by RockyMountainNavy, 18 February 2021 ~ #UnboxingDay
When Multi-Man Publishing announced they had “found” some older titles in their warehouse, I jumped at the chance to expand my Standard Combat Series (SCS) collection with the purchase of Karelia ’44: The Last Campaign of the Continuation War (2011).
Karelia ’44 ships in a standard 1.5″ deep box. Game design is by Ken Jacobsen with graphics by Dean Essig. Interestingly, Mikael Gronroos is credited with the Finnish Language Map Proofing.
From the Karelia ’44 Introduction:
Karelia ’44 is an operational level game that focuses on the last major campaign of the Russo-Finnish Continuation War (25 June 41 – 4 Sept 44). STAVKA planned an offensive during the summer of 1944 to coincide with he Normandy landings. The objective was to force Finland out of the war. Towards this end, the Soviets amassed two ground armies, one air army and an impressive amount of artillery. Confident after a series of victories against the Germans, the Red Army attacked in Karelia on 9 June 44, with an overwhelming artillery barrage (second only to the Oder crossings in density). Finnish lines were pushed back and then breached, the race for Viipuri/Vyborg was on. The capture of this city would open the road to Helsinki.
click images to enlarge
Karelia ’44 is a very, uh, standard edition of what one expects in a SCS game from Multi-Man Publishing. There is a set of Series Rules (v1.7 shipped with my copy but v1.8 is available on the MMP website), Game Rules (8 pages), 280 1/2″ counters, a 22″x34″ map sheet with useful tables or tracks around the edges, and two dice.
Like all SCS games, there is a special rule to capture some thematic flavor of the campaign portrayed. In Karelia ’44 the special rule is 2.1 “The Boss’s Patience” for the Soviets. This rule, intended to portray pressure from Stalin, leads to a variable game length. If the Soviet player doesn’t manage the Boss correctly they may find the campaign ending before they are victorious!
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