Armata Romana: scenario Seven: Gates of Chisinau

Now this scenario was better in my opinion then scenario six and an interesting matchup of unit type and three nationalities. Same objectives, the Romanians/Germans have to exit four or more units and the Soviets need to prevent this or eliminate more than six steps. I used actual Romanian truck counters I had downloaded a few years ago and added one Soviet truck to their mix as well, as they were obviously short one.

The Germans and Romanians have some very fast Motorcycle Infantry and Armored Cars to race down the road, followed by Truck mounted Infantry and Anti-Tank Guns. At the same time the Soviet have a nice mix of Armored Cars, followed by light T-37 tanks and trucked mounted Infantry and AT Guns.

Here is where I made one tactical mistake, I left too large of a hole around the hex 0109, as anything within four hexes of it, the Axis exit points. So in a few turns later the Axis were able to exit five units off the north edge of the map but the battle continued and the Axis also lost seven steps, thus a Draw.

So I made a mistake with each side, the Soviets left a large hole in the lines trying to engage enemy units instead of forming a defensive line the Axis after exiting enough units should have pulled back the remaining units but some were locked in assault combat. It would be interesting to try this one again, as I bet it could go either way.

When I first set up the maps and read over this scenario I thought it should be a Soviet cake walk. Sure the German and Romanian forces have good movement factors when the infantry and AT's are mounted/towed, and the 47mm range is better than anything the Soviets have, but the Reds have tanks, and if the SMG infantry ever get close enough to assault the Romanian infantry, they should carry the field! But that is not how it played out. The Axis forces traveled up the North/South road on turn one, then spilt, with the Germans heading West and the Romanians East to outflank both ends of the Soviet positions. It was on the East where the three 47's soon had unlimbered near the small hill, and got off some amazing rolls against the Red Army's Ba-10M's, with a natural 11 against one, and a twelve against the second! It was then a mad dash East, then North for the Germans, following the Romanians toward the exit hexes. The Germans did take 4 step losses as they prevented the Soviets from interfering with the 3 Romaian infantry and 2 cycle units leaving the board. The Romanian AT's and a Leader set up in the small town in the North-East corner, to protect the 4 hexes East of the road, the designated exit point. At the end of the game, the total Axis loss was 6 steps, while they easily met the exit requirements to actually win. Sometimes it is better to be lucky...