In this scenario the Romanians are trying to cross a major river and then clear two roads each running across two boards. The Romanian force is decently sized and have good OBA, while the defenders are a smaller NKVD force with no support but better morale. The NKVD wins by controlling four town hexes amongst the three towns on the four maps.

The NKVD set up with the HMGs in the northern town, a pair of infantry in the southern town, another pair in the northern-most woods, and the other two pairs on either end of the central woods. That leaves only one narrow crossing point on the northern end, and half the Romanians line up there. The other half sets up opposite the south town. The first strike of OBA against the central woods inflicts a step loss on the NKVD, and the Romanians start trying to cross. With a crossing number of five, it won’t be quick.

The NKVD cannot challenge the crossing, so they stay hidden in the town and woods as much as possible (the northern-most units move to the north town). The crossing number is the Romanians’ biggest enemy as very few units are crossing. Those that do mostly wait out of range hoping for reinforcements. They do finally come on the north end, and the Romanians start to surround the town. All the NKVD in the middle woods begin to withdrawal to the south as the Romanians advance in the north. Eventually the Romanians head in, and a combo of direct fire and arty mess up the HMGs enough for some infantry to close to assault range. The assault goes in, and morale failures result in half the HMGs fleeing to eventually be caught and destroyed, while the others stay in place to be destroyed. The pair of NKVD infantry in the north town run for the northwest town, hoping to guard it for victory.

The OBA is effectively done in the scenario. Two good hits, the rest of the arty falling throughout the scenario to no effect. In fact, friendly fire incidents create more damage to the Romanians than the strikes cause to the NKVD. Given the strength of the OBA, that is amazing.

The southern force never really gets going. In fact, one third of the Romanian force never gets across the river, all but one of those units in the south. The pitiful southern push does force the NKVD to withdrawal from the town, but with six NKVD units guarding the southern road, they outnumber the hapless Romanians and despite some clever maneuvering the Romanians leave four NKVD units on or adjacent to the road. The lack of units crossing the river is decisive, and prevents any hope of Romanian victory.

To the north the Romanians advance on the northwest town to try and prevent an NKVD victory. The units run down the road and gain entrance to the town. Despite a valiant NKVD defense, the Romanians capture enough of the town to avoid an NKVD victory, but fail to get the two units away from the road.

Despite six NKVD step losses to one Romanian step loss, the Romanians still fail to achieve their victory conditions, as do the NKVD (only control one town hex). Result is a draw. The river crossing number slowed down the Romanian advance so much there was little chance of success. The failure of the OBA to have much effect only compounded the problem. I rated this a three. It’s a reasonable scenario that can be highly influenced by the crossing rolls. It plays quick, but the hold-up of forces at the river made some of the turns incredibly short. Decent scenario, just nothing spectacular.