Publisher/Date:
Bounding Fire Productions (2025)
Product Type:
Scenario/Map Pack
Country of Origin:
United States
Contents:
44 scenarios on cardstock, 5 8" x 22" unmounted geoboards (BFP-S, BFP-T, BFP-U, DW-10a, DW-10b), 1 11" x 16" unmounted geoboard (HW-1), 54-page magazine, 26 pages rules, 3 sheets of charts & play aids, 4 die-cut countersheets with 560 1/2" counters and 352 5/8" counters, for a total of 912 counters.
Desperation Morale dreams of some day composing a write-up of a new Bounding Fire Productions product that reads something like, “This pack contains 8 scenarios. They look pretty good. Go buy it.”
Today is not that day. Rather, BFP’s latest release, Mannerheim Cross, looks a lot like most of its products: big and bulky, with a lot of components and a lot of scenarios, the majority of the latter being rather big and bulky as well. Mannerheim Cross has 44 scenarios, 4 countersheets, 6 geoboards, tons of rules, a magazine, and more. It’s the sort of product that requires a box (hint, hint, BFP) rather than the plastic shrink-wrap it comes in. Indeed, for the price purchasers must pay for the product, perhaps it should come in a gold-plated box. BFP is selling Mannerheim Cross for $194(!). It has a ton of contents, but that’s still more than Red Factories, more than Sword and Fire: Manila, more than Slaughter at Ponyri, more than 3rd Edition Beyond Valor, more than Twilight of the Reich, and more than 2nd Edition Croix de Guerre, among other ASL products. As of this writing, it seems to be the second-most expensive ASL product ever released, trailing only the core module Rising Sun, presently priced at $225. At nearly $200, not including shipping, Mannerheim Cross has the sort of price point that makes even well-off ASLers pause and think about whether they really want to hit that “purchase” button. There’s little doubt that, regardless of the quality of the product, there will be ASLers who will pass on Cross, simply because of its price. The “big products for really big prices” issue is one that has marked BFP for years now, but it hasn’t resulted in any changes to their business practices (such as simply splitting a product like this into two smaller and more affordable products).
The one thing Mannerheim Cross possesses to lure more ASLers into committing to its pricy purchase is its subject matter: Finland. For many years, military history buffs have had a love affair with Finland and its two wars (and one pseudo-war) from 1939-1945. The wargaming community has had this same strange fascination, resulting in a flood of wargames involving Finland, including the massive three-game “Finnish Trilogy.” The Finland fixation seems to come primarily from two things: 1) the Finns, primarily because of the poor Soviet performance in 1939-1940, are often perceived by buffs as being superlative warriors; and 2) the “they were kicking Commie butt” attitude. One can compare the number of books in English on the Finns during the Second World War (a generous amount) to the number of works in English on the Romanians during the Second World War (hardly any), despite the fact that the Romanians had a far larger army, fought more than the Finns did, and were more strategically significant. The Finnish fan club is a large one, and it certainly includes many ASLers, which is one reason why the Finns are the only minor country in the Second World War to receive their own official core module, the unspellable and unpronounceable Hakkaa Päälle!, which portrayed the Finns in excruciating detail–although not, it turns out, in excruciatingly enough detail for BFP, thus this product.
Let’s start our examination with the numerous geoboards that come with Mannerheim’s Cross. These include 3 “standard” 8″ x 22″ geoboards (BFP S, BFP T, and BFP U; the world is holding its breath to see what they do after BFP Z), as well as 1 “gary-style” 11″ x 16″ geoboard (HW-1a/b, oddly called a “half-wide” board by BFP), and 2 more “standard” geoboards (DW10-a and DW10-b) that combine to form a larger mega-geoboard. All the boards feature “normal” terrain colors, rather than “winterized” (i.e., snow-covered) terrain (a bit more than half of the scenarios are set in snow conditions, but many also use other boards, official or third party, that are themselves not winterized). The boards generally look good, with artwork of similar quality to that of other recent BFP products, but there are two issues worth noting. Neither is a deal-breaker but both are a little frustrating. The first has to do with an odd inconsistency with some of the woods graphics. In many cases, patches of woods are pretty sharply defined, with the edge of the woods clearly differentiated from surrounding terrain. However, there are other places on the map where the woods outlines appear to have shadows stretching beyond the woods depiction, like the shade of trees. Are such instances actually supposed to be only shadows (and thus ignored for purposes of LOS)? Or are they not supposed to be considered shadows but are intended simply to be part of the woods depiction (thus blocking LOS)? The fact that some woods hexes have this shadow phenomenon and others don’t is what makes things confusing. In some cases, the shadows are pretty faint and it seems unlikely they are intended to be part of the woods depictions, but in other cases it is less clear. It would have been nice if the woods depictions were as sharply distinguished from surrounding terrain as most other terrain types are on these maps (some buildings have shadows, too). The extent of this issue should not be exaggerated, though. In any case, hopefully players won’t find themselves in a situation where they disagree about a woods-related LOS.
The other issue has to do with the cutting of most of the included geoboards, which is slightly off (at least in the copy used for this write-up). What this means is that the hexgrid doesn’t quite make it all the way to one board edge, leaving a sliver of gridless terrain right along that edge. This is most noticeable when two such sides are mated together, producing a combined hexrow each hex of which has two separate distinct white dots (players will have to decide, in such situations, which dot is used for LOS). In the copy used for this write-up, this issue occurs with every geoboard except for DW10-b and HW-1a/b. It is not clear if this is the case generally, i.e., in every copy of the product, or if this slight mis-cut only occurs in some copies. Unlike some mis-cuts in geoboards published by other third party publishers, the mis-cuts here seem small enough that, with the exception of the double row of white dots when two such boards are mated in a particular way, the issue is mostly an aesthetics issue rather than one with a substantial impact on play (for an example of a mis-cut with greater impact, see here). So, a bit disappointing but not a dealbreaker.
What are the boards like? Boards BFP-10a and BFP-10b combine together to make a large section of urban/suburban terrain of light-to-moderate density. There is nothing particularly distinctive about these boards–they resemble a number of other urban boards–except for a long stream that bisects the terrain of the geoboards across their narrow axis. Other than the stream (which could have been an overlay), there’s nothing else that really takes advantage of the combined boards, so they are not that exciting. It is worth noting that these boards contain “Multi-Material Buildings,” the rules for which appear in a different product, Poland in Flames. It is not clear why the rules are not also included in Mannerheim Cross, as it seems a natural (and user-friendly) thing to do.
Board BFP S is an interesting board, featuring a little village nestled in the midst of a forest, a useful addition to the ASL geoboard universe. Most other forest-heavy boards are essentially wilderness boards, or near to it. It is easy to imagine this board being used in a number of scenarios set in the northern realms of the Soviet Union, as well as possibly in some places in the PTO. Kudos to Chas Smith, who came up with the concept. Board BFP U is also a forest board, strongly resembling board 5 (and somewhat resembling board 52), featuring a long road passing through a stretch of forest that changes to more open terrain at one end. The major difference is that the road area is more open, with few roads-woods hexes and open ground hexes occasionally appearing next to the road (think of them as picnic areas and rest stops). It’s useful, given the relative paucity of forest boards, but not groundbreaking.
Board BFP T takes us away from the primordial forests to another type of terrain. This board is dominated by a long, large level-1 hill. The hill itself is substantially covered with orchards, crags, and woods, with two brush hexes also stuck in there somewhere. A long road traverses its length. In the middle of the biggest cluster of orchards is a two-hex “Multi-Material Building.” Off the hill, terrain is more open, though still festooned with woods, brush, and orchards. The board seems like it will be one most designers won’t be able to use very much, as the unusual hill–so large yet so low and flat, and festooned with orchards and crags–just does not seem very compatible with a lot of scenario situations. The building also makes it more difficult to use as a wilderness board, as there are no overlays with level 1 hill hexes as a base (obviously, there should be). A scenario designer would have to cover the building with terrain counters, such as rubble or debris, in order to eliminate the building. The final board, the “gary-style” 11″ x 16″ board, BFP HW-1a/b, also depicts a large hill, mostly level 1, but with a few “peaks” at level 2. It is lightly covered with a few patches of orchards and woods. This board is a wilderness board, with no buildings at all. It can certainly be used in PTO and other wilderness situations, although the board really doesn’t take advantage of what 11″ x 16″ boards offer: wide hills, round hills, L-shaped hills, horseshoe hills, etc. This hill, straight as an arrow, could easily fit on a standard 8″ x 22″ board. It’s an okay board, but seems like a bit of a missed opportunity.
Mannerheim’s Cross also comes with four countersheets: two sheets of 1/2″ counters and two more sheets of 5/8″ counters. Though there are a couple of things one can quibble about, generally the counters are up to the usual high quality standards that BFP has set for itself. It should be noted that the countersheets have pretty strong die-cutting, with the result that counters, especially the 1/2″ counters, can easily detach themselves from their counter-tree if you are not careful. To avoid missing pieces, handle them with care until you’ve ensconced them in your storage system of preference.
The first sheet of 1/2″ counters is a collection of information markers, most of which are not needed specifically for playing Mannerheim Cross but are designed for ASL generally and are “new” in some sense. None of them are explained, so one pretty much has to divine for themselves why or how to use them. Whether or not players will embrace or ignore them is largely a matter of personal taste (and, perhaps, counter storage limits). These counters include 20 “SW First Fire” markers that have “Inherent First Fire” on the reverse side, to help distinguish what has/hasn’t fired for squads with SWs, as well as 20 “ADV Fire” markers with “OPP Fire” on the reverse, for those ASLers who don’t like using the “OPP Fire” sides of Prep Fire counters to mark units that have fired in the Advancing Fire Phase. There are also 40 markers for guns and vehicles to mark “No Smoke,” “No APCR,” etc. These seem different only because they have a color coded corner on them, the purpose of which is not immediately apparent to your Humble Author.
Markers also include 40 vehicular “weapons fired” markers (like “MA Fired,” “BMG Fired,” etc.). These are basically similar to the official markers MMP recently released, except that they are color coded, such that the “MA Fired” marker is red, just like the color of a MA malfunction counter, the “CMG Fired” marker is orange, like the color of a CMG malfunction marker, and so forth. The reverses have various multi-colored combinations of different weapons having been fired, like CMG and BMG both having been fired. The multiple weapons fired counters do save on counter crush, and the color coding makes it easier to distinguish between different types of fired markers (unlike MMP’s equivalents, which are all the same color no matter what weapon and thus harder to distinguish from each other).
There are 10 identical VBM counters, to help indicate where the vehicle is, as well as 10 turret and CE counters that also include a Motion status on them (again, to reduce counter crush). Similarly, there are 10 turret and CE counters that contain inherent Armor Leader stats, so that one does not need both an AL counter and a turret or CE counter. There are also 5 “Motion Failed” markers, to rub in the fact that your AFV failed its motion attempt, and 5 “Hazardous Movement” markers. Additionally, there are six markers designed to indicate Axis/Allied entry areas.
The sheet also includes 30 prisoner counters. Twenty of these are simply leader prisoner counters; this has been done before by other third party publishers. The other 10 include 5 half-squad prisoner counters with crew prisoner counters on the back and 5 counters that seem like normal prisoner counters, unless your Humble Author has missed something. Similarly resurrecting a counter type that other publishers have created in the past, there are 63 red berserk counters for leaders and MMC, as well as a “Berserk Target” marker. Finally (whew), there are 20 “mineroller damaged” and “fascine” counters, the only counters on this sheet that are actually required by Mannerheim Cross.
From past experience with other, similar types of markers, it is safe to say that some ASLers will immediately embrace and use many of these new counters, while others will not find their benefits (like reducing the number of counters in a stack by one) worth the drawbacks of having to store, organize and, when necessary, retrieve and use them. It’s a matter of personal taste.
The other 1/2″ countersheet has a few more fascine and mineroller damaged markers but is primarily a personnel countersheet. It is also the most controversial sheet in the product, because the bulk of the counters consist of new MMC and leader types, as if ASL needed more of these (you can easily see where Desperation Morale falls on this issue). A bit over half of the 280 counters here are new Soviet squad-types (with their corresponding half-squads). These primarily consist of what are called here “Russian Marines,” although the Soviets had no “Marines,” per se. They did have naval infantry and naval rifle units, which were basically just infantry units hastily raised by converting sailors into soldiers. As interpreted by BFP, however, these ordinary troops become something quite different.
BFP’s “Russian Marines” bring 4 (!) new squad types to ASL. Distinguished by an extremely tiny anchor in the upper left-hand corner of the counters (too small for your Humble Author, in his late 50s, to discern without a magnifying glass), these squad types include a 5-5-8 elite squad (which would make it the best Soviet MMC in ASL), a 5-4-7 1st-line squad, a 4-4-7 2nd-line squad (not to be confused with normal 4-4-7 1st-line squads), and a 4-2-7 green squad. Yes, BFP introduces green squads to the Soviets, despite the fact non-democratic nations in ASL are not supposed to have green squads (they have conscripts instead). Also note that the 4-step ELR progression is one step more than any other Soviet squad in ASL. Essentially, these are Soviet supermen. None of this is a good idea.
BFP further introduces another non-standard Soviet squad type, the 4-3-7 2nd-line squad. No justification for introducing this squad type is offered here, but BFP previously included this squad type in its Poland in Flames and tried to justify it there. Readers are referred to that write-up for Desperation Morale’s scathing take on that justification; it need not be repeated here except to say that this squad type works directly against a key design intent of ASL’s representation of the Red Army.
BFP also includes some 4-5-8 and 6-2-8 Soviet assault engineer squads, although these are inferior to MMP’s similar squads because the assault engineer satchel icon is so tiny and also (on the full-squad counters) touches the figure artwork, making it hard to distinguish from that artwork. Finally, BFP includes a bunch of Soviet leader and armor leader counters, including a number of unnecessary and annoying new leader types, several of which will easily be mistaken for commissars.
The countersheet has certainly not forgotten the Finnish. They get their own assault engineer squads (though they did not really have assault engineers), plus “Anti-Tank Heroes” that make Tank-Hunter Heroes look like pussies, and a bunch of Finnish leaders and armor leaders, including new Finnish leader types like 10-2 and 9-2 leaders which directly undermine the Finnish design philosophy of ASL. They also get a few new SW counters.
Overall, this countersheet is a hot mess.
The first 5/8″ countersheet consists entirely of Soviet guns, AFVs, and planes. There are nearly 40 model-specific plane counters, for those air aficionados playing this ground-centric game (your Humble Author doesn’t typically use the model-specific planes provided by some third party publishers, finding them not worth the bother, and simply substitutes an official ASL plane counter instead, but your tastes may differ). There are 14 guns, which are mostly duplicates of guns already in official ASL. And there are over 120 Soviet AFVs (plus 10 more Soviet AFVs on the fourth countersheet). It is here that the BFP counters are most useful, primarily portraying a variety of early war Soviet vehicles used during the Winter War. It should be noted that the scenarios of Mannerheim Cross also use a large number of other BFP-portrayed AFVs that only appear in other BFP products: Poland in Flames, Crucible of Steel, and Onslaught to Orsha 2.
New vehicles introduced here include several types of early flamethrowing tanks, up-armored versions of other tanks, some early war tanks with radios, various mine-rolling and bridge-laying tanks, and a number of variants of the massive T-28 tank, among others. Almost all of these, understandably, were produced in low or very low numbers, but they generally appear more justifiable for inclusion than some of the AFVs introduced by MMP in Hakkaa Päälle! The only real drawback these new Soviet AFV counters have are the extensive rules for the mine-rolling vehicles.
The final countersheet, also a 5/8″ countersheet, features a bunch of model-specific Finnish planes (again, if that’s your thing, de gustibus), a large number of Finnish guns, including captured Soviet guns, as well as some rare Finnish artillery pieces that are unlikely ever to see play (because, for example, they were used for coastal defense), and 24 Finnish AFVs, mostly representing captured Soviet AFVs. There are also some markers, such as Drift markers, and Russian Vehicle Barges (which just barge in everywhere), plus two fortification counter types that are interesting but also provide some headaches. The first of these is the “A-T Boulder,” which consists of large rocks put in place by the Finns to thwart Soviet AFVs. This fortification counter comes with two full pages of rules, too much for whatever value they may add; one has to wonder why scenario designers could not simply use Roadblock, Debris, or Rubble counters instead, based on the specific situation.
The other type of fortification is the “Fortified Pillbox,” which is sort of a super-duper fortified construction used in the Mannerheim Line, represented by pillbox-like counters with values such as 3+6+8 (!). This also requires two full pages of rules, and the article on them in the accompanying magazine makes them seem so involved and complicated that your Humble Author peed a little in fright when reading it. While this might seem like Desperation Morale is going to come down against these counters, that’s not actually the case. The fact is that official ASL does not have anything that represents some of the extravagant fortifications featured in long-prepared heavily fortified defense lines such as the Mannerheim Line or the Maginot Line. A basic pillbox just doesn’t cut it. So there is legitimate justification for trying to simulate some of the larger and more formidable fortifications that existed in lines such as these. But it certainly is complex fare, and that is one of the reasons why Desperation Morale has given Mannerheim Cross an “advanced” tag. It is not for the faint of heart.
These countersheets are accompanied by 26 pages of rules explaining and elaborating on them, printed on flimsy glossy hole-punched paper in the traditional BFP style. Many players will enjoy reading the extensive vehicle and ordnance notes that make of most of the rules. It should be said, though, that for the high price people must pay for Mannerheim Cross, they deserve to get rules on more durable paper than provided here. In lieu of this, Desperation Morale recommends that players either 1) put the rule pages in page protectors, because they would not last long in a three-ring binder without one; or 2) photocopy or scan the rules pages in order to use them electronically or to print them out on higher-quality paper. Mannerheim Cross also comes with two Fortified Pillbox Player Aids, which essentially allow you to keep the contents of Fortified Pillboxes on an off-board display, plus a large fold-out set of charts, the most generally useful of which is a large “Winter Weather” chart that details the effects of different types of winter weather for different terrain types and other rules sections. It can be quite useful, although much of the print is small, and players might want to make an enlarged version for themselves. Unsurprisingly, it also has extensive information on the Fortified Pillboxes and AT Boulders.
As has been BFP’s wont in recent years, they have included a magazine with Mannerheim Cross, 54 pages long, lavishly illustrated, and printed on thin, glossy color paper. It has no table of contents, but contains designer’s notes for the product, an article on Finnish national capabilities and some of the rules from Hakkaa Päälle!, a nice article analyzing winter weather, a historical piece on Molotov cocktails and a separate article on Molotov cocktails in ASL. The bulk of the magazine, though, consists of a lengthy and involved article that primarily deals with the Fortified Pillboxes and AT Boulders introduced in the game. It drives home how complicated they can be. Desperation Morale has taken a dim view of BFP’s “in-game” magazines in the past, but this particular publication complements the product quite well, so no complaints here.
So that about wraps it up, folks, this has been a–oh, wait, there are scenarios in this product, too, aren’t there. Well, okay, let’s take a look!
Mannerheim Cross comes with 44 scenarios, which is an awful lot, but not atypical for this sort of BFP product. It might be a matter of concern for some other publishers–because it raises the question of whether or not so large a number of scenarios could be adequately playtested–but BFP scenarios have a pretty decent record for balance (borne out by ROAR results). As this product has only been out for a couple of months, as of this writing, there’s not a lot of player data to go on, but the odds are decent that Mannerheim Cross will eventually accrue its own good record.
First, to play all the scenarios in Mannerheim Cross, you’ll need a lot of stuff, including most non-HASL products BFP has published (for counters, rules, and maps). In terms of geoboards, the following boards are required (including those that come with the product): Official geoboards 34, 37, 42, 57, 62, 67, 69, 73, 74, 75, 85, 1a/b, 2a/b, 7a/b, 10a/b, 11a/b, 14a/b, as well as ASLSK boards n and o; BFP boards BFP A, BFP B, BFP Q, BFP R, BFP S, BFP T, BFP U, DW1-a, DW1-b, DW6a, DW6b, DW8-a, DW8-b, DW10-a, DW10-b, and HW-1a/b; and Le Franc Tireur board LFT1 from Le Franc Tireur #11.
As for the scenarios themselves, one can characterize them as quite typical for a Bounding Fire Productions product. BFP releases are predictable in their nature, and Mannerheim Cross is no exception. With a typical BFP non-HASL release, one can expect a large number of scenarios, with most of those actions being large or very large in size, and assaults against fortified lines common. With a typical BFP release, one can expect extremely straightforward SSRs that do nothing beyond establishing basic scenario parameters, with nary a “flavor” rule in sight. One can expect relatively simple, straightforward victory conditions, and set up and reinforcement instructions that are very simple, even simplistic. This all happens to be true for Mannerheim Cross. The great majority of scenarios were designed by BFP head honcho Chas Smith, with Brian Martuzas also contributing a significant number. David Roth, David Lamb, Robert Hammond and Gene Thompson also made contributions. Twenty of the 44 scenarios included depict actions from the 1939-1940 Winter War, when the Soviet Union invaded Finland, winning a victory after an embarrassing beginning. Another 23 scenarios depict actions from 1941 to 1944, during what Finns refer to as “the Continuation War” and others may think of as “when the Finns allied with the Nazis.” The 1941-1942 scenarios from this batch are the ones least likely to feature a large number of fortifications. Finally, a single scenario depicts an action from the so-called “Lapland War,” a pseudo-war between the Finns and the Germans in 1944-45 in which the Finns ostensibly fought to evict German forces from their territory following their second surrender to the Soviet Union, but which in reality was largely a play-acting war.
Almost all of the scenarios–40 of 44, an overwhelming proportion, are large or very large/huge in size, although in some of these scenarios one side may have a large force and the other side (typically the Finns) may have a much smaller force. Only two scenarios can be considered small and two more medium-sized. About a third of the scenarios feature extensive fortifications, with 10 of those having Fortified Pillboxes and/or AT Boulders. A quarter of the scenarios have OBA, while 7 scenarios have Air Support. No scenarios use Night rules. One scenario, BFP189 (Blood on the Shores), is a Seaborne Assault. Soviet amphibious actions are always interesting (not least because historically they probably had the highest percentage of failed amphibious operations of all the combatants).
Because none of the scenarios have “flavor” rules (SSRs designed to capture a unique and interesting element of the action being portrayed; see example below), because some of the scenario situations are fairly similar, and because a number of boards are repeatedly used (HW-1a/b, for example, is the sole board used in 3 scenarios and appears along with other boards in 4 more scenarios), Mannerheim Cross may not appear to have the variety that a product with 44 scenarios would suggest. This does not take anything away from the quality of any of the individual scenarios, but it does mean that players may not wish to play a number of scenarios from this pack in a row, but rather might more fruitfully intersperse them with playings of scenarios from other ASL releases.
Flavor rule example from J21 (Scobie Preserves).
And, at last, we get to the end. After reading this paragraph, you can finally go to bed. Here’s the bottom line: Mannerheim Line, with its narrow focus on the Finns, is rather a niche product, although that niche is one that a lot of wargamers find interesting. But if MMP’s Hakkaa Päälle! didn’t get your blood flowing, this product definitely won’t. It’s also an expensive product that requires the possession of a number of other expensive BFP products to play, to say nothing of official ASL products. So this product is admittedly not for everybody. The production values are generally high, although the geoboard cutting was not up to par. The research was impressive, and fans of obscure AFVs are likely to want to take for a ride many of the vehicles provided here. Some design decisions are admittedly questionable (especially the inclusion of multiple new squad and leader types). A multitude of scenarios are provided, and they are likely to be well-balanced, although the lack of flavor SSRs give many of them a certain sameness. BFP’s Blood and Jungle, in contrast, provided a much wider variety of scenarios–although the scope of that product was also far larger. For those interested in the subject matter and with the money to spare, Mannerheim Line is likely to provide a lot of play value.
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