ASL 167 Breakout from Praaza

Played this scenario back on May 13th (yup, still behind).  It is from the Finish module and Tycho and I were looking forward to giving it a try.  The VC are for the Russians to exit 40 VP off the left side of the board.

The Russians get reinforcements on the listed turns and have till turn 10.  In a twist the defending Finns move first.

Oh yes, yes I do...

I move my Finns two hexes away.  Bloody fool me, should have kept them at three hexes so the Russians would have to use non-assault movement to get a shot at me.  I also sent guys south to hold off a flank move, which was a waste of troops for a turn.

The Russians move forward and the Finns take shots, DMing a couple groups and pinning another.

The end of the first Russian player turn.  And disaster strikes.  The concealed Russians get a kill and advance making a gaping hole in the line.

Just before advance phase of Finn turn 2.  The captions say it all, I played the odds to blast the Russians with 2 20+1 shots that ended up NE.  A return 8+1 shots breaks a Finn.  We do Surround and break the pesky infiltrator but there is an unbroken lead there.

End of Finn turn 2.  The leader gets an ambush and sneaks away, second time in a row that guy has beaten my Finns in CC.  So much for the Finn -1 to the ambush dr.

End of Russian turn 2.  They push forward and two more Melee's start up, the Finn CC modifier for ambush not working a couple more times.

End of Finish turn 3.  We pull back the line and with some luck things will even out.

Russian turn 3, just before Rout Phase.  Finn squad held fire to stay concealed for CC, a single Russian 2+1 shot DMs the squad.  Things are NOT getting better.

End of Russian turn 3.  The Finn squad won the Melee but is now surrounded.  One of the squads near the stream has not been able to rally himself for 2 turns now.  Self rally, bah!

End of Finn turn 4. I skedaddle my Finns across the stream, probably not needed yet on looking back, I keep forgetting streams can be crossed.

End of Russian turn 4.  My squads under the Melee marker rallied and did squat firing at the Russians that got adjacent, the vaunted Finn CC modifier for Ambush did nothing once again as well. 

End of Finn turn 5.  Looks like my Finn lost the Melee but I don't remember, would be about par for the course...

End of Russian turn 5.  Things are very grim for the Finns, the line is mostly Swiss cheese at this point.  A few good shots resulted in DM stacks for the Russians but they have the troops to keep pushing past it.

 

End of Finn turn 6.  Pulling back one more time.  A HIP Finn with an ATR waits to get a potshot at the tank - taking that out could slow things down long enough for the Finns to win.

End of Russian turn 6 and the game.  The ATR toting guy had to fire to protect himself and got no effect from it.  The Finnish line is looking far better than it actually is as well, four squad equivalents and a hero left at this point with four turns left in the game. 

I'll whine a bit  more and say it probably is a balanced scenario but my initial position was one hex too far forward, and the Russians getting snake eyes followed up by an ambush in two early CCs and not getting hurt from TWO 20+1 shots in a row did in my plans.

I freely admit to being a shameless whiner in my blog.