Mannerheim Salpa

Large Arctic Base
Owner: Earth Sphere Alliance
Location: Arctic
Add-Ons:
- Airfield
- Trenches
- Wall
- Hangar x 12
- Command Center
- Advanced Sensor Array
Mobile Suits (44):
- L2 Aries x 10
- L3 Aries x 8
- L2 Leo x 8
- L3 Leo x 6
- L3 Tragos x 4
- L5 Serpent x 4
- L4 Serpent x 12
Mobile Armors (0):
- None
Defenses:
- Beam Cannon x 14
- Antiaircraft Laser x 28
- Missile Launcher x 22
- Heavy Missile Launcher x 12
- Minefield
Occupants:
None

The Mannerheim Salpa, or “Mannerheim’s Bolt”, is the Alliance’s northern defensive fortification intended to seal off Europe from the threat of Communist invasion by the Human Reform League. The stretched installation totally controls the Karelian peninsula, effectively blocking the possibility of a land invasion of Scandinavia from Asia. The name is derived from the famous Finnish Marshal, Baron Carl G.E. Mannerheim, whose leadership saved Finland from being invaded by the Soviet Union – the Alliance no doubt intending that to serve as a slap in the face to the Human Reform League.

The Salpa consists of the same kind of heavily reinforced emplacements used further south at Warschau, but rather than focusing around a city, they are staggered in layers using natural terrain features to form overlapping fields of death as enemy units attempt to cross hazardous terrain before them. Thick embankments are built in areas of open ground, appearing as little more than a gently sloping hill from the east but shearing off at an abrupt 90-degree angle on the other side, allowing mobile suits to use them for cover and to fire back an at approaching enemy with a relative degree of safety. Alliance soldiers go to great pain to paint and camouflage the blockhouses and bunker complexes, white in winter and green-brown in summer, while growth of natural plant life is stimulated by seemingly-random horticulture to further obscure the lines and change the appearance of areas that might be familiar to enemy forces. The gently rolling hills, dotted lakes and rocky escarpments are literally festooned with mines, which are sometimes cleared by the Alliance and “replanted” in different arrangements.

The Salpa is also highly decentralized – airfields and hardened hangars, positioned a safe distance behind the perimeter lines, stipple the length of the fortification, while individual command centers can take over if another is knocked out. As a result of this, no mobile dolls are stationed there – a Mobile Doll Control System would represent a single important asset that could be easily knocked out. To help compensate, the mobile suit garrison is made up of particularly crack troops.