Winter War: The Russo-Finnish Conflict

On 30 November 1939, three months after the Nazi-Soviet invasion of Poland that precipitated World War II, the Soviet Union invaded Finland. The subsequent conflict, known as the "Winter War" or the First Soviet-Finnish War, was not a walk-over by the Soviet Union despite superior military strength, especially in tanks and aircraft. The Soviet Union suffered severe losses and initially made little headway as Finland repelled Soviet attacks for more than two months and inflicted substantial losses on the invaders while temperatures reached as low as −43 °C (−45 °F).^[1] The very poor performance of the Red Army convinced German Chancellor Adolf Hitler that an invasion of the Soviet Union would be successful, declaring, "we have only to kick in the door and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down".^[2]

Winter War is a two-player board wargame where one player controls Soviet invasion forces, and the other the Finnish defenders. With only 120 counters and four pages of rules, this game has been characterized as being "at the simple end of the [complexity] spectrum."^[3]

The Finnish player sets down their counters first, but upside down so that the Soviet player does not know the disposition of strengths. In addition, the Finnish player can mix in up to six dummy counters to camouflage strategic intentions.^[3] The Soviet player then sets up their counters.

The game uses an alternating "I Go, You Go" series of turns, where the Soviet player moves and attacks, and then the Finnish player has the same opportunities.

A Soviet unit must attack an adjacent Finnish unit, but a Finnish unit does not have to attack an adjacent Soviet unit. In addition, before combat, the Finnish player has the opportunity to retreat away from the attacking Soviets.^[4]

Each pair of player turns represents ten days, and the game ends after 10 turns.

In addition to moving units on foot with additional terrain penalties, each player has the opportunity to move units unlimited distances by train, although only on rail lines within their home countries.^[5]

In the south of Finland (the southernmost 13 rows of hexes), both players can stack up to two units. In the north of Finland, no stacking of units is allowed.^[5]

The most powerful units on both sides are prohibited from operating in the northern part of the map.^[5]

Finnish units are never unsupplied within Finland. Soviet units must be able to trace an unhindered line back to a headquarters unit within five hexes, the headquarters units must be able to trace an unhindered line to a Russian city within ten hexes, and the Russian city must be able to trace an unhindered railway line to Leningrad.^[4]

The game comes with two scenarios:

1. Basic Game: A game that lasts ten turns.
2. Special Events: This scenario uses all the same rules as the Basic Game, but once each turn, both players roll one die, which may result in special scenario conditions, such as Finland gaining reinforcements from Allies, or the Soviet Union getting all their reinforcements for the game in Turn 3. Some of these scenarios may result in a premature end to the game.

The Soviet player gains victory points for capturing key objectives:^[5]

• Petsamo: 30
• Oulu: 30
• Mannerheim Line: 40
• Viipuri: 25

The Soviet player wins by earning at least 61 victory points. The Finnish player wins if the Soviet player earns 30 or fewer points. Anything in between is a draw.

Winter War was an early SPI product, designed by freelance game designer James Goff, with graphic design by Redmond A. Simonsen. The game was published as a free pull-out game in Issue 33 of SPI's house magazine Strategy & Tactics, and was also released as a boxed set.