A Romanian Battalion

These are the most recent models to be added to my armies, but are a nice start point because they are a seldom-covered subjects and (since they are a small force) can illustrate a few starting ideas.

The Romanians have an extra appeal to a wargamer  as one of the few armies that can actually be used on both sides in WWII.  The Romanians provided more troops the the German war effort than any other ally, fighting at Odessa and the capture and defense of the Crimea.  They suffered mightily at Stalingrad.  As the Red Armies entered Romania in 1944 the Romanians decided they had had enough, vacated the front lines and drove the German forces out of the capital.  For the balance of the war select formation carried on as Soviet allies.  The best website for matters pertaining to the Romanian experience can be found here.

This is the 1st Battalion, 3rd Motorized Vanatori Regiment, 1st Armored Division.  Vanatori is a Romanian term that once designated a type of infantry (I think roughly equivalent to the German Jäger) retained by some regiments as a part of the regimental tradition.

At the front, the hexagonal command element.  The formation is based for Blitzkrieg Commander; I hasten to add that the odd base shapes are my own innovation.  I think they improve stand type recognition, but you do not need hexagonal stands to play the game.

Behind them three infantry companies, each of 3 stands.  At the very rear at the viewers left (the unit's right) are the machine guns of the machine gun company and on the other flank the mortar stand.

Most figures in this force are Pendraken who do a lovely line of Romanian WWII Infantry, except for these machine-gunners who are from Pithead, who offer the more "trademark" Zb machine gun. 

As a motorized formation, obviously they are still missing their trucks.  I will fill out the rest of the regiment along with a share of divisional assets and the especially the Armored regiment.  I also want to produce leg infantry and cavalry forces for various phases of the war.

As you can see, basic Romanian uniforms at 10mm do not require a lot of complicated detail work; a battalion can be fielded very quickly.