HUSZAR: Late War Hungarians in Flames of War.

By Scott Roach

I know for a lot of players out there, the long awaited Hungarian Late War Book for Bagration is out. As a long time Hungarian player, my second Army I ever put together I believe, I have been eagerly awaiting this book update.This article will look at and talk about the base formations within the Bagration Book. It will look at the different base styles of formations and the support options that are available. The article will not look at the Hungarian Cards. These will be provided in a separate excellent article provided by Ian Birdwell from No Dice No Glory.

So lets get started. Firstly lets talk about the Hungarian Special Rules. There are only the two. Firstly, Huszar. Teams with the ‘Huszar’ special rule have a reduced motivation rating when testing to use the follow me movement order. The second rule is ‘Home Defence’. Teams with this rule have an improved last stand rating.

Formations

The Hungarian Formations can really be divided into Three basic types. Armoured, both Heavy and Medium, Assault Guns and Infantry.
    
The Hungarian Heavy and Medium formations have limited vehicles available in each platoon. The Heavy Tanks are maxed out at three vehicles per platoon. Medium Tanks max out at four and the Light tank platoons including the medium tank, Turan I at five vehicles per platoon.

The Formations are a mix between German and Hungarian designed vehicles. While each Formation must have a minimum of two platoons as black box, all additional platoons can come from the different vehicle types. The example for the panthers below shows the compulsory platoons and optional platoons from the grey box choices. Optional platoons include medium, light tanks and SP Air Defence choice.

The Assault Gun Platoons are mixed with a limit of 3 vehicles for the Zrinyi Assault guns. The one benefit for the Zirinyi in V4 is they can now conduct Bombardments as SP artillery.

The Stug Assault Gun platoons are also limited to 3 vehicles per platoon with the Hetzer having a max of 5 vehicles. It should be noted and for me a disappointing omission is there are no options for the Panzer IV/70 unless you take it as an allied German platoon or formation.

Like the Tank Formations the Assault Guns are a mix between German and Hungarian designed vehicles. While each Formation must have a minimum of two platoons as black box, all additional platoons can come from the different vehicle types. The example for the Zirinyi below shows the compulsory platoons and optional platoons from the grey box choices. Optional platoons include medium, light Assault Guns and a towed or non SP Anti Tank gun choice. For the Zirinyi Formation you have the choice to take only one Zirinyi Platoon as compulsory and choose a different vehicle type as the second compulsory platoon. The Zirinyi is the only Formation choice that allows this with the Hungarians.

The Hungarian book under the Axis-Allies Late War has only one choice for Infantry. There are a number of changes and options available through the Cards, but as I said that will be covered in a separate article. The Standard Infantry Formation troops are all rated as Careful, Confident Trained with the exception of the Huszar Platoon which is Careful, Veteran Trained.

The Infantry Formation has all the standard support platoons in the form of Medium, Heavy Mortars, HMGs, light /Medium Anti-Tank guns. There are three additional non standard platoons available from the list. These include the Scout Platoon with Careful, Confident Trained and the Huszar mounted Cavalry Platoon. Both the Scout and Huszar platoon have Spearhead.

One platoon of particular note should be the Rocket Platoon. The Rocket Platoon is the Hungarian 44M “Buzogányvet?” which was an unguided anti-tank rocket designed by Hungary for use against Soviet armour and personnel in World War II. The 44M consisted of a launcher capable of holding two rockets with the gunner operating from weapon’s left side. A tripod was developed for use by the three man crew on the ground. The weapon was given an ROF 1 and a Range of 12” in the book but based on its historical capability and effectiveness I feel this is an oversight by BattleFront. The weapon held 2 rockets and had an effective range of 1000 metres and max range of 2000m. It was fin stabilised and accurate.

Support Units
The Support Options of the Hungarians are the standard options that most Armies enjoy. These include artillery, Anti Tank, Heavy and Medium Anti Aircraft Guns, Reconnaissance platoon and Air Support.

Closing Thoughts
So my thoughts in closing. Huszar provides us with some unique Hungarian models that clearly represent Hungary’s efforts in the later part of WW2. While there are some obvious omissions and under rated capabilities in the basic formations. The Command Cards are able to make some interesting options and formation choices. More to follow on that.

The Armoured Heavy formations will be light on and may be pushed to deal with the larger soviet heavy formations. However, the old Hungarian players will enjoy the challenge of the new lists in V4. For the new players of Hungarians, you will have a great time determining and building interesting lists with some Hungarian specific formations.