Winter Wars

[MengJiao]

  Ah, Finland.  Oh, dear Stalin!

  There are three "Winter Wars" to be had on Steam.  I looked at two of them and took the area-movement one with nice little airplanes and cards for Vodka and Night Attack.  Things went badly for me and the Red Army.  Lots of ambushes and snowstorms and getting lost on the way to the field kitchens.  A quick Night Attack with lots of Vodka almost turned the tide.  But no.  Maybe some screen shots some time soon.

  PS: why do people think the Russo-Finish War of 1939-1940 is an "obscure topic"?...there are always plenty of pretty good games about it.  Definitely good for simulating a lot.  And generally pretty fun.

[Gusington]

I very much enjoyed the Winter War scenarios in Order of Battle.

[MengJiao]

I very much enjoyed the Winter War scenarios in Order of Battle.

  It's hard to go wrong with a good Winter War scenario.  Here is the opening of the third week on the central axis:

[MengJiao]

  It's hard to go wrong with a good Winter War scenario.  Here is the opening of the third week on the central axis:

  I did the whole war (14 turns: 14 weeks), I drove the commies against the Finnish AI.  As you might expect, a little Soviet sneakiness on the central axis leads to a devastating defeat for the Finns.  The developer remarked in the steam discussions that beefing up the Finns was going to be necessary and making the Mannerheim Line less strong and forcing the Russians to stack less up north was a good idea.

Here's the situation late in the game between Heilsinki and Leningrad (note part of the Mannerheim Line is still holding and in fact most of the Russians close to the Finnish Capital came via the central axis):

[al_infierno]

Definitely interested in picking this one up.  I put a good bit of time into Wars Across the World, but not much into the Spanish Civil War iteration. 

I agree the Winter War and "Continuation" war are hardly "obscure," but I think when people say that, they're really saying it "lacks appeal to mainstream audiences" (with countless D-Day media coming to mind as the opposite of that).

Meng, what's your take on how this game compares to other similar Winter War titles?

[Gusington]

^With that said - are there any good Winter War movies?

[MetalDog]

Red Dawn?  Admittedly, it's not Finland, but, it is Communists and it is winter.  Plus, the cast is pretty spectacular.  Betcha forgot Powers Boothe was in it.

[SirAndrewD]

^With that said - are there any good Winter War movies?

Really?

Only one of the greatest war movies ever made.  Possibly the greatest.  I have owned it for a long long time.

[Gusington]

I did not forget Powers Boothe was in Red Dawn because I just watched it like 3 weeks ago! Love that movie.

Never heard of 1989's Winter War. I must have been watching Glory instead.

[SirAndrewD]

I did not forget Powers Boothe was in Red Dawn because I just watched it like 3 weeks ago! Love that movie.

Never heard of 1989's Winter War. I must have been watching Glory instead.

Watch it Gus.  It's amazing.   A fairly large portion of the Finnish Army participated as extras and they used period correct tanks and planes in practical effects. 

[MengJiao]

Red Dawn?  Admittedly, it's not Finland, but, it is Communists and it is winter.  Plus, the cast is pretty spectacular.  Betcha forgot Powers Boothe was in it.

  I forgot.  My mental world was revamped by Deadwood

[MengJiao]

Definitely interested in picking this one up.  I put a good bit of time into Wars Across the World, but not much into the Spanish Civil War iteration. 

I agree the Winter War and "Continuation" war are hardly "obscure," but I think when people say that, they're really saying it "lacks appeal to mainstream audiences" (with countless D-Day media coming to mind as the opposite of that).

Meng, what's your take on how this game compares to other similar Winter War titles?

   Apparently it is a different version of the WAW game engine put out under a different set of logos and it doesn't interface with the other WAW scenarios.  It looks better overall and runs more smoothly and coherently for the most part, but has some odd bugs.  It is still an early access game and definitely has some odd problems. 

[Skoop]

Winter war is a sweet movie, you can find it on youtube if you don't mind subtitles.  I actually prefer das boot and Stalingrad in native language with English subtitles.

[Gusington]

Wow, I almost thought you were kidding SirAndrew.

[al_infierno]

That film looks incredible, thanks for linking it! 

I very much prefer watching  foreign WWII films in the original language, especially an Eastern Front (or tangentially related in this case) film since changing everything to English destroys a huge part of what makes WWII aesthetically interesting.  I can't imagine wanting to have Come and See dubbed into English, for example.