Summa attending

17th of December, 1939

Summa village

Strong Soviet artillery fire pulverizes Finnish positions throughout the day. Medium and heavy howitzers pound at the few concrete bunkers of the defensive line. Lighter entrenchments, built mostly out of wood and earth, shatter under the weight of fire. The shellfire makes it difficult to sleep, and some men never wake, buried alive where they lay by heavy artillery.

Troops of the 17th Infantry Regiment hold at their posts, clinging to their trenches and log bunkers for security. Lone sentries peer into the front of the defense area with periscopes and binoculars, braving the fierce storm of fragmentation at great cost to their own number.

Finally, the artillery fire lifts, revealing the advance battalions of the Soviet 100th rifle division moving forward all across the front. The battle that had so far involved small platoon sized reconnaissance actions is about to culminate into a bloodbath.

In this event, both the Soviet and Finnish sides are represented by players. The attacking Soviet force is an infantry company supported by a machine gun platoon and a tank platoon. The defending side is a Finnish infantry platoon, supported by a single anti-tank team.

The battle area is a sliver of the actual terrain in the Summa defense sector and each faction is supported by a small quantity of tickets to simulate the trickle of reinforcements into the ongoing fight.