Slitherine

1) It appears that even units that are south of the Severe Winter zone (e.g. SE of Rostov) do get whacked with the Axis winter effectiveness penalty. That seems strange. Is there a section of the rulebook that explains this?

2) The Finns are "winterized", yet they suffer the same penalties as other Axis units when the Russian winter hits. Shouldn't they be exempt?

Regarding the finns, they should not suffer the axis penalties. The finns were way better winter equipped than the soviets and used the winter to their advantage with ski troops able to travel fast, behind enemy lines etc.

The russians also suffered from cold winters, many froze to death in Finland during the finnish wars.