Ro-mania: The Puppeting
On November 24th my troops marched across the border and slammed into totally unprepared reservists. I was feeling pretty confident about the thing. They were not and immediately started trading space for time, abandoning their sweet river line.
Run Romanians, run!
The plan for the war like everything I'm doing here, was simple. Breakthrough the Romanian lines, get my tanks to open country, and rush for Bucharest (their capital) and the oil fields in Ploiesti that were conveniently right above Bucharest.
Plan A goes something like this. (Although slightly less apathetic)
Nothing better than dots and oil!
Initial battles are standard Russian victories, fast, bloody and easy.
Oh boy, I hope all this success does not lull me into a false sense of security. (Note the city at the top left, that's called Iasi, and it was a bitch to capture)
This was my first test of the army and I was not sure how it would perform. As it turns out, and this is the first source of absurdity, my troops were actually outclassed. They had worse weapons and org than their Romanian counterparts. As soon as we ran into full enemy divisions the advanced ground to a halt. It turns out no matter how high you tech it does not help when you only put 4.5 IC toward 125 IC worth of required upgrades
. The production manager was shot for this discrepancy, and his successor jacked things up to a reasonable 95 IC. Luckily we still had more troops and some fast movers to boot. I attempted to outmaneuver the bulk of the Romanian army and bolt straight for their capital and oil fields for a quick victory.
November 27th three days after invasion. Armor breakout looking good.
But then it started to rain... the axis of my advance turned into a quagmire and my armored thrust was slowed long enough for the Romanians to fill the gap with new troops.
This is the extent of the advance on December 12, that's right it took about 15 days to advance through 2 provinces, thanks a lot mud. That is my finest mobile division (the fighting 9th) being assaulted by hordes of Romanians, we would eventually retreat giving up our bridgehead.Time for plan B.
Now a key factor that interfered with the entire operation was that I wanted to puppet Romania, not conquer them. This meant not destroying their army. A large portion of my army spent the war babysitting loose encirclements and tip toeing around the enemy like a bunch of limp wristed nancys. The fact that they had superior men did not help. I feel sorry for the poor officers in charge of this whole operation. "Hey invade this surprisingly strong country with one hand tied around your back, while you are stuck in the mud, and be carful you don't hurt them, you will be summerarly executed if you do!"
December 19th: We finally take Iasi after numerous, costly defeats. Rather anticlimactic, as I could not brutally capture/murder all those defenders.
After the loss of our bridgehead in the south, another armor spearhead attempted a breakthrough on the northern flank. Over a few days they advanced and bagged a considerable portion of the Romanian army. Normally they would be swiftly crushed, instead we allowed them to go carzy. This "encircled" army attacked everywhere threatening our southern advance.
Late December, our salient is assaulted by men who in a proper war would be dead or captured,
Cheeky
We have a corps of infantry rushing from the north to rescue our overextended tank divisions. To deal with encircled armies that are attacking or moving in unwanted locations I have started making huge abortive attacks. Just long enough to get them to stay quite, but pulling out before I force a retreat that could destroy them. These are micro intensive and are eating into manpower. Romania better be worth it.
December 28th. Largish setback and rage inducing moment. My huge rescue corps entered the battle just as the one division fighting broke, the whole stumping force retreated. Now only one late comer is holding the line, as the divisions on the sharp end are being worn down by multiple attacks. It is clear after two failed attempts, that a push through the center of the country will be hard, slow and costly.
Plan C: Super Sneaky Flank Attack!
Back in early December when the armor was bogged down in mud I did a quick search for some dry ground. There was a strip along the cost that was dry and high infrastructure. I cobbled together a large flanking force that would swing around all the mud and clashing armies and hopefully nab the objectives before anyone was the wiser. They marched steadily at their 4 kph the whole time unopposed.
They were remarkably successful, after a few attempts to cross the last river they had found some open ground.
This is their position on December 24th, Do I see a Christmas present for Stalin sitting right there for the taking?
Seeing this ripe opportunity I gathered the recovering 9th armored division and whatever else I could scrape together from the center to hit this weak flank.
Before they could do that we had to suffer yet another defeat in the province to the north of the newly exposed flank.
Round Two at Tecuci (its the 77 battle)
The End Game
It's December 31st and we are now on the outskirts of Bucharest. But our single weak, tired division is attacked in Carlarasi by two strong Romanian ones. In other news we are still bogged down in the center of the country and our flank attack is picking up momentum in Tecuci.
Before the 47th division is able to retreat to Fetesti, a Romanian force will get there, destroying the unit. This will be the only total loss for the entire war. But it would not be a Soviet AAR without some spilled blood and military disasters. The defeat also distracted a whole bunch of otherwise dangerous enemy divisions. After the victory in Tecuci, armor was able to cross the river unopposed and set up a bridgehead in the province adjacent to Ploiesti.
Our position on January 16.
Mobile units have just evicted the Romanian's from their precious oil fields.
At this point most of the Romanian army is a disorganized mess. There still are huge pockets in the north just sitting around, getting thrashed by stacks of belligerent Soviet infantry whenever they try and move. The bulk of the army that had stopped our armor in December was also herded into a pocket, and slapped around a bit to keep them in line. They can be seen retreating into a single province in the picture below.
January 24th, a hilarious suicidal attack from the city against our doom stack in Ploiesti. We are also attacking an infantry division to the east of the city, just to keep them from joining the defense. I am so clever
Romania, your puppeting is inevitable.
War Addicts Anonymous:
Romania was now on the verge of surrender, their capital was about to fall and communism allowed to spread its leathery wings. But deep in the Kremlin all was not well. If we returned to peace we would lose all the laws that are allowing our overheating economy to continue overheating. We would also have to demobilize, one the most emasculating things a country could do to itself. Despite all those horrifying changes, our people would want more consumer goods, and less factories building factories. This was a unacceptable. It was decided that before we end this war we should start another one, just to keep the good times rolling.
Why hello there Finland, what lovely borders you have there, it would be a shame if somebody violated them.
Next post: Romania Owned, Germany Mad, Allies Jelly. And a new relaxing war.