BrucErik CSD Studio

[bru888]

So here is the revised scenario description for 09Litsa:

Operation Polarfuchs (Arctic Fox) and Operation Platinfuchs (Platinum Fox) are two arms of the overall Operation Silberfuchs (Silver Fox). Operation Silver Fox is a German and Finnish military operation with the objective of capturing the Barents Sea port of Murmansk. Murmansk is a vital harbour for the lend-lease equipment that the Western Allies are sending to the Soviet Union. The railroad heading south of Murmansk is a lifeline for the besieged city of Leningrad.

After the commencement of Operation Barbarossa, in preparation for Operation Silver Fox, German High Command transferred Gebirgskorps Norwegen (Mountain Corps Norway) to Petsamo in northern Finland. The Korps consists of two mountain divisions - 2nd and 3rd Gebirgsjäger Divisions - and several independent Finnish battalions.

On 29 June, soon after the beginning of the Continuation War, Gebirgskorps Norwegen crossed the border between Finland and the U.S.S.R. Their orders are to cut the railroad and capture Murmansk in accordance with Operation Silver Fox. Their portion of that plan is named Operation Platinum Fox. At the same time, on a parallel route to the south, units from the Finnish III Corps are moving east from Salla to Kandalaksha in Operation Arctic Fox.

Unfortunately for Platinum Fox, the region between Petsamo and Murmansk has one of the most terrible terrains German troops have ever encountered. Deep swamps, rough terrain and lack of suitable roads have seriously hampered the Axis offensive.

By the middle of July, the attack had bogged down at Litsa River just 50 kilometers northwest of Murmansk. The situation now became worse for the Germans, as the thinly stretched forces had to hold a 57km front along the Litsa River to the Rybachy Peninsula. With the absence of roads, the supply situation also deteriorated. Korps commander Eduard Dietl ordered his troops to prepare defensive positions.

Now it is September. The pressure is on to reach Murmansk before the Russian winter sets in and shuts down operations completely. Gebirgskorps Norwegen itself may not survive the coming winter. Fresh infantry regiments have recently arrived; it is now or never.

2nd Gebirgsjager Division, with the 3rd Gebirgsjager Division on its right, begins its southeastern advance along the swampy river bed of the Litsa River. Facing them are the Russian 14th Rifle Division entrenched on higher ground on the road to Murmansk. The elite mountain troops of the Wehrmacht are soon to realize the strength of Russian soldiers defending their homeland on rough terrain.

No islands, no late-arriving Finns, and Murmansk properly situated on Barents Sea. Also I moved the date up to 15 September from 22 September. By the latter date, the offensive in question was over, according to Wikipedia: "On 19 September the Germans retreated from their bridgehead east of the Litsa river. More Soviet reinforcements arrived in the area and on 21 September the German offensive was broken off." An even earlier date in September would be more accurate for 09Litsa, but then we would conflict with the date of the preceding 08Rukajärvi (11 September).

The map that I showed in my last post on the preceding page will pop up and orient the player.

[bru888]

The 'Moana Litsa' is finished. Actually, there wasn't too much moaning coming from me this time. That's odd. I'd better go back and check everything.

[bru888]

[Bzzzt] "The next station is . . . Karhumäki . . . Karhumäki is the last station in Greater Finland. All designers must exit the train at . . . Karhumäki. Please gather your belongings and dispose of your trash responsibly. Thank you for riding with us and have a nice day!"

[Erik2]

Are you still having fun, Bru?
I'm ready for another play-test. Just saying.

[bru888]

Are you still having fun, Bru?
I'm ready for another play-test. Just saying.

You can look forward to a weekend of Continuation War.

[bru888]

I have come to love Farmland. Farms cover many acres, differentiating them from plain open terrain, yet they do not require trees and residences to be dotted all over the place. Farmland is now creeping, taking over the earth! So much so that future OOB battles may take place on one vast farm resembling a terrarium!

The only terrain that I love more is Deep Water.

[Erik2]

Farmers of the world, unite!

[bru888]

Farmers of the world, unite!

Heh.

Incidentally, I am mindful of, and in agreement with, your dictum of "You must deploy at least 1 Finnish core tank unit to be able to play this scenario. All objectives wil fail if no tanks units are deployed." The Finns should have some armour in this final battle. The original scenario description mentions it, if it is accurate, and this being the last scenario, we should have some firepower in it!

But this is the problem; note the "noPurchase" for all "available" Finnish tanks:

Image0387.jpg (44.42 KiB) Viewed 2460 times

The Finns never have had a chance to purchase tanks in any of these campaigns. We awarded a core tank or two, someplace in here or in previous linked campaigns, but we cannot depend on this. Not until October 1942, with the BT-42_AT, does the player have an opportunity to purchase a core tank.

This may indeed be a gameplay balance issue in beta because I have sprinkled in Soviet armor here and there and the Finns have none. We'll see if you expert players experience any frustration accordingly. If so, I'll cull the Soviet tanks.

In this case, though, I'll take the opposite approach of including aux Finnish tanks. I will stretch things, perhaps, by bringing in the Lagus Detachment (introduced in Olonets) for one more appearance. If you remember, this attachment was comprised of captured Soviet tanks but I will use the Finnish equivalents listed above.

Perhaps the Lagus Detachment was never anywhere near Karhumäki. Let the grognards dig up that information (I did try searching for it but failed) and complain.

[bru888]

I'll take the opposite approach of including aux Finnish tanks. I will stretch things, perhaps, by bringing in the Lagus Detachment (introduced in Olonets) for one more appearance.

And this is the penalty if you lose too many of his tanks!

Screenshot 1.jpg (569.89 KiB) Viewed 2434 times

With apologies to the real General Lagus, whom I have no idea whether he stuttered or not.

[Erik2]

Stuttering in Finnish is no easy feat (sorry, Cool...)

[CoolDTA]

Heh, I guess anyone would stutter if you lose too many of those precious vehicles.

Perhaps the Lagus Detachment was never anywhere near Karhumäki. Let the grognards dig up that information (I did try searching for it but failed) and complain.

Actually it was and had an important role in the operation. Nothing to complain.

66100.jpg (128.79 KiB) Viewed 2407 times

Finnish T-28 tanks in Karhumäki Dec 1941.

It is true Finland had little armour throughout the WW2 and of this fact the book Punaiset panssarit (Red Tanks) has this telling passage from the first days of Winter War: "On the 30 of November 1939 at 0650 hours 1,450 Soviet tanks started their rush towards the Gulf of Bothnia. [...] The Armoured Forces of Finland took part in the battle with all their might, which was one (1) Landsverk 182 armoured car." It got better in the CW because of the generous donations by the USSR and the 59 StuG IIIs bought from Germany in 1943-44 (30 of those were too late to see any action).

[bru888]

Cool, thanks for the friendly grognard support! And for the pic; that is definitely going into the campaign in post-production.

Funny thing about pics now. My eye has gained the talent of gazing at an image and knowing instantly whether it is suitable for 512 x 415 pixels based on proportions, content, and positioning without a lot of resizing and cropping.

(And, in the worst cases, resizing to 512 wide to preserve content, ending up with not enough vertical height, and resorting to the cloning brush in paint.net to replicate sky - works well only in clear conditions!

Some are obviously not suitable, such as the General Lagus image above. Portrait-oriented photos are generally not good because they have to be shrunk down to 415 vertically which usually makes them look too small and require black bands to be inserted in the sides. I make exceptions here and there where the results don't look too bad.

Your pic makes the grade by eye test and the subject is definitely interesting. It's another example of how the Finnish Blue Swastika (known as Hakaristi?) just stands out wherever it is seen in these photos. It's not the shape but the size or prominence perhaps? Whatever it is, you just know that these are Finnish tanks, not German.

[bru888]

Here is how I worked it into Karhumäki, as a warning on Turn 2 to "Preserve the Lagus Detachment":

Screenshot 3.jpg (720.51 KiB) Viewed 2375 times

I see that castle symbol and "SA-Kuva" name on many photos from these wars. What is that, a news agency? I cloned it out of a few photos but I don't bother anymore after having seen it so much. Now it only troubles me if it's in the way of some needed cropping, so that it reads "SA-Ku..."

[CoolDTA]

Portrait-oriented photos are generally not good because they have to be shrunk down to 415 vertically which usually makes them look too small and require black bands to be inserted in the sides. I make exceptions here and there where the results don't look too bad.

Yes, those certainly give you some troubles. Luckily they didn't take selfies back in those days. Those are pretty much always portrait-oriented.

Your pic makes the grade by eye test and the subject is definitely interesting. It's another example of how the Finnish Blue Swastika (known as Hakaristi?) just stands out wherever it is seen in these photos. It's not the shape but the size or prominence perhaps? Whatever it is, you just know that these are Finnish tanks, not German.

True, but of course German tanks used Balkenkreuz (beam cross) and not swastikas. The ones in Finnish tanks are usually black and have short arms. These have full length arms because the painter(s) haven't read the instructions. And yes, it is 'hakaristi'.

The Finnish swastika dates from 1918 and as you know has nothing to do with nazis. It is still in use for instance in the airforce flags

I see that castle symbol and "SA-Kuva" name on many photos from these wars. What is that, a news agency? I cloned it out of a few photos but I don't bother anymore after having seen it so much. Now it only troubles me if it's in the way of some needed cropping, so that it reads "SA-Ku..."

In SA-Kuva the SA means Suomen Armeija so literally Finnish Army Image. They are mostly taken by combat photographers and can be used by anyone. You probably would have had some use to search them yourself. My bad. See all 160,000 photos here.

[bru888]

True, but of course German tanks used Balkenkreuz (beam cross) and not swastikas. The ones in Finnish tanks are usually black and have short arms. These have full length arms because the painter(s) haven't read the instructions. And yes, it is 'hakaristi'.

Yes, I was dimly aware of the cross on tanks but German planes, too? My perceptions of reality have been distorted by OOB.

The Finnish swastika dates from 1918 and as you know has nothing to do with nazis. It is still in use for instance in the airforce flags

The swastika image itself goes way back in time. It was just the Nazis that gave it a bad connotation. Not that I am advocating for it now. It will take centuries . . .

In SA-Kuva the SA means Suomen Armeija so literally Finnish Army Image. They are mostly taken by combat photographers and can be used by anyone. You probably would have had some use to search them yourself. My bad. See all 160,000 photos here.

Heh. I just updated "Bru's Photos" in the free images thread. 580 photos is quite enough to have collected but the amount keeps growing regardless. So thanks anyway.

In terms of the campaigns, there were some fine images that Erik had sent over but I just could not use them all, alas.

[CoolDTA]

Yes, I was dimly aware of the cross on tanks but German planes, too? My perceptions of reality have been distorted by OOB.

Yep, those too, though there is often a swastika in the vertical stabilizer.

Regarding images there are indeed so many floating around, but the trick is to find the right ones. Personal collections are quite useful.

[GabeKnight]

I just love reading this thread, comments like...

Rukajärvi. What is this "coastal road"? No such thing.

...or...

But wow, what did we ever do before the internet?

We used and continue to use books.

...always brighten up my day...

Also a big THANKS from me for all your involvement and great input to this project, CoolDTA!

Seriously, reading this are the best "Dev Diaries" ever. A big thanks for Bruce for doing this, too, of course!
(Although I tend to skip some parts - to not ruin the first-play experience, so to say )

I'm more the technical guy myself. For example, the popup about the "Landsverk II" was very informative to me, in terms that it uses the 40mm Bofors gun. Now I can use that info to recheck (or rebalance) some AA/AT units in my mod.

I don't want any Gabe-subterfuge such as having them paddle down the lake and land in Rukajärvi town to cause mayhem (not that they can claim any territory, but still). As it is, I am wondering about that port hex in "Tsakarioja" (pending Cool's approval of that name). Gabe: "Heh, let's get some TRANSPORT SHIPS on the lake by embarking troops and taking Rukajärvi from the rear! Yeah, the more I think of it, the more we do without docks, at least in "Tsakarioja."

And it even sounds like something I would actually do (if there was some gain in doing that; I don't know the scen)

[CoolDTA]

Thanks, Gabe.

I really love Bru's rich and versatile use of English language with the occasional humorous interludes. Very educational, too, for us non-native English speakers.

I'm more the technical guy myself. For example, the popup about the "Landsverk II" was very informative to me, in terms that it uses the 40mm Bofors gun. Now I can use that info to recheck (or rebalance) some AA/AT units in my mod.

One of those being 40M Nimrod if you have it in your mod I'm sure.

[ColonelY]

Hey, I'm (of course) not an expert in Finnish warfare , but it does seem that the Finns managed to realize some operations of "paratroopers" or almost...

I've found this link: https://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=141441 (the original thread link seems to be dead)

Can anyone confirm or deny that?

Because it's mentionned something already during June 1941 and thus, if it's indeed correct, could potentially be worth a new little scenario for the "Continuation War 1941" campaign...

(I do always like special ops. )

[ColonelY]

I hope I don't end up scalped after all that paratrooper stuff!