Red Winter - First Playthroughs

I've played four solo games of Red Winter over the past two days. The game covers the Battle of Tolvajärvi during the Winter War.

I've played four solo games of Red Winter over the past two days. The game covers the Battle of Tolvajärvi during the Winter War. My first two games were just of the tutorial scenario (17.17 Tutorial: First Folly), which is just meant to teach the basic concepts. Both the Soviets and the Finns won one as I figured out how the game worked.

My next play was First Day (17.2) with the Soviets winning 22 - 15. The Finns held out for a while at the hotel by cycling battalions as they fell back to delay the Soviet advance. The Soviets eventually were able to overwhelm the hotel, gravel pit and key bridge through weight of numbers, but the Finns maintained a lock on Tolvajärvi and managed to keep a foothold on Kotisaari Island and deny the Soviets points there. Unfortunately for the Finns, they rolled terribly throughout the game for recovery and so the units in Tolvajärvi were still only 1/3 recovered, which awarded the Soviets six points.

Last daylight turn, where the Soviets have not yet taken the bridge:

My final play was of The Battle for Hirvasvaara (17.10) with the Finns winning 8-2. They took a lot of damage on the north front as 3/718 fought a pretty good delaying action to hold off ErP9 and eventually eliminate the only company the Soviets could claim as a casualty. They also managed to escape two units off the map to the south before JR16 began to annihilate everything in that direction before finally taking Hirvasvaara on the last Finnish turn with assistance from ErP9. The Soviets attempted a counterattack, but failed miserably leaving the Finns in control of the VP hex.

End game:

So far I have been enjoying Red Winter. The game is very smooth with some elegant mechanics to handle a lot of the oddness of the fight. I have only played one night turn, so I still have a lot to learn on properly using the Finns major advantages. These were all single day scenarios so I also do not have a feel for how the entire battlefield shifts overtime to represent the major movements and the declining Soviet power. I will probably next try the alternate setup of the Battle of Hirvasvaara (17.11) that shrinks the Soviets down to two battalions, but gives them more points (and the Finns less) for controlling the village. After that, I will probably try some of the simpler scenarios with armor to get a feel for how they work with their combat immunity and extremely limited mobility.