Gemigabok presents...
Winter of No Surrender
http://www.saunalahti.fi/~ejuhola/7.62/chainofcommand/WoNS_1-2/index.html
Campaign Eleven – Fangs of the Wolf
Game Three – Part Four
Winter of No Surrender (WoNS) is a series of Winter War campaigns for Chain of Command and other game systems. This is our playthrough of the eleventh
WoNS campaign –
Fangs of the Wolf. The campaign is currently in playtest and will be released... later.
We're using Chain of Command rules with the At the Sharp End supplement, loads of special campaign rules, and 20mm figures on an 8x5 ft table. At the time of writing, we have John as Colonel Sharov and Janne as his assistant commander. We have Jarkko as Lieutenant-Colonel Susitaival, with Mikko as his assistant command. We're playing on Discord using three 720p HD cameras as most of the players are located at least 600 km from me.

Previously on Fangs of the Wolf:
Campaign Introduction:
https://thewargamersforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=4954Game One, Part I:
https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=137031.0 Game One, Part II:
https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=137317.0Game Two:
https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=137428.0 Game Three, Part I:
https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=137800.0Game Three, Parts II & III:
https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=138177.0You may recall that in Parts II and III of this battle we saw the company from Group Wolf facing stiffening resistance from the Red Army. Acting on limited intelligence, the one hundred Finns had stumbled upon over 400 Soviet artillerymen and ten 76mm guns on this Table!
Date: 21 December 1939, Day Twenty-Two of the Winter War, 0455 hours, night.
Location: Table J, Ahola Farm, about 40 kilometers north of the village of Suomussalmi, in central-eastern Finland. About forty kilometers from the border of the Soviet Union.
Weather Conditions: Cloudy skies, -20 degrees Celsius (+3 degrees Fahrenheit). There is about 22 cm (9 inches). Visibility is 18” in the dark but reduced to a maximum of 15” due to a heavy mist. Dawn will arrive around 0730 hours.

RED units:
1: 1st Platoon 1st Section (John)
2: 1st Platoon 2nd Section, with platoon leader behind house (John)
5: 2nd Platoon 1st Section (Janne)
9: 3rd Platoon 1st Section (support section for 2nd Platoon) (Janne)
56th Regimental Gun Battery:
B. Command Platoon
C. Headquarters Section
D. Support Detachment
E. Signals Platoon
F. Signals Platoon, 1st Radio Section
G. Signals Platoon, 2nd Radio Section
H. Signals Platoon, 3rd Radio Section
I. Signals Platoon, 1st Telephone Section
J. Signals Platoon, 2nd Telephone Section
K. Reconnaissance Detachment
L. Reconnaissance Detachment, Recon Team One
M. Reconnaissance Detachment, Recon Team Two
N. Regimental Gun Section One
O. Regimental Gun Section One, Gun Team One
P. Regimental Gun Section One, Gun Team Two
Q. Regimental Gun Section Two
R. Regimental Gun Section Two, Gun Team One
S. Regimental Gun Section Two, Gun Team Two
T. Regimental Gun Section Three
U. Regimental Gun Section Three, Gun Team One
V. Regimental Gun Section Three, Gun Team Two
7th Divisional Artillery Battery:
W. Command Platoon
X. Headquarters Section
Y. Headquarters Section, Forward Observer Section
Z. Headquarters Section, Fire Control Section
GREEN units:
7th Divisional Artillery Battery:
11. Headquarters Section, Battery Signals Section
12. Headquarters Section, Battery Signals Section, Telephone team
13. Headquarters Section, Battery Signals Section, Radio team
14. Divisional Gun Section One
15. Divisional Gun Section One, Gun Team One
16. Divisional Gun Section One, Gun Team Two
17. Divisional Gun Section Two
18. Divisional Gun Section Two, Gun Team One
19. Divisional Gun Section Two, Gun Team Two

As we begin this fourth session, John's first Red Army platoon has a Force Morale of 5 and four pips on his CoC die. Janne is still at 8 and he has a full CoC die. On the Finnish side, Jarkko's 1st platoon is at FM 7 and a full CoC die. Mikko is also at FM 7 and he has five pips.
It is the Soviet turn. John's 2nd platoon men run along the forest's edge to a position where they should be able to bring fire on the Finnish MMG section #10. In the nighttime forest, the MMG is busy firing sustained fire at Janne's rifle sections 5 and 9.

In the north-east, a patrol of white-clad Russians makes an unexpected entry onto the table. Doing so they disable the Finnish jump-off point there.

These skiers are a patrol from the 81st Mountain Infantry Regiment, one of the 163rd Division's three regiments.

On the road, Janne's 5th section fires another volley...

...at Jarkko's assaulting 3rd rifle section...


...who suffer three points of shock.

John has a double phase. His men in the forest open fire at the MMG and the adjacent rifle section, firing a long burst of bullets with their LMG and shooting their rifles at the Finns...

The fire is very successful and the MMG suffers three points of shock and a dead, the rifle section suffering seven more points of shock! The rifle section is now pinned, and the MMG gunners are also feeling very uneasy...

Next, the grenadier sends a rifle grenade their way and the team suffers one more shock, pinning them too...

On the road near the farmhouse, John activates the 7th Divisional Artillery Battery's second-in-command, a senior leader, who quickly orders his forward observers (Y) and the two closest gun crews to vacate the premises. They run north-west...

This finally gets rid of the paniced gun crews, who were limiting John's 3rd section's field of fire...

Now it will be possible to have a proper exchange of fire...



Incredibly, John has rolled himself a third consecutive phase, even though we remove one command die for every double phase previously achieved... the roll does not give him many options, but he does get to activate one senior leader. The opportunity galvanizes the company commander Lieutenant Ilyushin into action... he sprints incredibly quickly towards the north-west and attaches himself to the 2nd section there...

The Finns' situation is really bad... two of the three sections facing the growing number of Russians are pinned and he has already suffered some losses... Mikko knows what is coming... but he is unable to do anything because he has not yet had the possibility to roll his command dice tonight...

Next, Lieutenant Ilyushin Soviet shouts... ”1st Company... for the Motherland, for Stalin! Chaaaarge!”

”URAAAAGH!!!” the men answer, running howling at the enemy...
A confusing calculation session follows... we actually count everything at least twice in order to ensure that we have the numbers right... it turns out that despite their pinned status, all the shock and previous losses, the defending, automatic-weapon-toting Finns have 29 dice, while the attacking Russians have only 27! This is going to be a lot closer than we thought...

As the unstoppable Russian human wave attack closes in on the Finns, the desperate defenders open fire with their three automatic weapons at point blank range... their tremendous firepower cuts down many of the attackers, but despite that the Red Army men surge forward, shouting and throwing hand grenades...
The scene in the dark woods dissolves into a messy close-quarters hand-to-hand battle between age-old enemies where mercy is neither given nor sought...

John's Soviet 2nd section lose four men and get four points of shock...

Janne's 6th section lose three men, and the platoon leader (Janne himself) is wounded... in addtition, they have three points of shock...

Janne's platoon loses one point of Force Morale and is now 7.

At this point I declare that I'm running out of casualty figures so the players should start shooting less accurately...
