Rumania delays Soviet advance

[Puukkoo]

Rumania (2059 points) vs. Soviet Union

Mission is delaying action
Time is December 1942.


I control the Rumanians, perhaps for the first time ever. I must confess that I don't know anything about them. Their experience and morale values are 35-40 and leadership values about 35. This is gonna be tough.

My forces are:

1x M36 105mm Battery
3x 100 Howitzer Batteries
2x FO's
3x 75mm AT-Guns with transport
6x 50mm AT-Guns
3x Infantry Companies
3x FT Engineer sections
1x Frontier Platoon (Elité Infantry with Panzerfausts)

The Soviets will probably have masses of Armour and countless of men, like always.


TACTICS:
-Infantry Companies deploy around victory hexes using terrain as cover. Two 50mm AT-Guns deploy with each company. Same with engineer sections. With this deployment each Company has AT value with Molotovs, Flameguns and two medium cannons.

The Elité Infantry deploys behind the main line. They will conduct a counterattack.

The Heavy AT-Guns occupy the rear line and are used with the counterattack.

The Rumanians are ready, the battle may commence.

[Puukkoo]

It's now turn 3.

And the location was Southern Russia, near Stalingrad.
Visibility is 19, it's still dawn.

My initial bombardments hit enemy infantry. At least one squad dispersed and several others took casualties.

Enemy moves forward and has at least 20 tanks. I have none, where they always get those? There seems to be at least one KV-2 among them, a few T-34's and T-60's.

I continue with my bombardments. Let's hope that the enemy passes through my pre-set target hexes.

[Puukkoo]

Turn 4

I see that they have at least 39 tanks. One type seems to be mounted with 57mm AT-Gun. Sgt. Delavrancea attempted to assault a T-34 with Molotov Cocktail, but failed. Sgt. Brancusi assaulted the same tank three times and failed every time. Cpt. Antonescu, the 3rd Company Commander, successfully rallied Brancusi before each attempt.

One T-60 is destroyed by our At-Gun.

[Puukkoo]

Turn 6

It's looking pretty bad. My troops panic! Only few squads attempt to assault T-34's with Molotovs. Sergeants Brancusi and Delavrancea are both killed. Cpt. Antonescu tries to run away from the enemy sights. All close assault attempts fail, except one T-60 catches flames. They're breaking through our lines!

Still, our artillery hits marks. Our machineguns also nail down several enemy soldiers. Sgt Nastulesco's Schwarzlose has been credited with two kills. Antonescu's 50mm AT-Gun has so far destroyed three tanks.

The Enemy is reaching for the victory hexes.

[Puukkoo]

Turn 9

I can't but watch this horrible event. Russian tanks gush ahead and my army panics. There's a T-34 in the same hex as my Commander. He will probably die next turn.

Still, it's those Schwarzlose MG's that keep killing enemy men. 75mm's destroy one T-34, but that's not much. 2ndLt Ivanovici's Engineer Squad manage to destroy two tanks, but enemy hardly notices. Our Artillery keep firing.

At least the enemy suffers some casualties but it's ridiculous to call this a proper fight.

[Puukkoo]

Turn 12

My commander, Col Pomutz, is still alive but unable to command. Russians dominate the battlefield but yet they have not taken all the hexes. My troops are scattered. Some pockets of resistance keep inflicting casualties to the enemy. A moment of hope... but only because it can't get any worse.

Schwarzlose MG's keep firing. Russians have lost many men due to those.

2nd Lt Ivanovici destroys a third tank, but dies on the following turn.

Reinforcements are coming:

2x50mm AT-Gun
2xHalf Tracks (which could not carry those guns)
1xElité Infantry Squad
1xTruck

With this bunch there's still a chance... (desperate pathos).

[Puukkoo]

DRAW!

Rumania: 4936
Soviet Union: 3930

-It seems that holding the victory hexes saved the day for the Rumanians. Anyone else but the program would call this a Soviet Victory.

My army was practically wiped out, except for some heroes. Here they are:

Col Pomutz, commander - KIA
2nd Lt Ivanovici, Combat Engineer - 3 kills - KIA
Sgt Zolarab, Combat Engineer - 6 kills - KIA
Sgt Bucurescu, AT-Gunner - 2 kills - survived
2nd Lt Zolnay, MG-Gunner - 2 kills - survived
Cpt Antonescu, Company Co - 2 kills - survived
2nd Lt Titulescu, AT-Gunner - 4 kills - KIA
Sgt Gigurtu, Combat Engineer - 3 kills - survived

Casualties were:
Rumania 648
Soviet 308 and 18 tanks.

As a summary, this was a horrible match.

[PimpYourAFV]

Are you sure it was horrible? It sounds like you had a blast and now I wanna try romania. It was a skirmish or campaign battle? I intend to try Romania or Hungary in a campaign sometime. I think you could have benefitted from using mines, though they are not so fair against the AI. I've only them once while be clobbered by a sea of Russian tanks.

[Puukkoo]

Hello TokyoBoyTensai!


Thanks for commenting this one. This was a single Battle, to fight a campaign as a Rumanian needs some guts! Not to offend Rumanians at all - they beat us in soccer twice this season and our only goals were scored by penalty kicks.

I think this was a horrible fight. I really should have had some more AT-capability. And those elite troopers hardly hit a single enemy! I was disappointed.

Still there was some individual heroes, sadly many fell.[:(]