Pears on
Poplar Trees
A great deal of
heavy fighting in Romania occurred in urban centres including as Arad,
Brasov, Cluj, Iasi, Ploiesti, Sibiu, Tirgoviste, and Timisoara. This
was where the Securitate chose to hold its battles, fighting to protect
government facilities at first, and later shifting its attacks to
terrorism to destabilize the National Salvation Front. The heaviest
fighting occurred in the capital of Bucharest, where the NSF and
Securitate contested the possession of government buildings in vicious
streetfighting. The Securitate emerged from secret tunnels to
recapture several key buildings but found themselves under siege by the
Army and Romanian revolutionaries.
This scenario
takes place on December 23, 1989, during the height of the fighting in
Bucharest. A new reality has come to Ceausescu's government and
Securitate, a reality where pears do grow on poplar trees.
Scenario
Outline
On December 23,
1989, Ceausescu himself had fled, leaving the Securitate to defend what
was left of his government. This they did by turning the Bucharest
government buildings into interconnected fortresses through a secret
tunnel network connecting the Presidential palace with other key
buildings. The Securitate has waited out the initial assault in the
tunnels, and has emerged to recapture the buildings.
The scenario
itself is in three stages. It starts when the Securitate emerge from
the tunnels of the key buildings and attempt to secure the buildings
around the square. The second stage occurs when the Securitate have
secured the buildings and consists of attacks on the troops and civilians
in the square. The final stage involves successfully resisting any counterattacks.
Both the
Securitate and the National Salvation Front (NSF) are heavily armed with
substantial forces, filling out both their ranks and making this a very
brutal scenario. Because of the large numbers of combatants involved,
team play with a referee is recommended. Play with the Initiative and
Morale rules is also strongly recommended for maximum realism.
Setup
The NSF player
sets up the Garrison inside the buildings as desired and the Reinforcement
troops in the square. The Securitate player does not set up on the
map, but has his troops in the connecting tunnels. He must designate
which troops will enter the map through which tunnel entrance.
National
Salvation Front
The National
Salvation Front had just organized itself yesterday and has welcomed the
Army to its ranks. Many of the government buildings had been captured
earlier with only light resistance encountered. But now that the
Securitate are flooding out of these captured buildings, the NSF answers
one question but is faced with two others. It now knows that the
Securitate did not give more resistance earlier because they were in
hiding, preparing a counterattack. But where were they hiding, and
how does the NSF beat them back now?
The initial
Securitate battles will be in the buildings themselves and soldiers in the
Garrison are first line of defence. The Garrison must prevent the
Securitate from capturing the buildings. Failing that, the Garrison
must escape the buildings to join with the Reinforcement troops both to
usher the civilians out of the square and to stage a counterattack. All
of the buildings must be recaptured.
National
Salvation Front—Garrison
1 Rifle Platoon,
containing:
3 Rifle Squads -- Organization is below.
1 Platoon Command Group -- Organization is
below.
National
Salvation Front—Reinforcements
1 Rifle Company,
containing:
9 Rifle Squads organized into 3 Platoons --
Organization is below.
3 Platoon Command Groups -- Organization is
below.
1 Company Command Group -- Organization is
below.
Romanian Rifle
Squad Organization
Number
Quality
Weapons
2
Line
AK-47
1
Line
RPK
1
Line
AK-47/RPG-7V
4
Green
AK-47
Romanian Rifle
Platoon Command Group Organization
Number
Quality
Weapons
1
Line
AK-47
1
Line
SVD
Romanian Rifle
Company Command Group Organization
Number
Quality
Weapons
1
Crack
AK-47
2
Line
AK-47
1
Line
RPK
Securitate
The Securitate
were always prepared for a military coup against Ceausescu. They hid
weapons, equipment, and facilities waiting for the attempted ouster but
now they are facing down the entire country in a revolution. The old
tactics of holding government structures may not apply, but they are the
only tactics possible. The Securitate start in the tunnels and must
recapture the buildings to use as fighting positions against the troops in
the square. If a building cannot be captured, ignore it and divert
the resources to others--the building can always be captured later. Once
the buildings are secured, the troops in the square must be attacked and
neutralized with Securitate in each building contributing to a crossfire. Then,
the buildings must be held against any further attacks, or failing that,
the Securitate must escape with their units intact.
Securitate
Units
1 Special
Assignment Company, containing:
9
Squads organized into 3 Platoons -- Organization is below.
3
Platoon Command Groups -- Organization is below.
1
Company Command Group -- Organization is below.
Securitate Special
Assignment Squad Organization
Number
Quality
Weapon
2
Crack AK-47
3
Crack AMD-65
1
Crack AK-47/RPG-7V
Securitate Special
Assignment Platoon Command Group
Number
Quality
Weapon
1
Elite
AK-47
1
Crack
RPK
Securitate Special
Assignment Company Command Group
Number
Quality
Weapon
1
Elite
AK-47
1
Crack
RPK
2
Crack
AMD-65
Civilian
Securitate Operatives
Number
Quality
Weapon
2
Line
AK-47
3
Line
AMD-65
2
Line
Shotguns
4
Green
AMD-65
2
Green
Shotguns
Special
Rules
Terrain: The
buildings are all mass-construct stone with thick alls (PF 6400). Interior
walls are simple plaster and lath, for
PF of 2. The floors are typical with an assortment of offices
and cubicles. All buildings have three floors and a basement, each
identical except that doors on the upper floors are considered windows.
Fountains
in the square are 2 feet high and provide protection to kneeling
combatants while the statuary in the square, provide cover to as many as
two standing combatants. The fountains have a PF of 900, while the
statuary has a PF of 4000.
Tunnels: There
are tunnel entrances inside the basement of each key building. Each
basement is identical to the floors above the ground but has no windows or
exterior doors.
The
tunnel is wide enough to allow two combatants to exit simultaneously side
by side. The NSF does not know about these tunnels and so cannot
react to the presence of the Securitate until the Securitate are spotted
by the Garrison or shots are fired within the building. The NSF
cannot make use of the tunnels themselves.
Reinforcement
Reaction Time: The Reinforcements are stationed in the square
outside the buildings and so must first hear the shots inside before they
can start the reaction process. It will take 9+(6) phases for the
Reinforcements to realize that the shots they are hearing are an actual
battle and not Romanians celebrating by firing their guns in the air. The
Reinforcements can do nothing until the reaction time ends or the
Securitate open fire on them, at which point they can move and engage in
combat normally.
Civilians: The
civilians present an obstacle for the Securitate and NSF Reinforcements. There
are 80 civilians randomly placed throughout the square, celebrating the
flight of Ceausescu. These civilians will not react to gunfire until
(6) phases after either the Reinforcements open fire or the Securitate
opens fire on the reinforcements. Once the reaction time has elapsed,
the civilians will start to run at 4 HPP towards the nearest map edge, and
all actions for NSF Reinforcements within 2 hexes of a civilian at this
time will be at +1 AC, representing the time spent shouting orders to
civilians and trying to avoid endangering them.
The
civilians represent an obstacle for the Securitate as well because the
Securitate must pick out NSF Reinforcement targets among the throng. Players
with access to the ”Phoenix Command Expansion” should use the target
identification rules of Section 6.13 to determine which targets are NSF
and not permit Securitate to open fire until the target is identified. This
target identification rule applies only to NSF troops within 2 hexes of a
civilian. The Securitate had no compunctions about shooting unarmed
civilians and often did. The simple fact of the matter is that the
Securitate realize that in this situation with limited ammunition, it is
more effective to shoot an armed soldier than an unarmed civilian.
Combat
Engineering: Once the Securitate have captured a building, they
can designate certain combatants for combat engineering tasks, such as
building barricades, mouseholing, and planting grenade mines. The rules on
the combat effects of these devices are found in the scenario
“Crossfire” in this supplement.
Building
these devices requires the following amounts of time: Rubble
Barricades require 120 AC with up to 8 combatants contributing CA while
Grenade mines require 60 AC with up to 2 combatants contributing CA.
Smaller
Scenario: This
is a very big scenario with a large number of combatants. There are
77 Securitate, 108 National Salvation Front Soldiers, and 80 civilians
involved in the fight and this may be much more than players would want to
handle at a time. Reducing the size of the forces to a more
manageable size is simple. Remove 4 Securitate squads from play and
take out one Garrison squad, 3 Reinforcement Squads, and 1 Reinforcement
Platoon Command group. Also reduce the number of civilians by half. This
will reduce the scenario to a more manageable size.
For
a still smaller scenario, remove 6 squads from the Securitate, 14 soldiers
from the Garrison, and 5 squads and 1 command group from the
Reinforcements. Reduce the number of civilians down to 20, and close
down all buildings except for one which is determined by mutual consent of
all the players. None of the other buildings may be entered by any
combatants, but may be used for cover. This way, the scenario becomes
a simple building assault/counterassault and is quite manageable for two
players.
Armored
Reinforcement: Players with the ”Mechanized Combat System” can
at their option provide the NSF Reinforcements with 3 T-55 MBTs with Green
quality crews. These provide a form of mobile artillery for
bombarding Securitate positions and were used in the actual battle for
this very purpose. Also, one of the reinforcement infantry platoons
should be mechanized, having 3 TAB-77 APCs. Use BTR-70 statistics for
the TAB-77. The vehicles may set up anywhere within the square.
If
these vehicles are introduced into the scenario, provide the Securitate
with 20 RPG-18s and 12 RKG-3M Antitank Grenades to be distributed as the
Securitate player desires.
Scenario
Length
To keep the
scenario manageable and realistic, the scenario should last for a maximum
of one hour of game time (1800 phases). Within one hour of the
battle's start, more reinforcements will be arriving from the rest of the
city and the scenario will be reduced to a siege with both sides trying to
weaken the other to gain a small advantage. Both sides will be
trapped, unable to leave the battle area until events elsewhere force the
battle to a close. This is what happened in the real battle. It
took overwhelming force and the death of Ceausescu to finally break the
Securitate threat in Bucharest, although scattered snipers and pockets of
loyalists remained in combat until near the year's end.
Victory
The unusual
three-stage nature of this scenario gives rise to some complex victory
conditions. The Securitate plan is what is driving this scenario and
this plan requires that the Securitate meet certain objectives.
The first
objective is obviously capturing the key buildings. This has to be
accomplished quickly and with a minimum of casualties so that more
combatants are available to participate in the other objectives. If
the Securitate is able to capture the majority of key buildings by
eliminating or driving out all the NSF Garrison defenders, they win this
battle.
If the first
objective is met, the next objective is to take the square by eliminating
the defenders and driving off the civilians. This is much more
difficult due to the larger forces involved and the Securitate often
fighting from fixed positions. If the Securitate are able to kill,
incapacitate, and drive off the NSF reinforcement units and civilians from
the square itself, then they have won this battle as well.
The third
objective is somewhat muddled because it represents the Securitate
realizing the exact nature of their victory: they have captured the
buildings and succeeding in placing themselves under siege. The
buildings are territory only and possess no command or government
significance. The Securitate therefore have three options. The
first is to drive away all NSF units off the map through an all-out
assault. The second is to continue to hold the building against the
next assault, if any. The final option is to designate rearguards
while the rest of the unit exfiltrates overland off the map. More
than 50% of the original Securitate members must exfiltrate for a victory
if this option is chosen. If the Securitate are able to achieve any
of these objectives, then they have won this battle as well, and have won
the scenario.
It is not enough
to say that the NSF wins the scenario by frustrating the plans of the
Securitate and preventing them from achieving their objectives. If
the NSF can frustrate the Securitate's plans in the first two stages so
that the later stages never occur, then the NSF has won the scenario. Should
the third stage of the battle occur, then the NSF has the following two
objectives: recapturing the buildings and neutralizing the Securitate
through death or capture. If the NSF can meet both of these later
objectives, then they have won this scenario.
If the one-hour
time limit expires before the battle's scenario's third stage is resolved,
then the battle is a draw.