The scenario uses three boards with a central river and small village, with a larger village to the South. The Romanians enter from the north. They are mainly cavalry, an R-1 tank, a couple of 37mm ATG’s and some mortars. The Soviets enter from the south again mainly cavalry, some T-37’s, HMGs, and mortars.

The victory conditions are interesting and two-fold. Firstly each side gains victory points for eliminating steps and secondly (and more interesting) the Romanians gain 5 VP for every southern town hex occupied. So the Romanians do not need to gain ‘control’ of the town hexes just ‘occupy’ them – this victory condition had a profound effect on the game, as you will see.

Comparison of the forces is also interesting, leadership and morale is pretty even. Each side’s tanks do not have AT capacity making the Romanian 37mm ATGs a valuable asset. The Soviet T-37’s are slow but the Romanians R-1 is by far the fastest thing on the battlefield. Comparison of the cavalry is also interesting; the Soviets are better armed having a ‘5’ but there range is only ‘1’. The Romanians are more lightly armed with a ‘4’ but have a better range of ‘2’.

The Game: The Soviets quickly occupied the southern town (main objective) on board two. They sent out a couple of cavalry platoons to dispute the village in the middle of the board and the T-37s took up positions just in front of the southern town to attempt to slow down the Romanian cavalry.

The Romanians sped down the road towards the middle of the board. The Romanians gained an initiative bonus on the second turn and managed to occupy the middle village before the small Soviet cavalry force could. The speed of the R-1 counted here as it swept around the advanced Soviet cavalry. After a brief exchange of gunfire the Soviets withdrew but lost a step in the process. First blood to the Romanians.

The Romanians split their forces into three. The largest force occupied the middle village and awaited the arrival of the mortars and ATGs. The smaller western force moved around the large forest to the west. The eastern force made a wide sweep towards the small hill overlooking the main town. A rash move by a T-37 saw it being charged by the Romanian cavalry, after a mutual assault the tank withdrew hastily.

When the Romanian ATGs and mortars were in position the Romanians went again on the offensive. A three pronged attack from three separate directions forced the Soviets to spread their forces thinly. The Soviets only had the mortars, 3 HMGs and the T-37s that had any range greater than 1. The Romanian 37mm ATG’s set up facing the town from the middle of the board discouraged the T-37’s from defending the town’s outer edges.

With the speed of the cavalry the defending Soviet HMGs were denied many opportunity fire chances, the Soviet mortars caused some problems for the Romanians but a leader was on hand to rush around mopping up the stragglers. The limited range of the Soviet cavalry proved decisive, the Romanians could wait outside the Soviets maximum range and cavalry charge into the town, with only one opportunity fire chance against them. Of course the Romanian cavalry had to withstand quite a few column shifts against them – but as soon as some made it through and survived the first round of assault it was then up to the Soviets to dig them out – remember the Romanians only had to ‘occupy’ a town hex for 5VPs.

The Soviets had an advantage in most of the assaults – more AFV’s, some HMGs and ‘5’ value cavalry. The Romanians however kept infiltrating the town, leaving a platoon to ‘hold’ the Soviet assault while moving deeper into the town. Towards the end of the battle the Soviets had been successful in many assaults but it was almost like stamping out fires that continually spread throughout the town – the Soviets need to be victorious in the assaults so forces concentrated in them and so they could not afford to hedge in all the assault hexes to stop the spread of Romanian units.

Final VP score: Romanian 38 – Soviet 17.

An interesting scenario with replay value. It could be interesting to see if the Soviets could halt the Romanians before they reached the main town – but I doubt it. There is a river in the middle of the board, however it is equal-distances from both start lines so there is no guarantee the Soviets would make it before the Romanians. The Soviets have an advantage with their tanks but outside the town they are too easily bypassed by the speed of the horses and their firepower is not great.

In October 1941, the Romanians broke through the Russian trenches that were located south of Odessa. In true WW1 style, the 7th Cavalry Division surged through the gap and rode until they ran out of open ground. At Lustdorf they were checked by the Russian 2nd Cavalry Division. The Russians declined to countercharge and instead formed a defensive perimeter just outside Lustdorf, trying to hold off the Romanians. The line looked thin but the defensive positions were well chosen.

Seeing this formidable defense, the Romanians decided to await their support weapons that had great difficulties trying to catch up. The Russians would have nothing of it and launched forward a cavalry scouting company. The Romanians took the bait and charged the scouts with a whole battalion of cavalry before the Russians could threaten the support mortars. A Romanian massacre ensued and right from the start the Romanian centre attacking force was in tatters. Both Romanian flanks hesitated and as such their advantage of speed was lost. Flanking units were now needed in the centre to silence the scouts which were making a jolly mess of any existing Romanian plans.

For a whole hour the Romanian attack stalled and the officers were at a loss because they could not find a way to break the impasse. A half hearted attack on the left flank was quickly abandoned when the going got tough and quite suicidal. Finally, at half past two in the afternoon, the scouting party cracked and the Romanian Colonel desperately tried to reorder his troops. He decided to take advantage of his last resort: his troop’s superior shooting range. This new tactic uneased the Russian defenders who could not shoot back. When the Colonel massed quite some firepower and bundled it on a seemingly weak point, a whole company of Russian horsemen got mowed down. The Russian Kommissar ordered an immediate countercharge which had little impact. Worse was that this charge created a gap in the thin Russian line and not believing his luck, the Romanian Colonel took advantage and personally guided 3 companies right to the middle of Lustdorf! Russian morale broke and they withdrew leaving the battlefield and Lustdorf in the hands of the Romanian 7th Cavalry.

Looking over some of the other AAR’s on PG-HQ I decided to play this scenario and see what would maybe workout better for me in my game! This scenario has an interesting mix of unit types, victory conditions & nationalities. I mean Romanians and Soviets are just cool in WWII for me.

In the beginning of the game, it looks like the Soviets might have the advantage being closer to the main Romanian victory objectives of the town hexes on map #2, as they receive 5 points for each town hex on map 2 they occupy and points for eliminated Soviets steps as well. But the Soviets only receive points for eliminated Romanian steps. With this in mind, I decided to push past the town hexes on map #2 with about half of the Soviets forces. Sending some of their Cavalry and all of their T-37 tanks ahead to blunt the Romanian advancement while setting up the rest of their forces in the town on map #2 in defense, as the advanced Soviets forces could always pull back later to defend in greater strength in needed. The Romanians on the other hand, had a one track mind, head for Odessa!

When the two groups met in the middle of the battlefield on map #8, both sides has some Cavalry charges, assaults, direct fire & a little mortar bombardment as well. The Soviets actually assaulted the Romanian R-1 tank unit with 3 T-37 tanks units, as both tank types only have direct fire. The assault produced a step loss to the Romanian R-1 tanks and the remaining half step of R-1’s managed to pull out but this engagement allowed the Romanian 37mm AT guns time to setup a get some valuable hits on the Soviet T-37’s. The fight continues with losses about equal but the Romanian having too many units flanking and heading straight for Odessa which still had some Soviet HMG and other units defending but not enough to defend all those town hexes, so the Soviets now have to pull all their advance fighting units out of the forward positions and head back to help in Odessa.

At this point the Romanians just keep dumping units into Odessa for the great point values than even losing steps. Assaults start all over again with both sides now putting everything they can into Odessa. In the end the step losses are just about even but the Romanians have too many Odessa points with 5 per hex, just for occupying not controlling these hexes. A Romanian Victory!

Side note: the Romanians don’t have very many leaders, so advances have to be organized, the Soviets shouldn’t have advanced so far ahead of Odessa and defended closer back. Overall an enjoyable scenario to play.