This battle was fought head-to-head against Wayne Baumber. I seem to have a few 'chronological' series going on at present. The Yanks at the Westwall, the SS in Normandy against the British, and this, the adventures of the Armata Romana. This is basically the last the one before things get tough towards Odessa for our Rumanian friends, so for the first time, I have these Rumanians fighting alongside their ally, Germany in the crusade against Communist Russia

What's It All About

Well, the scenario before this featured the 1st Royal Armoured Division in front of Chisnau trying to get round some nasty Red Armour beasties, including the dreaded T34's. Fate had the Rumanians coming out on top on that one, and this scenario now pits their Recon troops before the gates of the same city, once more, trying to slip past more Soviet troops. To win, the Axis need to exit a certain amount of units whilst the Soviet, not needing to worry about the exiting enemy too much really just needs to inflict a certain amount of casualties to win, albeit, preventing exits would also lead to a win, but is not an exclusive objective.

Early Moves

The Rumanian and German troops headed straight up the main road, just far enough for their three AT platoons to deploy in a line that would keep Soviet armoured cars honest. Ahead of these and protecting their front were Romano/German infantry. And neatly placed nearby were the Axis motor-cycle troops. Strong enough to ward off the enemy where needed and fast enough to make a break when required. The Soviets entered in a linear formation in order to leave little in the way of gaps, but with a mixed bag of guns, armoured cars, tractor tanks and SMG units commanded by just 2 leaders, the command control of this lot would have to be cute. Mind you, the enemy had their command control issues too. Rumanians could not assist Germans and vice versa. However, if canny, setting up an officer from each nation in the same hex with both nations troops in that hex and either side allows a decent command structure to be realised in game turns. So for 6 turns both sides jostled around the board, but soon seeing an opportunity, the motor-cycle troops were able to make a break for the back of the board. This they reached with relative ease, but that was not the end of their battle.

Blood is Spilt - Eventually

Not until the 7th turn was a casualty sustained. A Soviet armoured car that had tried to move to the far north to discourage the enemy cyclists soon found itself swamped by these German recon troops as they failed to exit but instead mounted harrassing tactics from behind the Soviet main line. The Soviet commander, realising that he could not stop the enemy from exiting if they wished to, then threw his forces into fearless attacks in order to try and deplete the German/Romana force as much as possible.

It was these attacks that blew the game into a shooting war for real, but it really was a lop-sided affair in the end as Soviet armoured cars were blown away by dug-in Rumanaian AT guns. As for the Soviet SMG teams, although almost succeeding, they eventually got the worst of a shooting battle with the invaders. In the end, the casualties were simply too many for the defending Russians as they sustained 17 step-losses, mainly armour against just 1 step of the enemy AND the Axis forces were, from turn 6, always in a position to exit their required units when they wished to. This was to all intents a complete defeat for the Soviets.

I gave this a 3. It seems slanted towards the Axis, but reading other reports here show the Soviets have won before ? Though not up there with some of the more memorable games, it has some fun features. Rumanians and Germans combined with no ability to command each other. Lots of manouevre in the game is essential, and the need for both sides not to get too confident as each sides VC's are not neccesarily related. I'd also suggest it may be a good scenario for a newbie to try due to the various game pieces it uses. For those reasons I up it from a 2 to a 3 rating. Finally, if looking for more balance, maybe give the Soviets an 8/6 morale rather than 7/6 ?