Slitherine

Please post here your comments about this scenario.

I don't know if I took a naive approach to this scenario, but I failed to rescue any of the Hungarian units.
I mean, it's not the first scenario where you have to rescue some auxiliary units and so far I found the difficulty to do so manageable.
But now...complete annihilation not just in Budapest itself but also in the south.
My strategy was to get rolling with some Tiger II's (closely followed by tracked an self propelled arty and infantry) straight for the rescue but they were seriously hampered by the dug-in soviet ATs.
My first Königstiger reached the outskirts of Budapest just in time to witness the destruction of the lone survivor, a Jagdpanzer IV (if I recall the type right).
Not to mention the south, I was not able to hold the river crossing with the Hungarians for more than a couple of turns, the equipment they field is just too far outgunned.
So as I finally made my way there no-one but the Russians gave me an unfriendly welcome...good-bye DV

I'd say with the current Hungarian equipment you don't hold any position for as long as you need to get German troops to help.

Budapest '45
Starting prestige 5700
Ending prestige 850
Marginal victory turn 24/24
Losses: 2x green Wehrmacht infantry, 1x Ostwind, 1x STuG IV

Time for Operation Konrad! One of my favorite historical battles, and probably the one that I was most disappointed with how it was it was presented in the main campaign. I was really sad that the fighting in the city itself was never represented. Well, luckily Kerensky has remedied this complaint of mine in the new version of Konrad, but it was still nearly as brutal a battle as it was in the stock campaign.

One thing I will give you props for, and I don't know if this was intentional, but I detected a subtle homage to the original Panzer General. I remember the scenario description back in the day was something like, "As the Soviets close in on Berlin, Germany launches one last offensive in the direction of ...Budapest." For some reason I found the wording to be slightly humorous and I got the same kind of vibe from the briefing in this one. So, props for obscure references if this was intentional.

I actually started out the battle rolling in prestige! Although some players might consider a "mere" 5700 prestige to be a laughable amount, but I was delighted. I didn't have much of a repair bill after suffering only light casualties at Breslau, so I bought an extra jagdtiger, upgraded a FW to a ME-262, bought an extra 262, upgraded my last Panzer IV to a Panther, bought an extra artillery and an anti-air Wirbelwind. Man, the anti-air units are some of the most fun unit names to say "ahst-vind" and now "verbal-vind", I love it.

But I digress, with my core underdoing a second renaissance of sorts, I decided to press the attack and try for a decisive victory. Unfortunately, I must admit to sharing Carston's "naive" approach to this battle. I ended up losing all the Hungarian units by turn 4 or 5. It seems like it would have taken a super-human effort to save them. I should note that I beat this scenario before the update that seems to beef up the Hungarians a bit.

Since a DV was quickly ruled out, I went for the bare minimum marginal victory, especially when it became clear that Soviet resistance was going to be extremely fierce. It is almost a cliche by now, but this is one of the battles where the Soviet forces truly seemed never-ending. I ended up breaking the back of their resistance by about turn 17 or 18 and after that it was just killiing off a bunch of infantry that was attacking across open ground. Still , my casualties were very high and I lost a few units, luckily none that were especially critical.

It sounds like you already beefed up the Hungarians, but I would recommend putting a couple quality German units in the Budapest garrison as well. i recall the SS division Polizei was trapped in Budapest at the time of this battle, so it would be historically accurate.

Overall a great scenario and a much better depiction of the battle than the one we got in the stock campaign. Now, on to Berlin!

Playing on General, imported core. Prestige 9045.

This was a race against time. Could I get to Budapest before the Hungarians were wiped out? I used most of my force for the drive on Budapest, with a smaller, slower force moving on Pecs. I was not able to hold Osijek, so at an opportune time, I evacuated to the east with 3 tanks, 2 arty and 2 infantry. Once I was out of sight, the AI did not pursue. That was a mistake that he paid for later. The drive on Budapest was difficult. I rushed my air force to assist in the defense and was able to smash several of Ivan's tank units with my two Ju-87Gs. I had to re-strength the Hungarians multiple times, but it was the only way to keep them in the fight long enough to rescue them. Once my King Tigers broke through, I was able to save the Hungarians. 10 units made it to the end, but none were at full strength. Once that was accomplished, it was a simple matter to turn to the south and take Pecs and Osijek.

I had taken all objectives by turn 22, but it seems you must have the Hungarians physically in the city hexes and not in the fortifications surrounding Budapest for the game to give the DV. I moved them into the city and got the DV on turn 24.

I did notice that the AI did not spam any IS-2s. I don't think there were any in the scenario at all. I didn't miss them at all

Took about 8 turns, but I managed to reach Budapest finally and there were still plenty of Hungarian units left alive, this is BETA2 though, so their buff was well deserved.

As I said I am playing at Sergeant level to test the game also in this mode.

I captured all VHs at turn nr 13.
Why does the game not stop showing me a Decisive victory message, I have to wait turn nr 29 for this ?

Is it because this is a defensive scenario ?

Greetings.

Yes that is correct, because the Hungarian units must survive to the end of the scenario.

Kerensky wrote:Yes that is correct, because the Hungarian units must survive to the end of the scenario.

Thanks for this confirmation. I've wiped out all russians and captured all VH in turn 15 and was quite surprised I did not get Decisive Victory after ending turn...