Hans and Carl take over the Nakatomi Plaza

This blog is to discuss game designs that Carl Fung been working on: insight, information, and updates on The Gamers' line of products from MMP. I am managing BCS, LOB, OCS, SCS, and TCS and honchoing the first two series. This blog is dedicated to Dean Essig, mentor and friend.
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First Anniversary of the Blog: The gift to you is a preview of BCS Panzers' Last Stand

Carl Fung
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It's been one year since I launched this blog. It's been fun and I've been able to post regularly more than I thought I would... which is good. I just hope to keep up the frequency of posts and not tail off like so many blogs out there. Thank you all for reading and the comments I've received have been positive.

The one year anniversary aligns well with the update I'm looking to give. A year ago I was finishing up my research for my BCS design on the relief operations of Budapest in 1945 that I was just calling "Operation Konrad". If you can tell by my hesitation to name SCS Iron Curtain, you'll see how difficult it is for me to pull the trigger on naming game titles. Well, since then, the game has been submitted to Dean and is currently being made into a playtest VASSAL module and as of last week, has an official game title:

Panzers' Last Stand

The name is taken from a small format book (80 pages and originally in French) on the final battles in Hungary in 1944-1945. I proposed this title along with other (notably weaker ones) to Dean and he liked this one. I do too. The title is evocative and catchy.

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The working title of Operation Konrad didn't work because the game scope increased to include Operation Southwind in February 1945 and Spring Awakening in March 1945. So the game covers the major operations for both the Axis (Germans and Hungarians) and Soviet (including a Romanian Corps) in the Budapest region from 1 January 1945 to March 1945.

Catchy titles alone don't sell games, the contents do. So here's an initial preview of some counters and the map.

From gallery of calvinboy24


This shows a sampling of Axis counters with Allied counterparts below.
Working from left to right, top to bottom you have:

1) Feldherrnhalle Heavy Panzer Battalion - This unit was armed with Tiger II's and recently renamed from the 503rd Heavy Panzer Battalion but many still referred to it as the 503rd. The use of Feldherrnhalle was meant to evoke German pride to compensate for the severe losses their army was taking by the end of 1944.

2) KG Peiper - Everyone's favorite SS Panzer commander they love to hate, Peiper escapes from the Ardennes and along with the rest of the 1st SS Panzer Division and 6th Panzer Army is reformed and sent East. His command is now filled with more dregs that the SS can scrape up, but Peiper is still brazen and ruthless.

3) Divisionsgruppe Bieber - No, Justin Bieber did not fight in WWII (thank god). Martin Bieber commanded the 271st Volksgrenadier Division and this command was all but destroyed defending the approaches to Budapest. Bieber assembled the survivors and other attachments into a small command. Dean in his infinite black humor, initially labelled had the flip side of the Bieber HQ counter as "Justin". Creep.

4) Bernolák Hungarian Assault Gun Battalion - Hungary would be one of the last allies of Germany. Their forces by 1945 were in the process of being reformed but their quality remained questionable even though they were fighting for their homeland. This particular unit had combined elements of 16 and 24 Assault Gun Battalions armed with German Hetzers. It was attached to the Szent László Division.

5) 17th SS Kavallerie Regiment - This was a unit trapped inside Budapest (as indicated by the gray X). Truly a cavalry unit when not under siege, it abandoned its horses and fought to the bitter end inside the city.

6) 336th Guards Heavy Self-Propelled Artillery Regiment - Armed with the formidable ISU-152 along with some ISU-122, this unit along with the handful of IS-2 tank regiments that could take on the Tiger II's. The ISU-152 was called the beast killer for its ability to take out the big German tanks with its large cannon.

7) 5th Guards Cavalry Corps - The Soviets were still operating a large number of true cavalry units until the end of the war. They had attached tanks, self-propelled, and anti-tank guns to make them more mechanized and the Cavalry Corps served as effective mobile attack and reserve formations.

8) Viktorov Group - Formed from various components of the 57th Army, this ad hoc group was sent north to stop the German penetration around Lake Balaton. It would be composed of Motorcycle recon units, a mechanized brigade, tank brigade, engineers, a reserve rifle regiment, and an amphibious scout unit equipped with Lend-Lease US Jeep GPA (nicknamed the "Seep")

9) 1/36 Romanian Anti-Tank Battalion - The 7th Romanian Corps had fought alongside the Soviets in the direct assault on Budapest. While their quality was always questionable, the inherent hatred of the Hungarians fed them to battle.

10) 1st Battalion, 1st Guards Rifle Regiment, 5th Guards Airborne Division - The Soviets had long given up on airborne operations and had used their elite Airborne forces as regular infantry. By 1945, nearly all Rifle and Airborne Divisions were severely depleted, averaging around 5000 men (some down to 4000 or less) with little hope of reinforcements. This required the divisions to reorganize their regiments into lesser number of battalions and small sized companies (not unlike the Germans but more so). The Tank, Mechanized, and Cavalry formations would receive the bulk of the replacements.

Here's the overview of the map:

From gallery of calvinboy24


It covers Hungary from Budapest in the east with the Danube River that runs east-west through Komárom on the west edge then north-south through the capital. The south has the top part of Lake Balaton showing the plains south of the mountainous regions around Budapest. North of the Danube is included too to include the smaller offensives there that were basically separate actions from south of the river given the natural and large boundary the Danube made.

Here's the details of Budapest itself, with Buda west of the Danube and Pest east of the Danube and some of the labeled areas/districts of the city.

From gallery of calvinboy24


Note that the map, while using the final art, is still in draft. And to any Hungarians out there, I made sure to use the correct location names as seen in Szambveber's books and independently verified.
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