. I think I'm being overly cautious. I should have taken advantage of the Finns mobility and just charged in before their armor made the scene. Oh well. I think we're 6 or 7 turns in. I forgot to look. 

I would guess a slight advantage to the Finns based on how ineffective the Soviet ground troops have been. Still a bit early to know for sure in my game.

Dave

[Panzerjäger]

I'm curious to see how many points the Axis will get in this game. I probably won't get any. The Finnish infantry is very mobile and motivated. The Russians have the better tanks and guns but that probably won't be enough.

[Scud]

I'm curious to see how many points the Axis will get in this game. I probably won't get any. The Finnish infantry is very mobile and motivated. The Russians have the better tanks and guns but that probably won't be enough.

Hi Peter,

For the tournament: a major Win 3 points, a minor win 1 point, a draw 0 points x SM of the given scenario (in this case SM=2).

So a major win = 6 points.
A minor win = 2 points.
A draw = 0 points.

Dave

[Crossroads]

Hawk Kriegsman and I have finished our match.

Question: Is anyone finding this scenario as leaning toward the Finns?

Music, for the record:
Cream
Procol Harum
Mountain
Jimi Hendrix
10 Years After
Todd Rundgren - Nazz, Solo, and Utopia (for prog-rockers)
Grand Funk Railroad



HSL

Selecting a proper music style is indeed the key to victory - or loss - here.

To win ** Arctic Front: Metal Gods, the Allied player just needs to follow the hint in the scenario title. Any old Finnish power metal song by the young metal gods that were the original < Stratovarius > should lead to a Minor Win. 

There's more than meets the eye, though. If you play the scenario title backwards, it spells: Metal God[des]s, which means picking an original Nightwish title from < Ms Turunen > era guarantees a Major Win. An irresistible force unleashed.

For the Axis player, getting a victory here requires dirty deeds, and they are dirt cheap. Choose any Nightwish tune with any of Tarja's replacements, an instant Major Loss for any Tarja fan slash Allied player it is. Oh, the folly of it all.

As for the Battle of Honkaniemi: things did not go well for Finns, historically. An early blue-on-blue artillery barrage, maybe because the worn out tubes, casualties at starting point. Then, infantry pinned down early and the few tanks bogged in the terrain, and the Vickers 6-ton tanks had finished their only fight of the Winter War right there and then. 

This should maybe have been designed with Frozen ground conditions to make Finnish infantry more static. However, the ground conditions are historic, and any commander who does not pour arty on his own troops, and plays his combined arms better, may do better than historically. 

This was play tested, but not through the H2H scenario testing system. 
All feedback appreciated 

[Hawk Kriegsman]

I helped play test this years ago with Petri.  I believe we played 6 times (3 per side).  As I remember we got it pretty tight.  

My rating from playtesting are all over the place. 

I don't know if was tweaked after that, but it seems very pro Finn now.  I don't recall green Russian infantry when I play tested. 

First and foremost, Ed was the Finns and Ed is a very good player and played extremely well. 

I also would say that Ed and I are very similar in skill and ability. 

I also don't believe I made any strategic blunders (Ed feel free to correct me if you feel I did). 

I surrendered on turn 8 of 16 with Ed being 100 points over a major win.  

The Russians never had a chance. 

This one does not seem very balanced to me. 

It will be interesting to see how many Russians get a victory.

[Crossroads]

Cheers Erik, I don’t recall changing this, apart the change log in the description. And those are very minor edits.

Edit: the scenario files on my EF2 folder say Aug 15, 2014, which is a match to the change log:

- 8/25/14: Updated to deploy the Finnish mortar platoons. (Duh!)
- 5/24/14: Updated to include the correct Vickers 6 ton tank unit

Edit2: And from my scenario work-in-progress folder, those uploaded files are in a folder called "2.03 Erik feedback v2".

Hmm.

[Crossroads]

^Having slept on this, it well may be that Erik is that much of a better player than me - and he is - that he was able to score Major wins as both sides when we play tested this. And now, at the tournament with more balanced and experienced players, the scenario balance is not quite what it seemed.

I am happy to update the scenario based on the feedback to a new version.

[Scud]

^Having slept on this, it well may be that Erik is that much of a better player than me - and he is - that he was able to score Major wins as both sides when we play tested this. And now, at the tournament with more balanced and experienced players, the scenario balance is not quite what it seemed.

I am happy to update the scenario based on the feedback to a new version.

I don't know Petri. My game just finished turn 9 and I'm at a minor loss now with the Finns. It's not looking good. The Soviets are swarming in and those bigger tanks have been impervious to my feeble efforts to knock them out.

I think the sign of a good scenario is being able to win it from either side with the right strategy. Maybe this is that?

Dave

[Crossroads]

True, let us wait for the results to roll in. I got worried there something had happened with the version of the scenario available in the game, but it sure seems to be the one it is supposed to be.

[Herr Straße Laufer]

I do think that Erik and I have similar skill sets.

He played very well and gave me fits until I got the best out of the ski troopers. The Finns shot well and disrupted a lot of the Soviets each turn.
I love Finn ski troops. With their mobility and their full strength I was able to disrupt, pile up, and overrun a couple of hexes where there was massed Soviet infantry that did not recover morale. I'm not a big fan of EA but I think it helped in the overruns.
This happened all before the bulk of the Soviet armor was able to get to the front. At that point the Finns had their AT guns to the front and were able to engage against them without a lot more Soviet infantry fire to support their armor.

I've played Erik numerous times in the past and knew he was doing the best he could with what he was given.

I agree that we all should wait to see how the tourney balances out. But, to me, the culprit might be the 'green' Soviet infantry.



HSL