In looking for something to play that was different, I went back to Eastern Front to find something. I saw this one with cavalry and Soviets defending a town and river crossing and thought this might look good. But this is from the older games and has a bit more of a historical bend to them rather than game playability, at least in my play.

I liked the setup with the Romanians needing to setup first. This gives the attacker some pause to think how to relate to the unknown Soviet setup. But in this case the Soviet setup is clear, defend the town. The Romanians also have open ground to cover before they get to the town to attack it. So I figured speed would be the most important factor and setup some cavalrymen on the road as close to board 7 as possible, with the supporting units hidden in the town for the time being. The Romanians would also need to keep the units together as they had average to poor leadership with only the Major with a morale modifier.

The Soviets had a very nice defense of the town, several dugin INF's defending the road and other approaches with the HMG's, AT and mortars in the town as support. Given that the Soviets did not have any leaders with modifiers this made the most sense to keep them under control. This would also give the mortars as powerful Soviet artillery clear lanes of fire on the approaching cavalrymen. This would soon prove deadly for the Romanians.

To start, the Romanians would now see that the southern approach to the town on board 7 was heavily defended. They sent two squadrons of cavalry to probe the road. Coming under long range HMG fire the horses are spooked and the advance it stopped. Soviet artillery would be brought down on them with devastating effect, one step loss and demoralizing the rest of them.

Another two squadrons advance parallel to the river, out of Soviet OP fire range. They manage to move behind the Soviet defense line but mortar and machinegun fire keep them at bay. Sensing a weak point on the north side where this other probe had advanced. The Major commits the bulk of his forces to advance to attack from the north. But once again Soviet artillery plays a critical factor. They score two direct hits on the Majors squadron, killing it and the Major. At this point the Romanians need to regroup under the lieutenants leadership to try to win the day.

The northern most squadrons look to charge an INF and AT gun defending the town to help relieve the pressure that the Soviet artillery is placing on the Romanian main force. But this does not go well too. The charge is hit by OP fire killing yet another step and reducing the initiative to zero and giving the Soviets half their victory conditions.

The Romanians seeing there chance of victory diminished by the heavy losses and still no Soviet losses look to hold out for a draw. They shift the main force and the support units to the woods just over the river in the south. Here they will make a stand and defend the area and prevent a Soviet win. Soviet artillery harass them all the way there and several units need to recover before they can defend.

At this point the Soviet reinforcements appear and look to mount an attack to push the Romanians back across the river. Combinations of Soviet tanks and infantry start to reduce the hapless cavalrymen while the devastating Soviet artillery continues to inflict step losses. Slowing the Romanians are reduced and wiped out. Out of the twelve CAV units only two steps survive along with an HMG.

I was a disappointed with this and feel that this scenario needs a little work. First the setup, I believe the Soviets need a requirement to defend the bridge over the river. This would give a change to the Romanians to stretch out the Soviets rather than allowing them to concentrate. I noticed in the one FtF play with Vince and Wayne this is what happened, rather by chance and gave the Romanians a chance. Second, the Soviet artillery is too powerful on the Romanian cavalry. With an effective attack on the 42 column, there is very good chance of kills on the attacks. I had registered five step losses and quite a few M checks that resulted in disruptions or demoralizations. Throttling back to 1x10 and 1x12 would still give them an effective 30 column shot but less of a chance of over all kills. Lastly, I look forward to dismounted cavalry rules to be added to the up coming revision. This I believe could have helped the Romanians as they could use the mobility of the horses to get close then go into the attack as infantry.