Our Saturday Game - Scenario MM42 I Want to be a Millionaire

As the Summer of COVID plods along at a dreadfully slow and agonizing pace, Dan Best and I found ourselves in the Extreme Winter (E3.74) of 1940 Finland as the Winter War raged on with the Soviet Union. Tonight's game would be my 55th game of 2020. I remain amazed at the number of games I have been able to play this year. On the one hand it's fantastic, but on the other, it's a sad indication of living in a forced and/or self-induced lockdown. Here in Quincy, IL (pop. 40,000) we had been steady at around just under 40 cases through the March-May time-frame. Then we suddenly spiked up to well over 100 and are continuing to climb. So what the remainder of the summer will bring is still very much in doubt. I made the difficult decision not to attend the St. Louis Tournament at the end of July. This awesome tournament is usually very well attended and the room is usually packed tight. Even without the threat of a virus, it can be tough to move around with the limited space and the size of some folks' kits. So, I wouldn't feel comfortable in that enclosed space for the three days of the tournament. As I write this, the tournament is still on and I believe the only one not yet cancelled. So I wish luck to those attending and please stay safe. We need all of you in the ASL community.

Tonight's scenario was my pick. I have been trying to complete all the scenarios in the 2018 Players Pack. After tonight's, I will only have one more to play in order to complete the entire pack. My choice would be MM42 - I Want to be a Millionaire. Designed by none other than Dan Best himself, this scenario is set in Finland during the Winter War. In this scenario, the Russians are attacking a Finnish bunker complex east of Summa Lake. Two interconnected bunkers would be the Soviet objective. One of these two bunkers had cost in excess of a million markkaa to build and was therefore known as the Millionaire Bunker and was the most famous bunker of the Mannerheim Line.  ROAR currently has the scenario with 1 Finnish and 1 Russian victory.

EC are ground snow with Extreme Winter (E3.74). As a result the Russian breakdown numbers decrease by 1 and a MC roll of 11 is the same as boxcars. This would be a plague for Dan throughout the game. Extreme Winter is rough stuff

One of the things I've learned over the years is that Dan likes to design scenarios that use a variety of environmental and fortification rules. I want to be a Millionaire would be an excellent combination of the two elements. Generally speaking, these kinds of environments tend to be very tough on the attacker. 

The battle space for tonight's game. By SSR my two objective Pillboxes would have to set up on the hill mass of Hill 215. The two bunkers would have to be two hexes from one another. The hex between them would have a fortified cellar location (see Suicide Creek in ASL Journal 9 for details). 

An illustration of what the complex looks like. The lower levels below the pillboxes and the adjoining level are immune to fire, including OBA. A unit in the upper pillbox can of course fire into the lower level of the pillbox, but otherwise it is a safe location to hide your boys and rally them when they are broken.

As the scenario defender, I would command the Finns in the coming battle. Finns are always tough. But 8 morale would not be enough for me. I needed a morale of 11 for much of the game. In fact, I would break and/or pin nearly every tine I had to make a moral check. Now in fairness Dan was doing well and forcing me to take a great many +2 and even +4 morale checks. 120MM ARTY is not your friend.

I would command the men of the 4th Company, 2nd Battalion, Infantry Regiment 9. This force would consist of 9 x 5-4-8's and 3 x 2-2-8's led by a 10-1, 9-1, and 2 x 8-0's with 2 x HMG's 3 x LMG's and 2 x DC's. I would would also have a single 37L AT Gun to take on Dan's 7 tanks. My fortifications would consist of 3 x 1+3+5 Pillboxes, 2 x 1+5+7's, 9 x Trenches and 12 x Wire. I would get excellent service from my wire.

As the attacking Russians, Dan would command the men of the Soviet 255th Rifle Regiments, 123rd Rifle Division. His force would consist of 6 x 4-5-8's, and 24 x 4-4-7's led by a 9-1, 2 x 8-1's, 2 x 8-0's and a 7-0 with 2 x MMG's, 4 x LMG's and 6 x DC's. for support Dan would have 3 x T-28's and 4 x T-26's. Additionally, he would get one module of 120mm OBA, which would do considerable damage to me throughout the game.

And now for Dan's Pre-Game Comments:

“The Russians must move across the boards and capture two pillboxes connected by pillbox cellars.  Pillbox cellars from Suicide Creek in Journal 9 give the pillbox occupants someplace to retreat to and skulk from high firepower.  It is also a good rally location.  The Russians will exchange both 8-0 leaders for commissars to have increased rally capability as the troops cross open ground under fire.  The 9-1 will lead a assault group with three squads and two MMGs.  Each 8-1 leader will lead three squads with two LMGs.  The 7-0 will lead three squads to scout out the Finns positions.  The engineers will follow up the forces and deliver the DCs to attack the bunkers.  The tanks will cross board 61 with the T-28s going through the valley hexes and the T-26s going over the hill.  The tanks will try to get adjacent to the pillboxes and block the LOS and fire directly into the CA.  Hopefully the OBA will keep the Finns occupied and allow the Russians to cross the open ground with few casualties.”

 I went with a reverse slope defense. I wanted to force Dan to come right over the hill into Finnish fire. I also was hopeful to protect myself from the 120mm OBA. I wouldn't be successful in that endeavor.

Dan set up two infantry schwerpunkts. Of course you can do that when you have 30 squads.

"So...do you think we can stop 30 squads of Russians...?" "Not likely...that's why we're going to hide"

 My strategy of hiding would allow Dan to move more or less freely across the icy Finnish wastes.

Of course may plan had one fatal flaw...yeah...Russian OBA 120mm...the big stuff. The first spotting round would land and for almost 7 straight turns...I would deal with incoming rounds.

As the arty pounded my positions, Dan's boys moved forward. My first MC would be a "12". Yep first roll of the game is a 12 and it was down hill roll wise for the remainder of the game. I would kill a full squad with boxcars as well as my 10-1 and 8-0. My dice would suck most of the night.

A look at Dan's progress after three movement phases. I was not taking pictures as often as I should have been early on. One thing to note is that it was really taking Dan's tanks a long time to get anywhere. The ground snow made the elevation changes more costly and the terrain was just not great. By SSR, all the orchards were crags. Tanks cannot enter crag, so Dan was  having to thread the needle to get his armor into the open.

 As Dan advanced, my AT Gun would take a few shots at the T-26's on the 2nd level hill.

A look at Dan's positions as he finally reached the Hill 215 hill mass. The T-28's had made it to the open ground in the center, but the T-26's were still struggling to clear the hill in their axis of advance. 

 My AT-Gun would knock out one of the T-26's from long range. Dan's infantry continued to move around my flanks.

Dan was edging around my west flank. I had stalled him on the east side of the hill, but Russian arty had weakened my defense as the Russians gathered in the woods.

My trenches were sparsely manned.

My eastern flank was my strongest and was holding out, but on the west side, I only had a single 5-4-8 to hold off the gathering Russians.

The arty just kept coming down. Dan would draw one of the red cards, but after that it would be all black. Dan's arty was very successful in softening up the Finnish line.

After turns of moving into position, Dan was finally able to launch a coordinated assault from both flanks. He would make one error as a group moved out of the valley in an effort to flank my northeastern hilltop pillbox. My 10-1 was tracking them and hit them hard with a -3 shot.

The Russians begin to put pressure all along the front. My wire was doing a good job, but my west flank was falling.

Dan's 9-1 was also on the hill with his two MMG's.

 No game is complete without a berserk Russian squad.

The berserk squad would be KIA'd in front of the bunker. My AT Gun would destroy a T-28 as another T-28 bogged on the wire. The third T-28 would fail to restart. The special notes on the T-28's revealed that they had bad transmission problems and so a +1 would be applied to the start up die roll. Something to remember the next time you are playing with T-28's. The west flank was officially cooked and my pillbox on that side would break under withering point blank Russian Fire. My boys would head down into the cellars to hide and hopefully rally and survive.

It was pretty nice down in the cellar...so nice that I had a hard time rallying my boys to go back to the fight!! C'mon fellas....this is not the time to nap. I need you back in the subzero cold to hold the pillbox!

 Dan would take down one objective pillbox and the pillbox with the AT Gun. My AT Gun accounted for two destroyed tanks and another was bogged on the wire. Interestingly, Dan did not fire a tank the entire game. The one great aspect of my reverse slope defense was to render the Russian tanks irrelevant. They simply could not get to the reverse slope. The bog roll for going up hill in snow with wire was a +4. So bogging was difficult to avoid.

I had not enjoyed much success with wire in the desert scenarios, but here in the Finnish snow, I finally got my groove on with good wire placement.

A look at the situation as we headed into Turn 7. The fight was still raging, but my boys were in trouble.

My boys still in the trenches knew the end was coming.

 Dan would hit me with CC all along the front.

Time for some close combat...

 Dan would mire his bogged T-28 and then a T-26 would bog on the wire. Platoon movement would cause the other T-26 to stop.

At this point in the game, the Soviet Tanks were mission killed.

 My  northeast hilltop bunker would be hit by a DC but survive.

 Dan would toss two DC's on the final Finnish objective bunker (the Millionaire Bunker). But again neither DC would do anything. Dan was also experiencing some frustrating die rolls.

As we headed into the final turn, Dan was in control of the hills. The only Finns remaining were in the Millionaire Bunker or in the bunker cellars...waiting to come up and push the Soviets back.

My boys had rallied up and were ready to head back up to the fight.

I sent a squad out with an HMG into a trench location to help protect the Millionaire Bunker. They would be captured. But my remaining 9-1 and 5-4-8 would engage 3 x Soviet 4-4-7's with the Russian 9-1 in the final close combat of the game. Dan would roll a 10...no effect in CC. With that the game was  over and an improbable Finnish Victory. 

As Dan's Russians fell back, my Finns would emerge to collect their fallen and feel the relief that came with the victory. Dan and I played this game in about 6 hours. We play fast and completing a full 8 turns in 6 hours exhausted us both. Dan helped me in tonight's game as well. He coached me on how to properly use the bunker cellars, which would be the reason my Finns eventually won the game. I would lose one bunker, but holding on to the Millionaire Bunker was made possible by shuttling men in and out of the cellars. My reverse slope defense was risky as Dan's infantry were very much intact as they attacked my positions on the hill. I'm not sure that the wisest course of action, but it worked for me. My thanks to Dan for his patience and coaching during this game. I'm slowly getting the hang of fortifications from a master. I might just get dangerous one of these days!

I've learned a lot playing against Dan these many years. 

And now for Dan's Post-Game Comments:

“The plan did not work.  The Finns had a reverse slope defense and this allowed the Russians to move across the open ground but left little time for an assault.  The Finns used the pillbox cellars to keep good order troops in the pillboxes and in the last CC the Finns kept control of one pillbox for the win.  Well played by Grumble Jones with good placement of wire and the supporting AT gun.  Two tanks were knocked out and two bogged on wire.  This scenario makes for good replay value as there are many ways to set up a good defense.  My thanks to Grumble Jones for a good game!”

Dan and I will be back next week for a Friday and Saturday game. 

Until then...