AAR: The Duck Hunt

[Aeraaa]

Turns 21-30



I messed up with the pictures, so I had to remake the map. While slightly annoying, it gives me the opportunity to present the current situation much better, with all the destruction that happened.

In Malureni at (1), Russians made some last ditch efforts to capture the village, but to no avail. The three surviving Bizonuls together with supporting infantry proved too much to handle inside the narrow, ambush friendly streets of the village. Only a couple of immobilized T-80s , some BMPs and a few exhausted rifle squads is all that remains of the Russian force, which settles for bombarding the village mercilessly.

In Cosmesti at (2), Russians eliminate all resistance there and firmly control the village. They still have trouble moving around it, since the Romanian tanks and ATGMs from across Siret River cause troubles for them. They resort to shelling the Romanian positions there to disrupt them.

The depot at (3) is also captured. The surviving scouts put up a heroic resistance, tying down Russian infantry for 10 whole turns before the latter managed to eliminate them with the help of artillery. A very good result, considering the area is not an objective and only served as an outpost for scouting and calling artillery.

The big action these 10 turns happened in the urban area east of the bridges. Russians made a three pronged attack, slowly pushing the Romanian defenders back. Romanian casualties were horrific. By the end of turn 30, only 3 Romanian BMPs survived, all other forces being dead, wounded or captured. The only force that had any impact on the Russian steamroller was the excellent MRL artillery, which fired non-stop at the attackers around (4). I put only one strike marker, but in reality there should be like 30 there. Russian infantry was completely locked down and could not advance an inch. The T-80s though were quite persistent and eventually crossed the bridge. The Bizonul tanks at (6) tried to stop them, but they were all destroyed, as well as one more 100mm AT gun that was spotted. The Romanian infantry looked helpless to stop the T-80s, but the force that came to the rescue was the tank destroyer platoon at (5). This TD unit which up until now had made negligible impact on the battlefield was to save the day now. Firing from (5), they managed to knock out all T-80s that tried to cross the bridge, firing to their left side. The Russian T-80s had used all their APS shots by then and even their advanced ERA had taken several hits from the constant artillery shelling and/or RPG shots. That made the TD ATGMs very effective. Russians had to stop their advance and try to defend their possession (the bridge). My plan is to bring one Bizonul platoon (located now at 7) and together with the infantry there, counterattack and reclaim the bridge.

In addition to all this action, there is constant shelling everywhere. Russian artillery managed to neutralize the 120mm mortar platoon and also cause casualties at the Romanian reserves at Marasesti and Cosmesti Vale. Romanian artillery hunted the Russian AA defenses, mostly unsuccessfully. Russian SAMs managed to shoot down or kill all of my helos, another disappointing asset on my part. Zero participation in the battle, only casualties from them. On the bright side, I do not see any Russian aircraft any more, a testament to my own AA effectiveness as well. These Gepards truly are amazing. I decided to use my remaining aircraft to attack the Russians at (4), hopefully knock out the remaining tanks and soften them up before the final counterattack. I expect heavy losses, but I don’t want to give up the bridge without a fight.

[Aeraaa]

Turns 31-41 (end)

Immediately things went my way. My artillery and air strikes managed to destroy one T-80, while the other was abandoned by its crew. Russian infantry that tried to reach the bridge was massacred by the rain of steel constantly pouring over the bridges. That enabled one rifle platoon to recapture the bridge, aided by the tank platoon that came as reinforcements. Only a few stragglers remained in the area, though one of them managed to kill the last surviving BMP of mine with an RPG-29 shot.
In Malureni, a few sporadic an uncoordinated counterattacks just provided targets for my defenders. They confidently defended their objective, although sporadic 240mm mortar attacks and artillery barrages caused steady casualties.
I decided against pushing towards Cosmesti to recapture it, because there were two immobilized T-80s in the area. It turns out I could have pushed eventually, since the tanks were abandoned by their crews. The final few turns were quiet, with only occasional artillery duels from both sides.

The final casualty score is:




Equipment losses:

Romania

20 T-55M2 Bizonul MBTs
50 MLI-84M IFVs (BMP derived)
8 TAB-79 scout cars
2 100mm AT guns
1 BRDM-2 Konkurs tank destroyer
5 Gepard SPAAGs
4 A-95 SAM vehicles
8 HAWK SAMs
4 IAR-330D SOCAT attack helicopters
3 IAR-99 Soim ground attack aircraft
2 F-16AM Falcon fighter bombers

Russia

40 T-80BVM MBTs
3 PRP-4M FO armored vehicles
10 GAZ-2330 Tigr scout cars
91 BMP-1G or BMP-1M IFVs
7 BRDM-2 Konkurs tank destroyers
1 100mm AT gun
5 Tunguska-M1 SPAAGs
3 OSA-AKM SAM vehicles
4 KVP Hovercrafts
2 Ka-29 helicopters
3 Mi-24 attack helicopters
5 Su-24 strike aircraft
3 MiG-29SM fighter bombers

With the above things in consideration, I conclude that the battle was a draw. I did keep the Russians away from crossing Siret River, but my brigade suffered heavy losses. The Romanians did stop the Russians in the second battle of Marasesti, but their victory was a pyrrhic one. Their heavy casualties prevented them from being able to resist Russian follow up forces and the latter were eventually able to cross the river and penetrate towards inner Romania.

In general, while my forces did perform well, I couldn’t keep casualties lower than 18000. I believe the main cause was the defense east of the river, which made pulling back forces very difficult, if not impossible. My defending battalion was practically wiped out, together with half of my tank force, while the second battalion west of the river was almost completely unharmed. My AA assets also suffered heavy losses, since I found relocating Hawks very difficult. A few comments regarding each combat arm are following.

Infantry

Infantry played a crucial role in this battle from both sides. For the Romanian side, they were responsible for defending the urban areas around the map, they were quite successful against unsupported tanks even when they had obsolete RPG-7s and they proved to be more resilient than I thought (considering Romanian experience and morale isn’t exactly top notch). Russian infantry was also instrumental in securing objectives and fighting in rough terrain and urban areas. Their tanks were vastly more effective when they had infantry supporting them. Regarding BMPs both sides used them a lot, and Romanian ones were particularly more effective than a regular BMP. The reason was that they are modernized, with Spike ATGMs that were the most successful AT weapon in the Romanian arsenal. Even them though had trouble killing tanks which is a given in 2020, since tanks have APS and advance ERA that help their survivability a lot.
Russians tried to outflank the Romanians with an amphibious attack from the south. Its effectiveness was minimal. They only tied down one mechanized infantry platoon, they could not capture their objective and they were eventually destroyed by constant shelling and a well timed counterattack.

Tanks/other AFV

Tanks were also crucial for both sides. For the Romanian side, it was the most effective AT weapon. Even though their 100mm gun could not penetrate a T-80 frontally, their good rate of fire and fire control meant that side and rear shots were accurate and deadly. Unfortunately, Romanian tank gunners perform quite bad in many cases, often missing 60% probability shots, which proved fatal in many occasions. On the other side, the Russian tankers performed very well on an individual basis. Their tough armor and accurate 125mm guns meant that they were the undisputed masters of the open areas. Unfortunately for them, their company level tactics left much to be desired and their tank were frequently ambushed in the towns when they lost their infantry support, or when they were fired upon by enemy armor.

Romanian TDs also performed very well on a single instance that I mentioned earlier (when Russian T-80 were crossing the bridge). That can be attributed by the fact that the tanks were fighting for a long time and lost their APS and much of their ERA plates, making them much easier targets. Russian TDs were virtually non-existent (logical, since they were attacking).

Artillery

This was definitely one of these scenarios were artillery was king. Russian artillery constantly bombarded Romanian front line positions, AA sites, artillery that did not relocate and even the brigade HQ when it was spotted. Romanian casualties were high, since they were not dug in. Romanian artillery also fired like crazy in the battle, especially when the Russians tried to cross the bridge. It is safe to say that the Russian advance there was stopped by the Romanian MRLs unloading an ungodly amount of ordnance on and around the two vital bridges.

Air

The air assets for both sides performed either average or outright bad. Helicopters had minimal impact for both sides, they were being shot down very easily and did not do any significant damage. Fixed wing aircraft did some damage, but the losses were severe for both sides. There was simply too much AA coverage for both sides.

The final map with surviving platoons is the following. In general, Romania lost one whole battalion, Russia has only a company’s worth of dismounted infantry and several self propelled 240mm mortars left on map.



All in all another fun scenario. This is I believe the last Romanian scenario and, if I understood correctly, Czechs and Slovaks are next. This series are definitely full of interesting battles.