Either; control all level 5 buildings by the end of turn 6 (failed) OR four of the following
- Inflict 22 or greater CVP
- Capture all single hex stone buildings
- Control at least 9 level 5 buildings
- Have at least 4 good order squads on level 6
- Destroy or capture 2 guns (76mm don't count)
- Have at least 3 mobile AFV with functioning MA on level 5
To pick up where we left off things have got somewhat better. My conscripts did manage to wipe out his guncrew so that's one 76mm out of the equation. Annoyingly Ivan dashed a squad far into the rear and recaptured a stone building so now I may have to devote resources to winkling that out. I rolled a halftrack forward to commence the winkling but he managed to stun it with a well placed sniper. I've left a squad of Hungarian assault engineers to see what they can do about that.
In the centre things look good. My SS cavalrymen are pushing forward delayed more by snow and hill climbing efforts than anything else while on the left Ivan retreats slowly but is leaving a trail of too heavy support weapons in his wake.
Sadly I have to write the obituary of my gallant little Zrinyi however. With the 76mm gone I recommenced my tactic of using my Zrinyi to menace his defenders forcing them to pull back and allowing my Hungarian troops forward. This worked until I foolishly parked underneath the hill hex that held his mortar teams. Ivan promptly jumped a halfsquad down into CC with the Zrinyi and moved a squad with an atr into the foxhole. I survived the CC despite having no mg armament but the next turn his atr squad blew the Zrinyi up so comprehensively that bits of it are still coming down. Conscript vengeance awaited the halfsquad now sitting amidst the flaming wreckage of the Zrinyi.
Nevertheless all this activity did allow the remainder of my Hungarians to resume slowly climbing the hill. With the Hungarians pushing forward as though they still had a chance of winning the war its been much slower going for the Germans. Ivan has been skilfully trading not very much space for time and on the left all my troops have been able to do is follow up his withdrawals.
The pace began to quicken in the next couple of turns, my centre troops having finally drawn level with Ivan's left hand defenders started to hit them in the flank while the panzertruppen to the front jumped up and down and made aggressive noises. Ivan has started to get acquisition hits on my left hand Panther with his 122mm and is discovering just how hard it is to kill one of those things from the front. I got quite bold with my Panthers and rolled them forward to assist in denying rout paths to Ivan's left hand defenders whom my cavalry had started systematically dismantling. The panzertruppen settled for slinking forward when it looked harmless (good tactics, let the war criminals do the dying). To aid the right flank of my Hungarians I rolled forward my second Panther and a pair of halftracks (one carrying a 20mm cannon) to assist. With all the attention on my flaming Zrinyi on the right I managed to insert a couple of Hungarian squads up on level 5 and furthermore did it without suffering casualties.
My Hungarians had the bit between their teeth now and were struggling uphill through the snow and to boost their morale I rolled a Panther up onto the level 5 hill right next to his foxhole. Then I almost had a heart attack as Ivan revealed that this was the location of his other 76mm gun. Mentally writing the thing off as lost I attempted an overrun without success and fled into the nearby orchards. To my great good luck Ivan's rear shot at me missed. Still I was two hexes away and showing my rear to a 76mm gun which didn't seem like a prospect with long term life expectancy. Then my 20mm halftrack stepped forward. It rolled up next to Ivan's 76mm and broke the crew with a 12+2 shot, my Panther was saved! Ivan's reaction was quite restrained under the circumstances.
Freed from the menace from the rear my Panther cheerfully beat up his foxhole dwellers (who would die for failure to rout) while in the centre I finally managed to assemble a heavy machine gun with a line of sight to his forward 122mm. Ivan continued with his futile attempts to scratch the paint on my Panthers while my cavalrymen and panzertruppe cleaned up the bulk of his remaining defenders. I had seized sufficient buildings on level 5 to fulfill another victory condition and I also had three AFVs up there as well. Embarrassingly a halftrack had bogged itself trying to climb up over a hedge but I was still in good shape.
I was in such good shape in fact that Ivan decided on one final, despairing throw of the dice. Eschewing such cover as remained he sent his remaining troops forward into close combat. A half squad (it started out as a full squad but then there was defensive fire) jumped into CC with a halftrack I had (for reasons I can't begin to explain) sent on an exploratory raid up to level 6 and he sent a squad forward to take on one of mine on the far left. His piece de resistance was sending a pair of squads, guided by a leader against the nearest Panther.
Over on the left I slaughtered his squad hand to hand (yes, I won a CC! Let the bells ring out!) but the results on the other two were ambivalent at best. He failed to take out either the halftrack or the Panther (although I boxcarred my return roll with the self defence weapon) which meant that all I had to do was drive away. This was enough, with his defence in tatters and such victory conditions as I hadn't already achieved within reach Ivan conceded. Many thanks to Ivan for the game. At least in the final play session the dice favoured me and hammered a final nail into his coffin.
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| Final Positions |
The Hungarian officers looked at the newly regained hill in bemusement.
"I didn't think we'd do it," said one. "What do we do now?"
"Start writing our memoirs blaming everything on the Germans."
"Won't they be cross?"
"Hey, we're a war brotherhood not a peace brotherhood. Screw 'em."
"What happened to that cavalry twat?"
"I think he married Eva Braun's sister."
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