In mid-December, 1939, the Soviet advance had stalled for several days. At 0300 hours on December 15, the Soviet commander ordered his forces to move forward under cover of night. The Soviet 662nd Rifle Regiment moved north across a frozen lake to engage the Finnish PPP-6 Bicycle Battalion north of Suomussalmi. Finnish troops were based in a small village and dug in just south of it. An initial Soviet OBA disrupted some of the Finnish troops, but they recovered quickly and dealt withering fire on the advancing Soviet units in the center. However, small groups of Soviet forces on both flanks moved ahead to form a pincer attack on the village. By 0400, Soviet units had advanced to the outskirts of the village, and Finnish units from the center front lines fell back to bolster the village defense. By 0430 hours, vicious close combat was occurring in the village, and this continued until the battle ended at 0545 with both forces still in the city. The primary objective of this scenario is to control the town hexes, which neither side could do by game end. The Soviet forces heavily outnumber the Finns, but the latter have excellent morale (8/8) and had officers with 1-2 morale boost; when hit, they recovered quickly compared to the lower morale (7/6) Soviets. Assault combat favored the Finns, so it was difficult for the Soviets to clear the town; however, the large number of Soviet forces allowed them to continue to place units in the city.

This is a good scenario, as with the right die rolls, either side could gain control of the city. In this playthrough, the Finns controlled initiative, taking the lead on nine of the twelve turns. Thus, they could inflict morale compromises that limited the Soviet combat ability. The Soviet OBA was relatively ineffective against the dug-in and town Finnish units.The scenario ended with neither side in control, resulting in a draw; step losses were 1 for the Finns and 11 for the Soviets, with several disrupted and demoralized Soviet forces at game end.

NOTE: This scenario was played using updates and corrections from the PG-HQ site contributed by plloyd1010, rerathbun, and Shad. Maps and Soviet units from Eastern Front were used, and Finnish units were from Arctic Front Deluxe. It was played with 4th Edition rules.

Now I fully understand that Avalanche Press was a new organization when these scenarios were written and that "Lions" was a bit of a free be.... but DAMN, at least one could have done is to make the scenarios at least semi-interesting! This one was a waste of time.