This was my first meeting engagement and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I found it quite interesting to begin the action with no enemy positions that were already in place to either attack or avoid. There was also the horrific thrill to know that somewhere, just up there. you were going to run into them. But it was only at that meeting could a course of action be determined.

As the action progressed, though, I realized that this one may not be everyone’s cup of tea. If you’re looking for a “slam-bang shoot ‘em up from the first activation” scenario, this won’t be for you. For such a short action, it unfolds at its own stately pace. Also, the fast and maneuverable MTC units make it fairly easy for the Axis to meet its VC’s.

Yet it can have its moments. The Axis forces set their MTC units out on the flanks, Germany on the left, Romanian on the right. The Romanian MTC’s, all but surrounded, ran a gauntlet of fire from Soviet armor and SMG’s, adroitly maneuvering themselves and exiting the board with all units intact. There was the jawdroppingly accurate AT fire from the SdKfz-222’s and the AT guns that took out step after step of Soviet armor and both Soviet tank leaders. There was the wild determination of the Soviet SMG’s that led them to charge the Axis position on the hill that defined their right flank. If only the Soviets had a little more time and leadership-!

In short, the action is a little slow-paced, but really worth playing.

This battle was fought head-to-head against Wayne Baumber. I seem to have a few 'chronological' series going on at present. The Yanks at the Westwall, the SS in Normandy against the British, and this, the adventures of the Armata Romana. This is basically the last the one before things get tough towards Odessa for our Rumanian friends, so for the first time, I have these Rumanians fighting alongside their ally, Germany in the crusade against Communist Russia

What's It All About

Well, the scenario before this featured the 1st Royal Armoured Division in front of Chisnau trying to get round some nasty Red Armour beasties, including the dreaded T34's. Fate had the Rumanians coming out on top on that one, and this scenario now pits their Recon troops before the gates of the same city, once more, trying to slip past more Soviet troops. To win, the Axis need to exit a certain amount of units whilst the Soviet, not needing to worry about the exiting enemy too much really just needs to inflict a certain amount of casualties to win, albeit, preventing exits would also lead to a win, but is not an exclusive objective.

Early Moves

The Rumanian and German troops headed straight up the main road, just far enough for their three AT platoons to deploy in a line that would keep Soviet armoured cars honest. Ahead of these and protecting their front were Romano/German infantry. And neatly placed nearby were the Axis motor-cycle troops. Strong enough to ward off the enemy where needed and fast enough to make a break when required. The Soviets entered in a linear formation in order to leave little in the way of gaps, but with a mixed bag of guns, armoured cars, tractor tanks and SMG units commanded by just 2 leaders, the command control of this lot would have to be cute. Mind you, the enemy had their command control issues too. Rumanians could not assist Germans and vice versa. However, if canny, setting up an officer from each nation in the same hex with both nations troops in that hex and either side allows a decent command structure to be realised in game turns. So for 6 turns both sides jostled around the board, but soon seeing an opportunity, the motor-cycle troops were able to make a break for the back of the board. This they reached with relative ease, but that was not the end of their battle.

Blood is Spilt - Eventually

Not until the 7th turn was a casualty sustained. A Soviet armoured car that had tried to move to the far north to discourage the enemy cyclists soon found itself swamped by these German recon troops as they failed to exit but instead mounted harrassing tactics from behind the Soviet main line. The Soviet commander, realising that he could not stop the enemy from exiting if they wished to, then threw his forces into fearless attacks in order to try and deplete the German/Romana force as much as possible.

It was these attacks that blew the game into a shooting war for real, but it really was a lop-sided affair in the end as Soviet armoured cars were blown away by dug-in Rumanaian AT guns. As for the Soviet SMG teams, although almost succeeding, they eventually got the worst of a shooting battle with the invaders. In the end, the casualties were simply too many for the defending Russians as they sustained 17 step-losses, mainly armour against just 1 step of the enemy AND the Axis forces were, from turn 6, always in a position to exit their required units when they wished to. This was to all intents a complete defeat for the Soviets.

I gave this a 3. It seems slanted towards the Axis, but reading other reports here show the Soviets have won before ? Though not up there with some of the more memorable games, it has some fun features. Rumanians and Germans combined with no ability to command each other. Lots of manouevre in the game is essential, and the need for both sides not to get too confident as each sides VC's are not neccesarily related. I'd also suggest it may be a good scenario for a newbie to try due to the various game pieces it uses. For those reasons I up it from a 2 to a 3 rating. Finally, if looking for more balance, maybe give the Soviets an 8/6 morale rather than 7/6 ?

I'm really not the best at "enter and exit" scenarios; especially as the attacker/runner because its hard for me to pass by a good fight rather than making an escape the priority. In this case I was able to keep a balance with the axis and have it both ways. The battle starts off with the Soviets getting the intiative and they are able to get units down the road first to try to halt or delay the axis advance. The combined Romanian and German recon units split up with their motorcycle units on either flank while other units make for the fields. The Soviets immediately send their SMG units to attempt to engage the enemy at close quarters and though they survive some intense opportunity fire they are quickly mowed down in the fields the next few turns after losing the initiative before they can make any assaults. Soon the remaining disordered SMG units would be tracked down and finished off and by battles end 4 of the 5 SMG units would be eliminated -so much for the Soviet infantry. Meanwhile the Soviet Ba-10M armored cars and T-37 light tanks would cover the exit areas triple stacked. There is a brief showdown between the German SdkFz 222 and the Soviet Ba-6 armored cars but neither side is able to do any damage to each other. However, German INF units are able to quickly flank that one armored car platoon and in turn quickly assault and annihilate it.

Meanwhile axis motorcycle units continue to make for the north edge of the map while combined axis INF keep the assaults going and easly overrun Soviet AT guns set up as a futile roadblock. It looks like a total defeat for the Soviets but the triple stacked armored units guarding the maps edge do manage to slow the axis exit. In fact the otherwise useless T-37s are able to come into thier own this battle and manage to elimnate one step of Romanian MTCs and disrupt or demoralize a few other platoons. The Ba-10Ms assist with DF in keeping axis units at least disrupted so that even the MTCs can only move one hex or attempt recovery but then there is a trick to not moving closer to demoralized units at maps edge so they cannot easily flee off-map from recovery failures. Keeping the T-37s on the short east-west road by the north map edge allows them to stay somewhat mobile and effective. The Soviets know they cannot prevent the axis from exiting the required steps so they try their best to eliminate the 7 required enemy steps for the win and keep units pinned down. As the battle begins to close all mobile axis units have exited but the INF units are left behind to fight their way through. In this case I played a very dangerous game with the axis attempting to exit all units rather then have the remaining INF units flee back to limiting terrain and/or dig-in to ride out the remaining turns. I knew this was tempting fate but wanted to see if they could pull it off. Well, right before battles end the two last German INF units attempt to exit but the T-37s strike hard again destroying one entire German INF platoon at the map's edge along with eliminating the German Major. This causes decapitation and the remaining disrupted INF unit cannot move the next turn though it is right on the map edge. So on the last turn the remaining Soviet units gang up on this last axis straggler spray it down with DF and then assault it but it holds out through all that abuse. In the end it is a Romanian victory as they only lost 3 steps and exited well over the required amount of units off-map.

Playing this solo I took a lot of unnecessary risks with the axis but really felt that even then it would still be hard for them to lose this one; in a shared match I would not have gambled so much with them. Had I played this one out "safe" for a Romanian/German win then it would of really been a bore; instead I got a good battle out of it and in turn was able to rate it a "3" instead of a "2" but this one would probably be enjoyed best played face-to-face rather than solo. Also believe that if the Soviets forget trying to prevent axis steps from exiting and get lucky with back-to-back initiative roll wins (as Wayne pointed out in his AAR) and then throw everything at the axis including the kitchen sink then they do stand a good chance of eliminating the 7 required axis steps for the win, regardless of how many axis units make it off-board.

Scenario #44, Red Steel: Gates of Chisinau, ended with a Romanian victory, as they were able to exit Romanian & German Motorcycle units without too much trouble, as the Soviet didn't apply a very good defensive plan and went to offensive with their Armor & AC's, thus getting them tangled up with other Axis units.

In this scenario several German and Rumanian recon units face up to elements of 47th Soviet Recon Battalion. The skirmish is played on two mapboards and lasts 20 turns.

Order of Battle. Axis: 3 x INF (Ger), 3 x INF (Rom), 2 x MTC (Ger), 3 x MTC (Rom), 1 x Sdkfz 222 (Ger), 3 x 47 MM (Rom), 9 x truck. Soviets: 5 x SMG, 3 x T-37, 1 x Ba-6, 3 x Ba-10M, 2 x 45 mm, 7 x truck. Moral: Axis 8/7, Soviets 7/6.

Victory conditions: The Axis player wins if at least 4 units (trucks don't count) exit the north edge of the board and no more than six Axis steps (trucks don´t count) have been eliminated. Any other result is a Soviet victory.

Axis tactics: the Axis forces will send their five fast MTC platoons and the armored cars platoon (Sdkfz 222) towards the north edge of the map, to slide along the hollows of the Soviet set up and leave the battlefield. The rest of units will deploy along the south of the river (minor river) of map 5 and will wait for enemy attack. Their superior moral, the protection of the river and the absence of indirect fire will allow the Axis forces to resist the desperate enemy attacks.The river obstructs the passage of Soviet armored cars (Ba-10M and Ba-6). The narrow space between the river and the south edge of the map will be occupied by Rumanian AT batteries (47 mm). The Axis forces will occupy, therefore, an almost unconquerable position. The key of the success is that at least four units can leave by the north edge of the mapboard.

Soviet tactics: The Soviets will deploy along the north edge of the map, making up a mesh to prevent the passage of enemy units. The armored cars platoons - the fastest Soviet units- will occupy the central position in the edge of the map, to move anywhere in case of need. The two AT batteries (45 mm) will use the increased range (rule 11.3) to prevent the passage of enemy trucks and armored cars.

Game development. As planned, the Axis forces send their MTC units at full speed towards the north edge, the Germans by the east flank and Rumanians by the west flank. The Soviets detect these movements and send their fast units to cover the hollows. The Soviet SMG platoons, loaded in trucks, go towards these hollows as well. At the same time the rest of the Axis forces (INF platoons and AT batteries) deploy along the south of the river of map 5.

The MTC platoons feint to avoid enemy units and go towards the center of the board, now almost free of Soviets. Nevertheless, the Opp. Fire of T-37 Soviet tanks hit and demoralizes and disrupts some MTC units. The Soviet SMG platoons take advantage of this, come near in their trucks and unload adjacent to the enemy. In the following turn the Soviets have the initiative and assault the Axis units. The result is uncertain in the beginning, but the numerical superiority prevails and two MTC are destroyed. Some SMG units are disrupted and demoralized.

The rest of Axis MTC is reorganized and goes towards the north edge by the west flank, where they have found a hollow. A Rumanian step more is destroyed in this moment. Two Soviet 45 mm AT batteries hastily go in truck to cover the hollow. However, two Rumanian MTC platoons are able to leave the board. The Sdkfz 222 platoon German tries to leave as well, but is destroyed in extremis by Soviet batteries. The Germans count already seven steps of losses. They have lost. We are in turn 12. Axis losses: 7 steps. Soviets losses: 0 (2 trucks). Typical PG scenario of movement. Interesting.

Vince and I both agree that in our AAR's we should never say that the scenario is so unbalanced that it can NOT be won by either side. I am very tempted to break that rule in this case, however I know that the Soviets have won a playing of this scenario,so I will just say this is a very tough one for the Red Army. A mixed Axis force of MTC,ATG and INF have to exit four units of the north edge of the board and not lose more than 6 steps. The Soviet force facing them looks strong on paper, 3 tank units 4 A/car units and SMG infantry, but those tank units might as well be made of paper with a zero armour and a movement of 5 they are no match for the Romanian ATG and can not catch those MTC. That is the problem with this scenario is the three ATG's can destroy the Soviet tanks and A/Cars before they can close with the German and Romanian INF and the Axis MTC have the speed to avoid combat and exit at will. In our battle the Axis force advanced down the road and deployed in a strong battle line with the ATG just in the rear to give fire support as required. The Soviets likewise deployed in a line and tried to keep the vulnerable tanks and A/Cars out of sight of the enemy guns. For about 90 minutes there was some jostling for position, by that time though the Axis MTC were in the rear of the Russian forces and could exit at will. Of course Vince left them on the board to pounce on any easy target. The Soviet commander ordered the advance and pushed hard against the enemy line but although the German and Romanian line was pushed back it came at heavy losses to the valiant Red Army and when the counter attack came from both the Axis INF to the front and those pesky German MTC there could only be one outcome. SO how could the Soviets win this, they have to accept the fact that the enemy can get four units off the board and close with the rest of the Axis units as fast as possible in an effort to engage in direct fire or close combat. To do this needs luck (the Soviet player needs to win the initiative for the first two turns), he needs to keep his troops on the rod and in trucks jumping out of the trucks at the last moment and I fear he needs his opponent to be inept. (My opponent rarely is even slightly inept). I rate this game as a 2, I do agree with Vince that for new players it offers a quick scenario with some interesting units and therefore could be worth playing while learning the game. A little end note do agree on board orientation before you set up/plan as it is not clear from the rule book which way the boards go