How useful is Romania during Barbarossa?

[Anthonest]

Im playing Germany and im making my final preparations for Barbarossa in April 1941 and the only thing im worried about is the Romanian front.

The main problem is, I foresee them falling behind with my Bltizkrieg and slowing down the whole front and perhaps even getting pushed back. Im also worried about the AI's fighting capabilities, if need be im not above switching to there country and giving all their units to me as expeditionary forces (?) Should I populate there lines with some units of my own to bolster there fighting capabilities?

Basically, what should I have to worry about? How should I deal with these problems if their are any? Thanks.

 

[marxianTJ]

Don't call Romania into the war until you've already pushed most of the Soviets off of the Romanian lines - that way you don't have to worry about their fighting capability - then they'll just plod in behind you and clean up Partisans and stand in your same tiles from time to time. I've managed to succeed several times even without any Axis allied help - so if you've built a large and good enough land-army you can just have them declare a token war once you've cut off or pushed away any Soviet divisions on the Romanian frontier. I treat Hungary the same way and don't call them to arms until I've already secured their border with the USSR.

 

[Anthonest]

Don't call Romania into the war until you've already pushed most of the Soviets off of the Romanian lines - that way you don't have to worry about their fighting capability - then they'll just plod in behind you and clean up Partisans and stand in your same tiles from time to time. I've managed to succeed several times even without any Axis allied help - so if you've built a large and good enough land-army you can just have them declare a token war once you've cut off or pushed away any Soviet divisions on the Romanian frontier. I treat Hungary the same way and don't call them to arms until I've already secured their border with the USSR.

Thats distressing, my army was made to accommodate my own front, not including the Romanian front. Should I force them to give me all there units as expeditionary?

 

[marxianTJ]

It likely won't be necessary the key is that the Soviet AI will guard their frontier with Romania *as if* the Romanians were going to attack so it's actually quite simple to encircle a *lot* of Soviet divisions - just as was done IRL, on the Hungarian and Romanian frontiers. The Soviet AI will also keep quite a number of troops on the border with Japan and Turkey + Persia, so you will have a few months at least to try and neutralize a large number of Western based troops before a bunch of troops show up to slow you down. It's a fairly simple matter to create large encirclements in the Baltic states, the Pinsk Marshes, and all along the border with Hungary and Romania - from then on Soviet resistance should be fairly laughable as long as your supply situation doesn't turn into a disaster.

Typically a few tank corps and 4-5 INF divisions per tile you share with the USSR in 1941 is MORE than sufficient to completely knock out the USSR by Christmas 41' if you get lucky and you have enough of an air force to not have all your IC bombed into nothing

 

[mattekillert]

The Romanians will do just fine if you keep the pressure up on your front. They will not push very much but they won't lose either. The Rivers make breakthroughs rather hard. In a way however the Romanians not pushing can be helpful to you as it will keep the Soviets at the front where they can easily be pocketed.