AAR: A runamia AAR

[a_ver_est]

This is the history of a Romanian infantry reinforced battalion leaded by the Lt. Col Samoila versus the Russian forces.

The initial core force is:

3 x infantry companies
1 x engineer section
6 x R2 tank (aka Pz.Kpfw. 35(t))
2 x 47 mm AT sections plus prime mover ( 8 tubes)
1 x field gun battery (4 tubes)
1 x Off map gun battery (3 tubes)
1 x Artillery observer
4 x Ammo truck
6 x heavy truk

A few iron man rules:

- Support points will be used only for mines, trenches, etc in defensive misions or air strikes if available.
- Only victory objectives blocks will be used, having them spread for all the map doesn't seems realistic to me.
- No reloads.

[a_ver_est]

First battle (meeting engagement - 32 turn - visibility 13):

Battle plan:

Companies A and B will advance over the north and center victory objectives while C and tanks (T) are kept in reserve.
AA guns will cover the south flank. Once targets are controlled A and B will turn right to reach the third objective.




GO:


Company A and B advanced to their objectives supported by AT guns, with some scouts behind.

Through the north way a few bt2 were detected, AT guns were fast deployed and neutralized them.

After that, an armor assault was focused at the south flank of the B company which was near to reach his target, they had the support of two at-guns only, so they took cover at the small forest in front of the victory objective.

Some other tanks where detected through the gap between A and B companies , but the AT support there is able to neutralize them without problems.

For the surprise of the B company after a small fire exchange the enemy tanks outflanked without engaging them, one AT gun was lost . Now the enemy tanks were heading our battalion rear, which was only protected by a few AA guns, the Lt.Col. dispatched the tank reserve to protect it.

At the north, over the horizon some enemy infantry squad were detected, our men take fire positions in a tree line and waited.

B company became under heavy artillery fire, suppressing them, also 12 more tanks were heading them, it seems that they were the target of the main armor assault, but his two AT guns had been neutralized, one destroyed and the other one crew less. The tank reserve was moved ahead to support them after secure the battalion rear.

At same time large number of enemy infantry were reaching the north victory block, artillery fire was plotted on them, Company C on trucks fast moved to the Company A rear ready to support them if necessary.



The situation is really bad, at the north a big infantry assault threat the A company, some of their squad are routing under heavy small arms fire of the enemy, C was deployed to support them. The Lt. Col. Samoila hoped that the artillery fire will be enough to stop them, but their numbers were huge.

At the center the situation of the B company was still worse, they were in a real danger to be overrun, our tank force arrived and were near to fall over the enemy flank in a desperate attempt to stop the armor assault, but a retread to a second line covered by smoke grenades was ordered by Cpt. Modreanv because company situation was to exposed. The only good new was that one AT gun could be recrewed and moved to a better position.

After few minutes of hard fight the enemy tank force, literally went over the the B company and headed to north to support the massive infantry assault. The re-crewed gun was finally destroyed, most of B squads were routed, all of them have had causalities, a few have lost even 50% of their men. The only hope was our own tank force which successfully have attacked the enemy flank and now was at the rear of the enemy force.

Then the miracle !!! our tanks, forming a compact formation, destroyed 5 enemy ones for only one of ours slightly damaged. The squads of the B company which has had less loses joined them and close assaulted the tanks, they couldn't destroy anyone but provided cover for our own armor.

The B company plus the tank force exploited their success, quickly advanced over the victory box forcing the enemy to retread. At the north the company A and C could kept the ground, and now the artillery was blasting over the infantry horde, also the tanks which the enemy had moved to support them was having heavy losses due our AT guns.

After some fight at the center objective the enemy defense fall, now Romanian troops control the central victory objective. A few scouts were dispatched to the south target to check the enemy forces at the area.

The Russian north offensive was stuck mainly because the artillery fire which suppressed the infantry as expected, the AT guns eliminated the tanks which came to help, then the A and C companies launched a counter attack, after few minutes they manage to reach the victory objective and Russian troops flied.

Finally the scout patrol sent to the south target manage to capture it on their own due the lack of opposition.

A Decisive Victory for us !!!

[a_ver_est]

Second Battle (meeting engagement - 36 turn - visibility 62):

Pre-Battle:

After the previous battle it was obvious that the artillery of the battalion was inadequate, the fire power showed by Russian was far superior so we have been reinforced with a 80 mm mortar section.

Also enemy armor probed to be a big problem, infantry weapons were absolutely inadequate even at short range, also at guns were short of number to deal with the large forces which enemy was deploying. Despite our request nothing was get from the HQ.

Battle Plan

There is a river crossing the area, all victory objectives are at our river side, so it will provide an excellent natural defense mainly at the north, it is plausible that enemy will use the diagonal road to develop its main effort.

Company A from advance over the north objective and will take defensive positions at our river side, also heavy artillery will blow the bridge.

At the south C company will advance and will set an ambush around the victory objective in the forest.

B company will be deployed at the center to cover with is fire the center victory objective with AT-gun support, also will keep the truck section to be able fast response if necessary.

Tanks will be the reserve.




GO

After few attempts the north bridge was blow when the enemy tanks were reaching it.

Locking that the enemy armor is using the north road, the Lt. Col. Samoila ordered the B company to advance over the center objective, it will led the battalion without an infantry reserve, but they would be able to take an easy target.

The At-gun was stopping the enemy tanks at the north road, meanwhile the rest of the front is quiet, the C company is deploying his ambush near the south objective and the B company had bypassed the objective seeking for a better fire position.

6 bt2 are detected at the south, they bypassed the objective, they were still far so AA-guns, At-guns and tanks were ordered to hold the fire and led then get near to give them a good surprise. Meanwhile more tanks reached the destroyed bridge, heavy artillery was firing over them.

But one thing surprised the Cpt Modreanv, a big noise is noticed in front of the B company, suddenly from the trees appeared a big tank, with many turrets. It looks like a very different thing than this poorly BTs.

The bridge defense was hard, despite the artillery support the enemy were able to cross the river an establish a bridge head, enemy artillery suppressed our men and the AT-Guns were abandoned. Two AT gun more were sent as reinforcement.

At the center large number of enemy infantry was coming but the river was delaying them. BTW at the south some tanks were advancing into the forest but meanwhile weren't an immediate problem, they were close assaulted by infantry hidden in the trees.

The fought at the north bridge continue, infantry kept trying to assault tanks and artillery was firing over them none of the sides was able to win the other one.

At the center many infantry units were coming but the river was acting like a natural wall allowing B company to resist, also artillery was doing its job suppressing them.


The south ambush had been successful, all the enemy tanks was destroyed, fought was hard some squads ran out of hand grenades, but the victory was absolute.

At the north road the A company has destroyed the bridge head at our river side, now the enemy has retread to the other side, most of their armor was destroyed, and his infantry support was routing.

The center victory objective was secured by the B company many of the enemies were routed and it didn't seem that there was any danger, anyway our tanks reserve was sent there to deal with the t28 heavy tanks.



Once the 3 victory objective seems to be secured new orders were dispatched, company C should advance through the south road to attack the enemy rear. Trucks were sent to support the advance.

The enemy keeps trying to assault the center victory objective, they were bombing our men with heavy fire but we manage to keep the line, our tanks were very effective against the enemy squads, t28 probed to be vulnerable to our guns despite several shoot were needed.

At the south the company C advances slowly, the road was to dangerous to go on truck, so we had to be cautious, anyway they manage to infiltrate and reached an artillery position destroying 3 guns.


Decisive victory for us !!!

[a_ver_est]

Third Battle (advance - turns 36 - visibility 45):


Pre-Battle

Our battalion has been restructured, companies has lost his recon elements (scouts) and were replaced by two man AT-teams armed with Molotov cocktails or tellermines.

A fourth company has added, it was to be the recon element of the battalion so they numbers were:

2 x motorbikes
8 x scouts
3 x sniper


Battle Plan

There was a river dividing the map in two areas the north and the south, there was a bridge to cross the river but it was in the enemy rear. Two victory objectives were at the north and the other one at the south.

When preparing the battle it become obvious that north and south troops couldn't be able to support each other. Also if we try to deploy 2 reserve forces, they had to be to small, and deploying only one will led one of the attack vectors weakened.

Finally it was decided to attack through only one side of the river, concentrating all the force to fast overrun the defenders and use the bridge to cross the river and attack the enemy from the rear. The south side was chosen because it had a road to speed up our attack also it has only one victory objective so lees defenders were expected.

Company D (recon) will fast advance to the objective, near followed by company B, C and tanks using the road, once near the objective C will move through the forest to reach the bridge, meanwhile B will assault the south objective.

A on trucks will be the reserve.

Speed was very important or we will lack of time to take the two north objectives, also we needed the bridge in one piece, so we had to be carefully with artillery usage.



GO:

Motorbikes where launched fast to the objective, for our surprise no enemy was found until we were near to reach the victory objective, we expected that south defenses could be weak, but it was better than our most optimistic thoughts.


Company B engaged the enemy squads defending the objective but they old the line, after a short fire exchange the defenders retreat a bit, but the Lt. Col Samoila decided that he could no waste time to secure the objective, so ordered to B company split his forces in 2 teams, 2 infantry sections (call them B') has ordered to keep the defenders pinned meanwhile C company arrive and the rest of the company will advance through the road to secure the bridge.

Meanwhile Company B was engaging the defenders some tanks were detected hidden in the forest, our tank section was sent to deal with them, they were destroyed without any loss. Once done tanks joined to the B company through the road to reach the bridge.

Looking the situation enemy tried to move force from the north to the south, some infantry squads appeared in the border of the forest next to the north river bank, C company was ordered to change their way an intercept them.

Also a small force was detected at the bridge road, 2 bt 7 tanks and 2 heavy machine guns. 75 mm artillery was plotted on the bridge to suppress the machine guns plus any other hidden unit without damaging it. But our troops advanced faster than expected, BTs were destroyed when they tried to advance through the road and our own tanks destroyed the machine guns, unfortunately no counter order was sent to the artillery and our troops were gunned by our own fire, one tank was immobilized as result.

By the time B' forced enemy troops to route, also detected some mortars and guns which were neutralized, the south objective was secured.

At the river bank, more and more enemy troops were saw, so reserve was sent to help company C which was under enemy artillery fire.

The half company B sent through the road established a bridge head at the other side of the river, and was to reach the victory objective, but a hidden At-gun destroyed one of our tanks, also some infantry squad pinned our men, smoke was launched, artillery was plotted and snipers were ordered to find good firing positions.



B' kept moving through the rear trying to locate more enemy artillery but for our surprise located the enemy HQ, we launched our forces over him, after a short fight the HQ was destroyed.

At the river bank the enemy resist into the forest, our men were at open field so they were in disadvantage, also enemy artillery was creating problems, our own artillery was ordered to suppress them.

At the bridge head things were going mad, large numbers of enemies move out from the forest, they were very low of moral so got routed even with only one casualty, but they were many !!! and our force was to tinny, we were having problems to deal with them, and our infantry squad were forced into melee combats several times. The result was an absolute massacre for Russian but with a high price for our men.

After that all resistance stopped, any remaining unit fly as soon as our troops open fire, the victory objective were secured without more losses.

Decisive victory for us !!!

Post Battle thoughts:

It has been one of the funniest battles I ever played, the attack of the infantry at the river bank surprised me, reserve was still to far to deal with them and forced to alter the plan sending the C company to block the counter attack, it led the B company alone to take the 3 victory objective and protect them, the resistance at the south one was so weak and looking the number of units engaged at the river I though that the two north objective wouldn't have many defenders, by my surprise (again) there were many enemy infantry still there which I can destroy only because their moral was very low after losing their HQ.

My worst fault was using the reserve to support C rather than advance with it through the road to support B sections at the north area, I really though that Russian will concentrate their effort in the river counterattack and didn't expected any kind of reserve at the victory objectives.

Fortunately my men did a good job anyway.

[a_ver_est]

Fourth battle (Advance - 32 turn 42 - visibility 76):

Battle plan:

There was a river crossing the map, two victory objective were at the other river side, at the north there was a road with a bridge. The south terrain were dominated by two main hills.

We will avoid using the road/bridge, we will use the hills to cover our advance, company A will approach for the north, B from the south,using a classic pincer movement. C on trucks and tanks will be the reserve.




GO:

Thanks to the great visibility our scouts located the enemy forces soon. It looked like the enemy put some efforts protecting the bridge, several infantry units were deployed in the plain next to it. The Lt. Col Samoila ordered plot the artillery fire over them, also two T34 were spotted, we had reports from Germans that those tanks were hard so we ovoid a direct fight. Heavy artillery was fired over them, after some rounds one was immobilized and the other one routed.

Meanwhile the company A advanced through a pass between two hills letting a section with HMG support in a trees to cover their flank of an hypothetical advance of the enemy infantry at the other side of the river.

Company B advance trough the south path, reaching the hill in front of the victory objective with few resistance.

Tanks were ordered to move through the flank of the B company to add their firepower to the incoming assault, but they were ambushed by two AT-guns. Fortune were with us and they were able to retread with no losses, only two tanks were light damaged.

Scouts checked that the victory objectives were lightly protected, it become obvious that enemy deployed their main forces at the north to protect the bridge, now our artillery was blocking the unit's shift that he was trying, so objectives were at our disposal.

Reserve were ordered to support the assault, the only defenders were a few T-60 lightly supported by infantry. After a short fight the objectives were under our control.

Decisive victory for us !!!

Post Battle thoughts:

It has been an easy battle mainly because the enemy failed deploying their forces, he protected an approach route which we didn't use and later on our artillery fire didn't allow him to move his units. The most important think is that Russian has begun to deploy T-34s, hard days will come.

P.S. To the thread followers (if any). I have been on holidays, and haven't had time to keep the thread update, now at home the adventure of romanians will go on.

[a_ver_est]

Fifth Battle ( Pursuit the enemy mission - 42 turn - visibility 76 )

Pre-Battle:


After crushing the Russian the HQ has spotted a good opportunity to inflict a heavy damage to the enemy, we have been requested to pursuit enemy forces to break the front.

Our forces were at 80% approx. Our major concern was the At-gun losses, only 5 were left. Considering that we had found some T34 before, it wasn't a good thing.

Battle plan:

The enemy had chosen a good position to play a defensive battle. There was a river which cross all the map from north to south, it got divided in two sub rivers so if you started at the map center you need two cross two river sections, at the south there was a road with a bridge.

From previous battles we know that Russian often defend roads and bridges very well, so it looked like a hard way, but if we deploy our our forces at the north we must do a big encirclement or we must cross two river sections, also the terrain was plain with few vegetation offering poor cover.

Finally it was decided to deploy our main forces at the south, company A will advance in parallel of the road using the terrain to cover the advance. B on trucks and tanks will try to advance as fast as possible to surround the south victory objective to fast destroy the defenders, then proceed to the two north ones.

Company C will be deployed at the north, their primary goal was pin the defenders to not allow shift troops, their secondary goal was support the advance of B and tanks when they reach the enemy rear.



There wasn't reserve. So we played everything at the first shot.


Go:

Things went bad from the start. Enemy deployed many infantry squads in advanced positions, so company B had to unmount from their trucks after advance only few meters, even worse a lucky enemy artillery shot destroyed two AT-guns, lettings our south group with only one left.

At the north C advanced and made contact with the enemy, with artillery support it managed to cross the river, but as soon as they was at the other side, resistance begun to be harder and they were unable to kept advancing.



Meanwhile at the south A,B and T manage to reach the objective surrounding it, enemy armor was located far, our tank guns were absolute useless at such distances. Our remaining At-gun was deployed and knock them but a lot of time was lost. With the objective on our hands our men tried to advance through the enemy rear to reach the north objectives. Despite the efforts of C company the enemy was able to shift some forces, about 6 tanks and 8 or 10 infantry squads. Tanks were fast neutralized at short distance by our ones, but infantry took a hill and we were unable to clear it until artillery arrived to suppress them, more time lost.

Again advancing our tank force was ambushed by two at guns losing two thanks (crew was able to survive). Artillery was plotted over enemy At-guns and neutralized them.

Finally all remaining forces advanced over the victory objectives capturing it.

Marginal victory for us !!

Post Battle thoughts:

We failed to get a Decisive victory for only 200 points (approx.). I have played very bad this battle, recon force weren't enough and they didn't go advanced enough, also HMG couldn't keep the speed of the advance as consequently they weren't when most needed. Also the lack of reserve didn't allow to put more pressure when needed, but it was a well know risk.

Also some bad look, losing two at-guns from a fortune shot at the game start was a big problem letting the south advance really compromised since our tank guns proved to be useless in large distances, we were lucky that enemy lacks of heavy armor this time.

One note for the future, our battalion has heavy problems when fighting in open field due the poor effective range of our weapons, the worts is that there isn't anything in our country inventory which we can request to solve it.

Lets hope next battle will be better.

[runequester]

just letting you know that Im enjoying reading this

NEver played as the rumanians

[a_ver_est]

Sixth Battle ( Delay - 42 turn - visibility 39 )



Pre-Battle:




After our failure to get a decisive victory the enemy seemed ready to launch a counter attack, we were ordered to delay their advance. The enemy armor was every day more advanced, we have concerns about our capacity to stop it. 




Battle plan:




There was a road at the north which cross all the map from east to west, no river this time. Two victory objective were next to the road, they were behind a forest. The third victory objective was far at the south, also a behind small forest. Between them there was a big plain.



Company A will be deployed at the north forest supported by two AT-guns. Company B will be deployed at the south forest supported by two AT-guns also.

We will cover the gap between them with two AT-guns more plus the HMG section of the company C and snipers.

Two AT-guns more, tanks plus company C without their HMG will be the reserve.



The plan was simple, keept the ground. Use reserve as movile reinforcement.



Go:



After few minutes of calm some groups of light tanks (T60) could be spotted along all the front, orders were to hold the fire until enemy was really near. This was because the poor performance of out AT weapons vs the newer enemy armor.



After successfully destroying the most of the light tanks their big brothers come, a big group of T-28 multiturrets at the north and center, A group of Valentine III at the south, and still more light tanks supporting them. 

Also some cavalry squads at the north and a big infantry group at the south. The firsts ones were neutralized by HMG fire, but our fire power was to low to stop the infantry.



Heavy artillery was plotted over the T-28 groups, the advance at the center was fast neutralized, trough the north road the enemy advanced routing our AT-gun crews and entered into the forest. AT-teams were ready to ambush them, but they were far outnumbered.



Also it become obvious that the south flank was so weak, a tank manage to do an encirclement and reach the victory objective, the engineers section engaged it in close combat and successfully destroyed. But there was a big concern about the possibility of a big group doing the same maneuver. One of the central HMG were ordered to reinforce this flank.



At the south the Valentines III proved to be protected against our AT-guns even at short distance. So heavy artillery was requested to try to stop them

.

At the north forest enemy tanks advanced, orders were retread into the forest while fighting, set and ambush then move back and set a new ambush ... Our infantry close assaulted the enemy tanks all the time, the loses of Russian were huge.

A remarkable action was done by the Caporal Duca Squad. Two tanks next to the south road border were to annihilate the Caporal Muru squad, Duca and his men were hidden at the north border of the road, when tanks were to attack he leaded his squads and attacked them at the back with hand grenades. They knocked a T-28, then another T-28 and finally a T-26. Three tanks in less than 10 minutes. Great !!!!




(off topic: please add a game option to give medals for this kind of actions)



At the south forest similar orders were dispatched, with similar results, as soon as tanks went inside the forest were assaulted taking heavy causalities, also enemy infantry squads were ambushed.



Despite the valor of our men actions the situation of noth forest front was desperate , fight was very hard. Soviets were blasting the area with heavy artillery, many of their men died by friendly fire, also his tanks were suppressed by their fire. But at our lines the situation was chaotic, many squads were unable to move, neither advance or retread and were taking heavy loses. Company A have had about 60% of causalities. The only good thing was that enemies who arrives at the forest border was being destroyed by our tanks and AT-guns.



At the south forest things went better, defense was solid, enemy lost many tanks and their artillery wasn't a big problem by now. Also C company arrived allowing an in depth defense which probed very effective.



Then after the biggest artillery fire which we ever had seen the front at the north forest collapse, all men remaining of the A company flies, the forest was on Russian hands, now our tanks had to defend the forest border at any price.



Fortunately enemy tanks reached the forest border one by one, rather than in a compact block, so our tiny defenses can deal with them. Also some infantry reached the victory objectives by the road, our mortars fired over them, after few fire exchange they routed.



Finally enemy attack lost their force and we were able to take the control of the forest back to our hands.



Marginal victory for us !!




Post Battle thoughts:



It was a hard battle, enemy number were really big, enemy armor was far better than our self, for example 3 R2 have fired to a 1 Valentine at 100m without being able to knock it, even our AT-guns had problems in medium range distance (more than 500m).



As example of numbers, enemy deployed:



--------------Total---destroyed---routed


T28--------------19-----18---------1
T60--------------13-----13---------0

Valentine III----27-----18---------9

T26--------------20-----19---------1



Everything vs 6xR2 tanks and 8x47 mm AT-guns. Obviously infantry had to play a big antitank role.



The worst is that enemy will kept improving their numbers and material while we can expect anything new for a long time.


[Imp]

Three tanks in less than 10 minutes. Great !!!!

I still remember when I first started playing this game defending with the Germans on the Eastern front in the early years.
I had one platoon of engineers & one squad virtually single handidly killed a couple of squads & 8 tanks or caused them to bail. I had other problems so all he got was the odd squad to help him but they kept running. His valient actions meant managed to free some units to bail him out by which time all he had was rifle rounds left.
Never seen it repeated they held at all costs & were not even dug in.

[a_ver_est]

Seventh Battle ( Advance - 46 turn - visibility 26 )



Pre-Battle:




In recognition of the battalion victories Lt Cap. Samoila has received a Steyr 440 car for his personal use.




Battle plan:



Winter was here, first snow had fallen. The area of operations was plain with two small hills at the north-center and a forest in front of the second hill, there was a road at the south going west to east.

Victory objectives were one at north, another one at the center into a small valley (both behind the hills) and the last one at the south near the road into a small forest.



Company A and B will advance supported by tanks against the north objective. Company C will be the reserve on trucks. The goal was overrun north defenders, then turn to south and attack the center and south objectives from their rear.



Go:



At the edge of the north hill some enemy infantry squads were ready to defend the way. Our snipers did a good job, and they routed fast. Once over the objective defense was weak the major problem were a few ambush done by enemy HMG, but they were neutralized by mortar fire.



At the center objective two T-34 were located by our scouts, our large guns were ordered to fire over them, one was destroyed with the first rounds but the second one looked invulnerable. Far to the east an enemy armor reserve were located, it was formed by 3 T-26 and 3 Matilda II. 



As always when enemy heavy armor makes presence our advance go stop. Our own tanks had to be withdrawal, they couldn’t deal with enemy ones. They were ordered to do an encirclement protected by the hill and advance through the road. Infantry reserve joined them.





After some fight and more artillery fire the crew of the surviving T-34 abandoned the tank, also the T-26 were destroyed by our AT-guns and Matilda's crews seemed to be too afraid to kept fighting. Two of them was destroyed meanwhile retreating.



We had to cross the valley to reach the third objective, some enemy squads were firing us from the other border of it, artillery, snipers and our LMG took care of them letting the way clear to advance.



Both attack vectors (tanks through the road and infantry through the valley) reached the third objective at same time, resistance here was very weak, defenders were overrun and objective secured. Soviet HQ was located at the end of the road and destroyed. 



Decisive Victory for us !!!!!





Post Battle thoughts:



A short and easy battle.