A battalion of Soviet cavalry must cross the width of one board and exit at least five of their nine units in order to claim victory. There is heavy snow so the cavalry is hampered somewhat but can still cross the board in three turns if undisturbed by enemy action. The trick is that the Germans have some decent weaponry and the Soviets have NO cover whatsoever. They are visible from the moment they enter the board. With only 8 turns there is no time for the Soviets to stop and fight anywhere so play is necessarily a process of the Soviets spurring the horses and hoping that they can adequately pass their morale checks. If they do they will win (or at least come close as in my play). If they don't they will lose because a simple disruption will cost the cavalry at least 1-2 turns to recover and begin moving again. Any more than that and they will have no chance to cross the board.

Helping the Germans is the fact that they are shooting at cavalry so no matter what they do (short of assault) they get a column improvement. This is critical to stopping enough of the horse race to get a decent result. So, play of this scenario closely resembles the Kentucky Derby with guns. Run fast and don't get shot.

In my play four units made it across, two were completely destroyed and three were demoralized. As in many of the Heroes scenarios, subtlety and strategy are not required. Since many of the scenarios are related to Operation Mars, the least subtle of all WW II offensives, perhaps this is reflective of the reality. The conditions were terrible and the losses frightful. Only the fact that Stalingrad was happening at the same time, deflected knowledge of this disaster from the public eye.

When playing these scenarios I have a profound sense of dread in that the "dead" pile grows precipitously while the objectives remain close but unattainable. One can sense the frustration that the commanders must have felt as wave after wave of Soviet attackers are consumed as the concept of "one more battalion" is used to chase victory. In the end, the Germans were forced by the Stalingrad operation to abandon the Rzhev salient anyhow.

I'm not quite sure if my rating of two reflects the play of the scenario or the feeling that I get from playing it but it is a two nonetheless.