Weather – Zone A = Snow, B = snow, C = snow, D = winter, Sea = Rough, Baltic
= Rough
(Note hereafter weather is summarised as S,S,S,W & R, R)

Soviet Player Turn

North of Leningrad – the Red Army lurches ungainly into the forests towards the Mannerheim Line. They are delayed in their advance by Ski units who force the Soviets to deploy into attack formation. When the attacks are launched, they are surprised to find the Ski troops have fled! Capitalist running dogs – obviously no stomach for standing up to good old Socialist steel. The delay has pushed the timetable in this area back by a couple of weeks. (Ski units all successfully retreat before combat back to the main defence line).

Along the border running north east from Ladoga, several attacks are sent in against the handful of Finns who defend the roads and railway transportation lines. The results are poor for the Rodina. SE of Suojarvi the 12th XX stands firm aginst a Soviet corp and send the attackers reeling back (3:1 -2 = AR).

In the forested border region, the 13th XX destroys the attacking Soviets by stubborn defence (2:1 -3 = AE). Comrade Stalin spits his pipe across the room.

North from here Kubmo is captured by the troops of the 163 Rifle XX while the 44th motorised moves up to the border from Rugozero.

The 54th with attached engineering support tries to engage the Finnish 2/LR III but its troops are from Turkestan and frightened by the snow and runaway much to Comrade Stalin’s annoyance (4:1 -2 = AR).

Murmansk – A single winterised XX plods towards the border and engages the
Finnish ski regiment in the area but fails to dislodge them (AS). Petsamo
remains safe for the short term.

The Soviet navy sorties out past Helsinki, trailing its cape to invite a Finnish respone – the Ilmar battle group remains at port drinking Cocoa and staying warm.

In the air above, the bombers fly deep into Finland to strike at key rail and factory networks. One hit on the vital rail system is scored SE of Sortavala by SB-2bis squadrons while Tampere sees the pride of the Motherland turned back by accurate AA fire (3 groups rtb, 2 abt) the
remaining units fail to locate their targets and scatter their bombs into a cow paddock.

Finnish Player Turn

The Helsinki Government is offered notes of support and declarations of outrage at the Soviet unions heavy handed tactics in Finland by western democracies, offers of support flow in but no firm mcommitment to send troops or take any action stronger than harsh language to their Soviet Embassies.

The Finns themselves reinforce the fortifications in 4717 with some extra units as the positioning of Soviet forces makes it obvious that this is going to be the first victim of the Red advance. Around Lake Janis the 13th XX advance into the Soviet Union to the outrage of the central committee, their target – Medvezhyegorsk. Comrade Stalin signs a few orders suggesting the “removal” of local unit commanders to stiffen the resolve of the soldiers defending in this area. The NKVD Border regiment in the area promises to defend the town to the last.

The Karelian Construction group moves to repair infrastructure damage on the rail system.