Back to Finland
By Mike Bennighof, Ph.D.
October 2013

There are worse ways to make a living than selling fun. You're pretty regularly forced to return to a younger mindset, to embrace play. Sometimes the years peel back in a more literal fashion.

During the 1970s, I subscribed to the Avalon Hill house magazine, known as The General. Flipping through old copies, I now find most of it drier than the dust that shakes out of the old boxes holding them, but the magazine was one of the few links connecting wargamers in the days before the Internet. It contained game analysis, news of upcoming games, and most of all, variants for published games.

One of these was titled "Panzerblitz 1941," and it sparked something that determined the course of my life for the decades that have followed. Just why that might be, I'm not really sure. Looking at it now, the writing is pretty bad and the history worse, with the game design bringing up the rear.

I became determined to write something just like it.

At the time I didn't even own the game on which it was based, Panzerblitz, the now-ancient board game of armored combat on the Eastern Front. I bought Kevin Davidson's copy for $3, which he had gotten from his grandmother for Christmas but didn't like because it had complicated rules about sighting and stuff like that. I read them and began drawing Finnish counters for it. I was 14 years old and in the grip of madness.

I wrote about Panzerblitz ruining my life for Green Ronin's Hobby Games: The 100 Best, so I'll just let that stand as my comment on the clunky old game that inspired Panzer Grenadier and proof that I'll do just about anything for a hot chick who buys me alcohol. That Finnish variant for Panzerblitz was pretty bad, too — but was the first piece of writing for which I ever drew a check.

Panzer Grenadier was always intended to include a Finnish supplement, and Arctic Front is its third iteration. The First One is always special. Here's a look at some of the scenarios.

Finnish Riviera
30 November 1939

As Soviet troops marched across the border, they expected to meet little resistance. Border guards and troops of several independent jäger battalions set up roadblocks and a few isolated ambushes, but did not stand and fight. This changed when the Soviets approached the first sizable town, the seaside resort of Terijoki. Finnish jägers attached to the elite Cavalry Brigade ignored Marshal Carl Gustav Mannerheim's orders to continue their retreat. They dug in at Terijoki and awaited the Red Army.

Note: This scenario uses maps from Battle of the Bulge, a map and pieces from Road to Berlin, and pieces from Eastern Front. Only use Soviet leader pieces from Eastern Front.

Conclusion

The Finnish light infantrymen fought with berserk fury, contesting every building along the string of resort towns. Superior Soviet numbers forced them back, but the Finns fought to the last man in several locations. The sacrifice of these badly-needed professional soldiers held up the Soviet advance for less than 24 hours, and the Finnish Democratic Republic was declared in Terijoki the next day.

Design Note: Patrik Pössi provided some crucial additional research for Arctic Front, and this scenario is a major beneficiary. Western accounts of this action claim it was fought by Finnish mounted cavalrymen, which is simply not true.

The Sausage War
11 December, 1939

Under cover of darkness, several companies of Soviet ski troops slipped through the Finnish lines and attacked rear-area elements of Group Talvela, hoping to cut the supply road north of Tolvajärvi. The local commander, Lt. Col. Pajari, organized a counterattack while the Soviets were busy raiding a Finnish field kitchen brimming with sausage soup. Fighting grew so severe that one officer reported hearing the ancient Finnish battle cry “Hakkaa Päälle – Cut Them Down!”

Note: This scenario uses a board from Battle of the Bulge and pieces from Eastern Front.

Conclusion

Though the “Sausage War” is mentioned in most popular accounts of the Winter War, these tales seldom make much sense. Equipped with skis, the Soviets (apparently “Red Finnish” scouts) had the discipline and skill to penetrate dozens of kilometers behind the Finnish lines undetected, yet suddenly lost all compsure when confronted by soup. What is clear is that the Finnish Communists died to the last man (though how many of them died fighting is not).

Design Note: I've some experience reporting/investigating war crimes and this incident definitely raises my suspicions. The Finns often get a pass as "the clean Axis army," but war is a dirty business and even Finland has the Karelian concentration camps for which to atone.

Syväri Power Plant
16 September 1941

The Svir River marked an important political boundary for the Finnish government, which did not want to press its attack any deeper into the Soviet Union. Finnish military leaders recognized that the shallow river did not present much of a defensive line and planned to hew closely but not exactly to their political directives, crossing and digging in wherever they felt it necessary. One such spot was at the Syväri hydroelectric plant, an important economic objective as well.

Note: This scenario uses boards from Battle of the Bulge and Road to Berlin, and pieces from Eastern Front.

Conclusion

The newly-arrived Soviet rifle division fought surprisingly well against the Finns' best unit, but ultimately proved no match for the experienced light infantrymen. The Finns captured the power station in savage close-quarters fighting, overwhelming the Soviets' tank support with close assaults. Lagus' forest blitzkrieg would continue.

Design Note: Patrik once again came through, and made sure that there was no lack of resources. This scenario was one I'd really wanted to include as it has both Finnish tanks and elite light infantry, against a Soviet force with lower morale but the new T-34.

Iron Ducklings
21 September 1941

Two intact T-34 tanks fell into Finnish hands in and around the power plant, and Col. Ruben Lagus ordered them immediately manned and put at the spearhead of a renewed Finnish advance to clear the Svir. The Finns named their new vehicles "Sotka," the Finnish name for a duck who lays her eggs in other birds' nests and whose iron offspring are very prominent in the Kalevala. Lagus hoped the tough NKVD border troops holding the railroad bridge at Latva over the Svir would likewise mistake the T-34's for their own tanks. An NKVD armored train had defied all Finnish attacks, but surely it could not resist the Red Army's own secret weapon.

Note: This scenario uses boards from Battle of the Bulge, pieces from Sinister Forces, and boards and two KOM pieces from Eastern Front.

Conclusion

Just as Lagus had hoped, the NKVD troopers mistook the Sotkas for their own T-34's and withheld their fire until they were on top of the Soviet positions. The Finns drove the Soviets out of the village and took the bridge, but could not knock out the armored train. With the help of their train the NKVD men broke through the 7th Division's cordon and raced northward to join the forces assembling to defend Petrozavodsk, the capital of Soviet Karelia. Even so, the Murmansk Railway had been broken, a signal achievement for Finnish arms.

Design Note: I have a Ph.D. It makes me pretentious This scenario is one of my favorites for several reasons: Its title makes a literary reference to the Kalevala, the Finnish national myth. It includes captured armor, and the fans always like that, particularly when they come with special gonzo rules for their use. There's an armored train, and elite Finnish light infantry.

Across the Lake
14 – 15 December, 1939

North of Suomussalmi, a lone Finnish bicycle battalion (having traded its machines for skis) held back two battalions of the Soviet 163rd Rifle Division. As both sides settled into static positions, several days of waiting in the bitter cold took an increasing toll on the Soviet troops. Finally, Red Army regimental commander Sharov decided to break the stalemate with a daring night attack.

Note: This scenario uses a board from Battle of the Bulge and a board and pieces from Eastern Front.

Conclusion

The Soviets failed to surprise the Finns, who mowed down the attacking Red Army infantry in waves. With no cover on the ice, even darkness could not save the 662nd from appalling losses. Soon the division would be fighting for its life, the survivors envying those evacuated earlier with frozen feet.

Design Note: When we first published Arctic Front, we had two small games on battles of the Winter War still in print, Blood on the Snow and Winter Fury. To promote some cross-marketing we included several scenarios from each of the battles covered, Suomussalmi and Tolvajärvi.

Stalin's Giants
17 December 1939

The Red Army saw the invasion of Finland as an experimental laboratory for new tactics and weapons, and in mid-December rushed several prototype tanks to the front for battlefield testing. New heavy tanks had been developed to break through enemy fortified positions, and the Finnish concrete-and-steel bunkers around Summa were exactly what the Red Army had in mind when it asked for the big tanks. The Finns knew the Soviets had gigantic tanks, but all the same did not expect the monsters that came looming out of the mist.

Note: This scenario uses boards from Road to Berlin and a board and pieces from Eastern Front.

Conclusion

The big tanks made three tries to get past the Finnish positions, but their accompanying infantry could not keep up and their commanders would not risk them where anti-tank squads could approach in stealth. Finnish anti-tank rounds bounced harmlessly off the tanks' thick skins, but a lucky shot snapped off the main gun barrel of one KV and the remaining tanks shepherded their wounded comrade back to the start line. They would try again for two more days, until one of the experimental SMK tanks hit a mine and had to be abandoned inside the Finnish lines. It was recovered in March, but the Red Army had made its choice and the KV became its new standard heavy tank.

Design Note: This is a fun scenario on its own merits, a straightforward armored assault on a fortified position. What makes it ultra-cool is the presence of the Soviet SMK piece, and extra-strange vehicle with two turrets in a super-firing arrangement like a land battleship.

Christmas Morning
25 December, 1939

Despite massive casualties, the Soviets continued their assault on the Mannerheim Line. Near Lake Ladoga, on the eastern end of the line, the Soviets realized the Finns had built fewer fortifications and manned them more lightly than elsewhere. The Finns depended on the broad Suvanto River to make up for these deficiencies. If the Soviets could surprise the Finns, they could get across the river and break the Finnish defenses.

Note: This scenario uses boards from Battle of the Bulge and Road to Berlin and pieces from Eastern Front.

Conclusion

Using the falling snow as cover, the Soviets managed to get across the ice and into Finnish positions. After severe hand-to-hand fighting they took many of them and drove the Finns back. Division command sent-in the only available reserves, a collection of border guards and volunteers, who helped drive the Soviets back over the river.

Design Note: Thie best Panzer Grenadier scenarios have an ebb-and-flow of attack and defense, with reinforcements arriving to allow counter-attacks. That dynamic makes this a very fine and fun scenario to play.

Guards Assault
15 July 1944

The Soviets opened their offensive into East Karelia on 20 June, with a large-scale assault including an amphibious landing on the shores of Lake Ladoga. Olonets fell on the 25th and Petrozavodsk on the 29th. By 10 July the Red Army spearheads had reached the Finnish fallback position, the heavily-fortified "U Line." After bringing up their forces, they stormed forward in a fresh attack designed to crush the Finnish 5th Division in its exposed positions.

Note: This scenario uses a board from Eastern Front and boards and pieces from Road to Berlin.

Conclusion

The Guards made a spirited assault, but the Finns pushed them back and no Soviets made it past the first line of resistance. Col. Heikki Saure's 2nd Regiment could call in enormous artillery support by Finnish standards, and more than 20,000 rounds were fired against the attackers. With 140 Finnish guns pouring down well-directed fire, the Soviet attack broke up and by the 18th the Finnish division commander, Maj. Gen. Kuusta Tapola, reported that the Red Army's 37th Guards Rifle Corps had been shattered and would not be able to attack again without serious replenishment.

Design Note: This was another of Patrik's suggestions, and I like it a lot. A massive force of Soviet Guards charge forward at a fortified line backed by substantial artillery. The Soviet has numbers, the Finn has morale and artillery support. There's not a lot of subtlety involved.

Landing at Tornio
1 October 1944

Finland and the Soviet Union signed an armistice on 19 September, 1944, requiring that the Finns eject their former German comrades-in-arms from northern Finland. At first the Finns and Germans staged a "phony war," with the Germans pulling back at a leisurely pace and the Finns pretending to chase them. But after the Soviets suggested that they might need to assist in the effort, the Finnish high command sent Gen. Hjalmar Siilasvuo to take charge. He immediately staged an unauthorized amphibious landing at Tornio on the Swedish frontier, behind the German lines.

Note: This scenario uses boards from Eastern Front and pieces from Road to Berlin.

Conclusion

The Finns had gathered two passenger liners and seven freighters for the operation, but their lack of experience in amphibious landings quickly told. The ships had not been assault-loaded (the most important items placed on board last) and the troops went ashore without their heavy weapons. One artillery battery had come along but the Finns could not get the guns ashore. No warships accompanied the landing fleet, so there was no gunnery support from that quarter, either — and no means for the troops to contact them even if they had been present. Even so the Finns took both the bridge and the town, while the Germans retreated northward in some disarray.

Design Note: I really hate Nazis, and though the Germans who fought at Tornio were not SS I did want to make sure the Lappland War between Finland and Germany received a suitable selection of scenarios. The Finns have numbers and morale and absolutely nothing else — it's a pure infantry force.

The Ties That Bind
3 October 1944

The Germans had always intended to evacuate Tornio, but once their high command learned that the city boasted a large steel railway bridge linking Finland and Sweden, new orders arrived to take it back. While the idiocy of such a directive bears the hallmarks of Adolf Hitler himself, the idea appears to have originated within the Army command. Reinforced with some second-line infantry, a company of overaged French-built tanks and a small group of angry, armed Finnish prostitutes who had been chased out of Tornio as collaborators, the Germans struck back at the Finnish beachhead. The Finns had been unable to unload their heavy equipment, but at least now had naval support.

Note: This scenario uses boards from Battle of the Bulge and Eastern Front, and pieces from Road to Berlin and Edelweiss.

Conclusion

The Germans could not eject the Finns from Tornio or take the bridge, but they did place an 88mm anti-aircraft battery on a small hill that dominated Tornio's nearby port. Its shells could not reach the Finnish ships, but kept them away from the wharves and further hampered Finnish reinforcement efforts. The gunboat Uusimaa eventually knocked out the battery. At least one Finnish soldier was shot and killed by a prostitute who attached herself to the German attack. Fighting continued around Tornio and Kemi until the 10th, when the Germans finally withdrew.

Design Note: This one was so odd I couldn't leave it out. It takes place on the same boards at Landing at Tornio, and the Finns have more troops but still lack heavy weapons though they have a little off-board artillery (thanks to the gunboats). The Germans get ancient tanks of the 211th Panzer Battalion; Gov. Spitzer's friends don't rate their own counter though.

Don't be left out in the cold — order Arctic Front now!