Slitherine

So I'm playing the second Mannerheim Line scenario (Summa) and I'm doing okay despite being outclassed in armor. I have a single T26 tank (a prize from an earlier scenario) versus two Soviet T26 tanks, a T28 model, and a flamethrower tank. Artillery helps a lot, though. I have two 105mm guns plus a 122mm Soviet unit that I captured in the last scenario.

Now I am awarded a British Vickers tank for holding all secondary victory points for 10 turns. Uh, yay?

No. In the same turn, I discover this Soviet KV-1 tank. Are you kidding me?!?

The Vickers looks like something from World War I next to the KV-1. How am I going to defeat this thing? (Answer: Isolate, cut off supply, surround, pound.)
Heh. I looked in the editor, and sure enough, there is a KV-2 in the game someplace. I hope it's not this scenario!

bru888 wrote:How am I going to defeat this thing? (Answer: Isolate, cut off supply, surround, pound.)

Like so:
The enemy broke through my cordon, but it was too late:

On the other hand, this burning pile of junk is my brand-new Vickers tank, after being caught by the T-28 at bottom left and finished off by Soviet infantry.

Attention to detail.
I love it when all the main guns turn to fire a broadside.

Erik wrote:Attention to detail.
I love it when all the main guns turn to fire a broadside.

I take it that this is from the upcoming Kriegsmarine.

Yes, KM. I took the liberty to post this and hope my tester license is not revoked

Erik wrote:Yes, KM. I took the liberty to post this and hope my tester license is not revoked

I doubt it, since that screen shot only serves to whet the appetite!

It's a seemingly small matter, but the animation is a crucial part of unit artwork and detail in this game. I looked at Panzer Corps; it had great unit artwork and detail but after having played OOB, I could not get over the movement aspect. It reminded me of those automated chess game replays, watching wooden pieces being moved on a chessboard. Perhaps, maybe surely, I am missing out on other fabulous game-playing aspects of Panzer Corps but watching its "animation" was a turn-off after OOB.

Speaking of gun-turning, it's been mentioned before but I will say it again: I love how tanks are animated as well. Just think about one aspect: The entire tank does not turn as one to face its enemy. Naturally, the turret turns first, as would make sense. Then the tank itself turns so that it is presenting its frontal armor to incoming fire. I seem to remember that a tank's frontal armor was the thickest and the preference was to not present one's hindquarters (engine and fuel tank) to the enemy.

It would have been easier to not bother at all, as in Panzer Corps, or flip/rotate the tank in one motion. Instead, the designers made it into this realistic-looking maneuver.

This is just one more reason why "I am impressed with unit artwork and detail" in this game.

Here's another interesting fighter that I just upgraded to: the Morane-Saulnier M.S.406. This airplane was French - the Finns sure were eclectic with their armaments in this war!

According to Wikipedia, "France sent 30 Morane-Saulnier to Finland, between 4 and 29 February 1940. By 1943 the Finns had received an additional 46 M.S.406s and 11 M.S.410s purchased from the Germans. By this point, the fighters were hopelessly outdated, but the Finns were so desperate for serviceable aircraft that they decided to start a modification program to bring all of their examples to a new standard." With Klimov M-105 engines captured from the Soviets! Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, the Finns managed to upgrade only three of these units into the first-class Mörkö-Morane type by the end of the Continuation War.

Regardless, you can see that even so, the Morane-Saulnier M.S.406 is a better fighter than the Polikarpov I-16 that it faces, even though the Russian plane is a lot faster (in the game, at least). Pardon the swastika in the real photo. It is part of history, remember.
Say, this is "Winter War," isn't it? Where's the snow? After six wintry scenarios, all this green is hurting my eyes!

I have not played Blitzkrieg DLC yet, so this "little" guy in Winter War / Arctic Fox represents my first time of handling a Panzer tank in my own right (I discount the wildly fictional Japanese Panzer tanks in Rising Sun). Somehow, it perversely feels good.

Two things.

First, maybe I was not paying attention before, or maybe it was introduced for artillery units in Winter War, but I never noticed shell casings being ejected from guns as they fire. Cool! I cannot show you the animation, of course, but the thing that I circled is a shell casing and it's neat how they take various trajectories upon ejection. (Oddly enough, I was reminded of how my goldfish used to poop the fish tank, years ago . . .)
The second thing is this nasty customer that I just discovered in East Karelia. This 203mm gun (attack strength 12) makes my 122mm (9) look like a pea shooter in comparison.
Look at the size of this thing IRL!
Wikipedia: "It was nicknamed 'Stalin's sledgehammer' by German soldiers. These guns were used with success against heavy German fortifications and in urban combat for crushing protected buildings and bunkers."

Pardon me while I issue orders to my bomber crews.

The shell casings have always been there In the original game beta, we once had a bug where they were bright pink. It broke the immersion a bit, but made them easier to spot

I didn't even know that Finland had a navy! But where's the rest of it? (Turn 1 of Someri)

Still, I am very grateful for this little fellow which did a job just now as you can see. The MTB Syöksy:
Wikipedia: The Syöksy class motor torpedo boats (English: Attack) was a series of four British Thornycroft type motor torpedo boats of the Finnish Navy. The vessels were constructed in 1928 by the John Thornycroft & Co. shipyard in Woolton, UK. The vessels saw service in World War II. The Thornycroft type released its torpedoes by dropping them from rails in the aft. The ship then had to steer away from the torpedoes path, a manoeuvre that could be quite tricky in the close waters of the Gulf of Finland. In 1942, the vessels received individual identification symbols on their superstructures. Nuoli had the ace of hearts, Vinha the ace of clubs, Syöksy the ace of diamonds, and Raju the ace of spades.

I christen this one the Nuoli. Long may she sail! (Which may not in fact be very long when the Soviet Navy shows up. )

bru888 wrote:In 1942, the vessels received individual identification symbols on their superstructures. Nuoli had the ace of hearts, Vinha the ace of clubs, Syöksy the ace of diamonds, and Raju the ace of spades.

Well, look who just showed up! It's the Vinha, the Raju, and the Syöksy herself!

bru888 wrote:Well, look who just showed up! It's the Vinha, the Raju, and the Syöksy herself!

Well, in the end, only the Nuoli survived. It was the initial boat on the map and I sailed it north, east, and south. This allowed it to benefit from naval reinforcements which arrived in that area. That, and its speed and self-repair capability (maximum 4 strength).
The other three boats sailed west and south. They managed to take out the enemy minesweeper but succumbed to a couple of Soviet guard ships.

These units were able to inflict more damage than I originally expected. I wish the Nuoli was a core unit, but alas, I bid her farewell. Onnittelen sinua!

Anyway, devs, are you kidding me?!? This scenario (Someri) was like monkey rodeo! I survived by being very nimble on my infantry feet.

There are two of these Katyusha rocket launchers in Viipuri. They must have been fearsome in real life, but in the game they are more flash than substance. They are pretty to watch, though.

So, I am just starting Tali-Ihantala (which looks like another humdinger), and I am looking over my auxiliary unit placements when I spot this Japanese infantry unit! What the . . . ?
I was about to make some nasty crack like "What are these, exchange students?" when I realized, say, maybe this was intentional and not a goof.

After all, Finland had signed the Anti-Comintern Pact along with Germany and Japan. According to Wikipedia, Finland was viewed as a co-belligerent of the Axis powers, if not an ally. The Soviets had clashed with the Japanese in Manchuria in 1939 and would invade there again in 1945.

So why wouldn't the Japanese send some military support to help the Finns battle their mutual enemies? Instead of being a mistake, I see this now as a brilliant portrayal of historical fact!

[At least that is my mind construct to cover this anomaly, which is readily given in computer games that I really like. It would be interesting if a dev would acknowledge: goof or brillance? ]

LOL, I could really go wacko with my mind construct after noticing that this is Japanese infantry from 1937.

I played Morning Sun and I seem to remember wondering where a few my units had disappeared during battles. Well, now I am thinking this unit got lost at the Battle of Shanghai and somehow trekked across China, Kazakhstan, and Russia for seven years. Finding itself in Leningrad and having heard about the Continuation War, it decided to cross the front lines and join the Finnish Army!

Makes sense to me! [I love this game.]

I peeked at the Tali-Ihantala scenario in the editor, and did not see the Japanese infantry unit placed on the map.
That's because it comes from a scenario-starting trigger, spawning a unit for having done well in the previous scenario.
This is where the goof/brilliance is manifested!

P.S.: It does not matter much anyway, as this unit gets plastered in the very first turn. Dead as a door nail, after trekking over 4,000 miles and seven years to get here.

I love my Soviet Stuka! Well, the Soviets' Stuka, to be exact. I don't control it but I love it anyway.

No, "Soviet Stuka" is not a misprint. In the Lapland scenario of Winter War, there is a bug that was reported back in July about the scenario spawning German Stukas but assigning them to the Soviet Union by mistake. I posted about it again in the Tech Support forum.

In the meantime, I am welcoming the additional support! It landed in my airport, which gummed it up (I could not land my planes and it almost cost me a Junkers Ju-88), but now it is clearing the way for me to a much-needed secondary victory point. It just took on an SdKfz AA gun, which is something I would not do with my own dive bomber!

I know it's early in the Blitzkrieg campaign (Mława scenario), but this . . . this is the "artillery" that they assign to me?
Here, some of the neighborhood kids are playing with it!
EDIT: Oh, I see. Destroy a bunker in three turns and get a real gun! I see what they are doing here!