A Winter war is part of the Europa-series of game and depicts the bitter struggle of the small Finnish Republic against the fast-growing might of the Red Army and the industrializing Soviet Union in the winter if 1939/40.

The game was designed by Gary Stagliano, artists were Winston Hamilton and Barbie Pratt.

Published in 1992 by Games Research/Design (GR/D)

A Winter War" is part of the the Collectors Edition and contains additional material that covers the finnish OB from 1941 to 1944.
Game components:

  • Rules booklet (28 pages)
  • Orders of battle booklet (16 pages)
  • Europa Map 35 [34"x22"]
  • Counter sheets 58 & 59 (2 sheets) - Accessory counter sheet #2 (1/2 sheet) [Total: 656 counters]
  • Charts & Tables:
    • Two Combat results / Terrain effects charts
    • Two Unit identification charts
    • Two Game Play charts / Master sequence of play
    • Two Game charts (one Finnish, one Soviet)
    • One Victory chart / Coast defence chart
    • One Europa master terain key
    • Two dice

Game Reports

Game Report No 1: Gregory Bartels reports from a solitary campaign game of A Winter War, played in March 2013.
To the game report

 

References

The Grenadier

"Belaya Smert’ – ‘White Death’" – an unofficial Europa scenario of the Russo-Finnish War - The Grenadier 21
"Spring War an unofficial Finnish Front variant for Europa"  - The Grenadier 21
"The Russo-Finnish War in Europa" by Terry Scofield - The Grenadier 7

The Europa Magazine

“British Intervention in the Winter War.” By Murray Quarmby. TEM 46.
“Contemporary Reports on the Battle for Finland.” from Time Weekly News Magazine. TEM 46.
“Defending Finland.” By Peter Rogers. TEM 46.
“Designer’s Response: A Winter War Advanced Naval Rules.” By the Europa Design Team. TEM 38/39.
“Finland Victorious: A Winter War Game Report.” By Ed Dickenson. TEM 61.
“Finishing the Finnish OB.” By Sven-Åke Bengtsson. TEM 46.
“Historical Finnish Deployment - A Winter War.” By Gary Stagliano. TEM 42.
“Ice, Snow, and General Mannerheim.” By Peter Robbins. TEM 14.
“Judgement: A Winter War Setup.” By Ed Dickenson. TEM 61.
“A Second (Front) Look at The AWW Air System.” By Michael Tapner. TEM 50.
“More Additions for A Winter War.” By Gary Stagliano. TEM 66.
“NTO Replay.” By Dean Moon and Mark Royer. TEM 67.
“A Soviet Response to the Finn Judgement.” By Sam Dahman. TEM 65.
“Swedish Intervention in A Winter War.” By Sven-Äke Bengtsson. TEM 61.
“The Swedish Volunteer Corps in Finland.” By Lars Wistedt. TEM 46.
“A Winter War Additions.” By Gary Stagliano. TEM 61.
“A Winter War Designer’s Notes: Historical Deployment of Soviet Forces.” By Gary Stagliano. TEM 31.
“A Winter War Designer’s Notes: Part One.” By Gary Stagliano. TEM 27.
“A Winter War Errata Sheet.” TEM 37.
“A Winter War Initial Setup.” By Tim Statler. TEM 61.
“A Winter War Playtest.” By Rick Gayler. TEM 24.
“A Winter War Q&A.” By Rich Velay. TEM 61.
“A Winter War Replacement and Rail Capacity Worksheet. ” By Frank Watson. TEM 61.
“A Winter War Replay.” By Mark Pitcavage. TEM 46.
“A Winter War Review.” By Peter Robbins. TEM 38/39.
“A Winter War in the Summer.” By Sven-Åke Bengtsson. TEM 46.
“A Winter War Update.” By Gary Stagliano. TEM 22.

FAQs

Click on a topic to see question and answer

Supply in Petsamo

Question:

the Soviet winterized 4-6 Inf XX 104 at Petsamo is likely in regular supply in SoS NTO scenarios per Rule 12B4-Tracing Supply: Naval. In other words, a “naval element of a supply line” can apparently be traced from the Soviet owned and controlled port of Murmansk to Soviet occupied and controlled Petsamo at least until perhaps Allied intervention occurs. By the same token, I’m thinking that a Finnish ground unit at Petsamo, say placed there at the beginning of a SoS NTO scenario (and using all the SoS maps), could be in supply by the same “naval element” rule perhaps until German intervention occurs in the game. Is this correct?

Answer:

For Soviet supply at Petsamo, the jist of what you said above is correct. See post #54992 here.

On the other side of the table, if Western intervention is triggered, Petsamo becomes a restricted supply source for up to 4 REs of Finnish, Foreign Volunteer, and Western Intervention Force (AWW Rule 12C2). There’s not really any way for the Finns to keep a unit there in supply before Western invention.

Note that the above applies to a stand-alone game of AWW. If playing the NTO scenario of SOS, then SOS Rule 12B4 governs the tracing of the naval element of supply lines. Note that 12B4 refers players to Rule 34F for restriction on tracing naval elements, and player will need to understand the naval concepts mentioned in 34F.

Source:

Posted by David Stokes on the Yahoo Europa Mailing list on 23.01.2013 08:49

Soviet Supply Lines

Question: 

Can the Finnish/Soviet Player trace road supply over hexside 1513/1514
(Lake Hexside) as there is no bridge at that location?

Answer:

Both Players may trace road supply over that narrow straight hexside even
though the road does not cross the hexside as in hexside 3717/3718, for
example. Think of it this way in warm weather there is a ferry present and
in cold weather the lake is frozen and units can just drive accross. A road
element Line of supply can also be traced accross 1304/1404 but NOT 1303/1402
as the transportation line does not point to that particular hexside.

Source:

Posted by Gary J. Stagliano (EuropaStag@aol.com) on the Europa Mailing List, 2001

Finnish Units in Petsamo

Question:
Are Finnish units that set up in Petsamo out of supply?
Answer:
Yes, at least until Allied intervention
Source:
Posted by Gary J. Stagliano (EuropaStag@aol.com) on the Europa Mailing List, 2001

Links

A Winter war is currently out of print (status: April 2015)

A Winter War at the Boardgamegeek

The official Errata for A Winter War (pdf)

Downloads

Eric Pierce published an updated and corrected Order of Battle for the Soviet Union during the Winter War in 2016. Its, as the name says, not official, but a much better one than the original.

[download id="11445"]

Gallery