I Can Spam, and Now So Can You! (The Brave Romanians!)

By James Copland

Mid-War Romanians are coming, soon! (October maybe) I will frame this review/preview with this nugget of knowledge. Bring more MGs to all your list building. Did you add and MG Platoon? Ok, now add another one. I have friends who will smile and friends who will shudder at this statement, but Romanians are going to be a terror in MW Flames of War. So sit back, relax, as best you can while I show you how this force is a better elite army than Germany or Brits… a better spam force than the Soviets or Italians/Americans and superior to their fellow MW Axis Minors.

Force Diagram: At first glance, the Romanians look like a really simple force. 3x Tank Formations, 3x Infantry Formations and a “single” cavalry formation. on further inspection you will notice the really small option of support unit choices. I will temper your disappointment, by reminding you that this is a booklet… but… its very deceptive. This force is very good, and can bring German support choices. That means those pesky Marders should be supporting your Romanians.

Lets talk to Special Rules. The first rule that you will notice is Peasant Army. Just like the LW Romania and the MW Italians, its a dice roll to improve your skill and morale. 1/3 chance to be “better.” Its a great addition to the army, and it will add a great twist to your games. Defend the Homeland, Romanians like close combat. They may not have many other skills, but man they know how to use a shovel and trench knife, most units will be swinging on 3+ in assault. This will come in handy later… All the other rules for the force are pretty standard. Armored Reserve”, is a check on the small tank horde option. It will limit how many R-2 you will flood the field with.Tanks: The Romanians can bring three distinct formations of an armored variety. The first up is the T-3, known to many and the PZ3 short barrel. With HEAT and FA5 it is certainly a good choice. I am a little disappointed with the price of the units, they don’t differ from the German in an appreciable amount for the bad soft stats.  The best part of this and all Tank formations is that after the black boxes are filled, you can fill your formation with the R-2 tank for uber cheap. beefing up the formation and giving it some fluff/sticking power. With the optional 3rd T-3 option it will give you the choice to also be a “real” tank formation.

The T-4, or PZ4 Long Barrel is the same thing with PZ4 vice PZ3, same options to take R-2 as a fluff unit to distract from your main tanks, but for the added points you gain 1AT. I think the T-3 wins out as the strongest armor option, before you bring in German Support.

But, lets talk about this R-2. It can be used in both of the armored formations we’ve talked about, and it can be used alone in its own formations.

While the points are covered trust me when I say its VERY CHEAP PER MODEL! At FA2, AT6 overworked, it won’t be doing a lot. But you can field a lot of them, and they assault decently. Making this a meh option. But for 21pts for an entire formation, they should not be dismissed either. This is also where we see the use of the Armored Reserve rule. Its a limitation on spam. It limits the platoon count to one, even though the armor is below the threshold for Deep Reserves. All in all, this formation will struggle to do much alone. The R-2 tank is much better served supporting another tank formation, or being taken to support a Infantry force with some armored oompf.

While the tank options may have you bummed out. Both fans of Romania and German forces alike will rejoice for the infantry options. Germany can finally in MW bring a cheap infantry force to support its tanks. I present to you Infantry: I could sit here and paste hundreds of screen grabs of how cheap these guys are but Romanian infantry falls into two broad category. Elite and Absolutely Not.

The Armored/motorized infantry represents the cream of the crop for Romania, These troops are hit on 4+, have a 4+ skill and ROF3, you can take them with Sd Kfz 251 or without to save some points. They are almost double the cost of the regular infantry and a tad more than the Mountain Division. The Hit on 4+ is a big deal, but you will be limited on some of the support you can bring because of the price hike. A note on Infantry AT, Romanians don’t believe in integral AT in a platoon. so be sure to back them up with your AT guns, which are… AT6, AT7 or AT8/9. Not amazing options but they will stop Stuarts and L6/40s from over running you.

The Rifle Company, is the best. I love this formation and will be running them a lot in MW. These platoons are the “not elite” units. And I love them for that reason. the pictured formation costs 40pts, and that’s not even the best part. Blitzing AT Guns, yes that the best part, and not just 3x or 4x…. you can have 6x AT6, ROF2, Blitzing AT guns, who because they are Infantry heavy weapons also can move 8″ and AUTO cross!!! All Praise Phil Yates! Okay, all jokes aside this is an amazing choice for your AT-less infantry platoons. While all the options in the formation are hit on 3+, the sheer bottom of the barrel price tag makes up for it. Also, the gun options. With two 81mm templates, plus the 60mm one this formation also can bring 5x arty, two of which have smoke rounds. All the while leaving you with PLENTY of points for support or another formation to bring. Even with the cost and bad skill, the Assault skill rating makes even these riflemen worth bringing. They will push anything off an objective with ease, and they will bring their friends to come and help them. And their friends will bring friends, because you have the points to do so.

Support: While the Brits, Soviets and Germans have really robust support diagrams, Romania is a minor power and, it shows here. A PAK40, a tank unit, some recce more arty… oh a STUKA. The best unit here is the Pioneers, who can take R/MG or SMG and two flamethrowers. Frankly the support to your force will come from a German allied unit of Tigers, or Marders. There just isn’t much to sing about the support until you look at the command cards that put some neat formations together. Something that the minor nations have going for them is the option to bring a Infantry Arty Observer. The 3+ save makes them survivable which in turn makes them more useful.Command Cards: Romanian Command cards contain a lot of the common core set cards we have come to expect from these packs, but the amount of cards that allow you to re-roll a dice outcome seems higher than usual. Which is nice considering that so many of those dice rolls will require a five or six. But you didn’t come here to read about Fortify the Building, no you want to see cards like this! As you can see, there are some really interesting choices. Increasing command, better assaults, better formations. Its what you hope for in command cards.

All told the Romanian MW booklet, has a ton of options for a new force to collect, as an allied formation for your Germans, and add in some ingenuity in the force build and you could come up with some really nasty lists to put on the table top.

I hope this article has you as excited as I am for my beloved Romanians!