Fortress Budapest - rules for playing a Firestorm campaign of the siege of Budapest- 1https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%A1jl:A_lerombolt_L%C3%A1nch%C3%ADd_az_E%C3%B6tv%C3%B6s_t%C3%A9r_fel %C5%91l_n%C3%A9zve,_h%C3%A1tt%C3%A9rben_a_M%C3%A1ty%C3%A1s-templom._Fortepan_78926.jpg Introduction This document’s aim is to provide background, rules and a map to play a campaign of the siege of Budapest in World War Two. The rules are supplements for the Battlefront’s Firestorm campaigns, you will need an official Firestorm campaign rulebook (any kind) to use together with this supplement. Besides this you can use the map and extra rules with any other kind of (turn based) campaign system. This is an unofficial supplement, feel free to test or modify any of the rules or the map. During publishing, please refer back to my blog: https://miniswithmoustaches.wordpress.com/ 1 Historical background The siege of Budapest was one the most fierce urban fights of the Second World War. With its 50 days length it is longer than the battle of Berlin (although shorter than the siege of Leningrad, but there were no urban assaults). Hitler wanted to use the city as a fortress, to grind up the attacking Soviet and Romanian divisions just as they did in Stalingrad with the Germans. Hungary was not just a neighbouring country of the Reich, but also the last oil supply source for the Axis war machine. It shows the country’s and its capital city’s importance, that the Hungarian front was always the first topic on the Führer’s daily military briefings, even when the Soviets were not far from Berlin. The city was sieged by Malinovsky’s 2nd Ukrainian Front, more specifically the Soviet 53rd Army, 7th Guards Army, parts of the 3rd Ukrainian Front, including the Soviet 46th Army, and the Romanian 7th Army Corps. The defenders were different German SS and Heer troops, units of the Hungarian Royal Army (mostly under German command even on company level) and ad-hoc civilian, law enforcement and the Arrow Cross Party’s combat units. The city was completely encircled on 26th December with around 79.000 soldiers and 800.000 civilians trapped inside. The fierce urban fighting started on both sides of the river Danube. Three relief attempts were made by the Axis powers in January 1945, with the aim of opening a new supply line from West into Buda and reinforcing the defending army with more units. All three attempts, with heavy SS panzer support, failed eventually. Combat within the city was fierce, all sides struggled to hold strategic buildings, intersections, or streets. Supply of the defenders was only possible through air drops and glider planes, landing on improvised airfields within the city. The defence of these air strips meant the difference between life or death for the encircled troops. The Pest side fell on the morning of 18th January, when the last defending units left it, during the withdraw they blew up the last intact bridge (Chain bridge) with retreating soldiers and civilians on it. The remaining units tried to hold Buda, pulling back to the hills. The Gellért hill with the citadel fell on 11th February 1945. A bridgehead was made on the other, the Castle hill by Soviet marines on 10th February, threatening the last defenders. 2 On the night of 11th February 1945, the remaining 28.000 German and Hungarian defenders tried to break out westwards in three waves. Only around 800 reached the friendly lines. With this the siege of Budapest ended, the Soviets lost around 280.000 soldiers. 38.000 civilians died during the siege, from which 7.000 was executed (many shot into the river) and 38.000 more died in labour or POW camps, taken there by the Red Army. Map The campaign map was prepared using a modern map of borders of the districts in Budapest. These districts were divided into smaller zones using a historical map of the siege. It is not 100% accurate cartographically but contains the most iconic sights of the fights and the places of supply, where the Luftwaffe tried to drop or glide in food, ammo, fuel and other supply. Bridges are just indicated with red lines between zones. Modifications and simplifications are for to support the gaming experience. All the zones have colour markings, which indicate the dominating type of terrain there (downtown urban, some kind of field, suburbs etc.) 2 The game map, you can download it separately 3 If you want to fight on a historically accurate map, I recommend using this one, which is an annex to the book Siege of Budapest by Krisztián Ungváry (click on the map for bigger view and you can simply save it too, with the ‘Save picture as’ option): https://www.arcanum.hu/hu/online-kiadvanyok/2vhSzakkonyv- magyarok-a-ii-vilaghaboruban-2/budapest-ostroma-5C6C/budapest- ostromanak-1944-45-kartografiai-feldolgozasa-5C6D/mellekletek- 5D78/1szamu-melleklet-budapest-ostroma-terkep-130000-ket- mellekterkeppel-buda-es-pest-belvarosai-120000-5D79/ Rules As stated before, the rules follow the official Battlefront Firestorm campaign rules, with the following extras: The campaign consists of 6 turns. One turn has a Strategic, a Battle and a Movement Phase. Strategic Phase Move the turn indicator by 1. Check Victory conditions. Check if any of the Firestorm troops are out of supply and if yes, then how many turns were they previously out. Check the number of battles this turn. Roll a die and see the table for result: Number of Die Roll battles in the turn 1 or 2 4 3 or 4 5 5 or 6 6 Decide which side can attack. Each side roll one dice for every battle of the turn. The higher number wins (if the result is even, repeat the roll) and can decide on the direction of the attack in that battle. An attack can be launched from one zone to a neighbouring one, occupied by the enemy. There can be an attack to a zone connected by a bridge or to the Margarethe island with a river crossing movement. See rules later. 4 From one zone it is possible to attack several other zones. The zone, from where an attack was initiated, could not be attacked in the same turn. Battles Battles should be played on a table which has the same or similar terrain features like the zone they are fighting for. For more information check the terrain section. Movement Phase Firestorm units can move two zones per turn. Firestorm troops There could be any number of Firestorm troops on the same zone, but a player can only use 2 during the battle as extra forces of the army. More information on troop types and qualities could be found in the section of Firestorm troops. Optional rule: a Firestorm troop is destroyed if it suffers a casualty of 50% or more of its original strength during the battle phase. Starting positions The starting position of each Firestorm troop is in the table under the section of Firestorm troops. These positions were determined using historical maps and reports. Feel free to change them before any campaign. Out of supply If Axis units have to fight a battle on a zone that is out of supply, which means that there is no clear connection through friendly zones and/or bridges to a supply zone; or in case of Allied units they have no clear connection through friendly zones and/or bridges to one of the outer bordering zones of the map, then they need to use the following modifiers: 5 First turn out of supply: Your unit can only do defensive actions or attack in a way to create the shortest connection with a friendly zone in supply. Roll a dice and check table for morale modifiers: Die roll Modifier 1 or 2 Morale reduced to a lower level. In FoW: Reluctant platoons only pass motivation test on a roll of 6. Nobody likes to fight with empty belly and no ammo. 3 or 4 No effect. There is an order, soldiers will execute it. 5 or 6 Morale increased to a higher level. In FoW: Fearless platoons will pass motivation test on a roll of 2+. When they are surrounded these soldiers will fight to the last man, no matter what attacks. Second turn out of supply: Your unit can only do defensive actions or attack in a way to create the shortest connection with a friendly zone in supply. Reduce your army strength by 20%, rounding down the remaining number of units or points. Roll a dice and check table for morale modifiers: Die roll Modifier 1 or 2 Morale reduced to a lower level. In FoW: Reluctant platoons only pass motivation test on a roll of 6. Nobody likes to fight with empty belly and no ammo. 3 or 4 No effect. There is an order, soldiers will execute it. 5 or 6 Morale increased to a higher level. In FoW: Fearless platoons will pass motivation test on a roll of 2+. When they are surrounded these soldiers will fight to the last man, no matter what attacks. Third turn out of supply: Your units ran out of ammo, ate the last can of food, and drank the last sip of pálinka (Hungarian schnaps) and lost the last will to fight. They will simply surrender and hope for the best as POWs. Your units and the zone are lost. 6 Bridges Budapest is divided by the river Danube into two bigger parts: Buda and Pest.