Dip 1142 – Winter War

A 6-player map variant based on the Winter War between Finland and Russia in the 1920's and 1930's.  I won as Germany in 1924.

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Starting Positions
Spring 1921
Fall 1921
Spring 1922
Fall 1922
Spring 1923
Fall 1923
Winter 1923
Spring 1924

Final Map – Fall 1924

 

Name

Nation

 

GM:

Jacob Traeger
Allen York

 

Spring 1921-Spring 1924
Fall 1924-end

Players:

Brad Martin

Finland

Spring 1921-end

 

Stephen Worthy

Germany

Spring 1921-end

 

Gary (Dollar)
Tim Beaman

Norway

Spring 1921-Spring 1924
Fall 1924-end

 

Jack (jackythree)
David Cross

Poland

Abandoned before start
Spring 1921-Fall 1923

 

Mark Hancock

Sweden

Spring 1921-end

 

Jeff (darthmorgan)

USSR

Spring 1921-end

 

My EOG

Thanks everyone for helping finish this game.  It was always slightly tense with the first GM Jacob making a few mistakes with the maps and adjudications.  By the time his e-mail access disappeared, only a couple of us had much energy to continue (primarily me, with victory a season away!).  That may take the shine off the solo, slightly, but I’ll take my wins where I can.

This game appealed to me for several reasons.  The tightness of the board promised an explosive game, while there was a comforting familiarity in playing a game on just a section of the Standard map.  Germany having an isolated home centre in Dan was a fun feature, but the real attraction of playing as the German is also the inherrent weakness of the variant.  Germany is far, far, too strong.  All seven neutral centres are within two moves of a German home centre; two are uncontested.  Without a mass conspiracy against Germany, he’s an odd’s on favourite to win.

It reminds me of Youngstown, in which Russia’s 6 centres makes it an early favourite but also an early target.  But in Winter War, Germany’s advantage isn’t so noticeable.  A stop-the-leader alliance is hard to organise in year 1, especially when three countries start with 4 units.  I worked on other players until by the first season, I was pretty sure all five players favoured an alliance with me.

With the first Poland awol, I made plans with Russia to crush him quickly.  However, David came in as Poland and was very approachable, so I discussed several options for extricating my A Dan.  Unfortunately for him, he chose the option that left him wide open and I went back to plan A.  We got Poland on the back foot quickly and I turned my attention to Scandinavia.

I had made non-aggression pacts with both Norway and Sweden, allowing me to take a couple of neutrals and ignore them.  In choosing sides in the end it came down to Gary showing more enthusiasm, so I helped him into Sweden and helped myself to Copenhagen.

Finland was now the main risk.  Russia had made a few mistakes and Finland was swamping him in the north.  However, Brad made a small but crucial error, moving his fleet to Norwegian Sea.  It was a sensible defensive position, but diplomatically it always made Norway suspect his motives.  When Russia lost interest in playing and decided to throw half his centres to each of Finland and myself, I knew Gary would concentrate on Finland to the extent of ignoring my solo.

That’s when the game stalled and Gary wasn’t able to continue.  That got me worried, because a new Norway would have no preconceptions and would spot the danger of German victory.  Naturally, Tim did.  Thankfully he decided the best thing to do was end the game quickly rather than stretch it out.

 

Tim’s EOG

My EOG, ok, I came I saw Germany win I lost.  about sums the whole game for me.

I had fun making the Realpolitik files, if anyone wants it let me know. 
This looks like it might be a good variant.