Game of the Week, March 25 to April 1

Hi everyone,

It’s Monday again and time for Game of the Week.

This week’s title is another change of pace to last week’s Midway.

The Game of the Week is Panzer Campaigns, Budapest ‘45.

Budapest ‘45 is the only title in the series to currently cover European engagements in 1945 in the Panzer Campaigns series. We wanted to feature this title at a discounted price as we are expecting to release the follow-on title Panzer Campaigns, Spring Awakening ’45 very soon.

Budapest ‘45  is primarily focused on the Konrad operations (three in total), where the Axis forces tried to relieve the besieged city of Budapest. These operations were during January 1945 and used many of the depleted forces Hitler had used in the Battle of the Bulge. There are 62 scenarios covering a range of actions as the Soviets and Axis fought for the city. The main operations, all with multiple scenarios, are listed below:

• The Drive to Budapest: October 29 - November 6, 1944
• Operation Konrad I: January 1-8, 1945
• Operation Konrad II: January 9-12, 1945
• Operation Konrad III: January 12-27, 1945

The master map (75,044 hexes) includes the River Danube from Bratislava in the north, flowing through Budapest, and onto Yugoslavia in the south.

For those wondering, Spring Awakening ’45, covers the operations to the west of Budapest around Lake Balaton in March, 1945.

Budapest ‘45 includes the aforementioned playable scenarios, as well as a Getting Started scenario to introduce new players to the game system. As listed, representative operations from August 1944 through to January 1945 are included with a good mix of small (division), medium (corps) and large (army) engagements. There is also a good range of hypothetical scenarios assuming that the German offensive in the Ardennes (as shown in Panzer Campaigns, Bulge ’44) had not occurred and some of the full-strength forces had been sent to Budapest. This will allow players to sample a range of different situations. You can read about all the included scenarios and the Designers thoughts here.

The Order of Battle covers both the Axis and Allied sides. The represented Allied forces include the Soviets (Red Army, Guards, Marines & NKVD), and Allied Rumanians. The Rumanians had changed sides in August 1944, after the overthrow of dictator Marshal Ion Antonescu. The included Axis forces are the Germans (Wehrmacht, SS & Luftwaffe) and Hungarians.

There has been a wealth of books covering the fighting in Budapest in 1944/1945. Following are some representative books for anyone that would like some more background on the various campaigns. You can click on the book images below to be taken to the Publisher or Amazon, if applicable.

Informational

 

 

Now for video content:

The Mack has multiple videos relating to this title. This is the first video in a series he did two years ago.

You can find all the Mack’s Budapest ’44 content here.

SmartWargames also did their own streamed version:

 

Following are some in-game screen shots of what to expect. Each image can be clicked for a full-sized view.

If you don’t already own this title, what are you waiting for? You can buy it directly from the dedicated product page.

We hope you enjoy this week’s, Game of the Week. It is a fantastic prelude to the upcoming Panzer Campaigns, Spring Awakening ’45 and will prepare players for the final battles of the Third Reich.  Like all WDS titles, there is a lot of game play included at a very attractive price.