Over the recent leap-day weekend (28 Feb - 1 Mar) GR/D held a company meeting in Dallas, Texas.

After dinner that Saturday night, Victor Hauser and I were able to square off for a few face-to-face turns of GR/D's upcoming release, A Winter War. Following is an update on the progress of the game's design and development and a short report of the events from our enthusiastic, but crudely played playtest.

The task of final development of the game has been assumed by Arthur Goodwin, noted Europa cartographer and player. This assignment is an especially good fit since Arthur has concentrated a good deal of his own research efforts to this campaign in the past, and is an expert on the subject matter. Furthermore, it allows me to devote full attention to assisting John Astell with the completion of Second Front.

The final playtest order of battle for the game has been made very Europa-compatible. The Finnish divisions are now rated at 4-5-6 and 3-4-6* and many "ants" have been consolidated.

The game has the same "feel", however, as the earlier test versions. The map has been finalized and the final counter mix is almost done. The rules are being brought up to the standards present in First to Fight. The game will include the continuation war counters and a complete 1939-44 OB for the Finns. If there is room in the counter mix, the complete order of battle for the Baltic States will also be presented. GR/D is trying to keep the counter mix down to one large sheet, however.

Since Arthur had brought the final draft versions of the rules, maps, and counters along to Dallas with him, we were able to play the latest draft version of the game. Based on this playing, things are coming along very nicely-in short, we had a blast!

As the Soviet player I found myself facing the expected strong defense (the Mannerheim Line) north of Leningrad. However, Victor surprised everyone when he chose to draw up his initial defensive line forward of the Mannerheim Line and right along the Soviet-Finnish border.

Time was against me and so I was forced to attack at odds such as 3:1 (-2) and 2:1 (-1). Initially I was fairly lucky and managed to roll the die well enough to force the brash Finns off the border and then penetrate both ends of the Mannerheim Line.

The Soviets possess by far the stronger army, but have difficulty bringing it effectively to bear. This is simulated by only allowing the Soviets to stack using mountain stacking limits (two divisions, two non- divisionals, and one artillery). In the air, the VVS has complete air superiority, but Victor used his one available fighter group bravely, and shot down three of my fighters before we laid his Finnish pilots low.

We both made our share of first game mistakes. (For example, I didn't realize that I would later need to convert my NKVD border regiments into NKVD political troops and so promptly flew them all off into the Arctic wastes. When the time came to convert them I felt pretty silly, as they are badly needed to allow bold Soviet advances into tight spots along the Mannerheim Line.

There are a number of interesting terrain changes to the maps. For instance, there is a string of islands just west of Kronshtadt which the Russians may attempt to island- hop across.

There is also an ice-free port just west of Tallinn which the Soviets can use throughout the winter to threaten an invasion at Hango. I didn't realize this, however, and so my fleet was frozen in at Kronshtadt.

When Victor saw my fleet sitting idle in K-town he moved his two battle- gunboats (or whatever they will be called) into Viipuri where they proceeded to give me fits for the rest of the game. These units have a primary fire strength of 2 and secondary strength of 4. The two ships give the Finns a 6-point add-on near Viipuri, and so I ended up making my main effort at the other end of the line to avoid them.

Another interesting chrome rule involves a hydroelectric plant in Karelia such that throughout the winter the lake hexsides 0530/0630 and 0531/0631 (using corresponding SE map numbers) don't freeze. How can I bomb that place to shut it down, Gary?

Despite all my sad learning experiences the Russians were able to eventually grind the Finns down north of Lake Ladoga and were verging on breaking through into the rear of the Mannerheim Line, but play was halted at the end of January 1940 when John Astell threw us out of his room at 1:30 in the morning.

It should be noted, however, that we didn't even pull the game out until after 9:00 PM, and so it proved to be an extremely easy-to-learn, fast-playing, and high-action game. There weren't many attacks each turn, but when one of your attacks is a 3:1 (-2) involving the cream of your army, things stay exciting.

As the game goes on, the Soviets are allowed to use normal stacking in a gradually increasing number of hexes, reflecting Soviet experience and improved command control. The Finns are a tough lot though, and inflict many casualties, as befits their mettle as shown in the actual historical campaign.

It looks like the game's designer, Gary Stagliano, has come up with a real winner here. To arms against tyranny!