Battlegroup Hungary 1945

I read Douglas Nash’s excellent "From the Realm of a Dying Sun" volume II in January and it inspired me to play a couple of games of Battlegroup.  Late Second World War Eastern Front is my favourite period.  I started playing Battlegroup last year, and only got two games in.  I'm determined to get more familiar with the system this year.

Game One

The first game involved the combat of Kampfgruppe Huppert, formed from elements of the 1st Panzer Division, SS-Regiment Ney (comprised of Hungarian volunteers) and Panzer-Jager Battalion 37.  This was a squad level game of around 350 points a side using the Attack/Counter-attack scenario from the Battlegroup rulebook.  The forces were taken from the Fall of the Reich and Spring Awakening supplements.

The Red Army started quickly using their scout team and a platoon of T-34/85s to capture two of the objectives, a hill and a wood.  The German/Hungarian force responded strongly and some good shooting from the Heer Pz-IVs destroyed one of the Red Army tanks.  The infantry elements of both sides were advancing while the armour slugged it out. 

The Red Army ISU-152 were hopeless with their shooting, but their heavy armour thwarted any attempt by the German panzers to destroy them and they did capture another wooded area .  As the infantry closed with each other, both sides begun to be ground down with more Battle Counters being taken. 

The T-34/85s were wiped out by mid game but the Germans were also down to one Pz-IV and trying to conserve ammo to take on the ISU-152s.  

The Hungarian infantry began to take pins as the superior Red Army numbers started to tell.  Finally, after exhausting their main gun ammo the ISUs closed on the German infantry and wiped out SS Regiment Ney’s HQ.  The resulting Battle Counter draw pushed the Germans over their Battle Rating and the survivors had to concede. 

Game Two

The second game was set when the Germans had lost the initiative, abandoning all attempts to relieve Budapest and were transitioning to the defence.  This game revolved around a small Kampfgruppe of panzer grenadiers and armour from 5th SS Panzer Division "Wiking" in a defensive position holding a Hungarian farmhouse.  This was a platoon level game with 400 points for the Germans and 600 for the Red Army based upon the Defence Line scenario in the Battlegroup rulebook.

The Red Army deployed first and their IS-2Ms captured the first objective of a hill.  As they advanced, the lone German Panther in ambush position tried to halt them but missed twice. This was a fatal error as in the very next turn the IS-2Ms turned their attention to this threat and destroyed the Panther.  The Panzer Grenadier squad that had been supporting the tank was now subject to pinning fire from the Red Army scout elements.  

The Red Army next deployed it's SU-76M battery and it's infantry elements began to arrive on the table.  The SPGs immediately began bombarding the farmhouse subjecting the German Panzer Grenadiers to indirect fire.  As the IS-2Ms advanced their tank riders were raked by the German machine guns and started to take casualties as well as becoming pinned.  

The Red Army AFVs held their ground and worked the Germans over with machine gun and SPG fire while their infantry caught up.  The Germans responded as best they could with machine gun fire.  Casualties were being taken on both sides but the Germans were taking the worst of it.  Turn Five saw the arrival of the rest of the German force, a platoon of three Stug IIIGs.  They were into the action straightaway.  With some impressive shooting they knocked out two IS-2MS and pinned down another. 

 

However, by this stage the German position was precarious.  In the next turn a concerted Red Army attack on the wood destroyed the defending infantry. With the resulting Battle Counter pushing the Germans over their Battle Rating the game ended with another victory for the Red Army.

Summary

This was the first two of three games I played representing the combat in Hungary in 1945.  I didn't try to recreate an actual historical action, but I triedto play scenarios inspired by real events and are at least plausible.  All of the armour I used is mentioned in accounts and the forces I used are representative of those fighting in theatre at the time.

I really enjoyed these games.  I'd not played Battlegroup since last Summer, after a flick through the rules it came back to me.  I'm still playing simple games, but I'm getting the hang of it more and I felt this time I handled the deployment of the forces much better.  For my next games I want to introduce artillery fire.  

Battlegroup is definitely my choice for Second World War games now.  I'm looking forward to the Italy book, as it's my favourite theatre after the Eastern Front and I have a reasonable collection all ready to go.