Generated Campaign - Romania 2007

[RoPlayer]

Premise: This is a fictional Romania vs ??? (Several nations) campaign.

In this scenario the War on Terror has turned into a prolonged battle of attrition. With the US engaged in Iraq and Afghanistan, the governments of China, North Korea and Iran see this as an ideal oportunity to further their agendas. Meanwhile, in Russia, tendencies reminescent from the communist era are on the rise. In Europe the EU is slowly dissolving.
It is in this context that a dictatorial regime takes power in Romania. The populance, tired of the inefficiency and corruption of the state apparatus, gladly embraced a charismatic ultranationalist which promised them citizens of Romania a better life for them and their children.
Hungary, which had long dreamed of Transylvania becoming part of its territory once again, began a fierce propaganda against the new leader, accusing him of embarking on an ethnic cleansing campaign against the hungarian minoritiy and demanded that hungarian peacekeepers be allowed to enter Transylvania. The ultimatum was promptly rebuffed despite the UN sanctioning the action...

The Romanian core forces consist of the following:
1) An elite Airborne Mountain Company. The men are well trained and highly motivated. Each squad is equipped with AIM rifles (Romanian AK74 variant) with attached 40mm grenade launchers, PKM LMGs and RPG-7 rocket launchers for anti-tank capabilities. The transports are IAR-330L helicopters.
2) A gunship section of 2 IAR-330D SOCAT helicopters armed with a variety of cannons, missiles and rockets.
3) An IAR-316B recon helicopter.

The objective of the campaign is to force a Hungarian surrender before other nations interviene in the conflict.

FIRST BATTLE : January 2007
Mission : Romanian Advance vs Hungarian Delay
Location : North of Debrecen

"Alright, here's where we stand", Lt. Col Lungu started his briefing. Present were also the platoon commanders of the airborne company and the commander of the gunship section.
"Our mechanized forces are advancing all along the frontline, racing to prevent the hungarians from reaching and digging in all along the Tisa river. Things are going pretty well, but that's only because the hungarians want to beat us to the river and are currently in a general, orderly retreat... they've even abandoned Debrecen. However, there is a serious force mounting just north of here with which they hope to cut off our spearheads. And our mission is to stop them. We'll begin here... The hungarians have set up a defensive position along this frozen river. Beyond it, as you can see, lies a village to the north and a wooded area to the south. This means the area is a good defensive position whichever your direction of attack. And that's why HQ wants this whole area secure.... Now the good news: we have some air support, a couple of Lancer IIIs armed with cluster bombs and also some 152mm and 122mm artillery support. We've also been provided with 3 artillery observers."
"Here's the plan: we'll deploy to the south and race to the other side of the frozen river. There we'll disembark and secure the area. After that we'll slowly move north and secure the that side of the river before clearing the road to the village back on our side. It would also be a good idea to capture the bridge over the river intact... Any questions?... Good. Remember: advance slowly and let the enemy come to you. when they're bunched together we'll call in those Lancers and they'll bomb 'em straight to hell. The visibility is poor, so at least we won't have to worry about being shot down before we get to our objectives. Still... BE CAREFUL about calling in those airstrikes..."


The IAR-330L raced through the treetops. "We're almost there!", reported Lt. Moraru. Just then, several bursts lit up from the front. "Damn!"...
"what the hell was that?", asked Lt. Col. Lungu
"Small arms fire, sir!"
"Alright, take it down!"
The helicopter landed and Lt. Col. Lungu and his HQ staff disembarked along with the scout section from the leading airborne platoon.
Soon after, the rest of the company disembarked near the frozen river. The two 330D gunships lingered in the back, witing for the order to pounce on any unsuspecting armor. The company began regrouping.
Then came an all-too familiar "thud!"... mortars. But the rounds fell far to the north... and more over... the helos reported they were smoke rounds. "Maybe that's where their main forces are", though Col. lungu as his task force moves through the snowy woods.
Corporal Closca and his men moved quickly to reach the next patch of woods when gunfire erupted from his left. One man... then another dropped lifeless to the ground.The squad hit the dirt. The hungarians were somewhere in a patch of woods some distance away from him. He had to get his men out of the open and let the other squads outflank them.
Lt. Moraru saw the bursts once again. This time he knew exactly where they were coming from. His SOCAT wasn't heavily armed, he only had a machinegun. But still he could give that infantry squad a nasty suprise. He carefully manouvered his helo in position... there they were. He ordered his gunner to open fire. Tracers flew in the enemy's direction, but sure enough, the enemy squad opened fire. Lt. Moraru manouvered out of the way before once again moving into position and letting his gunner fire a few more shots at them. This repeated a couple of times.
"Sir, how about we get those gunships here?", asked the Lt.
"Negative", answered Col. Lungu. "Get your wingmen to help"
"Yes, sir!"
The other two helicopters moved into position. Then both sprayed the area with their machineguns.
"Keep firing!", ordered the Col. Soon, one of his squads would be close enough to engage them.
Lt. Moraru joined his helo group and soon all 3 helicopters were firing countinous bursts at the forest.
Maj. Ivanovici, leader of the Airborne Mountain Company moved into position as the helicopters above him furiously machinegunned the trees some 100 meters in front of him. He could see the hungarians taking cover. "Fire at will!", he ordered his men. The mountain hunters took aim and fired. After a few bursts the hungarians began to pull out.
"Stay on them!", Col. Lungu ordered the helo group.
Corporal Apostol and his men hurried to get to the objective areas. His scout team was to seek out enemy armor or artillery. He quickly reached another patch of trees, but even before his men got a chance to catch their breath autmated fire erupted from their left. In an instant his two men were dead, instinctively he threw a smoke grenade to cover his escape.
Corporal Colsca saw the helicopters savage the woods where the hungarians hid. He then began to advance, but after barely 100 more meters they were under fire again. Once again they hit the soft, cold snow.
Col. Lungu didn't like what he heard. Those damn hungarians sure know how to hide. But soon the company would be completely deployed and they should have no problem outflanking the isolated squads hiding in the woods.
Lt. Moraru and his helo group mercilessly pursued the retreating hungarian infantry section, their machineguns tearing through the frozen forest. He couldn't help admiting that he did experience an almost sadistic pleasure at seeing those infantrymen being gunned down like target practice dummies. One after another the men fell until the section dispersed into the woods. "They're dead, sir!The enemy section has dispersed!", lt. Moraru reported.
Maj Ivanovici and his men began moving north. A scout team was ambushed there. But just as they raced to outflank the possible area they came under fire. One man down. Maj Invanovici quickly pulled his men out of view.
"What?!", Lt. Col. Lungu barked into the radio. Maj Ivanovici had been unable to locate the enemy... worse yet, he took casualties. "Let's get a closer look".
His staff was stunned."But sir!"
"NOW!"
They moved through the trees and sure enough they were met by enemy fire. He heard a scream... man down. But now he knew where they were. Once again he would call in some transport helos to supress the enemy before moving in.
Sublt. Lupu had to wrestle with the controls a bit as he tried to dodge the incoming enemy fire. It took quite a few passes before the enemy had to reload. Now was his chance. "Fire!", he ordered his gunner. His wingman soon joined him.
Lt. Col. Lungu could see the two helicopters above him showering the woods before him with bullets. The enemy stopped retaliating. His infantry could move in now.
Corporal Antonescu received the order to secure the woods. His men moved quickly as the helicopters stopped firing. once they were in the woods they soon made contanct with the hungarians wich were now pinned down. Antonescu's men opened fire and two enemy soldiers did not follow their comrades as the enemy section began to retreat.
Corporal Closca finally brought his men in a nearby forest, as they were still being shot at, though the fire was now quite inaccurate. The rest of the company was advancing behind him.
"Don't let them get away!", added Lt. Col. Lungu as he finished ordering a second helo group to pursue and destroy the retreating enemy section which was now in the open. Two more helicopters swooped down and began machinegunning the retreating survivors.
But just when things started going well mortar rounds began raining down on the advancing infantry. To the men taking cover it seemed to last forever.
"They'll pay!", said Co. Lungu to himself as his staff relayed the coordinated for the first artillery strike. The target: a patch of smoke a couple of kilometers away. Meanwhile, the helicopters continued chopping down the retreating section unabated. His infantry continued to advance and take cover in the nearby forests.
Another bombardment, this time solely concentrated around his HQ... something wasn't right... was it just blind luck on behalf of the hungarians that the mortars were falling this close to him?
"Sir!... we've spotted an enemy squad...", then came the coordinates. One of his helicopters was just reporting on an enemy squad near to his location. Perhaps they had been the spotters... the location was right.
"Very well... Engage and destroy them!"
"What the?...", sublt. Patrascu asked as he began to distinguish a second squad in the distance.
"Sir... we've got another squad over here!"
"That's it!", thought Col. Lungu. The mortar strike was meant to soften them up. He quickly gathered all his helos and instructed them to attack the two new contacts.
"Under fire!", screamed Sublt. Irimescu as he evaded enemy fire. They fired from the woods.
"Engage at will!", Col. Lungu ordered his helicopters.
Like a swarm of wasps the helos buzzed about, continuously firing their machineguns.
Col. Lungu listened to the radio chatter. And the image his mind painted was an ugly one. Two more squads hiding in the woods, just west... in front of him. the air was saturated with the sound of the rotors and machinegun fire. but he knew he had to play one of his aces: his two gunships.
Sublt. Bucur had been watching the battle from afar and he was aching to join the fray. Now his wish had been granted. Two enemy infantry squads had been reported in the woods to the west, right in front of him. There would be no fireballs like when engaging tanks, but it would have to do. No sooner did he fire his first autocannon round than he saw tracers flying from furter south. "Three squads?!"
The exact same thought was echoed in the mind of Lt. Col. Lungu. Especially since his infantry was too far away to help. His helos would have to solve this by themselves. Bullets and autocannon shells tore through the trees, as the battle unfolded.
Corporal Closca and his men crept closer to the two infantry squads reported nearby. "There must be something here", the Corporal thought as he recalled the furious fire some 6 helicopters rained upon the area. But just as they were about to make contact, they were once again under fire from afar, this time an enemy grenade launcher claimed one more of his men. But sure enough, as the rest of the company moved and attacked he saw the enemy squad hiding in the snowy field.
Lt. Col. Lungu now realized he had his hands full. He had hoped for a smoother ride, but so far it had been a slow advance... and not one objective secured. Still... he had plenty of artillery and air support and his helicopter force had so far proven itself to be lethal even against infantry taking cover in forests.
Finally his helicopters did their job and supressed the enemy infantry enough for his own troops to start advancing. Still... there was one issue that bothered him: most of his helos were now running low on ammo. He hoped that this breakthrough would be the decisive one. If not... then he would have to use artillery next time, which although more powerful, was far less accurate.
Meanwhile distant explosions signaled that the artillery bombardment had begun. True enough, the enemy mortars had been silent, so the coordinates must have been correct.
As the mountain troops moved into the open, his helicopters kept the pressure on, even though they were now starting to, one by one, run out of ammo. He sent the small IAR-316b to scout out ahead, at high altitude, but came up empty, not even one shot fired at it. It seems that there are not mobile AA units in the area and what they are facing are almost exclusively infantry units. Still, despite not having to cope with enemy SAMs and armor, having to root out every last enemy squad hiding in the woods was costing his helos far more ammunition than he anticipated. He made a mental not to purchase s couple of ammo carriers in the future.
His forces slowly advanced as the enemy infantry retreated. The enemy mortars still struck, but at a much lower intensity.His two gunships mopped up the last resistance with a ferociuos 57mm rocket barrage. Still, there was one element which bothered him. His IAR-316b recon copter reported seeing an enemy Strela AA team. So that meant that there might be more infantry SAMs to the north. Regardless... his infantry managed to break through the enemy lines.
Under the mortar fire his men advanced slowly. There had been virtually no resistance after securing the southern objectives. Right now the only danger was that there would not be enough time to secure all objectives, since lone strela teams might prove fatal should he decide to hop around from objective to objective.
Seeing how slow the advance was, col. Lungu decide to gamble and ordered Maj ivanovici to board a SOCAT gunship and secure the northernmost objectives... he had to take the change of the helo being shot down by enemy SAM teams, especially since his advancing infantry did come across such teams hiding in the forest.
"Contact!", said the pilot of the gunship as they aproached the objective. The pilot spotted a team of enemy infantry guarding the northernmost objective.
There was no more time for finesse. Col. Lungu decided it was time to bring in the air support. The Lancer's cluster bombs should take care of any infantry hiding there...
The Lancer swooped down and strafed the area before carpet bombing it... Maj Invanovici couldn't tell how hany casualties there were, but the sight had certainly been an awesome one. He got his men ready to climb back into the SOCAT gunship and get ready to secure the area. The gunship took off and slowly advanced... upon closer inspection there seemed to be two badly mauled infantry squads... but further to the north... an entire heavy weapons platoon!... Maj Ivanovici ordered the gunship to land before communicating this information to the Col.
Promptly the Col. requested the second airstrike, meant to decisively remove the defenders... Despite the Lancer's cluster bombs badly mauling the defenders, the operation was soon ended...
At the end of the day the terrain proved much more difficult to traverse than thought and the infantry simply moved too slowly to secure the objectives scattered all over the map of operations. Second, the amount of firepower needed to dislodge the enemy infantry had been too high, even when all the weaponry of the gunships had been brought to bear. The battle had been a draw...