I deployed the Soviets along the xx04 hexrow, as close to the Romanian entry edge as possible. the 76.2mm guns were safely tucked away behind the hill in the south, and the two mortar units dug in in the centre of the board, within range but well out of harm's way. All the Soviets were dug in.

The Romanians came from the north. With OBA and air support I expected they could soften up the defenders each turn as I prepared the Romanian 75mm guns and mortars behind the advanced mountain units to contimue the bombardment. But whilst doing this I advanced the mountain units and HMG's too early and they were caught by accurate Soviet defensive fire and opportunity fire. Whilst the OBA, on-board bombardment units and aircraft failed to really hurt the Soviets, the foot units had to either go in or face machine gun fire that seemed to pick them off.

By 8:30 the Romanians engaged with the Soviet flank units but met with murderous defensive fire before they could assault themselves. With assaults happening for much of the flank units, the Soviet centre continued to pour fire into the 'refused' Romanian centre. Within 15 minutes the Soviets were able to leave their positions and advance. The assaults on the flanks were all going the Soviets' way. The Romanian units seemed extremely brittle (despite the higher morale levels) and it was clear by 09:00 the Romanians could only win if they could quickly open up a gap to exploit. But with the Soviets getting the benefit of the random events (units in a hex getting two actions) they concentrated fire into the centre which broke completely.

Throughout the Soviet guns and OBA were more accurate than those of the Romanians, and by 09:15 with the romanians losing 12 steps and two leaders compared to the Soviets' two step losses, I decided to retreat back to the north.

Tt's clear I should have had the Romanians staye on the north edge for the early turns whilst their artillery and aircraft created some weak points in the Soviet defence. After I committed them to assaults too early, fortune favoured the Soviets and they won all the local battles along the line.