[WarInEur] RE: WarInEur Digest, Vol 39, Issue 18

[Wardall Clark]

Finland represents a problem in WIE in roughly the same way the pre-invasion USSR represented a KLudge in CWIE-1.  The Germans 
in the real world knew that the Soviets were unlikely to attack, but had to take precautions in case the unlikely occurred. The russians
in the real world eventually noticed that the Finns territorial ambitions had limits, but they could never be sure that the Finns would 
remain within those limits.  In CWIE, each player knows for certain what the other player cannot do and therefore can game the system
for an a-historical result. 
 
At first glance, none of these restriction makes much sense in that they make it harder for the Axis, which is supposedly Finland's side in this war, to defeat Finland's enemy.  However, viewed from the Finnish point of view what the rules are laying out is to the Limited extent to which Finland alienated its territory to the Axis in order to (a) avoid becoming an enemy to Germany and (b) recover territories seized in the Winter War. Basically, the Finns agreed to allow the Axis Army in Norway to cross its territory to attack/isolate Murmunsk. Any other German troops in Finland were under Finnish Command and the Finns had made a solid promise that Finnish territory would not be used to threaten Leningrad.(this comes from Lost Victories by Von Manstein.) 
 
These restrictions seem artificial, because the same player if moving the Finnish and German forces. The Axis commander
in WIE has the surrender of the USSR as his ultimate goal, so did Hitler  It is doubtful whether the Finnish Government shared this goal, if 
they did, they certainly did not deploy their forces towards that goal.  Based on historical documents, the goal of the Finnish Government is 
the regaining of territory and the reestablishment of good relations with the USSR or whatever government replaced Stalin. Since by agreement 
with Hitler, IT WAS THE FINNS WHO WERE IN CHARGE except in the extreme north, It is NOT up to the WIE Axis player to move and attack as he sees 
fit for the goal of defeating the USSR. 
 
One of  inconsistencies of WIE is that no rational Axis commander wants a static Finnish Front, when in actuality that is precisely what the Finnish Government desired. Except for the fact that it tied up 4 German infantry/mountain divisions and about 20 Soviet rifle divisions, there is little historical justification for even including this front at all, as the Finns made a form of peace with the USSR even as the War in the East was at it height. 
 
In war games such as Third Reich and and the Russian Campain the german corps based in finland sets up opposite Leningrad and attempts to either take the city from the rear, or position itself to provide critically needed extra combat factors to raise the odds of a two pronged assault on the city.  
In the first edition of WitE the Finns tried to gain all the hexes of "old finland" so that the Germans could move into the hex which was prohibited to them and attack Leningrad from the north. In the second edition this historical anomaly was ruled out, and it was made clear that the German's divisions sole use was in operations around Murmansk and then in driving southward along the railroad toward Arkhangelsk.  Thus what we find is that while the Axis Commander in WIE is allowed to move Finnish units, he is only allowed to use them to seize Finnish objectives, which are to retake all of pre-war Finland by their own efforts while not doing anything to break their promise about Leningrad. I would therefore argue that the answer to Steve's question needs to be NO WAY, NO HOW can Finns or Finnish-based Germans help in any way
to initially seize Leningrad. The original WIE rules placed three restrictions on Finnish movement and Combat. Unfortunately, the most historical one is found only in the exclusive War in Europe rules.  Rule 72.1 stated that if the Winter War was fought, then Finnish units could attack only if the Soviet unit was west of the 1942 start-line. It also stated that all other restrictions found in War in the East were also applicable.  In the latest DG rules, 
we find the other restrictions but this one has been lost.  
My suggestion would be to remove the restriction on Finnish movement and replace it with rule 72.1, or some variation. That way the USSR has
to deploy 1-4s to stop the Finnish advance.   The RW Finns actually had specific territorial ambitions and if the poster who discovered those ambitions could somehow mark a CWIE map for us all, it might be possible for Karl to load new Finnish limits into the game system thus making rule 72.1 less of a kludge. 
The other important missing rule is the Lend Lease rule.  In original WitE, the Soviets were deploying Arms Centers at Murmansk to reflect allied lend lease. If Murmansk fell or the rail line was lost, the Arms points were lost.  In BWIE  the Soviets are relying on the Allies for between 1 and 24 Arms points per cycle. If Murmansk is taken or isolated from the East Board edge reduce Lend lease by 25%. Ditto for Arkhangelsk. If both are useless then the reduction is 75%. 
 
BWIE rule [30.9] provides a motive for the Soviets to keep those 16 to 20 units up in the Karelian peninsula rather than Abandoning Murmansk and its railroad to better defend Leningrad.  
-Bob-
> Date: Sun, 14 Oct 2007 12:07:57 +0100> From: sgminfo <sgminfo at aol.com>> Subject: [WarInEur] The thorny question of German participation in> Finland> > As a game is in progress...> > The question has raised itself...> Under what circumstances may the Germans and / or the Finns attack and > seize Lrningrad?> This will be useful, to ensure that the new game obeys peoples' > perceptions, and clears up the rules book on this point...> > -|steve|-> 
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