A group of Karelian volunteers, many of whom were former POW’s, formed Finland’s “Tribal Brigade”. Early on October 3, 1941, units from this group moved cautiously east towards the town of Porajärvi on the Suna River. At 1000 hours, they encountered Soviet troops from the 289th Rifle Division on the main road west of town. The Finnish units scrambled into the woods north of the road, while their cavalry and artillery counterparts moved around the heavier woods toward town. Intense fighting occurred in the woods, but by noon, the Finns had the Soviets units there cleared. Meanwhile, elements of the “northern” Finnish group had reached the bridge north of town and engaged the dug-in Soviet defenders. Both sides continued to reinforce battles in both the west village and on the NW bridge over the Suna. The NW bridge to the town was captured and secured by the Finnish forces at 1300 hours, albeit with the loss of Eversti Lt. Tailikinen, while fighting continued directly west of town. The Soviet troops rallied and provided stiff resistance for a time as they were slowly pushed back from the bridge and, by 1400 hours, a cavalry platoon had also crossed the bridge into town. Two separate fronts, the west village and the NW sector of town, continued for over an hour. Then, Finnish units took the section of town west of the Sanu, but the Soviet troops in the northwest section of the main village continued to hold. The latter line began to crumble around 1600 hours, and the Tribal Brigade moved forward towards central Porajärvi. However, fighting continued back and forth for another two hours with no clear victory for either side before the troops settled in for the night.

This 3-map scenario has VP objectives for both sides that include town hex control and step elimination. All hexes except for towns are woods of some type, ranging from light to dense. The Soviets must set up across all three maps, so they set up as follows: Map 6: INF & HMG in the dense woods adjacent to the north and south sides of the road; Map 12: INF in west village, dug-in on the bridge and in the town, HMG and mortars in town; Map 18: INF and artillery on the road close to Board 12 and ready to move west toward the main town. The Finnish units moved east with a cavalry probe south of the woods, primary force with INF & HMG units along the road, and artillery and INF north of the woods. This was a great scenario with good balance and a lot of tension. After 15 turns or so, the Russians were holding, and it looked for quite a while as though the Finns had no choice of getting anywhere near a victory. Then those lucky dice turned to evil 7’s, and the Finnish morale advantage began to show in assault combat, pushing the Soviets back. Balance was evident in the final VP outcome, with 29 for the Finnish and 28 for the Soviets, which resulted in a draw.