The Soviet-Finnish war lasted from November 30th 1939 to March 13th 1940: only 15 weeks, or 7 turns at Europa scale. Not a long war, but a war with important consequences. On the Finnish side, the war ended with the loss of Karelia and Finland's second city, Viipuri, as well as territory in the Arctic. The lost territories contained 12% of the pre-war population of Finland, almost all of which was evacuated before the Russians moved in. The Soviet occupation of Hanko (Hango) was particularly irksome to the Finns, as this was their principal port in severe winters, when both Helsinki and Turku were frozen in. The Finns were therefore receptive to the German invitation to join in their attack on the Soviet Union less than 16 months later.

We do not know how many casualties the Soviets suffered in this short war. Officially, the Soviets admitted to 48,000 killed and 158,000 wounded (many with frostbite). Nikita Khrushchev believed the Red Army had lost close to a million dead. The Soviets also lost 2300 armored vehicles and more than 700 aircraft, against an opponent that began the war with only 30 light tanks and 48 fighters. With its weaknesses and deficiencies exposed, the Soviets moved to reform the Red army and air force. If they had not done so, the Germans might have reached Leningrad or Moscow in 1941, and the course of World War II might have been very different. The Germans reached the same conclusions about the state of the Red army, but drastically underestimated the Russians' capacity to learn from their mistakes. In fact, it might not be going too far out on a limb to speculate that the Winter War led the German High Command to believe that the Soviets could be defeated in a single, short campaign.

A review of a game in the Europa series contains a dimension not found in other reviews. The reviewer must not only consider the single game, but how the game fits within the entire series. This includes such questions as "are maps and counters compatible?", and "are there any changes which will effect the whole series?". So, with this in mind, here goes.

The Game Components: Counters

The counters are well printed and in interesting colours. Along with the Finns, Soviet army, air force, and NKVD units, there are counters for the "Finnish National Army" in Soviet foreign contingent colours, the British and French expeditionary forces that might have been sent to Scandinavia, foreign volunteers (mostly Swedish) fighting for the Finns, and the entire force pools of the three Baltic republics: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.

There are some problems with the colours of these counters. The Soviet brown has a lot of red in it. In fact, this colour is closer to the orange used for the Greeks in Balkan Front . The Soviet air units, being a lighter shade of this "brown," have come out as a kind of peach. Even worse, the Soviet navy units are in the same colour as the air units, instead of that attractive dark red used in Fire in the East. The British brown is reasonably close to that used in other games, but the French blue has become an interesting shade of blue-gray (slate?). Now, if one considers A Winter War (AWW) in isolation, it really doesn't matter what colours the counters are. But, as I mentioned before, this game is part of a series with standardized rules, maps, and counters. Further, it raises questions about GR/D's quality control procedures. More on this later.

Colour aside, the countersheets include some interesting units. The Soviets have a supported 0-3-0 "fortified area" unit that is placed just north of Leningrad. This unit can be traded in for a 0-1-0, releasing a 1-2-6 machine gun brigade to the field army. The Soviets have an engineer tank regiment, and a single 9-6 artillery division, which may be the most important unit they have. There are three parachute infantry brigades available to the Soviets.

An optional rule allows these to be exchanged for parachute brigades, which could be air-dropped or air-landed by the three Soviet transports. The NKVD units sport the new unit symbols: no more `Bdr" or "NKVD" inside the boxes. I notice that the NKVD police units (also known as "advance, comrade, or else!" units) are not motorized. One wonders if this will carry over to FitE/SE .

The Finnish units are no big surprise: infantry and ski units, with a couple of artillery regiments. The weaker (3-4-6) infantry divisions have "supported" dots, indicating that they do not support units stacked with them. A 0-6 light armored battalion represents the famous 30 Vickers light tanks. There are two construction regiments and a RR engineer, just in case the Finns should want to build anything. The Finns also have what is possibly Europa's weakest artillery unit: a 0-1-0 battalion. There are also nine real and three dummy partisan units: just the thing for cutting off advancing Soviet columns. A first for this game is Europa's only British ski unit: a battalion of the Scots Guards. Wouldn't it be rather chilly skiing in kilts? The trend in Europa air units seems to be in the direction of more precise distinctions between aircraft. Where Scorched Earth had SB-2's and 1-16's, AWW has SB-2bis, I-16/tlO, I-16/t17, and I-16/t18. Most of the differences are minor, but there are changes to some of the ratings on the air units.

Overall, the counters look fine. There is a problem with the colour, as there was in Balkan Front , but if these units aren't going to be mixed with other Europa counters, who cares?

The Map

Finland is a creation of the Ice Age. When the ice melted, it left an enormous amount of water behind. The ice also planed and scoured the land, so that most of Finland is pretty flat. All of that water on a flat surface means lots of lakes and swamps. And since the glaciers removed most of the soil, bedrock is often exposed at the surface. The end result is the same kind of country as you would see in many parts of the Canadian Shield: low rock ridges, with deep muskeg swamps or lakes between them, covered by an endless forest of pine trees. Very pretty to look at, or canoe through, but very difficult to build roads in. The Finns made full use of the defensive potential of their country: the lack of roads and profusion of lakes and swamps channeled the Soviet advance along a few predictable axes. Granite boulders left behind by the ice sheet were bulldozed into position to serve as antitank obstacles. Trees were felled ahead of and behind Soviet columns, cutting the columns into isolated and immobile pockets. It took the Soviet army a lot of time and lives to figure out how to advance over such terrain, even with huge numerical superiority.

Europa map #35 has been centered differently than the other maps of the series, so that almost all of Finland fits on one map. This is much better than having four maps to play on, with the overlapping sections lying just where all those big stacks of Soviets have to go. The map is of the "collector series" format, and has some finer terrain distinctions than the old style. There are now no less than sixty terrain types and map features listed on the master key, of which about 35 appear on map r #35. At this rate of increase, the terrain key is going to require a second page. New terrain types include "wooded swamp" and "perma-frosted tundra." Surprisingly, there is no tundra on map #35! I checked maps #28 and #31 from The Urals, and couldn't find any there, either. Perhaps it will show up on the eagerly awaited map of Iceland? Wooded swamp, on the other hand, is all over the place. It has the same combat modifier and movement costs as wooded intermittent lake, which leads me to wonder just what is the difference between these two leafy and soggy bits of terrain? Perhaps wooded intermittent lakes dry up in the summer, while wooded swamps don't? In any case, the distinction is irrelevant in AWW, since everything is frozen solid for the duration of the game. Well, not quite everything: map #35 is the first to show the limits of sea ice. The Gulf of Bothnia is frozen over throughout the game. The Gulf of Finland is open water for the first turn and a half, and then freezes except for a narrow corridor at the entrance to the gulf. Purists may dislike the printing of a "weather effect" permanently on the map, but this is a far easier way of describing which sea hexes are frozen than trying to follow a couple of paragraphs of rules.

It should be no surprise that map #35 has some changes from the terrain shown in earlier maps (#1B, #2A, #5B and #6A). There are more lakes and rivers shown, some clear terrain has become wooded, intermittent lake, or both, and there are now three levels of transportation lines. There are now nine roads or rail lines that cross the border, instead of the six on the old maps. Given the winter weather and supply lines, however, the Soviets can't really make use of these new routes. Some new offshore islands have appeared, including the host of rocks and islets west of Turku. (Get a good atlas or a map of Finland and take a look at this area: there are hundreds, if not thousands of islands here. It's the sort of place that gives map makers fits as they try to represent tiny bits of land accurately, without going blind.) Finally, several Finnish reference cities have been downgraded to point cities, and so lose their air base capacity.

There are some problems with the map. There are a handful of minor printing errors, which are listed on an errata slip. The minor terrain errors are no problem. More seriously, the island and fortress of Kronshtadt is missing, and so is the Soviet-Finnish border north of Leningrad. While it is easy enough to ink in these omissions (use white-out for Kronshtadt), such an egregious error leads me to wonder about GR/D's quality control. My other complaint is about the very faint lettering used for hex numbers. On darker terrain features, especially lakes, forest, and open sea, the numbers are almost completely unreadable. In other parts of Europe, with more clear terrain, this wouldn't matter, but there are only about 80 hexes of clear terrain on the entire map, out of about 1700 hexes. This makes it hard to find hexes, especially when playing by mail.

To sum up, this is an attractive, complicated map that does a good job of representing a complicated piece of geography. It's too bad about the omission of Kronshtadt and the border. Someone should have spotted that. I am also concerned about the proliferation of new terrain types. How many will Grand Europa have, and how am I going to be able to remember them all?

The Charts

The charts (and the OBs) are excellent. There are two copies of each of the terrain effects, combat results, unit identification, sequence of play, construction/demolition costs, and so on. Charts are provided for each side for corps stacking and breakdowns, and space is made for smaller tables such as air patrol zones, supply line lengths, and Finnish woodsmanship. The combat results, terrain effects, construction costs, and supply line charts all assume snow weather: thus players do not have to remember the changes to each of these tables in snow, and make mental adjustments to a clear weather table.

The Rules

Recent Europa rules booklets (AWW, Balkan Front , First to Fight) have uniformly been of very high quality, benefiting from years of revision and debate within the Europa community. Rather than go through the rule book section by section, I'd like to concentrate on those rules that are specific to this game, some of which may have wider applications in other Eumpa titles.

Frozen Hexsides: There are now four different kinds of water hexsides that can be crossed when frozen. Rivers and canals, when frozen, have no effect on movement or combat. (Note that the Vuoksa River, which runs from Lake Saimaa to Ladoga, is the only unfrozen river on the map, due to the hydro plant at Imatra.) Frozen lakes cost an extra 1, 2, or 3 MPs (ski, other, mot/art) to cross, and quarter attackers except for artillery. Frozen narrow strait hexsides, across lakes or between coastal hexsides, are much easier, only costing one MP for non-ski units. Attackers, except artillery, are halved.

Finally, frozen sea hexes, between coastal hexes (or islands) can be crossed by non-motorized/artillery units at a cost of 3 MPs (2 MPs for ski units). As with frozen lakes, attackers are quartered. All of this sounds complicated, but it is actually an elegant solution to the "sea ice question." On the Eastern Front, attacks were made across frozen lakes and bays. The high movement penalties reflect the scouting for ice thickness (and mines!) that would have preceded any major attack. The halving or quartering of non-artillery units reflects the lack of cover to be found on a flat, uniform surface. I like it.

What does this mean for the game? Mostly it means that the Finnish player will have to guard his flanks. Hex 4613 can now be attacked from 4713, 4518 can be attacked from across Viipuri bay, and 4313 can be attacked from the eastern side of Ladoga via Valamo Island. Another Soviet ploy is to "island hop" right across the Gulf of Finland, via Lavan, Tytar, and Suur to Kotka with a couple of infantry divisions. The Soviets can't start this until their January I turn, after the Gulf freezes, but could be in a position to attack Kotka on the March I turn.

Naval Rules: I was quite disappointed by the naval rules in AWW. Although the Soviets have the two battleships and two cruisers of the Baltic fleet, and a destroyer flotilla in Murmansk, none of these units are allowed to move. Their only capabilities are AA for the hex they are based in, and gunfire support in adjacent hexes (within two hexes for primary guns). This doesn't really have any effect on the game. The two Finnish coastal defense ships in Helsinki are just targets for the Soviet air force. The destroyer flotilla in Murmansk, although not frozen in, is only allowed to carry supply to Petsamo, after the port has been occupied. Now, there are two turns at the beginning of the game when the Soviets might have tried an amphibious landing in the Gulf of Finland or on the Aland Islands. The stated reason why this is not allowed is "Soviet reluctance to tackle the extensive Finnish coastal defenses." I would have preferred a game where I could find this out for myself. In Arthur Goodwin's Northern Theatre of Operations, there are a couple of dozen coastal defense artillery units protecting the Finnish sea and lake coasts. These must be eliminated by naval gunfire or bombing before a landing can take place in their hex. Since several of the coastal defense artillery units have gunnery factors comparable to a battleship, and can usually absorb more hits than a battleship, these units are quite formidable. GR/D might have thought that the extra counter sheet required for a few dozen extra units that don't even move was not worth the expense. But the AWW box already contains another solution: a coast defenses chart, for use with Grand Europa . This has intrinsic coast defense strengths for the Baltic and Ladoga coasts (and the Aland Islands), and a naval gunnery CRT. The next time I play AWW, I intend to incorporate this chart and table to see what would have happened if the Soviets had tried amphibious landings early in the war. To sum up: GR/D had an opportunity here to construct a miniature naval game. All the ingredients are here, and such operations that would be mounted, although limited in size and duration, could be used to try out amphibious rules for other games. Doesn't the Gulf of Finland remind you, just a little bit, of the English Channel?

Reduced Stacking Corps Counters: These are possibly the best innovation in the game. Rather than just being a device to reduce counter clutter, these corps markers have two sides. Originally, all Soviet units are subject to reduced stacking, "two, two, and one," rather than the usual "three, three, and two." This reflects Soviet disorganization, political interference in tactical operations, and the lack of good senior commanders after the purges of the 1930's. In game terms, the maximum strength of a Soviet stack is cut from a possible 31 or 33 attack factors to only 20 or 24 (the larger numbers are due to the arrival of the single artillery division).

As the Winter War continued, the Soviets removed incompetent commanders and reduced the power of the army commissars, allowing the field commanders more freedom of action. Starting in the January I turn, one corps counter per turn can be flipped to its regular stacking side. In the March I turn this becomes two counters per turn, so that by the end of the game there will be a total of ten regular stacks. In AWW, reduced stacking saves the Mannerheim Line from being cracked in the first few turns. In other games, reduced stacking could be used to simulate the command and control problems of other nations.

Playing the Game

Victory in AWW is mostly dependent upon the capture of cities. Even point cities are worth 5 VPs each, and there are fourteen of these within relatively easy reach of the border. Viipuri is worth another 20 VPs, and bombing the ports of Helsinki and Turku, or the Tampere factory can garner some more. The Finns receive VPs for killing air units, or killing or isolating Soviet divisions. The Soviet player thus trades blood for land, while the Finnish player has to delay, fall back, and delay again.

In playing and analyzing AWW, I have found that the game generally recreates history. The Soviet attack, apart from minor skirmishes, is channeled into the isthmus towards Viipuri and along the Petrozavodsk-Viipuri railway. The chief constraint to the Soviet advance in the isthmus is the lack of regular stacking. As described above, the maximum Soviet stack for the first two turns of the game is only 20 attack factors. The Finns will be defending the isthmus initially with between 43 and 53 defense factors, spread over the five hexes of the Mannerheim Line. This consists of a line of fort counters in hexes that are woods or wooded intermittent lake, for a combat modifier of -2 for all hexes (not considering engineer modifiers).

At the eastern end of the line, hex 4613 can only be attacked across a lake hexside from 4713, and across the unfrozen Vuoksa River from 4714. This means that only about 20 attack factors could be brought to bear on this hex. The next hexside, 4614, faces south across an unfrozen lake, crossed by a rail line. A "bridged strait" halves all non-artillery attacking units, so a maximum of only 17 attack factors can be used here. The western part of the line is more vulnerable, especially 4717, which can be attacked from two adjacent hexes and is in range of the battleships at Kronshtadt. The Soviet air units, with their bombing factors halved in the snow, can contribute four factors more. So what do the Finns do? Well, with 62 defense factors spread over those five hexes, the Finns could limit the Soviets to odds of 2:1 (-2). But, they only have a maximum possible 53 factors on the first turn.

The Finns must therefore spend the first turn or two preventing the Soviets from moving into attack positions, by putting overrun-proof stacks in front of-die line and hoping for DRs. Note that Finnish ski units can retreat before combat. If the Finns cannot preserve enough factors for the line, and the Soviets can arrange a 3:1, the situation becomes a bit tense. Even if a hex should fall, however, the Soviets might not want to occupy it, since their spearhead might be surrounded in the event of a counterattack. The Finn's position is ultimately hopeless, with the increased stacking gradually allowing the masses of reinforcements to pile up against the line, but the Soviets are playing against the clock: the game is only seven turns long.

Instead of bludgeoning their way through the Mannerheim, what about a more elegant approach? The only other rail line (a low-volume one) to cross the border does so northeast of Lake Ladoga. The constraint on the Soviets here is the length of their supply line. Low volume rail lines can only be used as seven hexes of a supply line, while roads stretch this another four hexes. With four hexes overland, this means that a Soviet supply line from Petrozavodsk only stretches a total of fifteen hexes, or to about 4415 or Joensuu. If the advance through Karelia ever reaches 4415, of course, the Mannerheim Line will have long since been evacuated. The Finns could attempt to set up a line northwest of Viipuri, but the narrow straits across Viipuri Bay and Lakes Saimaa and Pihlaja make the flanks of this position rather soft. (Note to prospective Finnish players: keep the map well illuminated. Those crossing symbols are hard to see!)

With the Finns committing most of their army to the Mannerheim, the Soviets will only have to face about 12 factors or so in this sector, plus the annoying ski-partisans. If the Soviet player advances cautiously, guarding his flanks and his supply line, he will make slow but steady progress. But, as I mentioned above, he is playing against the clock. It would take four of the seven game turns for the Soviet infantry to reach the limit of their supply lines, even without Finnish interference. And it is to the Finns' advantage to do just that. The tactical advantages of winterization and Finnish woodsmanship are used during Finnish attacks only.

The great "what if?" of the Winter War is the possibility of Western intervention. With hindsight, such intervention would probably have been disastrous. Even if the immediate military outcome of a Scandinavian expedition had been in the Allies favour, it would have meant alienating the Soviets only 18 months before they were to join the Allies. Stalin was not known for his ability to forgive and forget. Anyway, intervention is unlikely: with a twodice roll of "three" required, and only seven chances to roll each game, this will statistically occur in only 39% of games played. Intervention may occur too late to reach the Finns: the Allies land at Narvik, ask the Norwegians to let them through to Sweden, and then ask the Swedes to let them through to Finland. Since there is less than a 6% chance of both nations allowing passage, the Allies will usually have to leave garrisons behind them to keep open the line to Narvik. This uses up about 40% of the expeditionary force, leaving only about 30 attack factors to actually aid the Finns. Aggravating the Swedes also has the effect of cutting off Swedish aid, which includes four air units and two 3-8 brigades.

Summary

I like this game. This may have something to do with my preference for fighting defensive battles against long odds. I also like games where the terrain is at least as important as the stacks of counters. For the updated map, the new counters, and especially the rules and OBs, and charts, I'd give A Winter War four stars out of five. Because of the printing goofs on the map, and the unusual counter colours, I'll drop that to 3 stars. If the Naval rules had allowed amphibious landings, so that those units could have actually done something, I would have added another star. (Perhaps I'm spoiled: I spent most of last year playing A.E. Goodwin's Northern Theatre of Operations. Amphibious landings are an integral part of N.T.O., and in our game were carried out by the Soviets, Germans, and the Allies.) Anyway, AWW is challenging for both sides, even for experienced players. It would also be a good introductory game for the series, for gamers who are new to the Europa series.

A Winter War

A Small Game about a Small War
Designer's Response: Gary Stagliano
Rule 38-Advanced Naval Rules
John Astell's Commentary on the Naval Rules