Ce soir, Tank Battle at Chisinau, sur les conseils de Kalman (je crois Very Happy ). Petit scénario très sympa. Des chars roumains doivent traverser toute une grande carte pour aller attaquer Chisinau au sud. Des T34 très puissants mais peu nombreux sont en face, plus des T26 plus nombreux mais peu mobiles. Dans ma première tentative, les roumains ont l’initiative, essaient d’attaquer les T34 en prenant le bonus de tir croisé. Mais ça les ralentit sans pour autant réussir à détruire les T34. Moralité, les russes peuvent allumer les roumains, et je n’arrive à sortir que deux chars roumains, et encore, réduits tous les deux.

Je refais une tentative : cette fois, les roumains foncent, et se séparent sur les deux côtés de la route principale. Coup de bol, l’avion romain a réussi un deux sur sa première attaque sur une pile de T26. Autre coup de bol, le tank leader russe choisi au hasard est démoralisé. Les russes n’ont plus que deux tanks leaders, et ne peuvent pas suivre les deux groupes roumains. Les T34 arrivent à éliminer le premier groupe, mais le second (trois chars roumains intacts) sort, et c’est une victoire roumaine.

Over-committal by the Soviets, combined with a tough initiative break, allowed the Romanians to slip past the first time I tried this battle.

More patient tactics and better positioning as the Soviet player forced the Romanians to come to me, resulting in the head-to-head shootout I had been hoping for, and which the Soviet player should never lose in this scenario.

All in all a great introduction to PG armor.

A local gaming buddy of mine brought Eastern Front Deluxe with him one day to a gaming session and when were done with our SWWAS game we decided to give it a try. We picked scenario 43 because it looked fairly quick and didn't have too many units. He was the Soviets and I was the Romanians. After we both set up I strategized a bit and decided my best chance for a victory was to use the speed of my R2's to get past him as quickly as possible before his T-34's could do much damage. I put my tanks in overdrive and was able to get the required steps exited before he blew them to pieces. One game - One win. Unfortunately my winning percentage has dropped considerably since that first game. It's a fun little scenario that can go either way depending on how the Soviet sets up and what kinds of dice rolls he gets.

A week later I took advantage of one of Avalanche Press' sales and bought Eastern Front Deluxe and Road to Berlin and have been hooked ever since.

Shortly after buying Eastern Front Deluxe I decided to challenge my son to his first ever PG game. He decided to be the Soviets and gave me the Romanians. Using the knowledge I gained from my first playing of this scenario I decided to use the speed of my tanks to race to the finish line. Sadly I had forgotten about my sons ability to roll 6's on command (You should see him in a SWWAS game). I exited the required number of R2 steps to win the game but his T-34's shot so many holes in my tanks the best I could do this time was a draw. Still, it's a great little scenario and a perfect introduction to PG armor combat - unless you have a son who rolls lots of 6's.

I finally got a game in on Eastern Front Deluxe. I played scenario #43 Red Steel: Tank Battle at Chisinau

This, is a good-small, just armor on armor battle. It is suppose to be 40 turns but it was over in about 10 turns the way I played it anyway. I just went for the straight head on advance, trying to exit the Romanians as soon as possible off the South end of the board and rushed the Russians to engage them but I should of just setup a Russian blocking force. But my way was probably more historical as it became mixed-up armored mess on the field of battle. The Romanian Air unit needed a roll of a two or a twelve to get a disruption on the Soviet armor but that roll never came. As the armor became mangled and mixed-up on the board the Romanians were able to exit 6 steps of R2’s off the board, 2 full strength units and two half strength units. They did lose 6 steps of R2’s which helped the Soviets fulfill their victory condition as well making this game a draw. In all fairness, after I exited the required Romanian units off the south side, I kept the remainder of the R2’s on the board to see how they would do against the Russian T-26’s & T34A’s. The Russians rolled low and the Romanians high. The R2’s took out 3 step of T-26 and one step of T-34’s. The T-34 step was taken out as a result of an 11 dice roll by an adjacent R2 which equals 11+2+1-4=10 on the AT result table (one step loss)!

A fun fast playing scenario! Next time I play this one I’ll try to exit more of theR2’s as the Romanians, denying the Soviet their victory. As The Russians I’ll setup line defense line at the South end of the board and just fire away and hopefully get better dice rolls this time. Hey, it was my first time with this scenario and I just want to get the action on. Even though it was a draw, I really thought the Russian armor would just over power the R2’s but they have a good 3 armor factor for defense. It was good to see this battle on a platoon level, as I have played Red Steel on the higher level. It always takes me two plays of any scenario to get the prefect setup and strategies right. Next time I play, I feel I can win with the Russians! We’ll see?

This should not be called a tank battle more of a tank dance. A mixed bunch of T34 and T26 face Roumanian R2's. The R2 have to move of the south edge of the boards and not lose 4 steps. The first thing the cunning Roumanian commander does is split his forces the Russian commander has only 2 T34,s and worse only 3 tank commanders. The Russian player has to match the tactics of his opponent and bring him to battle. After 90 mins of cat and mouse play a lone T34 pounces and manages to get the first kill, there then follows a flurrey of action and another R2 bites the dust. However 2 platoons scurry off the edge followed by a thrid which limped of disrupted the Roumainian commander had achieved his VC could he stop the Soviet commander grabbing a draw. Well yes he could in fact as his remaining two platoons skipped past the Russian road block and legged it down the road and away out of sight. ...My face was picture as I missed with 5 shots needing a 9 or more and then realised that I has left a path for Vince to escape. I lost this game having not suffered a casualty and Vince not even firing a shot. Although Vince said I was unlucky he is being generous I thought that I had got the draw in the bag and that over confidence caught me out. I could have moved in to close combat and there frozen the R2 and that would havegiven me enough time to bring up the rest of my forces to block off any retreat.

This 40 turn scenario was over in a mere 7. That's right 7. Two factors led to this. The first was the poor deployment of the Soviets. I mistakenly deployed the T-34s with the T-26s not taking into account the poor movement factor of the T-26s. What I should have done is made a screen of T-26s with a mobile reserve of T-34s to mop up any successful Romanians. The second factor was the unbelievable initiative rolls for Romania, consistently getting two activations before the Soviets could do anything. The Romanians did not fire a shot and only lost ONE step. Very good armour training scenario.

I believe it's been noted more than once before that this is a great training scenario for learning to use armored units, but this one was still a challenge for me as I am not the best at handling tanks or with entering and exiting-type battles. The Scenario allows 40 turns for either the Romanians to exit three R-2 tank units off the south edge or for the Soviets to eliminate four Romanian steps. Also, the Romanians have a 50% chance of receiving air support each turn; it's not much but at least something as neither side has any OBA available.

The Romanian tankers get the intiative and head straight down the road from the north edge but plot their movement to end just out of long range of the anticipated T-34's path. The Soviets do drive the T-34s down the road to meet the R-2s head-on while the T-26s move to cover the flanks by the western town and fields and the eastern woods. Of course the Romanian tanks are no match for the T-34s head-on so they split up off-road. I seemed to of made an error by sending half of the Romanian tanks towards the fields instead of just a token unit or two and they soon found themselves trapped. Meanwhile the other tanks are just barely able to outrun the faster T-34s and make it through the woods. I believe I also made a mistake with the Soviets by only assigning one tank leader to the T-34s which forced both of the units to stick together whereas the T-26s didn't need two separate leaders (the scenario allows just 3 Soviet tank leaders total). The T-26s cannot outrun the faster R-2s and do not have a great firing range so they should of just remained somewhat static just to funnel the Romanian tanks to where the T-34s could best contend with them. Had I assigned a tank leader to each of the two T-34s then one unit could of stayed on the road at all times while the other T-34 manuevered off road to better entrap or eliminate Romanian steps. Anyway, hindsight is 50/50.

On the western flank there was a brief exchange of fire between the R-2s in the fields and the T-26s but neither side got any results. This was the only time the Romanians fired any shots the whole battle. The T-26s roll back into the town behind them for more protection and keep that flank covered. On the east flank the R-2s roll out of the woods to make a run for it and then divide up to scatter. The T-26s are waiting for them but they are not able to score any hits. Knowing that the R-2s will easily be able to outmanuever the T-26s, the T-34s both move off-road to catch them but stay close to the road to be able to hop back on should the other R-2s make a break for it. The R-2s on the east flank move further south and stay by the board's edge and are able to get out of range of the T-26s and force the T-34s to fire at long range; none of the Soviet shots get through. Now the Romanians are very close to exiting the three required units off-board for a win. The R-2s on the west flank realize that they have to make a run for the north-south road while it is vacant as it is unlikely they will be able to bypass the T-26 occupied town without any losses. The T-34s are at odds as to what to do next; they can move closer to the units about to escape the south edge or protect the road. Either way it seems most likely they will be fighting for a draw one way or the other. As anticipated the three Romanian units do manage to exit as they gain the intiative to move first; the sluggish T-26s vainly fire off a few shots at long range needing "12"s to hit and miss. Now the Romanian tanks on the west flank break for the road. The T-34s have to use opportunity AT fire at the tanks moving down the road or else they will be able to get out of their range. The T-34s need to roll "9"s with the (-1) modifier and both shots miss rolling "8"s twice! Soon there are just two R-2 units left to escape and they also brave the road and the nearby T-34's opportunity fire. The first Soviet shot yields even another "8" but the second shot does hit. However, the now reduced R-2 passes it's morale check and is able to keep traveling down the road and out of range to safety. So on turn 10 the Romanians get the intiative and are able to exit their remaining units off the south edge for the win. One other note was that out of the 10 turns the Romanians received air support on 8 of those turns; and almost every time it was the stronger JRS-79 aircraft with a 12 DF rating. One airstrike did manage to force the T-34As to make a morale check with an X result but even with the Soviet morale at 7/6 both tanks passed. If I had used the 4th edition rules those airstrikes could of been much more effective with the (+2) adjacent unit modifier and possibly caused more than just Soviet morale checks had a 2X or 3X result had been obtained.

Anyway, to wrap this up it was a nice little scenario though there wasn't too much of a battle to it. I give it a "3" for the solo play that it was but feel this one go much better with a shared match; just not the greatest thrill trying to outsmart one's self with manuevering. I don't know if it really favored one side or the other but do believe a draw is very likely to occur. What I also like about this one is that can be set-up and played very quickly without having to draw for leaders, so perhaps when one of my 4 hour skype sessions ends with and hour or more remaining it can be replayed against an opponent. Also, it was the first time that the Romanians had won so far after losing the 5 previous scenarios and puts them on the scoreboard for the overall EFD campaign perspective.

Eastern Front Deluxe scenario 43 – Romanian armor vs Russian Armor. Solo

This scenario would have been best played by the Romanians as a speed run avoiding combat when possible. However I just couldn't resist that urge to shake out the road column into line and engage! 6 platoons of Romanian tanks are available and three need to exit the south side of the board and as other reports have shown, it is quite possible for the Romanians to win. However there were two platoons of T-34s and 5 of T-26s trying to goal keep from the south.

Romanian air was available on a 50/50 roll and being either a 12 or 10 SP concentration.

Turn 2 the Romanian air showed up and demoralized one of the T-34s. Romanian death from above! The other T-34 being a leader stayed with the DZ T-34 to keep it moving forward when it recovered. In hindsight I should have made each of the T-34s a leader. 3 tank leaders were available for the Russians and 4 for the Romanians. The Romanian tankers felt invigorated by the Romanian air's reports and shook out into an east/west line to fire on the approaching T-26s.

Turn 4 saw two steps of burning T-26s but further south the T-34 had rallied. The Romanian tank leader, Captain Stefan Tepes Stanescu, viewed the dark exhaust smoke and dust trail to the south and new the one sided exchange could very well change soon.

Turn 6 and 7 - The T-34s were within range and killed one Romanian step then being answered with the loss of a step of T-26s. I thought at this point, though too late, I had better head the Romanians toward their victory condition

Turn 8 saw one of those battle turning events(doubles on initiative roll) . The Russians would receive a hex worth of units getting a 2nd activation. As the Romanians split to the east and west of the soviet forces the stack of T-34s activated twice. Losses at end of the turn: Russian 3 Romanian 6.

Turn 9 on - Two full platoons of Romanian tanks made it off the board but the last platoon was trapped, forced back into the small town on board 1, demoralized and then finally destroyed by the lowly but capable T-26s.

Turn 12 final losses Rus 3 Rom 8.

Lessons learned: 1. When the Romanian air showed up it did have occasional stellar effects. But it was not a sure thing. 2. I should have split my forces earlier or made a lopsided one side of the board or other continuous rush.

This was my second scenario played, solo as usual, and the first with tanks and aircraft. I think scenario 43 is a nice little intro to those particular rules and am ready to control some Sinister Forces next.

Wanting to try the Romanians, but looking for a quick scenario so I could then set a new one up to play at least part of on its anniversary tomorrow (November 17), I chose the all-armor fight of Scenario 43: Red Steel - Tank Battle at Chisinau. It's a 40-turn scenario, but I wonder if anyone has ever had it last 40 turns, since the Romanians get six tank platoons (all of them R2) and one aircraft per turn on which they roll a 3 thru 6, while the Soviets get 7 tank platoons (2 T-34A, 5 T-26.)

Both sides spread out as they entered the map, both to try and set up crossfire and to try and exit (Romanian) or interdict the exiting (Soviet.) The Romanians would probably have been best served by doing everything they could to avoid the T-34's; instead, they lost a full platoon and half of another to the top-line Russian tanks. Meanwhile, the rest of the Romanians advanced on both flanks, challenged by the T-26's. As things got close, the T-26's began some fancy shooting, taking out one R-2 step on the western flank and three R-2 steps on the eastern flank. Ultimately, the Romanians did manage to exit four units - three of them reduced - but the Russians had also eliminated seven steps to the loss of one T-34 step (that one taken out by a Romanian air strike, and left demoralized for the rest of the game.) It was all over on Turn 12, after the last R-2 unit exited.

Final: A draw, since both combatants met their victory conditions. But my biggest question is: Has anyone ever had this one go 40 turns? How about 30? 25? 20?

The Soviets tried to be clever and charged up the road to meet the Axis head on. The Romanians aim was to flank the Russians on both sides and stay out of normal range. This worked well as the Axis tanks were fast and managed to charge to the exit point unscathed. But late on the Soviets destroyed 2 steps, and then a third, and the unit was disrupted. The remainder of the Axis units had left the scene, probably a mistake, so the Soviets charged towards the lone unit. A T34 fired and succeeded in the kill, and a Draw was achieved.

Played ftf with fellow PG'er Wayne Baumber. A tricky looking one for the Romanians. Having to decide just when to stick or twist

Rumanian Odyssey Continues As They Press For Chisnau

Those that follow these reports will know that we have been playing through Rumania's part in the War chronologically. This battle now brings us in front of the gates of Chisnau. But it is not for the Rumanians to engage the enemy, but instead, to push by them with as many tanks as possible for use in the upcoming bigger struggle. This would be troublesome because apart from T26's, the dreaded T34 would be facing the R2's

And There Off~

Around 0700 hours, word came in that Russian tanks had been spotted. Mainly T26 type tanks but also supported by the very worrying behemoths called the T34. Upon finally spotting the enemy, our group split into two companies and fanned out wide. The Soviets were heading right up the main road and a head-on battle was the last thing our R2 tanks required. This 'fanning out' put the enemy in a quandary. His T26 tanks would not have the speed to tackle our boys in open ground and would need the road to operate with any speed at all. However, the T34 tanks could more than compete in cross-country conditions and these frightening beasts continued to push forward. Trouble was, their was only two platoons of them.

A game of cat & mouse now ensued as the Rumanian R2’s edgily attempted to round their foe whilst the T34’s likewise did their best to get a first jump on the Rumanians. Eventually, about 0900 near a farmland area on the left-wing of the Rumanians, some of them were caught as the T34’s opened up on them. Within 30 minutes, 2 of the Rumanian tanks had been lost. However, their sacrifice was not in vain. The rest of the Royal Armoured on that wing were able to scramble forward unhindered. What’s more, the T34’s took some time recovering from their engagement and were now far behind the Rumanian R2’s. Likewise, on the Rumanian right, a large number of Russian T26’s supported by a platoon of T34’s also placed some Rumanian tankers in peril. Once again, 2 more Rumanian tanks were lost, but without losing their heads and keeping cohesion, this group also managed to scurry away toward Chisnau.

Escape, Breakthrough and Downright Cheek !

The situation by 1015 was that the Rumanians had finally managed to squeeze enough of their forces away and onwards to Chisnau. Six tanks had been lost, and now the Soviets tried to move in on some R2’s that had trailed behind. For 90 minutes the chase and trapping attempt of the Rumanian tanks went on. And then, their commander, looking down the barrel of death had to make the most amazing manoeuvre of his life. Trapped by 16 T26’s and 4 T34’s, the commander of the 8 Rumanian tanks suddenly ordered his and his mens tanks to swing violently 180 degrees and drive at top speed past the Russian tanks. The enemy fired non-stop as the Rumanians attempted to speed by their enemy. Amazingly, despite the closeness of range and the nigh-on suicidal chances of the move, the R2’s rounded their enemy and made the highway behind the Russian tanks to speed off toward Chisnau after their comrades that had already forced a way through.

This gamble had provided the Rumanians with more tanks than they had expected for the Chisnau assault and a victory for the Rumanians on the day having outfoxed and out-lucked their enemy. All cheer the 1st Royal Armoured !

With quite a lot of thought, patience and riding out the best odds against enemy attacks, the Rumanians made it a victory. In the final part, to avoid losing their victory and being saddled with a draw, the Rumanians managed to squeeze two platoons past 5 enemy platoons firing at them, when the 5 enemy platoons needed just 9's to hit and missed all 5 shots !!

It is also worth noting that through the 20 turns played, NOT one shot was fired by the Rumanians, NOT ONE SHOT !. It was ALL movement and IMO it HAD to be. To stand and shoot would have committed them too much in one position that the T34's could probably have taken advantage of. My opponent Wayne was severely unlucky in not securing the draw. The escape past the 5 x 9's shot was a veritable PG miracle

The Romanians have superior movement and range, the Soviets firepower. The Romanians moved as far as possible down the road. The Soviets stopped this foolish push forward by moving their T-34s in front of them. The Romanians sent a lone tank to their right behind the field and the rest slowly progressed to the left some going around the woods, and some disappearing into the woods. The Soviets sent 2 T-26s to their right to face whatever came out of the woods and 2 to the left towards the field to dislodge the lone tanker. The 2 T-34As waited on the road ready to react with a lone T-26 a little farther back. When the lone tanker tried to go towards the woods the T-34As moved up and surrounded the him. He was left demoralized and reduced. The movement of the T-34As trigged the Romanian rush to out run the T-26s and exit the battlefield while the T-34As were engaged. The Romanians offered one more R-2 to the gods of war to block full access to the road to the Soviets: it almost worked. However the R-2 was destroyed almost as soon as it took it's position on the road. The 2 T-26s took only one hit and the remaing unit that was not demoralized was able to stop the Romanians advance and the T-34As were able to recover and close the gap in the Soviet defense. At this point the Soviets had 7 tank units to the Romanian 4 units with no prospect of breaking the Soviet line of defense their tanks retired from the field.

One nice thing I can say about this scenario is that it didn't take too long to lose...

I really don't know how to handle tanks. I thought I had a few good moves, but the Russians knocked out three steps without a problem, and then I lost a key tank leader in what was going to be the second or third to last turn of the entire game. Oh well.

Give me infantry and machine guns! Please! I don't know what to do with tanks!!