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Patch and I recently wrapped up our latest foray into Festung Budapest: FB11 “Boy Soldier”. Since I’d had the defenders last time, Patch took the Hungarians this time. The Hungarians are defending around the Postal Palace (last seen back in FB7) with nine squads, two 105mm ART, another four squads specifically in the Postal Palace and adjacent building, and the eponymous Hero. He gets HIP and a MMG that goes away as soon as it loses Rate, whereupon he goes berserk. While under Ammo Shortage level 3, they also get 80+mm OBA with three automatic black card draws and a field phone. The Russians have nineteen squads of varying types (including six BVR squads split between 1st line and conscripts), including two assault engineers, a FT and four T-34/85s, at least one of which must survive the scenario. The Russians are trying to take 10 ground level Locations in a line of rowhouses or in the Postal Palace and it’s adjacent building (17 possible Locations overall) in 6.5 turns.

The pre-game rubble knocked down most of the line of buildings in front of the victory areas, and four hexes of the victory rowhouses. Patch placed some extra debris to provide cover for lateral movement from the north to the rowhouses to the center of the map. He devoutly hoped that I wouldn’t do what he expected he couldn’t stop: set up to advance along the north side, which is largely what I did. The rowhouses are 10 hexes all by themselves, but they point directly away from the Russian entry area. The Postal Palace area doesn’t have enough to win with, so I decided my main thrust would start by advancing on the near end of the rowhouses, and my south flank would challenge other area directly, with hopes of getting a couple Locations in there as extra insurance.

Patch’s first shot was a ‘2’, which thankfully Cowered and left no resid, but it still killed my HS. The second shot was ’11’ for Ammo Shortage. The third shot was ‘3’ to kill a full squad. After that the dice settled down a bit, and the most that happened was a pinned squad in O19. Patch called an AR on P17, but a six-hex error put it slightly behind his lines in J14. The bad news was that the second ART turned out to be in P11, and it hit P17 for a 3MC vs my best leader and 4MC vs my FT squad. The squad broke, but the leader HoBed into a 10-2 Hero. I managed to Encircle and Pin the forward HS in N19h1, and after that eliminated his only forward outpost in CC with no trouble.

Situation, Russian Turn 1 showing the full playing area. The red hexes are the Russian entry area, and the blue lines are the limit of the Hungarian setup area. North is to the left.
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After freezing in the great white north, it was time for Patch and I to return to Budpest for FB9 “The Shooting Gallery”, where it’s early February and there’s also still snow on the ground. I don’t recall how we decided, but I ended up with the Russians who are attacking into the Ganz Works that was on the periphery of the action in “Red Banner Days“.

The Germans get a fairly nice defending force, with 8 1/2 squads, including a pair of 838 Assault Engineers and otherwise split between 468/467s, all from Pz Div 13, with the usual support weapons, with some concealment/Dummies, Wire, mines, a Hungarian Bofors AA, an 88… and a Panther. However, the Panther is Out of Gas, and therefore Immobile, and the Axis troops are at Ammo Shortage Level 4, the worst we’ve seen, and the second-worst possible in FB.

The Russians enter with 11 squads and 4 T-34/85s, plus three squads (and 8-0 leader) of the Buda Volunteer Regiment. These are Hungarians who have joined up with the Russians, and use the standard Hungarian/Axis Minor stats, except with counters bordered with Russian brown instead of German blue. The primary goal is to take ten stone buildings in the central area of the map in seven turns, but both sides have a CVP cap of 35.

The Russians enter in the west, but can also enter along most of the north edge if they wait until turn 2. Both sides get six ‘purchase points’ of reinforcements for each of the first three turns, with the Russians entering in the north and west and the Axis entering in the east and some of the south. Oh, and the Axis gets a couple squads of conscript Hungarians and a 7-0 when/if the Panther dies.

My general plan was to enter everything immediately, and try to drive for the far end of the victory area, where there’s more, smaller buildings. I would buy all the BVR troops available on the second turn, and enter them in the rear of the German lines; if they got lucky, they might get into the area. If not, they would keep Patch’s attention divided, and the BVR units do not count against my CVP cap, so a lone platoon getting cut off and killed was not a real worry, so long as it kept Germans busy. Since all the BVR troops together cost seven points, I needed to save one from the first turn, and I decided to go for the 100+mm OBA module… partly to get the 8-0 leader with it. This meant my other goal was to find an observation post for him as soon as possible. My setup was a little hurried, which lead to two of the T-34s being a hex further out than needed (J18 & K19 instead of I18 & J18), but they didn’t have far to go the first turn anyway.

The bulk of Patch’s setup was within the victory area, but the first thing I had to deal with was a pair of “?” in H13h2, but Patch didn’t force me to strip concealment on anyone approaching him. Until the last move, when he opened fire from F11h1, who had also been quiescent until that point. The resulting 8 -4 shot broke my squad, but it also malfunctioned Patch’s HMG.

Situation, Russian Turn 1, showing full playing area; north is to the left. Red hexes are the Russian entry area, blue hexes are the German entry area, the blue dashed lines define the victory area. Patch’s hidden mines and pair of HS are also shown.
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Patch and I headed back to Budapest after our second desert adventure, reaching the end of January 1945 with FB7 “The Terror of the Castle”. Having been the defense the last two games, I took the attacking Soviets, and while the ROAR/Archive record is a little thin, it is showing a pro-Russian tilt, so I gave Patch the Hungarian balance (an at-start Hero).

Even for Festung Budapest, this is an unusual scenario. The Hungarians are defending against a Russian assault that will take them to the base of Castle Hill and have three different setup zones (four squads + MMG & HMG in the Postal Palace, two squads in the victory buildings, and six squads in most of the rest of the available map). The Russians have twelve squads (three of which are 628 assault engineers) a MMG, two FTs and two T-34/85s, entering from offboard. But, up to six squads (three each, in two buildings) can set up on-board, within the Hungarian setup area. The scenario is nine turns long, with control of the Z12/BB11 building Locations evaluated every three turns to grant one VP. Best two out of three wins.

A large part of the strangeness is the fact that the side that claims a VP goes last for the next three turns, meaning that the turn order will flip somewhere along the way (probably turn 7, as the Russians start out going first, and are unlikely to get the first VP). Finally, both sides get to purchase reinforcements (which appears in several FB scenarios, but this is the first we’ve gotten to that does it), with the Hungarians getting theirs on turn 4 and the Russians getting theirs on turn 7. Oh, and on turn 7 the Hungarians get a flamethrower in the possession of any unit they wish. The Hungarians are up to Ammo Shortage level 3, and as ever, there is ground snow.

Looking at some on-line discussions of the scenario revealed that one of the Russian set-up buildings, CC15, was essential for the Russians to use to suppress likely Hungarian defenses. Naturally, the pre-game rubble checks knocked down eight of the thirteen hexes of this block, including the entire useful SE end (mostly thanks to falling rubble taking out further hexes). I didn’t quite like the direct, close, route to the victory buildings, with a large number of Hungarian ‘?’ lined up along the Bela-Kiraly ut, and ended up entering my forces on the north end, with the MMG, a FT and best leader in the CC15 block, ready to advance into the intact Y14 area, and the FT and DC in the Postal Palace, out of immediate LOS and ADJACENCY to the Hungarian defenders in the upper floors.

Despite my best efforts, Patch could see most of my movement, and I lost a Dummy stack in W17. A pot-shot pinned a squad in R14 as they tried to reinforce the Postal Palace. My main stack entered along the Vermezo ut in Armored Assault, but HMG fire from the Postal Palace broke both the 458 and 628, even after the 8-1 passed. Further fire also broke the leader who was going to guide the backup troops through the high MF cost rubble, but the squads were okay. The HMG got several ROF shots, pinning the 8-1 and CRing the 458 on its last shot. The 8-1 self-broke to stay with his men, while my 8-0 was wounded trying to find safety in R6.

Situation, Russian Turn 1. Colored hexes are off-board entry areas (red=Russian, blue=Hungarian; yellow and green only have one legal entry hex). North is to the left.)
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Having spent a little time away, Patch and I went back to working our way through all the Festung Budapest scenarios. This time we went with “Red Banner Days” from Journal 10, which actually happens slightly before “Siesta Time” (and the day after “Waffenbrüderschaft”).

The Germans are preparing to counterattack Russian gains in the NW of the city, when the next Russian attack goes in immediately beforehand. So the Soviets go first, attacking into a tiny Hungarian force, while a large German force is stuck under “No Move” markers for two turns (or until attacked by the Russians). The Russians win by getting 12 VPs, counted by building control, GO squads and T-34s in the area past the Hungarian defenders, with both sides having a 26 CVP cap. Patch took the Russians, and I tried to parse what the heck I was doing as I set up.

The map is between the sizes of the previous two FB scenarios we’ve played, but with the amount of forces available, a 13-hex wide playing area feels cramped. The west edge features the familiar terrain of the cogwheel RR, but the real action is well to the east, where a dense urban zone slopes down into a factory area. Oddly enough, this scenario features random rubble generation, even though the other scenarios we’ve just played did not. I had some interesting luck with the rubble, knocking down most of the D14-H14 block as well as a couple hexes of the Hungarian area, and three on the front line of the Russian set up area. There wasn’t any falling rubble, but there was some falling debris.

If I’d payed more attention to the sheer amount of firepower the Russians have (15 squads, FT, DC, 4xT-34, 4xGuns, including a 152mm ART!) I would have set the Hungarians (4 squads, LMG, leader, 9x’?’) up on the back side of the block, and tried for hide-and-seek. As it was, I tried to keep him cautious about crossing the street, and lost nearly everything in the first turn. Patch led off with a couple hexes of Smoke on the south, and then pounded the center of the line, managing to ELR and reduce a squad on a couple of MCs. The 152 broke my squad on the north corner on a CH, also placing a flame on Level 1.

In movement, the bulk of the line took one big step forward into the street. I only had one effective squad left (not counting the HS and Dummy under Smoke) in G20, and the cowered on their first shot and then broke and ELRed on a second FPF shot.

Then the FT squad ran in, and was unaffected by the Resid.

Advancing fire eliminated G20 including the Dummy there. He advanced into I21 and J21, finding only a Dummy in the latter, but blew his roll in I21 on a 4:1 attack while I stayed concealed, and out of Melee.

Full scenario area, Russian Turn 1. Yellow hexes are the VP line the Russians need to pass.
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Around the middle of last year, Patch and I played a couple FtF games of “Siesta Time” from Festung Budapest, only to realize late in the day, we had gotten the directions ninety degrees off. So we decided to play a third game purely via email while continuing our regular games, running from November 2012 to February 2013.

I took the defending Hungarians again, and set up specifically to make sure the N31 victory building could hold out the required three turns, while positioning squads to be able to try and break and run for the east edge to claim the exit victory. In the face of Soviet firepower (including a DC and two FTs), I had no confidence in actually holding building N31 for 6.5 turns. Figuring that a fortified location was of no help against a FT, I actually fortified the rear of the building (N30), my one hex of wire went in P32 to keep him from advancing on the south face of the victory building down the road, and set my one hex worth of mines (6 factors) in Q30, as it looked like a likely jumping off point for the Russian pursuit of my forces in the second half of the game. The one hidden squad went in the cellar of N31 with the DC.

Patch entered over half his forces up on the hill, which is slightly surprising given that ground snow demands one extra MF going up or down a slope. He ran into fire from my outpost in O34 on his second move for a 2MC which he passed. Worse, the squad had cowered, undercutting my plans for lots of residual coverage. Another squad moved adjacent, and FPF could only manage a PTC, which he also passed (at least my squad did not break…). My MMG and 7-0 were in L33h1, which opened up when his second FT showed up in K35 with a FFNAM/FFMO shot, which generated a PTC (which he passed) and malfunctioned the MMG (darn ammo shortage).

Patch unloaded on what he could see, starting with the FT in K35 breaking the leader and squad in L33h1. His main line could only get a NMC against O34, which they passed, and then Patch lost his second FT when he turned that on O34. This left O34 to get piled upon by two squads while L33 fled across the way into the victory building (leaving the MMG, sadly). Luckily, Patch rolled a ’12’, allowing me to withdraw out to O33.

Situation, Russian Turn 1. Red hexes are ‘offboard’ Russian entry hexes, or Hungarian exit (depending on the side of the board). Weather is ground snow, with heavy falling snow.
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