Hunter Johnson — Winter Wargames

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The Winter War was a conflict between the Soviet Union and Finland, 1939-1940. While WWII-era gaming commands the lion's share of wargames produced, The Winter War (along with the subsequent Finnish actions, The Continuation War and The Lapland War) has received little coverage. The ones that I know of:

* Blood on the Snow: The Battle of Suomussalmi (Avalanche)
* Winter Fury: The Battle of Tolvajarvy (Avalanche)
* A Winter War (Game Research/Design)
* Storm Over Scandinavia (Game Research/Design)—one scenario, Northern Theater of Operations, combines with A Winter War
* A Frozen Hell: The Battle of Tolvajärvi, Russo-Finnish War, 1939 (The Gamers)—the link goes to Udo Grebe Gamedesign's page for the game, which is more informative than The Gamers' order page.
* Arctic Storm: The Russo-Finnish Winter War, 1939-40 (GMT)
* Salla 1941: A Fight to the Finnish (Just Plain Wargames)
* Kestenga: Another Fight to the Finnish (Just Plain Wargames)
* Winter War: The Russo-Finnish Conflict 1939-1940 (S&T #33)
* Molotov's War (S&T #172)
* Forgotten Axis: The Finnish Campaign (S&T #199)
* Winter War, PDF rules sheet for a solo card game, for use with Thoth
* The Russo-Finnish Winter War (C3i #5)—A campaign module for Down in Flames
* Hakkaa Paalle (Multi-Man Publishing)—An ASL core module, due out some time after Armies of Oblivion
* Jatkosota (Critical Hit)—A "Squads & Leaders" module for use with ASL.
* Other ASL products with Winter War scenarios:

  • Beyond Valor—1: Fighting Withdrawal
  • ASL Annual '89—A10: The Borders Are Burning; A11: Silent Death
  • ASL Annual '90—A16: On the Borderline
  • ASL Annual '93a—A54: The Raate Road
  • ASL Annual '95 Winter—A88: Surprise Encounter
  • ASL Annual '97—A120: Uncommon Valor
  • The General v29n2—G17: Hakkaa Paalle
  • Advancing Fire #1.1—Finlandia!
  • Backblast #1—A Wedge in the Ice
  • Critical Hit #3—CH40: Nordic Twilight
  • Critical Hit #3.1—Jat2: At the Gates of Viipuri
  • Critical Hit #5.1—PLFH: Frozen Hell
  • Critical Hit #6.1—CH101: In the Ruins of a Church
  • Critical Hit Special Edition '96—CH70: Surprise at Honkaniemi
  • Euro-Pack V: The Eastern Front—Euro-Pack 7: Rescue Behle
  • Rout Pak II—RPII 1: The Noose
  • Rout Pak III—RPIII 5: A Room with a View
  • On All Fronts #68—NOWS Con 3: Battle at Lake Ladoga
  • On All Fronts #71—The Motti of Suomussalmi
  • On All Fronts #86—NanCon '89: Russia (Finland)
  • On All Fronts: ConTrary '89—Assault on the Mannerheim Line
* Arctic Front (Avalanche)—module for Panzer Grenadier
* Mein Panzer (ODGW)—skirmish-level miniatures rules with Finland Drop-In in Scenario Pack #2
* Panzer Marsch! (North Hull Wargames Club)—WWII miniatures rules, with a separate Finnish Army List (FL1) available
* Skirmish Campaigns: Finland '39-40 (J&D Publications)—skirmish-level miniatures rules
* The Russo-Finnish "Winter War": 1939-40 (Tac Publications)—Campaign supplement for Tac: WWII brigade-level miniatures rules
* The Grenadier #21—includes "Panssari Salama," a Russo-Finnish War variant (10 situations) for Panzerblitz and "Belaya Smert," a Russo-Finnish scenario for Europa
* Finnish Aces of World War 2 (Osprey Aircraft of the Aces Series #23)—Reference work for the airplane modeler or wargamer
* Lentolaivue 24 (Osprey Aviation Elite Series #4)—Reference work for the airplane modeler or wargamer

Commentary on some of the games can be found at Matti Yrjölä's web. Gamer William R. Trotter also wrote a book, A Frozen Hell: The Russo-Finnish Winter War of 1939-40, covering the Winter War.

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Intro | Gaming
Hunter Johnson (hunter@hunterandlori.com)