Tactics in Winter Fury
By Doug McNair
February 2009

Winter Fury, our game of the Battle of Tolvajärvi in 1939, is equal parts David and Goliath and The Little Dutch Boy. Two Finnish infantry battalions, a company of ski guerrillas, and a Finnish machine gun and artillery company face off against three Soviet rifle divisions plus supporting armored units. The Finnish objective is to slow the Soviet advance on the town of Tolvajärvi until sufficient reinforcements arrive to stop them.

The Soviets have huge advantages in numbers and firepower, but the Finns are fighting on their home turf using sharply-honed skills of winter guerilla warfare. To avoid being bogged down and cut off, the Soviets must work hard to bring all their strengths to bear each time they attack a Finnish position. They must also be careful to mount strong rearguards and not let too big a gap open between divisions lest pesky little Finns ski in there and cut the advance division’s supply lines.

But while the Finns have plenty of tricks up their sleeves and can dance around the Soviets at will, they must inflict damage on the Soviets or the Red Juggernaut will eventually reach its objectives (albeit slowly). So, the mobile but weak Finns must take lots of risks to hit the Soviets at their weak spots, and keep changing tactics to avoid being outflanked, surrounded and overwhelmed by superior Soviet forces.

Soviet T-26A tanks in action at Tolvajärvi.

Factors in Play

The main factors which drive play in Winter Fury are as follows:

Chit Draw

The weather determines the number of impulses players can conduct each turn. The Finnish player rolls on the weather table at turn start to determine the number of implulses for the turn (it can be anywhere from three to six impulses), and then each player puts a number of activation chits in the cup equal to the number of impulses for the turn minus one.

The various chits say either FULL, MOVE, ATTACK, CHOICE or HALF. FULL chits let the drawing player move and fight with all the units designated by the chit, while MOVE and ATTACK chits let the designated units only move or attack. CHOICE chits let the player choose whether to move or attack, while HALF chits let the designated units either move at half speed or have a 50% chance of attacking.

Each time the Finnish player draws a chit, he can perform the specified action with all his units on the board. On the other hand, Soviet chits are specific to each Soviet division, so when the Soviet player draws a chit he can perform the specified action with only the division on the chit. This gives the Finnish player huge flexibility relative to the Soviets, letting him move several times per turn to attack the Soviets at their weakest points or ski behind them to cut off their supply lines.

But the catch here is that the number of chits that go in the cup each turn is far more than the number that will be drawn. If several Soviet chits and few Finnish chits get drawn in a turn, the Finns may find themselves surrounded by advancing Soviet forces and unable to extract themselves in time. The Finns must therefore be sure to cover their escape routes when skiing into vulnerable Soviet sectors.

A good chit draw. A Finnish runner bears Talvela’s attack orders at Tolvajärvi, 11 Dec. 1939.

Terrain

Almost all Finnish units are ski-capable, meaning they can move quickly through most types of terrain both on-road and off-road. The Soviets have only a few ski units, and their non-ski units can make good time only when moving up roads.

In addition, most of the board is covered by forest terrain, which is highly defensible. The number of units that can attack a hex (from each adjacent hex) is limited to the number of units that could actually enter it, and in most cases, only two units can enter a forest hex. So if the Finns block a road hex by stacking one or two strong units there, the Soviets must work hard to maneuver their most powerful units to attack and inflict losses without taking greater losses themselves. On the other hand, the Soviets have massive artillery power, and the more Finnish units are stacked in a hex the easier it is for the artillery to hurt them. In certain circumstances the Finns may want to keep only weak units in key positions to keep them from being eliminated by artillery bombardment.

Of course, the Finns have mastered the art of now-you-see, me-now-you-don’t, and their ski troops can roll to retreat before combat whenever they’re attacked in forest terrain (as long as they have an escape route available). Retreating allows the Soviets to advance into the hex the Finns vacated, but if the Finns ski around the Soviets to harass their flanks and rear, then the Soviets have no incentive to follow them off the road and away from their objectives.

Supply

The Finns have plenty of support from the locals, and can trace long supply lines to any of several towns on the board, or any Finnish HQ. The Soviets on the other hand are in hostile terrain, and the only Soviet supply sources are two road hexes on the southern board edge. The Soviets can’t afford to leave the roads behind them unguarded, because fast Finns can ski behind them and block the supply lines of entire divisions with ease. This is very bad, because all unsupplied units have their attack strength halved, unsupplied artillery can’t fire at all, and unsupplied Soviet units have their defense strength halved and their movement allowance reduced by one. Cutting a Soviet division’s supply line renders it all but impotent.

Beware of Finns fortifying the forest.

Finnish Tricks

In addition to retreating before combat and cutting Soviet supply lines, the Finns have several other ways to make the Soviets’ lives miserable. If the Finnish player draws a FULL chit and a sufficient number of units spend the entire turn together in a hex that’s outside enemy ZOC, they can build a fort there. Units in a fort have their defense strength doubled.

In addition, most battalions in Winter Fury can break down into their component companies. So if the Finns build a fort on a road, then one or two Finnish companies can stay there to stop the oncoming Soviets while others can leave to ski behind them and cut off their supplies. This allows just a few Finnish companies to stop an entire Soviet division cold (and getting colder, this being Finland in December. . . . )

As if that weren’t enough, Finnish units which eliminate Soviet tank and anti-tank companies can capture the Soviet equipment and create Finnish tank and anti-tank units on the fly. The Finns can also construct secret ice roads, giving their stolen tanks the ability to move quickly through offroad areas the Soviet player would otherwise consider secure from enemy intrusion.

Soviet Combat Superiority

The saving grace for the Soviet player is that when his units are in a position to attack the Finns, he has the ability to do a lot of damage. The Finns have only light artillery and no airpower, while the Soviets have plenty of both. Soviet artillery and aircraft can bombard Finnish positions to soften them up in advance of Soviet ground attacks. Alternatively, Soviet artillery can support ground attacks directly, adding up to twice the attack strength of the ground units to the overall attack.

Finally, the Finnish ski troops do not like to face tanks without anti-tank support. The Soviet player gets a bonus of two column shifts to the right on the CRT when attacking with tanks against Finns with no AT support. Also, every time at least two Soviet tank or armored car units attack Finns, the Soviet player has a 1 in 6 chance of forcing the Finns to retreat and take an extra step loss over and above other damage the Finns suffer in the combat. The Soviet player must therefore spread his tanks out to support the maximum number of attacks and force as much Panissari Panic as possible.

Game Summary

The following summary of a recent game of Scenario 1: Liberation Mission illustrates these points.

Setup

The Soviets enter on the south board edge, with the 139th and 75th Rifle Divisions (plus independent units from the Soviet 8th Army) moving up the western road toward their objectives of Aglajarvi and Tolvajarvi, and the Soviet 155th Rifle Division moving up the eastern road toward Mohko and beyond. The Finnish units set up on the two roads just beyond the likely first-day Soviet advance, hoping to build forts on the road and then spread out to harass the Soviets’ flanks and rear. The lone on-board Finnish HQ at start sets up between the roads so that it can move to assist whichever Finnish units have their supply lines to the northern towns cut off.

Turn 1 — November 30th

The weather roll shows there will be four impulses this turn. The Finnish player places his two FULL chits and one CHOICE chit in the cup. The Soviet player places one FULL chit for each of his three divisions in the cup, plus the two Soviet air unit chits.

The first chit drawn is a Soviet Air Unit: This is put aside so the Soviet player can use it when one of his divisions activates, and does not count against the four impulses for the turn.

Chit #1 — Soviet 155th Division FULL: As many units as possible advance up the eastern road. There are more units than will fit on the road, but the hilly terrain around it can only be traversed at a rate of one hex per turn except for ski units. So, the 155th ski troops ski north offroad, while the rest crowd up and around the road as best they can. The tanks and mechanized cavalry leading the Soviet advance get within two hexes of the Finns blocking the road. The Soviet air unit bombards them, but does no damage.

Chit #2 — Soviet 139th Division FULL: This formation includes the independent 8th Army units (which include ski troops) plus the highly mobile Red Finn ski troops. The Red Finns ski north offroad and across frozen lakes to try to outflank the Finnish roadblock from the west. The Soviet ski troops do the same to the east of the Finns, but don’t get as far. The Soviet motorized cavalry and armored cars leading the advance make it adjacent to the Finns, but the Finns are strong enough that a Soviet attack would likely result in only Soviet losses. So they bombard the Finns with 30 points of artillery, which is halved to 15 due to the forest terrain. The Finns take no damage.

Chit #3 — Soviet 75th Division FULL: They come in behind the 139th on the western road, and there’s not enough room on the road to accommodate them. So, they crowd around the road, advancing north a maximum of two hexes through the forested terrain.

Chit #4 — Finnish CHOICE: The Finns can’t build the forts they wanted to this turn, because they can only do that if they draw a FULL chit. So, they take the MOVE option to bring in their scheduled reinforcements this turn, moving one infantry battalion plus an extra company down the road from the northwestern board corner. The units on the western road decide to retreat to avoid being attacked by superior Soviet forces next turn, and the infantry battalion with them breaks down into companies which spread out east to west to keep the Finnish position from being outflanked and surrounded. The units on the eastern road hold their ground, since the Soviets haven’t reached them yet and they hope to build a fort in that position next turn (the farther south the fort is, the harder it’ll be for the Soviets to bypass it in time).

Turn 2 — December 1st

The weather roll says there’ll be four impulses again this turn. All units are in supply, and all the same chits go in the cup. The first chit drawn is a Soviet air unit again, so it’s set aside.

Chit #1 — Soviet 155th Division FULL: They move up the eastern road and the lead units contact the Finns, who still haven’t been able to build their fort. The Finnish position is just past a bridge, so the stream keeps units from moving offroad to surround it. So, only the lead units can attack the Finns, and they’d do so at 1 to 2 odds, which is hopeless in Forest terrain. So, the air unit and the 155th’s artillery bombard the Finns, who take no damage.

Chit #2 — Finnish CHOICE: The Finns take the MOVE option again to bring their reinforcements farther south toward the western Finnish position (the Soviet advance is much stronger there, and closer to Finnish towns). All Finnish units (including those to the east) pull back one hex to keep ahead of the Soviet advance and make it harder for the Soviets to move enough units into position for a concentrated attack.

The next chit drawn is a Soviet air unit, and then comes:

Chit #3 — Soviet 139th Division FULL: The Red Finns ski up to the Blue Finn ski company guarding the western flank of the Finnish position, while the tanks and motorized cavalry spearheading the Soviet advance up the road. The Soviets can’t move enough units into position for an effective attack due to the Finnish withdrawal north, so they bombard the Finnish units on the road again. This time, since the infantry battalion broke down and some of its companies left the road, there are only two stacking points of units there. This means the artillery has a low-density target, and is unable to do damage in the defensible Forest terrain.

The Red Finn units then attack the ski company west of the road. The defending company tries to retreat before combat but fails. The Red Finns attack but roll poorly, and one of their companies is eliminated with no losses to the defenders.

Chit #4 — Finnish FULL: The Finnish units on the western road withdraw northward again to put more distance between them and the Soviet advance. The units to the east, having withdrawn outside Soviet ZOC, can now build their fort on the eastern road. The Finnish reinforcements move south.

Turn 3 — December 2nd

The weather improves and there will be six impulses this turn. All units are still in supply. The Finnish player puts all five of his chits in the cup, and the Soviet player puts all three FULL chits for his divisions in the cup plus two CHOICE chits for the 139th and 155th Divisions.

Chit #1 — Finnish CHOICE: The Finn takes the MOVE option and moves his reinforcements toward the western road position. The Finns in the new fort on the eastern road breakdown their infantry battalion, leaving two stacking points in the fort to minimize Soviet bombardment damage. Units then move out to cover the fort’s flanks.

Chit #2 — Finnish CHOICE: The Finns hold position (they don’t want to retreat farther north if they don’t have to), and the reinforcements move south.

The next chit drawn is a Soviet air unit, and then:

Chit #3 — Finnish FULL: The Finns to the east move some units southwest to threaten the eastern flank of the strung-out Soviet 155th on the road. The Finnish reinforcements in the west advance toward the Red Finns west of the road position.

Chit #4 — Soviet 155th CHOICE: The Soviets on the eastern road would love to attack, but they’re not adjacent to any Finns due to their withdrawal north. So, they have to take the MOVE option, bringing their motorized cavalry and three tank companies adjacent to the lightly-manned Finnish fort, and sending a powerful engineer battalion offroad in a flanking maneuver on the fort.

Chit #5 — Soviet 139th CHOICE: Once again, they’re not adjacent to any Finnish units on the western road, so they take the MOVE option to chase them north. They send several units offroad and over frozen lakes (which are quicker to traverse than forests), and the Red Finns ski north and behind the Finnish road position. Between the Red Finns to the north and the Soviets on the road to the south, the Finnish road position is now cut off from supply.

Chit #6 — Soviet 155th FULL: Having taken a MOVE option two impulses ago, the 155th is now in position to mass forces on the Finnish fort and attack it in strength. They start by bombarding, but the lightly-packed Finns take no damage. The Soviets have tanks but the Panissari Panic roll fails. They attack, but the Finns take no damage while the Soviets take two step losses. The Fort holds but is now surrounded by Soviet ZOC.

Turn 4 — December 3rd

The weather deteriorates and there will be only four impulses this turn. Several Finnish units on or near both roads are out of supply. The Soviet player puts in his three FULL chits and the Finn puts in two FULL and one CHOICE.

Chit #1 — Finnish FULL: The Finns are very lucky! Had the Soviet 139th or 155th drawn the first chit, they would have likely destroyed the defenders of one of the Finnish roads and opened it for a dash northward. But as it is, the Finns on the east road leave the fort and ski northward, with their flank guards accompanying them. The Finns on the western road also ski out of danger and northeast toward the town of Aglajarvi. Reinforcements move toward Aglajarvi.

Chit #2 — Finnish FULL: The Finns to the east move north and establish a new roadblock, while the Finns in the west attack the Red Finns who moved behind them. The Red Finns, being ski troops, are able to retreat before combat.

Chit #3 — Finnish CHOICE: All Finns withdraw northward to put more distance between themselves and the Soviets.

Chit #4 — Soviet 139th FULL: They move up the western road and bombard the new Finnish road position, destroying the Finnish machinegun company.

Turn 5 — December 4th

The weather stays poor and there will be four impulses. All units are now in supply, and the same chits as last turn go in the cup.

Chit #1 — Soviet 75th FULL: They haven’t moved for a long time and are still down by the south board edge. They start converging on the road hexes which the 139th vacated as they moved north. Other units move offroad across frozen lakes. The withdrawing Finns are outside the 75th’s artillery bombardment range.

Chit #2 — Finnish CHOICE: The Finns take the Move option and the western units retreat farther north.

Chit #3 — Soviet 139th FULL: The remaining Red Finn company west of the western Finnish road position skis north of the town of Aglajarvi, and the rest of the Soviets move either up the road or continue the offroad advance toward the road that runs west of Aglajarvi and up to Tolvajarvi. Soviet artillery bombardment kills another Finnish company.

Chit #4 — Soviet 155th FULL: They move up the road to attack the retreating Finns, whose road position is weakened now due to the abandonment of the fort. With artillery support, the Soviets are able to launch an attack at 6 to 1 odds, but the Finnish units succeed on their retreat before combat rolls and escape northward.

Turn 6 — December 5th

The weather improves and there will be six impulses. All units are in supply, and all Finnish chits go in the cup. The Soviet player puts in the three FULL chits, and then places the 139th Division’s Attack and Choice chits in as well, hoping they can smash the Finnish defenders, take Aglajärvi, and reach the road west of it to start the drive up to Tolvajarvi.

Chit #1 — Soviet 155th FULL: They move up the road and attack the Finnish Ski Guerilla company east of the road, but the ski troops retreat before combat.

Chit #2 — Finnish FULL: The units on the eastern road retreat north and concentrate on the road so they can try to build another fort later. Western units plus reinforcements move to surround the Red Finn that skied north of Aglajärvi so it can’t escape before combat. They attack and destroy it.

Chit #3 — Finnish FULL: The units on the eastern road build another fort, and the western reinforcements mass on the road north of the 139th while two of the original ski companies move offroad southeast of the 139th and toward the gap that has opened between the oft-moving 139th and the seldom-moving 75th. They hope to ski up to the empty road hexes between them and cutoff the supply lines of the 139th before they can destroy the northern Finns and take the town and the road northward.

Chit #4 — Finnish CHOICE: They take the MOVE option, and the two southbound ski companies move westward and next to the road, cutting the 139th’s supply line. The two companies stay in separate hexes, one west of the other, to protect their own supply lines and avoid being surrounded should the 75th activate and come at them from the south. The units on the east road fan out from their fort again, and the units north of the 139th move south to threaten the newly out-of-supply Soviets.

Chit #5 — Soviet 75th FULL: They move northward to try to close the gap between themselves and the 139th, and expel the insufferable Finns who have taken the road between them. But the Finns have chosen their ground carefully — the hexside just south of them is a stream, and the Soviets can’t cross it or move in enough units to mount a successful attack. They manage to occupy all hexes except for the road hex the Finnish ZOC is blocking, so the 139th is still out of supply!

Chit #6 — Soviet 139th CHOICE: They are out of supply, so the units which were in a position to reach the road to Tolvajärvi are slowed and can’t make it. The units that were attacking up the road and finally inflicting damage on the defenders of Aglajärvi are now half-strength, so they can’t mount an effective attack now that the Finnish reinforcements have arrived there. The 139th’s rearguard moves south to try to hit the Finns cutting them off, but they’re slowed too and can’t reach them.

Turn 7 — December 6th: The 139th is still out of supply. There are only three turns left in the game. If the 139th can regain its supply line, they will probably take Aglajärvi, but they have no chance to get to Tolvajärvi what with more Finnish reinforcements arriving from the northeast. The Finns can therefore disengage and ski northward out of Soviet range. With the Soviet losses offsetting the Finnish losses, and the Soviets having taken just one town, the Finns win a Major Victory.

The Finns win!

This piece originally appeared in February 2006.

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