Introduction

June 23, 1941. As the attacks along the Russian borderlands began the Romanians established some bridgeheads, one such bridgehead is being held by elements of the Romanian 6th Guard Infantry Regiment. A Russian counter-attack by elements of the 5th Cavalry and 25th Rifle Divisions attempts to dislodge the residing Romanians. Our action begins at midnight…

The main objectives: 1. Capture/Hold the town 2. Capture/Hold the Bridgehead 3. Avoid taking casualties (Romanians only)

Note: Score will be denoted by (x), where x=number of Romanian steps lost. Russians achieve their victory condition if they inflict 12 or more Romanian step losses.

000 (visibility=1 hex)

Romanians are feeling vastly outnumbered. They need to hold two positions (town and bridgehead) while taking minimal losses. The Russians are bound to hit them hard…

The Russians spend the first 45 mins advancing their troops and poising their cavalry for the charge.

Romanian foot troops fall back to defend the AT Guns.

0045

Russian foot troops advance against the Romanian HMGs in the town. The result is slaughter as a total of two platoons of Russian infantry and HMG are cut down!

As the Romanian forces are preoccupied, 6 platoons of Russian cavalry charge into the city! The cavalry are broken against the staunch Russian defenders and suffer minor losses. But a Romanian HMG is demoralised, and, although costly, the Russians have gained a foothold in the city!

By the river, Russian infantry rushes the Romanian AT guns as artillery shells begin to fall.

The Bloodbath has begun.

0100

At the Bridge the Romanians manage to hold off the Russians. The armour advances and a T-37 platoon is damaged.

In the town both sides begin to rally. The Romanians counter-attack. They are disrupted but eliminate half a cavalry platoon. But the Russians send in reinforcements!

0115

Romanian AT gun hits another T-37 as their infantry assaults the Russian armour.

Meanwhile in the town, more cavalry charges in and the first Romanian half platoon is lost. (1) Russian foot troops begin to encircle the town.

Romanian reserves in the woods move to reinforce the bridgehead.

An artillery strike hits the Romanian infantry caught in the open. (2)

0130

Remaining T-37s are eliminated in close assault.

Russian assaults eliminate half Romanian Infantry platoon by the bridge (3). The Romanian Locotenent flees the assault and is killed by an artillery shell.

Night chaos leads to an abrupt end as the Fog of War takes affect.

0145

Russian forces try to surround the dug-in Romanians as the Guards reinforce from the woods. But the Romanian HMG reinforcement is shattered by friendly artillery fire!

Meanwhile, the action begins to stagnate in the town…

0200

At the town, the Romanians lose a half platoon of infantry in an assault (4), as some Russian cavalry are eliminated by some 81mm mortar fire.

By the bridgehead, some T-26 are laid to waste by AT Gun fire as they are busy fighting off Romanian infantry!

0215

The Romanians eliminate a Russian infantry platoon in close assault by the bridge as a second Russian platoon flees. More T-26s fire at the Romanian infantry and a half platoon is lost (5).

0230

Russian Cavalry is decimated by Romanian bombardment. One and a half platoons are lost!

0245

Russian artillery and small arms fire combine to eliminate a platoon of Romanian infantry. (7)

A brave Romanian Locotenent breaks ranks to lead some men towards the Russian artillery emplacement.

0300

Fighting remains fierce near the bridge.

Russian artillery continues to pound Romanian forces and a half platoon and locotenent are eliminated (8).

sidenote: This really hurt the Romanians. A lack of leaders by the bridge (with two locotenents killed) severely limits the Romanians ability to initiate assaults or call in off-board artillery. It also meant the brave locotenent driving north had to quickly return to the bridgehead.

The town begins to quiet down.

0315

Russian cavalry charges the Romanian mortar battery in the woods, disrupting it.

0330

Another Romanian infantry by the bridge is reduced (9). The broken Romanians are trying to hold on to their bridgehead, but it is beginning to look hopeless.

0345

The Romanian 81mm mortar is lost. (10)

0400

At the bridgehead, in a massive counter-attack, Romanian forces strike out: AT Gun cuts down some Russian infantry. Dug-in Infantry counterattacks and 2 Russian HMGs are lost. Another Russian infantry lost by the bridge.

The Russians lost many men, and suddenly the bridgehead situation is looking less dire for the Romanians as the Russians are fleeing into the night.

0415

At the bridgehead, Russian forces begin to regroup to the Northwest as Romanians begin to dig-in once more.

0430

The Romanians lose a half platoon to the last Russian captain still in close assault. (11). They respond with a risky artillery strike which smashes the Russian assaulters.

Sensing complete loss for his men, the Russian captain responds by calling down his own artillery directly upon himself. The gambit pays off, and the other Romanian half infantry platoon is lost! (12)

Gamenote: The Soviets have just completed a victory condition of eliminating 12 Romanian steps. In order to obtain a draw, the Romanians must now drive the Russians out of the town and away from the bridgehead.

0445-0500

Waiting for dawn to break, Russian forces which are rallying to the northwest begin to dig-in.

0515

Message from Soviet High Command: We no longer care about casualties. You must hold either the town or the bridgehead! Nothing else matters!

Gamenote: Random Event: Change in orders: Halt! If enemy doesn’t win, you do. Which means that there is no draw condition. If Romanians do not fulfil their objective of keeping the town and bridgehead clear, the Russians win.

Broken Romanian forces flee the town and are smashed by Russian artillery (lost half HMG and half Inf). The Romanian AT Gun is eliminated by friendly fire.

By the bridge, the Russian Captain is killed.

The Sun begins to rise. Now it’s going to get violent.

0530 (visibility=2)

By the bridge the Romanians initiate fire first, and a half Russian platoon is cut down.

In the town, Romanian forces initiate an assault and both sides lose a half platoon.

0545 (visibility=4)

By the bridge, the Romanian AT Gun takes out some T-26s. Return small arms fire demoralised the Gun crews and an infantry half platoon is lost.

In the town some of the Romanians begin to rout.

0600 (visibility=6)

By the bridge, the last Romanian locotenent is eliminated by artillery fire! The Romanians are now completely leaderless at the bridgehead.

Gamenote: So theY can’t close assault the T-26!

In the town, the Romanians hold out in the south-eastern quarter. The rest of the town is lost as a Captain and his half platoon are cut down trying to flee.

0615 (visibility=8)

Outside the town Russian cavalry eliminates more fleeing Romanians.

At the bridgehead, the T-26s are eliminated by an anti-tank gun battery when Russian small arms fire couldn’t suppress it.

Surprisingly, the Bridgehead has been saved while the town has been lost!

0630 (visibility=10)

Romanian HMG unhorses some cavalry in the town as Russian artillery bombards them.

0645 (day)

81mm mortar and 76.2mm artillery combine with the Regimental off-board batteries routing the Romanian infantry. The Romanian HMG is reduced by charging Russian cavalry.

0700

Reserve Romanian infantry by the bridge head towards the woods with the hope to find a leader who can help them re-take the town.

A Russian Lagg3 arrives and cuts down some fleeing Romanian infantry.

The Romanian AT Gun is finally silenced by Russian artillery fire.

By the bridge, only one Russian platoon is left as the rest flee from Romanian small arms fire. They set another rally point to the northwest.

0715

Russian cavalry charge into the HMG which is eliminated. The Romanian Major is captured!

The only Romanian leader still present is a Colonel in the southeast quarter of the town protected by only one infantry platoon!

Meanwhile by the bridgehead, another Romanian infantry platoon is eliminated by combined mortar and regimental artillery.

With a lack of available leadership, and seeing no hope in retaking the town, the Romanian forces surrender.

Aftermath

Although titled Night of the Guards, this scenario was very hard for the Romanians to hold out.

In essence, this scenario contains two separate battles, one at the town and the other at the bridgehead. It is up to the commanders to determine which battle will be best served by the artillery and other forces.

One possible Russian set-up would be to ignore one of the two objectives and just slam all your forces into the bridgehead or town. But where’s the fun in that!

En esta acción cinco compañías de infantería de la Guardia Real rumana deben defender un puente y una ciudad de un contraataque soviético. Los soviéticos disponen de una fuerza mixta de cuatro compañías de infantería, tres escuadrones de caballería, cuatro pelotones de tanques T-26 y T-37 y artillería y morteros.

La batalla tiene lugar de noche.

Dado que los rumanos tienen una moral superior, los soviétios utilizan tres compañías de infantería para fijar a la fuerza rumana que protege la ciudad y el resto se dedica a atacar el sector del puente sobre el río Prut. Los rumanos han formado un perímetro en torno a éste, que es inmediatamente atacado por los blindados soviéticos. La única batería AT rumana no puede intervenir por falta de visibilidad (sólo un hex).

La combinación del ataque blindado, del bombardeo de artillería, de las cargas de caballería y de los asaltos de la infantería llevados a cabo por los soviéticos acaba rompiendo la línea defensiva rumana.

Al final del turno 8 los rumanos han sufrido 12 steps de bajas y con sus escasas fuerzas son incapaces de desalojar a los soviéticos de las proximidades del puente.

Victoria soviética en menos de la cuarta parte de la duración prevista para este escenario. No obstante, la partida ha sido instructiva.

Es la tercera vez que juego este escenario.

Una selecta fuerza rumana, compuesta por los efectivos aproximados de un batallón de infantería más algunas unidades de apoyo (tres secciones de cañones AT de 47mm y una sección de morteros), debe defender una cabeza de puente en la ribera este del río Prut. Enfrente se encuentra una fuerza mixta soviética integrada por un batallón de infantería, medio regimiento de caballería, una compañía de tanques ligeros (T-26 y T-37), tres secciones de morteros y dos batería de artillería (cañones de 76,2 mm). Ambas fuerzas disponen de artillería fuera del mapa de respetable potencia (3 x 12 los rumanos y 4 x 10 los soviéticos). Los rumanos gozan de una moral superior.

La batalla se desarrolla de noche. Los rumanos despliegan sus unidades protegidas en pozos de tiradoe o resguardadas en la población del mapa 7. El despliegue inicial favorece a los rusos, que pueden elegir el blanco de sus ataques en las posiciones aisladas enemigas, ya que los rumanos han tenido que distribuir sus fuerzas en pelotones aislados en torno a su perímetro defensivo. En efecto, la combinación de la artillería, el fuego directo de los tanques y la oscuridad nocturna -que impide un fuego defensivo eficaz por parte de los defensores- permite que la infantería soviética asalte con éxito las posiciones rumanas.

La situación de los rumanos empieza a ser preocupante cuando su comandante ordena repentinamente un cambio de táctica y pasar al contraataque. Sin embargo, ya es tarde. Los rumanos consiguen algunos éxitos parciales, pero sus fuerzas se encuentran demasiado diseminadas y sus líderes son demasiado escasos.

La batalla entra aquí en una fase caótica.Los soviéticos también padecen escasez de líderes, que unido a la oscuridad impide que en varios turnos puedan aprovechar su artillería. No obstante, al final la situación es desesperada para los rumanos, con un perímetro defensivo perforado por múltiples boquetes por el que se filtran las unidades de caballería soviética.

A las 0315 el comandante rumano se da por vencido y cruza con los supervivientes a la orilla occidental del Prut.

Escenario interesante, aunque desnivelado (los soviéticos han ganado las tres partidas).

Paso el rating de 3 a 4.

In this scenario the Romanian 6th Guard Infantry Regiment is given the ardous task of holding on to 4 town hexes on the southeastern map; not only controlling the town but keeping any Soviet units from occupying it. Also, they have to keep the bridge area on the Northeastern map clear of Soviet units within a 4 hex radius. Not only that, but they have to keep their losses down to less than 12 steps to prevent a Soviet victory.

In the cover of darkness the Soviets split their forces into two groups; The 5th Calvary, supported with some infantry attack in the north, by the bridge and most of the other foot units attack the town in the south with a mix of T-26 and T-37 tanks. The Romanians by the bridge have dug-in in a half circle spaced apart by 1-2 hexes, 4 hexes out with 3 x 47mm AT guns evenly dispersed amongst the INF and HMG units. The rest of the Romanian units occupy the town.

The northern Soviet attack gets off to disasterous start when the calvary is sent in first to charge dug-in postions and soon enough, with little or any gain, 2 of the 3 calvary leaders are gone; one eliminated and one deserting. The third calvary leader, a Lieutenant with a mere 6-0-0 rating, remained either demoralized or disrupted most of the battle until just about dawn before he recovered back to good order. This left a lot of the remaining calvary units leaderless for quite some time, scattered around in the darkness. The other two regular leaders refused to break off from their flank attack to lead or assist those calvary units as they were having to keep rallying their own units to press on the main bridgehead attack. This worked out well enough as the calvary would be held in reserve until they were needed the most.

The Soviet assault on the town went much better during the night phase. Romanian units took most of the early step losses there and the Soviets were able to keep one urban assault going for quite a few hours. The nighttime (-1) direct and indirect fire modifiers favored the attackers and kept Soviet casualties down. The Soviet tanks split up; the T-26s moved around the town and tried to sneak their way in towards the bridgehead while the T-37s remained outside the town to mow down any demoralized, fleeing units. The T-26s don't make it too far before they are wiped out by a swarm of INF but they succeeded in dividing the enemy's forces up which were already spread dangerously thin.

The battle rages on for hours and both sides are locked in a stalemate until dawn. The Romanians are holding out in both areas and able to keep losses down. Eventually the Soviets get pushed out of the town from a counterattack and the attacking forces by the bridgehead have been pushed back into retreat. For a shortwhile it looks like the Guards will be able to hang on and at least end this battle in draw. As soon as visibilty increased past 2 hexes with the morning light the tide finally turned in favor of the Soviets. On board and off board artillery begins to tear apart Romanian dug-in postions in the north and the calvary, now reformed and regrouped makes more successful charges. The dug-in Romanian lines are breached while some straggling INF units that had fled the town assault earlier have regrouped and approach the bridge area from the south. By 07:00/turn 29, the Soviets have inflicted the required 12 Romanian step losses and now look to just hold back maintaining a presence within 4 hexes of the bridge to keep their victory.

The remaining Romanian guards do all they can to push the Soviets back again but their fighting strength has been severely reduced and are now too far spread out to keep all bases covered. By the end of the battle, after 36 turns, the Soviets have 5 steps of INF within the 4 hex radius of the bridge and win this deathmatch. It was not an easy victory and the Romanian 6th Guards Regiment put up a fierce resistance. They could at least boast that they drove the horde of Bolsheviks out of the town when outnumbered there at least 2-1 and won one of the two battles going on; unfortunately they needed to win both of the battles and the bridge was also of far more strategical value. This was a nice challenge for a solo play and as such, rated a '4' as it was a real cliffhanger. In a shared play, a better Romanian strategy may be to choose just one of two areas to defend but that would be likely pushing for a draw. Even then, it will be hard to keep step losses down to less than 12, especially once dawn breaks and full visibility is gained.

Scenario in prevalenza notturno. Il russo si avvicina senza grandi timori sfruttando l'oscurità. Il fuoco difensivo rumeno farà ben poco. L'assalto delle unità sovietiche nei pressi della zona del ponte è spietato e sanguinoso. Il rumeno lentamente perderà terreno su terreno. Intanto la cavalleria prende posizione difronte la città pronta a caricare alle prime luci dell'alba. Le unità di mortai e l'artiglieria sovietica si prepara anch'essa a colpire le posizioni difensive dell'asse all'alba. Una strage da ambo le parti, i russi prendono la città, infliggono 14 step all'asse e vincono la partita.

I rumeni hanno poco da fare, a mio parere non possono vincere. Le condizioni di vittoria per il rumeno sono al limite del possibile, Una buona strategia è puntare a un pareggio fin dallo schieramento iniziale : NON PERDERE PIU' di 12 STEP. Il rumeno deve sfruttare l'artiglieria anche di notte sfruttando la migliore copertura del DUG IN e rischiando "il fuoco amico".

Author	t1M0t8yk
Method	Solo
Victor	Soviet Union
Play Date	2021-03-21
Language	English
Scenario	EFDx011

The most likely path to RKKA major victory is elimination of 12 Romanian steps. The Romanians must keep the Reds more than four hexes from the board 3 bridge, and none occupying any board 7 town hex. Supplemental victory conditions I used are RKKA minor victory for capturing the board 3 bridge or complete control of the board 7 town, and Romanian minor victory for keeping the Reds more than 3 hexes from the bridge and Romanian control of two board 7 town hexes.

Five Romanian platoons set up on the eastern side of the town. The remainder create an unbroken perimeter four hexes from the bridge and east off the river. HMG and AT guns man the north, northwest, and southwest corners.

The Red Army plan is to attack west side of the bridge perimeter first using AFVs to disrupt or demoralize defenders before sending in infantry. Remaining forces will take positions two hexes from the rest of the perimeter without attacking during the night, pinning the Romanian defenders lest they concede any portion of the perimeter. A portion of the infantry supplemented by one of the T-37s will position between the Romanian-occupied town and the perimeter, in the event those Romanians try to reinforce the bridge perimeter. The Romanian plan is to hold the perimeter positions until the RKKA meaningfully break the perimeter. At that point they will withdraw at least two platoons back to the bridge. The Romanians just outside the town will fall back into the town if attacked. If not they will bide their time before considering possibly flanking the RKKA perimeter attack.

The first several turns are mostly uneventful. The German AFVs do eliminate a couple of Romanian infantry steps. Other troops position themselves for dawn, digging in outside the perimeter. Two Romanian platoons transfer from east of the town to north of the town and also dig in to their new positions. Meanwhile the Reds methodically attack the small portion of the east side of the perimeter.

As dawn breaks only two Romanian steps have been eliminated. A portion of the cavalry finally gets into action, charging the northeast corner of the perimeter. They soon get the worst of it, as the Romanian defender are helped by OBA. Meanwhile, at 0630 RKKA infantry have pushed through to three hexes from the bridge, and two platoons close to assault range on the southeast corner, now defended only by the AT battery.

Hard hit on the Romanians at 0630, when German OBA scores a double hit on a full HMG platoon positioned to defend the bridge. At 0730 the battke is devolving to a race to 12 Romanian casualty steps; only six turns left, and four casualties to go.

Finally, the last turn and only one step left to eliminate... and the Reds come in under the wire, taking out their 12th step with an early assault!

This was a pretty good scenario, and I believe the closest PG battle I've ever seen. That being said, even with the supplemental victory conditions I think it's difficult for the Romanians to win. It also drags a bit, which seems common for PG given its combat system of slowly building cummulative effects and scenarios with countless turns. The Romanians did come very close to acheiving a draw. Some might argue I was hypercautious with the Soviets, but my plan played out to their success. In retrospect perhaps the RKKA cavalry needed to be a lot more aggressive. They are very vulnerable to the strong Romanian OBA after dawn. Consequently take your chances with opportunity fire and charge with all cavalry at dawn.

I received a telegram from my editor. I was to be immediately dispatched to my next assignment. I would be joining the elite 6th Guards Infantry Regiment. On the morning of 23rd June 1941, with excitement and a mix of trepidation, I began my journey to join the Guards who were located on both the east & west side of the River Prut.

The Royal Guard Division had seized a number of important bridge-heads over the Prut and encamped themselves around Falciu and Bogdanesti in preparation for the morrow’s advance of the main part of the Rumanian Army. On the west side of the river, I was given a tent of my own set amongst a company of guardsmen. I placed my sparse belongings from my reporter’s case inside my new canvas covering and prepared myself for an evening of comforting sleep after the long travels of the day.

Around midnight, I was roused from what felt like a deep sleep by the frantic cries of “Stand To, Stand To”. Emerging from my tent, I took the arm of the first soldier that tried to run past me. “What’s going on” I asked.

“The Russians, they’re making a night attack, they’re advancing towards us, now let me get my things, I need to join my platoon comrades”. This soldier was just one of our brave men making ready amidst a cacophony of muddled sound. Mess tins being rattled, rifles grabbed, backpacks and other accoutrements frantically being strapped on against a background of the harsh voices of the NCO’s barking out orders, directions and instructions.

I soon learnt that a mixed force of Russian soldiers scraped up from the 5th Cavalry Division and 25th Rifle Division supported by tanks were advancing right at us in a daring night assault. Already, the sounds of immediate orders and intermittent rifle and artillery fire could be heard in the distance on the eastern side of the Prut. The 6th Guards, also known as the Mihai Viteazul Regt had the mission to keep the bridgehead open over the Prut and to hold the nearby town where so many supplies were coming through. Whatever happened, they were not to allow themselves to be pushed back over to the west side of the river at any cost.

NIGHT OF THE GUARDS (Eastern Front Scenario No.11)

Upon arrival to the area of action I saw an impressive defence of the town set up by the guards. They had dug-in all the way round in a complete defence of the town and had left the route to the bridge wide open. The logic obviously being that the main body of the Romanian Army were across that bridge and any Soviet incursion there would probably have been thrown straight back over.

In the pitch black it was a matter of awaiting the Russian forces. A mixed bag of infantry, tanks and cavalry advanced on the Romanian guards and after a nerve-jangling 90 minutes, contact was finally made. Soviet infantry began aggressive probing at our dug-in guardsman and in the process of an hour, lost 150 men. Romanian casualties were a measly 25. Taking the rebuff, the Soviets tried again at 0245 hrs. Another 100 Russians fell in this attack though 50 or so guardsmen lost their lives in the cause.

By 0300 hours, the Soviet Commander realized he would not force the Romanians back over the river, and yet, the guards did not have the ability to push the invaders from the bridge. Both sides retired and were happy to accept a stalemate.

I reached my tent by 0500 and was able to grab a precious four hours sleep. For the next week I had the joy of marching through Bessarabia with this fine unit as they liberated our fellow Romanians from Communist enslavement. Such glee I have never seen as our own people greeted the guardsman as their saviours. What fine times these are!

As the title of this AAR indicates not very impressed with this scenarion. This may be of course the way we played it. Vince in effect gave up the bridge position and defended the town with nearly all his troops. As the Soviet playe I ensured that Itook the area around the bridge and though I tried a little sortie against the town I pulled back after making little headway. Stalemate then ensued and we called it a draw with neither player having the strength or will to go for it. Realstic prehaps but not thrilling!