World War 3: The Duck Hunt*
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Date: Summer 2020*
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Battle Location: Marasesti, Vrancea region, central Romania*
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Battle Type: Romanian 282nd Mechanized Brigade delay against Russian mechanized brigade (+) advance*
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SPECIAL VICTORY CONDITIONS BELOW
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Russia, drived by militarism and a raging economic crisis launches the/an invasion of western Europe, thus de facto starting a new world war.*
Russia is supported by it's allies: Belarus (being economically dependant) and Ukraine (which was forcefully subdued as a puppet state shortly before), as well as some allies from the central east. Serbia is currently looking at Russia with a positive eye and Turkey openly refuses to comply with NATO treaties.*
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This allows Russia to launch a heavy invasion of the Baltic States, Poland and also Romania. The militaries of those nations fight bravely but finally succumb to the armoured onslaught.
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Let us rewind a little bit to how it all started.*
A Joint Russian & Ukrainian effort allowed to finally conduct a number of successful crossings within Romania. The Romanian military however stands surprisingly steadfast, according to their doctrine. Defensive positions are organized hastily one after another along the rivers, forcing the Russians to cross with heavy casualties. Any Romanian formation that is no longer fit to fight or pushed out of their positions retreat west, towards Transylvania and its mountains, still covering NATO's southern flank.**

Yet, a relentless Russian push puts the romanian capital, Bucarest, under serious threat. Armoured formations hit hard from the north, while Black Sea naval infantry formations use hovercraft tactics on Thne Danube river.**

The Romanian top notch 282nd Mechanized Brigade is finally unleashed for combat. Their job is to protect one of the three crossings on The Siret river, close to their own barracks of Focsani. The Romanian gambit is somewhat risky: the entire 282nd is deployed in one area in order to withstand the deadly Russian onslaught. The Romanian High Command wishes to lure the Russians into Siret crossing at Marasesti and Cosmesti in order to achieve local advantage in arms. Hopefully, an ample amount of deadly Spike missiles and heavily modernized T-55 tanks will be enough to cause heavy Russian casualties. The victory must be decisive and swift - the second crossing at Galati to the east is held only by an engineer regiment and remains much more passive.**

You are in command of the elite 282nd Brigade of The Romanian Army. You are equipped with a battalion of TR-85M Bizonul (Bison) tanks, a heavily modernized T-55 variant with German optical and electronic equipment. These tanks are the only decent choice against The Russian adversary and only your brigade owns those, so watch for losses. You also have at your disposal two mechanized battalions on modernized MLI-84M Jder (Marten) IFVs. These are a heavily upgraded Romanian variation of the BMP-1. You surely have massive amounts of Spike ATGMs. Brigade assets as well as a Territorial Reserve company (ForTer) covers the bridge itself. Further support is provided by the 83rd MRL Battalion equipped with a number of 160mm unguided rockets - an important asset when hampering chokepoints. Further divisional weapons are also present - Hawk SAMs and additional artillery.**

We expect the Russian force to consist of a reinforced motorized/mechanized regiment. Remember they will have the advantage in artillery and air power (ours will keep a rather low profile, but will try to help as much as possible, AA defences are strong). Russian naval infantry and air cavalry is operating around Danube and Siret rivers, watch out for those. Also be mindful that Bizonul tanks - even upgraded - cannot fight Russian tanks head-on.

We are laying a trap, and you are obviously a bait. We hope to lure a significant amount of Russians into the kill zone. And we want you to kill them. Hold the bridge, cause massive casualties, and in the worst case, retreat to the southern (left) side of the Siret river and blow both the bridge and the dam to deny easy crossing for the enemy.**

SPECIAL VICTORY CONDITIONS:*
You will be considered victorious when the enemy force is heavily decimated and enemy does not score above 18000 (18k) points against you - we will need your brigade in future battle should US allies come with aid. In order to achieve victory, do not let any serious Russian unit on your side of the river. If you do let those - at the same time within casualty threshold - consider the battle to be a draw. Same applies if your casualties exceed the acceptable limit. If you fail both at holding them back and cutting low on losses consider the battle to be lost.
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Notes: If played against the AI the human player should take the Romanian side.*
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Sources: My imagination*
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Design by: Marcin "SaS TrooP" Kaua* 
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