The most recent minor army supplemental release is the Romanians for Mid War. I say minor, even though the Romanian army was larger than the Italian army during the war! This is another much anticipated release for those of us with a love for the non German axis forces in WWII. As with all the other supplements, this set includes a soft cover army book with the accompanying unit and company cards. These come with a packing box that holds the cards in place. Since it is all shrink wrapped together, so not really easy to keep together once you open the package (maybe if you buy a large zip lock bag.
The army book gives some background on the Romanian army during the Russian campaign in mid war. It then provides some eye candy and synopsis of various tanks used by the Romanians. As Romania did not have their own tank industry (unlike the Italians and Hungarians), these are all German and Czech designs. You then get the five companies and their respective units.
The book provides you with options for three tank companies, three infantry companies and a cavalry company. The tanks are built around the Pz35t, Pz-III/ and Pz-IV heavy companies.
The infantry gives you the regular foot troops, with a motorized and half tracked armed company. The later is something unique to the Romanians during the war. The Romanians planned their armored division organization around the German model, so including this formation is historical and just neat. It is not new to Battlefront, but I am glad they kept it in. Finally, you have the cavalry company. Another must have for the army (my army is build around it).
Finally, you get the common support units for the army. This is an area I feel they went a little light on. The Romanians used a large amount of captured Russian artillery and AT weapons in this period, so I think these could have been included (since BF already makes the models). This is a minor point though and these guns can be proxied, as the stats should be about the same as what is included. The unit cards replicate what is in the army book, so you get most everything you need.
The command cards include the normal unit upgrades that are common in all the command sets, along with some that are particular to the army. With that said, the special ones are seen in other sets, just with other names. This set does include two special characters, which I would have preferred to see a few more. You also get soft skin transport upgrades and engineer formations, another staple of these sets. You are provided with a reconnaissance company and tank upgrades for the cavalry. I am not quite clear why these were not included in the unit cards, as thy are part of the cavalry. I think a neat unit to add here would have been the captured Stuarts the Romanians used in the Crimea. However, that is probably too esoteric for this type of army! Like the Hungarians, these is once again no special division options for the army… I would have preferred this, but this is not the end of the world. I would have also liked to see a mountain division option with upgrades, but the leg infantry will get you buy.
This is another tight set, like most of the supplements BF has released. It gives you everything you need to play the army. Therefore, a must buy.
- Manteuffel