Stalin's Lost Chance

Stalin's Lost Chance: The Soviet Attack on Finland, through Karelia-Ladoga, 1939-1940 depicts the Winter War from 30th November 1939 to 13th March 1940. This is the 9th game in Three Crowns Games WWII Battle Series.

The Finnish defence plan was made on the belief that the Soviet army would target its primary offensive on the Karelian isthmus. An offensive was also expected on the north-western and northern side of Lake Ladoga, where the road network was relatively good. This is the area upon which Stalin’s Lost Chance focuses. Two divisions of the Finnish IV Army Corps were located there. North of Ilomantsi, the entire long eastern frontier was manned only with detached battalions and border companies, when the war broke.

The Soviet Union’s 8th Army, comprising six divisions and a tank brigade, had grouped a division or two on every road up north leading from east to west. Its mission was to execute a flanking manoeuvre around the northern shore of Lake Ladoga to strike at the rear of the Mannerheim Line.

—description from the publisher

The map scale is about 3.7 miles per hex, or about 5.5 kilometres per hex. Turns represent one week. Units are Companies and Battalions for the Finns; Battalions and Regiments for the Soviets. Plus the odd armoured train and more ad-hoc Groups.

—Source: Paul Shackleton, 29 May 2025 [on a BGG thread for Stalin's Lost Chance].