Batrep – Bagration Hungarians – how do they play?

As part of the Minor Nations Bagration book, Hungarians offer an interesting force for Late War now part of the v4 rules. I’m sure you’re eager to know how well they play? Maybe you’re a past Hungarian fan from the days of v3 or maybe you’re looking to put together a new Hungarian force. Let’s play a game and see how they perform.

Let’s start with the setting for our battle, a valley that has already seen plenty of action. I was aiming for something that can serve as hilly area in Hungary towards the end of ’44, early ’45 when the Hungarians were defending their homeland from the invading Russians. The terrain is mostly Gale Force 9 with a bit of Novus Design and some scratch builds.

The Forces

Representing the Soviets, I put together a 100pts out of the Bagration book, a Soviet IS-2 Guards Heavy Tank Regiment. I decided to go a bit heavy metal as this should present a pure Hungarian list with a challenge, especially in late war.  With 4 IS2s and and 4 IS-85 (Note in the picture the KV-85s are filling in, least the gun is right!) and an engineering sapper company in the core formation, it should be able to be effective on the offensive.

The Sapper company has 14 stands of PPsh SMG teams and 1 DP MG team with the ability to swap out up to 6 stands for Maxims, PTRDs, Flamethrowers and/or 82mm mortars. Note the limit of up to 2 each. I went with 2 flame throwers and 2 maxims. For the support elements, BA-64s for recce, Katyushas for artillery, a flight of Stormaviks, and last a BA-64 OP to round out the list.

For the Hungarians, none other than the legendary Mad Hungarian (you remember the Battlefront forums right?) aka Bill Wojahn stepped up and assembled a list the old fashioned way on paper. In his list, gobs of infantry (which is to say 3 platoons pf 10 stands each), 80mm anti-tank/AA guns, 2 Panthers, 3 Zrinyiis, 4 120 mortars, 4 105 artillery guns, and last  4 Toldi tanks.

I picked attack and Bill picked defend. Hmm pretty historical, rolled the die on the extended missions and ended up with Dogfight!

Setup

For the Soviets, we’d have to run the length of the table, and take care to watch our flanks for the appearance of reinforcements. High AT to the side armor from Panthers definitely will give any IS2 based tank a bad day. As the Hungarian reserves would be delayed, would the Soviets be sticking their head into the noose if driving hard or could it reward them with a quick victory? Mix in some minefields for the defender to utilize and perhaps channel the Soviet attack, plenty to think about.

Bill decided to defend the end of the table with the factory ruins and the church / graveyard on one flank and this house on the other. Good visibility for his reinforcements when they would arrive. He placed his objective far back and I placed mine close to my lines  with an eye for my infantry to have a couple of good lines of attack under cover.

Bill started to place his minefields. You can see the green die marking the edge of the Soviet deployment zone. On my right flank 3 minefields down and the 4th is off on the left flank out of view.

Here we can see the Hungary deployment coming along. Two platoons of infantry, each on an objective, the 105s back on the heights and the 120mm mortars down in the valley.

The 80mm guns he decided to put  back by the factory, they look just like 88s but a little smaller, they are cute but thankfully they’d be fairly ineffective against the impressive IS2 front armor. Last Bill put his Zrinyiis in Ambush.

For the Soviet deployment, the IS85 and the BA64 recce setup on the left flank. In theory they should be able to push hard and draw attention from my intended main attack yet be mobile enough to hook around and aid with the main thrust.

In the center the Soviet engineering sappers on their start line ready to run through luxurious amounts of cover.

And last on the right flank the IS2s ready to drive towards the forward objective, with the Katys in support, it was my hope they’d be able to root out Hungary infantry just in time for the engineering sappers to arrive and finish the job.

Turn 1

The IS2s roll forward, and take a reasonably safe distance to watch the Katys rain down on this side of the battlefield. Lots of dice were rolled to little effect.

In the center the engineers fill the building as well as the shell holes in the tree. The idea was to keep a central position but then push left or right depending on which Hungarian flank might look to be in worse shape. My preference was to attack into the woods in the top left of the picture as that would be generally shield from defensive fire and be a great place to assault into.

On the left flank the recce made sure to stay out of sight of the 80mm guns down range but otherwise straight forward rumbling along.

Last the Stormaviks made good an attack against the artillery up on the heights. Enough to pin them but otherwise no damage. As I was counting on my infantry to be effected, if the Hungary artillery could be kept silenced that’d help the Soviet cause. Given the Hungary skill of trained, they are a bit moderate on ranging in, but with a hit on 4+ and being confident they tend to stick in the game.

As his 105s failed to unpin, Bill decided to pop his Zrínyis in ambush and use their artillery capabilities to try and blunt my infantry attack. With a vet skill and 3+ Firepower, it has good capabilities as artillery but also against tanks (AT10). Italian midwar players will immediately recognize the similarities to the Semovente and the comparison is operationally spot on. In my ways the Zrinyis are everything that I wish the German STuH42 could have been. It’s a unit with character!

Back over to the Soviets for top of turn 2, the IS2 continued to move up their position on the right flank, leery that the first reinforcement roll wasn’t far away.

In the center the Soviets piled out of the building and Ito all the available cover out in the street or in the ruins just across. The pace slowed a bit hoping that the Katys would a bit more of their magic to thin out the Hungarians. Thus far only 1 stand has been removed from the force on the right flank, the target of the attack. Guards artillery was definitely under performing. Likewise, this illustrates the advantage of Hungarian infantry, 10 stands for 10 pts of to hit on 4+ infantry is pretty hard to root out.

 

 

The IS-85s took a few shots at the Zrinyis and managed to get one. Like the Semoventes they are great for artillery, the front armor of 7 needs a decent roll to protect against Soviet guns.

Back over to the Hungarians, with 2 out of 3 artillery units in play, the shells were raining down, taking a few stands of infantry and impressively bailing out an IS2. With “just” artillery fire the Hungarian turn was complete.

Top of turn 3, Soviets pushing forward and taking a bit of a gamble, the IS85s decided to go after the Zrinyis and start to position for an assault against the infantry in the woods. If it all worked out, the far objective could be theirs. In the top right of the frame is the first Soviet operational blunder, the formation commander failed a cross check and got stuck trying to cross a rock wall. Surely the Hungarian Panthers won’t arrive with the first reinforcement roll will they? Last the Soviets see the Katys have managed to thin the far Hungarian infantry platoon down to 6 stands. The time for the assault is coming….

Another vantage point of the action, the Hungarian artillery is poised to take advantage of the Soviet infantry that isn’t quite ready to rush forward. O? Has anyone seen any Soviet aircraft lately?!? Over to the bottom of turn 3…

O …. hi. The Germans… I mean Hungarian Panthers take their shots and miraculous the Soviet formation commander survives.

On the opposite flank the Zrinyis retire, however the Russian infantry take more artillery shells, and lose a bit more…

Turn 4

The Soviets decide to push hard, the IS85s move forward planning to assault the Hungarian infantry, while the BA64s plan to hose down the Hungarian 80s or if needed aid in pinning the Hungarian infantry in prep for the assault.

The tank battle heats up dramatically, 4 IS2s on 2 Hungarian panthers should be a good fight, except when the roll is poor, not a single Panther is hit.

The Russians go in for the assault and given the Soviets failed to pin and received an impressive amount of defensive fire, the assault fails.

Meanwhile on the left flank the Soviets have to device if they want to assault or not. Into the woods needs a cross check but then will escape defensive fire from the Zrinyi, attack into the open and then the Zrinyi will get some juicy side shots. The Soviets decided to not risk it.

Bottom of Turn 4, the Hungarians receive more reinforcements, and start to flood in infantry to prop up this side.  The Panthers are able to kill the Soviet formation commander and inflict a good number of losses on the Soviet infantry.

The Hungarians go for the flank shots and pick on the BA64s with the 80s finding success in both cases. In addition their Toldis also come on as reinforcements. This flank was looking to be solidly under Hungarian control.

To ram the point home the Hungarians decide to assault into the Soviet armor. Get them to run off and that’ll be an easier way to get another hard to kill Soviet tank destroyed. It doesn’t quite go off as planned.

Turn 5

The Soviet infantry now in bad spirits, roll to stick around and decide to pack it up.

Getting desperate, the Soviet tankers decide to take matters into their own hands, and go for the objective as the Hungarian infantry stayed on top of the hill. Katys are able to range in up there and pin them down as well as taking a stand or three.

The IS85s decide to consolidate towards the center, working to pin the 80s and set up to assault them. They had to leave a bailed out IS85 behind but such as the fortunes of war.

Defensive fire by the 80s is ineffective and the one Zrinyi is bailed out the assault goes in takes out the gun, the other gun failing to counter inches back to be outside of 6″ but the surrenders on the following Hungarian turn. As it turns it this was the first unit lost by the Hungarians.

Has anyone happened to see any Soviet air?

On the opposite flank the assault by the IS2s equally goes well, the Soviets have an objective. Can the Hungarians counter?

 

The Hungarian mob up at the top of the hill fails to unpin, but the 4 stands left from the previous assault eagerly comes forward.

The two panthers move up and manage to take out another IS2. It’ll come down to one pivotal assault by 4 Hungarian infantry stands.

Three stands would get in fro the assault, the counter attack roll by the IS2 would fail, make the cross check into the woods and then on the following turn, fail its last stand roll. Victory to the Hungarians.

 

Final Thoughts

The Hungarians really remind me of the Italians in midwar. They have character. Hardware generally comes across as being a little outdated but they have access to German Panthers, Tigers, 88s and other capable systems that make up for it. With a Confident rating, access to 10 stand infantry platoons, good artillery, they seem quite playable as a force. Bill “the Mad Hungarian”, very much enjoyed the v4 update and is eager for the release so he’s able to take his forces to tournaments as well as casual game nights. His toys had been sitting in their cases for far too long. Bill likes what he sees and over all the Hungarians as part of this LW Bagration Minor nation update look to be a good force on the table top.