This was a nice little scenario where all is not what it appears to be. On paper and even after deployment it looks as if the Romanians have a clear advantage with the combination of higher morale, a good starting intiative, fast-moving motorcycle units and faster tanks that are evenly matched against the Soviet ones in battle. It's the Romanian objectives that makes this one favor the Soviets in my opinion. Forget the tank battle, there is much more required than just an armored slugfest here. All the Soviets have to do is scatter and distract the enemy by keeping them on the move. Early on the Romanians did well by eliminating a lot of Soviet steps, both armored and foot units but were not able to prevent 4 platoons of Soviet INF from outflanking their attackers and escaping into the woods on map 1. Meanwhile, Soviet units were able to maintain a presence on the east-west road on map 8. The Romanians were forced to split-up their forces and this ultimately cost them a victory as by the end of the battle the Soviets were able to hold on to both geographical objectives. The Romanian R-2 tanks had a lot of chances to eradicate the Soviet armored force and towards the end had a lot of crossfire opportunities set-up but got very unlucky with the actual die rolls, even with the +2 modifier. The Soviet tanks on the other hand did very well with damage control and were able to pass a lot of morale checks and rally after taking losses despite their intiative rating of 6 when reduced. At one point, 2 platoons of R-2s rolled up adjacent to one lone and reduced T-26 situated on a hill and neither side, after trading fire at point-blank range for many turns, could eliminate the other. Romanian foot units ultimately did better in assaults but though the Soviets would eventually lose those they were effective in leaving the attackers in both disrupted and demoralized states after returning fire and this ate up a lot of precious time. The whole battle was spread out in many directions and this resulted in foiling the Romanian effort. If this were merely a battle of attrition then Romania would of been the victor as Soviet losses amounted to: 1 x Major, 7 INF, 4 HMG, 6 x T-26 and 4 steps of T-28; whereas Romanian losses were just: 1 HMG and 4 steps of R-2 at battle's end. Also, Romanian intiative began to rapidly plummet down as it dropped for every 2 step losses so that every tank step loss dropped their intiative down a notch which soon gave the Soviets more of a chance of activating units first.

I believe a Romanian victory is possible provided they are able to concentrate and focus on preventing Soviet foot units from crossing on to map 1 and especially prevent them from getting into the woods. The Romanian force is powerful but only if they have to fight one main battle and in one general area; not split up. It was a good play but knew halfway through it the Soviets had this one bagged. I did finish it out and the Romanians continued to go through the motions. With a little more time than 18 turns the Romanians would of at least secured one of the areas but that is what makes this one a nice challenge. The Soviets have to get hammered and contained early on before they can scatter.