Turn 2-10
Shortly after the preliminary barrage, Russian units advance towards their objectives. They advance in three axes, as shown in the map as (1), (2) and (3). Romanians soon open fire, with tanks, BMPs and artillery causing significant losses among the Russian ranks. Romanian tank fire in general though is quite bad, and many shots are missed. As a result, Russian tankers manage to fire back when their Romanian counterparts fire off too many shots and reveal themselves, causing also serious losses to the latter.
In addition to the armored advances, Russian artillery also joins the fight. There are heavy artillery strikes in locations (4) and (5) (the defensive line north of Baltar and in Malureni respectively). 152mm artillery, as well as BM-27 MRLs are the ones doing the pounding. Romanians lose a significant number of BMPs and a couple of tanks and the defensive strongpoints get seriously weakened. Russian air planes also appear in the skies and perform either SEAD strikes, or CAS. They are moderately successful, but they do have an impact on the morale of the defenders. Romanian air defenses (most notable the HAWKs) do manage to shoot down 3 helicopters, one of them a Hind. Romanian helicopters also take off to help the front line defenders. But after a barrage of Russian OSA SAMs, one helicopter is shot down and the rest have to hide.
Russians also try to outflank the Romanian defenses from the river itself. Very soon, a convoy of hovercrafts appear in the south and unloads around a company (maybe more) of Naval infantrymen. Romanian BMPs manage to destroy 4 hovercrafts, but the landed Russian troops move north at (6). They encounter a Strela platoon, and a firefight ensues. The Romanian platoon soon gets reinforcements from a nearby mechanized platoon from (7), which counterattacks the Russian naval infantry to save the Strela platoon and also the 120mm mortar platoon bombards the Russians. The result is heavy Russian casualties, although one BMP is knocked out by an accurate RPG-29 shot.
Things looks hairy right now and probably I will have to retreat the defenders of Malureni soon. I can use airstrikes to soften the attackers a bit, but I’m really worried about the Russian AA network. In previous missions they proved to be insanely good.