Hungarians set up with units in the large town and also in the woods to the north and south. Two platoons were kept in reserve on the railroad embankment to the east. The Slovaks began moving eastward slowly, pushing into the large wooded area south of the town. A number of assaults took place with the Hungarians holding on longer than expected. Artillery took its toll on both sides, with many units being eliminated or demoralized. The low morale on both sides and lack of effective leaders meant the game slowed down significantly with many units taking a long time to recover. As the scenario drew to a close the Slovaks had advanced into the town from the south and three of it's four hexes had assaults raging. The Hungarians still had sole control of one town hex but took far too many losses and narrowly lost the game 28 to 19. Overall an interesting scenario that would warrant replay. Some better leaders on either side and different strategies might change the result significantly. Excellent scenario.

A long time ago I wrote a weekly column which always ended in a witticism. Since the column was about drinking students and the dives where they drank it was a relatively easy task. I find that PG scenarios give me plenty of chances to relive that experience (without the heavy drinking of course - I might spill something).

In this lovely little piece the Slovaks bring every aspect of their arsenal into play including some decent artillery (OBA), an armored train,the best tanks the Hungarians have ever seen and planes, too. The Hungarians have about 15 tankettes (thank you Fronte Russo for the "right" name for these silly things), some AT guns and a bunch of grunts.

The focus of the scenario is for the Slovaks to get the Hungarians off the rail line (the main east west roadway) and take towns. The Hungarians set up to stop the Slovaks in the first town they come to and have flank and deep penetration protection further on.

The Slovaks send a pinning force sufficient to root the Hungarians out of the town but also send pretty much a battalion on a flanking run to the south.

The direct assault ends up giving the Slovaks a bloody nose as the train is taken out in an ill advised assault, but the flanking attack begins to gain some traction after about two hours.

The attack on the town is unproductive for 4 hours until finally some losses occured. With a 7/5 morale any loss in assault combat is quickly fatal. Given the six hour timeframe of the scenario one shouldn't be surprised that the town didn't completely fall until the last 15 minutes of the scenario.

Back to the flanking attack. Although a Stotnik (Cpt) accompanied the movement the real leadership was provided by a Porocik (Lt) whose 1-10-2 ratings totally changed the abilities of his troops. They quickly disposed of a company which the Hungarians had posted to the woods on the south flank and then another which had moved up to its support. At that point the Slovak OBA began to hit the prepared positions of the Hungarians astride the railroad behind the town (where needless to say, plenty of combat but few results were happening). The Hungarian tankettes were "massed" (can anything ending in -ette mass? consider, for example, a mass of Rockettes, better yet, don't consider that, it can have a very negative effect) in the fields south of the rail line and the Slovak tanks and armored cars ran off to do battle (the Hungarians have no AT fire while the Slovaks would have a +2 AT shot).

At this point the game seemed to be trending the Slovaks way despite terrible die rolls. The Hungarian leader in the town was constantly disrupted leaving the troops unable to reinforce assault hexes (he can only command those in his own hex) and the flanking attack seemed destined to roll through the rest of the Hungarian positions. Having said this, the astute reader knows that something is about to happen to change that statement completely.

The Slovaks tanks rushed into the fields to see the Hungarian, gaining adjacency to one tankette. Since they couldn't fire back, the Hungarians, advocates no doubt of Foch, assaulted the Slovaks while bringing up their other tankettes, unfortunately for them to no avail. The Slovaks gleefully rubbed their hands together, looking at their +2 AT fire and reinforced the assault hex in the next turn with their armored cars. They fired their AT (rolled a 3 on 2d6) assaulted (the dreaded "-" result) and watched in horror as the defending tankettes got a "1" result on the assault table. The Slovaks completed the disaster by spectacularly failing their morale rolls and en masse abandoning their vehicles (4 steps of mechanized/motorized losses at 2 VPs per step). Suddenly the Hungarians ruled the world.

Unfortunately for the Hungarians 2 1/2 hours of time remained and the ultimate fall of the town and a Hail Mary attack on the furthest town gained the Slovaks sufficient VPs to earn a minor victory. Possession of the field would also ultimately regain the abandoned tanks for the Slovaks so no long term losses would have occured. I can only imagine the situation if the Slovaks didn't have the 1-10-2 Porocik.

A very tense little battle with the early war exasperating condition of a stout defense suddenly dissolving as one side or the other fails morale - a wonderful simulation of the actual situation.

In reality the Hungarians say that they pulled back at the request of the Germans. The scenario indicates that the Slovaks had the ability to drive them out in any event.

On the 23rd of march 1939, Hungary invaded Slovakia. Both armies were in a bad shape, but taken by surprise, the Slovakians gave ground at first. However, they checked the Hungarian advance within days. On the 25th, the Slovakians counterattacked with everything they had at hand to throw at the Hungarians.

Set up proved crucial for this battle and it was immediately clear that the Hungarian Ezredes Kovàcs had never heard of SunTsu. The Hungarian troops were divided into 2 groups, both defending the 2 main towns. The Slovakians took advantage by attacking the towns one by one, making good use of their superior numbers, artillery, air force and the much feared armored train.

While the Hungarian occupiers of Zavadka (the easternmost town) faced the near impossible task of holding out, a lot of Slovakian units bypassed the town to start preparations for attacking the next town. The Hungarians there witnessed the butchering of their comrades in Zavadka and when the Slovakian air force demolished a nearby AT platoon, Ezredes Kovàcs lost it and surged forwards to unleash some payback. The Slovakian recon force got cut off from the main force and within half an hour, they were destroyed. Only 2 demoralized units could flee the onslaught, and they did something that stunned the Hungarians: they fled to the town where the Hungarians came from. In his haste to clear the fields from any enemy troops, Kovàcs had emptied the town and now nobody was there to control this vital part of the battlefield! Uttering curses, Ezredes Kovàcs immediately sent troops to retake the town, but it was to late. The Slovakian women there received their fleeing countrymen with open… arms and nursed the demoralized units to good health before the Hungarians could oust them back out of the town.

The last remnants of the Hungarians in Zavadka got word that relieving forces were not coming, and this blow to morale was the final drop, they broke and Zavadka was lost. This freed up the Slovakian tank unit to hunt down some Hungarian wheelbarrows (F3000 & L35’s). Much to the Slovakian surprise, those wheelbarrows ambushed the Slovakian LT35 unit. They failed, but by doing so, they bought enough time and soon more Hungarian units joined the fight and the Slovakian tank unit perished. Big morale boost for the Hungarians! They only had to retake the so daftly lost town and Ezredes Kovàcs could show his face again, but fate under the guise of Slovakian artillery intervened. In the last hour of the battle it rained unbelievable death and mayhem amongst the dwindling Hungarians. Kovàcs died and retaking the town proved impossible.

And so it came to counting VP, both players claimed the battle since both knew that it would be close. The falling of both towns proved disastrous for the Hungarians: 49-40 for the Slovakians, and the result was a hard fought Slovakian minor victory!

Ezredes Kovàcs vowed to bring his own dice next time!

*This has Slovak verses Hungarian troops and a armor4ed train to boot. Both sides have a low 7/5 morale, the Hungarians defend but the Slovaks have about 9 more infantry types, better tanks, a train, air-power and better off board artillery.

*I split my Slovak forces into two groups, one group to attack the towns on map 17 and the other group the attack the town on map 1. The attack on the town hexes on the entry map 17 takes more time than I thought it would and costs me more units than I thought it would as well but the Hungarians are finally forced out of it. However they have setup some ambushes in the woods for the Slovaks on the way to the town hexes on map 1, as the Slovaks try two reinforce their second group. Morale for both sides is tough and the battle swings back and forth as units recover. The Hungarian loss their Hadnagy leader with a 1-11-1 value which hurts more than any unit loss! They also loss both platoons of weak L35, as the Slovak LT35’s and Armored train are much better units with AT values. Both sides lose infantry units with the Hungarians losing more but the Slovaks lose a step of LT35s to a 37mm AT gun.

*The Slovaks control more point values in towns controlled and more enemy steps eliminated but lose 10 point for not controlling all the rail-line, thus the Slovaks fall short of a major victory but achieve a Minor Victory in a hard fought Slovak victory.

*A crazy 1939 battle but fun and unique as well.

Played solo in about 4½ hours.

The Hungarians set up almost all of their units in and around the town on board 17, and the remaining units in the town on board 1.

I split the Slovaks into three groups: two groups to attack the town on board 17 (from the North and the West), and one group on the march to seize the town on board 1.

The main problem for the Slovaks in this scenario is they have very few leaders (and of poor quality in my replay) for the number of troops they have. I had the Hungarian focus their fire (direct, opportunity, and bombardment) on Slovak leaders and it worked. The Slovak advance was slowed down tremendously and a sizeable portion of their troops were often stuck just firing at range against troops in good defensive terrain.

The Slovaks do have a powerful OBA and it caused enough casualties, disruption, and demoralization for them to make some progress. But too many of their leaders had their heads down and thus were unable to send troops forward at critical moments.

At the end of the 24 turns, the Slovaks were ahead 28 to 24 in victory points, one point shy of a minor victory.

Draw.

I gave this scenario a “3”. My first thought was to give it a “4” but I took a point off because it’s not as well-balanced as I would like. Recommended for solo play (it’s a fun unbalanced situation).