Aftermath:
Equipment losses:
Romanians
23 TR-85 medium tanks
5 TABC-79 scout cars
46 TAB-77 APCs (BTRs)
1 130mm field artillery gun
5 100mm AT guns
6 BRDM-2 Malyutka tank destroyers
7 35mm AAA
Ukrainians
4 T-64BVs main battle tanks
12 BMD-2 airborne IFVs
11 Kraz Spartan light armored scout cars
1 Kraz Spartan tank destroyer
3 BRDM-2 Spandrel tank destroyers
1 PRP-3 recon vehicle
1 BRDM-2 scout car
8 BTR-4 GROM IFVs
12 BTR-80 APCs (BTR)
2 100mm AT guns
3 Su-25T Grach ground attack aircraft
The final disposition of forces is shown in the following map:
Looking at the map, I see where the majority of Ukrainian armor went: to the south, to support the push. Unfortunately for them, it was too little, too late. An engineer company also was about to assault the defenders of the city park.
In general, the battle went according to how I expected it to be: A quick assault from my part, then defending successfully against a hasty attack from Ukrainian heavy forces. My decision to make the main attack to the north of the city was correct, as I gained a foothold very quickly and then things were easy. The attack on Siret bridge was weaker and resulted in heavy casualties (and also proved to be indefensible). However, it did cause the Ukrainian main force to first attack south, which gave me time to prepare for a successful defence. With the arrival of the last battalion to the west, the Ukrainian paratroopers had no chance, although they did manage to slow it down for quite some time, thanks to the support of a Hind flight.
The Ukrainian main force was not as heavily armored as I thought. It seems it was composed of one tank company, one mechanized battalion and what amounts to a rifle regiment, in trucks. Trucks. If light armored APCs have a hard to surviving on the modern battlefield, trucks should only be used as a bad joke. More than half of total Ukrainian casualties came from truck borne infantry be killed in their wheeled coffins by artillery, AAA firing to the ground and even small arms fire.
I mentioned the heroic resistance of one Ukrainian team on one wooden building, but another one that should be mentioned should be my AAA crews. Not only they stopped the Ukrainian advance to the north after firing nonstop at Ukrainian infantry there, not only they endured tank, artillery, autocannon fire and air strikes, they also made the day for Ukrainian pilots difficult and also shot down two planes. They had very high casualties though, so most of the medals they should receive will be posthumous.
Now what was the result of the game? By points alone, it is a draw, but the WW3 scenarios have special conditions always. My objective was to keep the bridges under Romanian hands and also suffer less than 12000 points of losses. The second objective was achieved. As for the first, I have all bridges apart from Siret bridge, although realistically speaking I will have a hard time defending against tanks and infantry in the secondary bridge. The only point in Ukrainian hands at the battle’s end is the old cemetery, and most of the city is in Romanian hands, so I consider this battle to be a Romanian victory. The aftermath of this IMHO will be that the Romanians pull back from the eastern part of the city and form a defensive line from the old apartments to the north to the pool to the south. There they can hold out against the Ukrainians for a little bit more, but they will eventually have to abandon Roman altogether.
To conclude, another fun scenario by SasTroop. This is the last of the WW3 series, and I eagerly await for the next ones to be released. Keep up the good work!