Suomussalmi - took forever but finally won it

[Michael250]

Hello,

I finally won this one (level 3) – very challenging. I am new to “Order of Battle” but have played a lot of Panzer General & Panzer Corps. The latter two I can handle most scenarios at the highest level – but this is more challenging, to me anyway.
One thing I have learned though, to quote “Chicken George” (from movie Roots) is that, “When your plan fails, you get yourself another plan.” I tried numerous different times, mostly with the same result – would do pretty well in the beginning but would get buried in an avalanche of reinforcements by around turn 20.
Most of my early attempts were based on trying to hold fast to that starting hex east of Suomussalmi. I was always able to hold out for the 10 turns, but always got absolutely steamrolled before I could accomplish the primary objectives.
I tried putting my most powerful troops up north and working my way south and tried starting south and moving north. All with the same result: started out fine – buried at the end. Then the lightbulb finally came on and I figured it out by getting me a new plan in mykfcexperience.
Before I go there, I have fun naming my units after famous Finnish soldiers I admire or cool unit nicknames I come across or think up. I tried to keep the name consistent with unit. For example, my pilots actually flew the planes listed. My force is listed below (apologies if I spelled names wrong):
2xHeavy infantry/trucks: Hjalmar Siilasvuo & Aaro Pajari
1xEngineer
5x Ski: Paavo Talvela, Marocan Kauhu, Kuoleman Kompani, Sisu Patajoona & Matti Aarnio
1 x anti-tank gun
1x76mm artillery
1x105mm artillery
1x Anti-Aircraft gun
1 x Fokker C X tac bomber (Toivo Halle pilot)
1 x Fokker D XXI (Jorma Sarvanto pilot)
1 x Bruster Buff (Ilmari Juutilainen pilot)
1 x MS 406 (Urho Lehtovaara pilot)

It finally dawned on me that the scenario wants you to move fast: you have to be a Rommel, not a Montgomery. With that in mind, I realized I didn’t have to hold that hex east of Suomussalmi, I just had to hold the city and prevent link-up. So in the end, I didn’t even try and defend that initial position all that much. Essentially, I divided my force into three unequal parts, with the idea of moving fast:
1) Group Pajari: (Pajari Heavy Infantry & Engineers) – take Suomussalmi and prevent link-up. The non-core unit would hold its initial position as long as possible until Pajari took Suomassalmi and then fall back and join them in hol ding it.
2) Group Talvela: the strongest group: (Siilasvuo heavy infantry, both artillery, AAG (never fired a shot), anti-tank gun & Talvela & Kauhu ski units.) Their mission was to take the airfield in the center and split into two groups. The heavy infantry and ATG would head south to help with defense of Suomassalmi. The Artillery and the ski units (including non-core unit nearby) would head north and go after Palovaara.
3) Group Sisu: (T-26, & Sisu, Kuoleman & Arnio ski units + one non-core ski). They would take Kello & Pitka. They would be aided by the air force. The panssari unit would eventually head south to help with the armored threat from Raate – and be my only core unit that croaked. The dive bomber was invaluable at keeping the enemy armor suppressed.

The plan worked pretty well – complete victory on turn 16 with all objectives accomplished. The last one was destroying 15 infantry units. Not sure how much longer I could have held out at Suomussalmi. I was outnumbered and there was a T-28 causing much mischief. I had my two heavy infantry (16 strength points) facing 46 strength points of Infantry in addition to the tank. My armor was gone, and the ATG (4SP) was chasing down a T-26 that had gotten behind me and momentarily captured the airport – but it was down to 1SP when the ATG recaptured the airport. To borrow a famous phrase, Suomussalmi Kestää! thanks to the Pajari heavy infantry.
It’s funny, this scenario is supposed to last 30 turns – but I only ever came close to winning (probably a couple dozen attempts) – when I realized you had to go hard and fast and hit everything at once.

[GabeKnight]

Yeah, you picked one of the harder DLCs to start off with this game...

I've always only had two groups in this scen. One in the north and one defending the south. If you take the two supply hubs inside the pocket quickly, you basically render the whole group of units useless - and you can focus on defending the flanks.

On another note, why do you have AA and three fighters? I'd go with two dogfighters (MS406) max, no AA and lose the super weak Fokker tac. bomber. The Ju88's are extremely powerful with good air defense stats.
I'd also recommend another engineer unit. Those are cheap, good against dug-in positions and help your adjacent units to entrench faster.