Both sides started by entering the board and meeting on the middle board, just east of the town. They both took a couple of turns getting into a linear formation, the better to begin the battle with everybody lined up for action. The RKKA began by charging from their left (western edge of the board). The fighting quickly developed into an number of Assaults along the defensive line. At times the fighting grew hot and heavy, with no quarter asked or given. After six turns of gnarly battles the time came for the RKKA to break off the fighting.

On turn 12 they began falling backwards, slowly giving ground each turn, until by turn 20, they were lined up just outside the city on board 2. The Armata Romana managed to end up spread out over far more territory than they had leaders to manage. I called the game on turn 20 since the Armata didn’t have the leadership and time to prepare any kind of move on the city. They had been stopped, but at a bloody cost. The casualties had the Soviets losing 25 steps while the Romanians lost 20 steps. The Armata had failed to enter the city which would seem to be the point of this exercise. By casualty VC the Armata wins despite not entering the town.

The victory conditions clearly emphasize the city’s capture by the invaders. The Soviets don’t receive any such compensation for holding the line. In this case, the VC seem have a flaw in the way they are written. While they don’t have to get 5 points per town the RKKA should receive something for their defensive stand. Since they don’t they lose by 5 casualty points. That sounds counter-intuitive to me.

Author	OldPueblo (Romania)
Method	VASSAL
Victor	Soviet Union
Participants	treadasaurusrex
Play Date	2025-07-31
Language	English
Scenario	ARom020

Others who are better writers of AARs have already documented this fight. For me, this play-through was somewhat momentous as I nearly pulled off a win in a swirling cavalry and Tank battle, after a very long game play hiatus, with my nemesis - the aggressive and boldly innovative T-Rex, IN A MEETING ENGAGEMENT!

As expected, our forces collided in the middle of the battle map with my opponent's Russian Horde surprisingly advancing from the west. Heavy fighting ensued with many adjacent-hex firefights, and all-out, chargies in close assaults. The Soviets won most of these as the game wore on and our engaged troops spread out. Many casualties resulted. Final step losses were 31, plus 3 leaders for my rampaging Romanians and 19 for the supposedly defending, Soviet side, that unlike my side, these critical looses DID NOT include their senior leader falling in turn 15. The decapitation rippled through the remaining turns as Romanian morale essentially collapsed as casualties mounted in this 6-session play.

Others have mentioned that the VCs in this scenario need a rewrite as the capture of the city is not the only factor that mattered that day. Lack of proper play testing was pretty clear. The Soviets should be compensated for an active defense if they emphasize counter attacks in the open and also manage to hold the line, keeping the besieging Romanians at bay. Inflicting casualties should not be the final arbiter either. A combination of these would make a more balanced and fairer game,

Still, we thought that the fun factor and the cavalry charges inherent in this fight make it worthy of a solid 3 and the recommendation of this scenario for both solitaire and shared play.