I played this scenario on the same day that I played "They shoot horsemen, don't they?". That scenario is a presentation of a Soviet cavalry charge at a German prepared position. Lots of dead horses and riders littled the ground to little effect. In this one, on the other hand, the cavalry found a Russian column retreating towards Odessa which was not prepared to fight. The Soviets were caught in single file tramping through the woods and their only real hope was the arrival of some tanks to catch the Romanians attention.

The Romanians got the initiative and were able to use their motorcyle troops to block the road. The Soviets moved their forces up slowly (since they didn't have enough leaders to move everything at once, and consolidated their infantry platoons to have some better staying power. Their guns were moved up to provide some defensive support but were hit before they could deploy by an air strike.

In the Soviet's favor however was the early arrival of their armor relief force. This pulled two companies of cavalry off to fight the tanks. In a tactical blunder the Soviets tankers moved close enough for the Romanian cavalry to get adjacent. As the Romanians then got the initiative they were able to assault the tanks and thereby nullify the threat (ultimately they were able to eliminate 3 steps of BT-7s including the tank leader through pure luck). Meanwhile the remaining two companies of cavalry and one of motorcyclists were mopping up the 95th infantry Division whose column was completely destroyed.

In retrospect it seems that the Soviets should break into small groups to try to get through but the terrain, once blocked by the Romanians will leave them open to destruction in detail. Certainly there is more that can be done with the armor but the single tank leader will hamper that effort.

The excitement however, of pulling off an actual ambush on retreating units in a classic pursuit action helps this scenario rise above the tactics of the situation. The Romanian cavalry was some of the best trained and realistic cavalry forces in the Second World War. It is interesting to see it used as it was trained. I give this one a "4".