Fire and Sword, scenario #1: Drive on Kecskemet

I went back and played the first scenario as I hardly ever play the scenarios in order. This one was pretty interesting, as the Soviets have three victory objectives to try and achieve or not, and the amount determines their victory level or defeat. The Russians have a nice mix of armor and Infantry and must clear the north-south road, all the town hexes and at night while keeping their casualties less than the dig-in Hungarians, how also have and interesting mix of Infantry, armor and support weapons. Since the Russian start on the south map of three maps, with only 16 turns, they have to hurry a bit.

After losing some early T34/85s & SU76s steps, I slowed down my assault to take out the Hungarian’s StuGIIIGs which might have taken up too much maneuver time but Russians were worried about the casualties in balance that was finally corrected at the end of the game, with the Soviets losing 21 points to the Hungarians 25 points. This was the only objective out of three they achieved, as they were still in assaults on two hexes of the larger city on map 50 and an third city hex on the far northern area, by the bridge, on the north-south road also need to be dealt with, so since the Soviets only achieved one out of three victory conditions, the Hungarians get a minor victory. The Soviets needed two more turns to win this one in my gameplay because I slow my advance worrying too much about casualties that I shouldn’t have. If I had rushed more, by the looks of my battlefield, I believe the Russians could have won, as the Hungarian units were in bad shape. The Soviet M17 with the large 24 Direct Fire power is a very important unit to pull adjacent to enemy town hexes and pound enemy units. I lost it three quarters the way through the game to a Hungarian PCL unit. I finally used my Soviet armored cars (BA-64s) better and only lost two out of four steps. This is a close battle either way!

The determinant for this game is the time restraint. While four or five more turns would have made all the difference, about the only reality for the Russin Commander was to tie up the forces in the middle of the playing area and try to flank the major positions that the Hungarians set up. As it was, the Russians could not clear out the Hungarian positions around the road in time to apply a decent sized force on the last town on board 50. As it was, the Hungarians won.... but it was a closely run thing. (Note - Making the game 20 turns, would make ALL the difference.)