Hello guys ,
First scenario of a serie of three about the attempt of relief of Budapest by the Axis in january 1945 with the operation Konrad I, II and III. I believe that there was an Open (France maybe ?)about the battle of Budapest recently, I did not cover the battle inside the city so this could be a good complementary butch of scenarios.
Konrad I (1-6 january)
Historical context:
After the Soviets surrounded Budapest at the end of 1944, Hitler and Guderian devised several plans to try to liberate the encircled citadel.
First, the IV SS Panzer Corps was detached from the Polish front to reinforce the Hungarian zone. This formation was commanded by SS-Gruppenführer Herbert Otto Gille and consisted mainly of the SS Wiking Division and the 3rd SS Panzer Division.
Two plans were drawn up to try to re-establish a connection with Budapest, one via the south and the other via the north. It was the latter option that was preferred by the German General Staff under the code name Konrad. At this stage of the war, this operation was clearly out of the ordinary, and the Wehrmacht was able to mobilise more than 200 tanks locally.
Konrad was intended to quickly concentrate forces from Poland in order to surprise the Soviets along the Danube and west of the Hungarian capital.
The attack was launched on the evening of 1 January 1945. At the dawn of the new year, the last major German offensive of the war began.
Briefing:
German player:
6 cards, plays first
Soviet player:
6 cards, apply the Soviet commissar rule to give a bonus to the Germans, who were still tactically capable of being very responsive, particularly with the creation of the Kampfgruppe.
Victory conditions:
8 medals; the capture of Zsambek, Biscke, and Many each earns the German player a temporary victory medal.
Special rules:
When attacked in close combat, artillery suffers a loss for each star rolled in addition to grenades.
Winter combat cards are optional.
Bibliography:
SIEGE OF BUDAPEST, 1944-1945, Balazs Mihalyi, Osprey Publishing
I did not yet test the scenario now, so i’m open to any experiences on your side ! My initial willingness is to give to this scenario a balance of 60-40 in favor of the soviets. So the germans could won but as in the reality the task has to be hard !
I did try to publish the scenario on the DoW website but from the editor an error message occurs saying that I’m not connected, but I have an old version and currently I use Vassal to create games.
