https://www.theblitz.club/message_boards/ Thu, 30 Apr 2026 03:31:36 +0000 MyBB https://www.theblitz.club/message_boards/showthread.php?tid=74510 Mon, 08 Mar 2021 21:27:22 +0000 SaSTrooP]]> https://www.theblitz.club/message_boards/showthread.php?tid=74510 4th September 1944
Cluj-Napoca

Interfaks reports:
"...Hungarian heavy columns were seen leaving Cluj and advancing towards Turda further in the south. Some sporadic fighting was reported in mostly abandoned city. Romanian troops are reported to be fleeing their posts, however informations remain scarce, as secrecy is ensued by Hungarian military police...

(...)

Other news: Soviet troops in Romania capture Brașov and Sinaia without opposition. The Battle of Gemmano begins in Italy as part of the Allied assault on the Gothic Line. The British Guards Armoured Division takes Kortenberg and Leuven. The U.S. Seventh Army takes Bourg-en-Bresse on the western front."]]> 4th September 1944
Cluj-Napoca

Interfaks reports:
"...Hungarian heavy columns were seen leaving Cluj and advancing towards Turda further in the south. Some sporadic fighting was reported in mostly abandoned city. Romanian troops are reported to be fleeing their posts, however informations remain scarce, as secrecy is ensued by Hungarian military police...

(...)

Other news: Soviet troops in Romania capture Brașov and Sinaia without opposition. The Battle of Gemmano begins in Italy as part of the Allied assault on the Gothic Line. The British Guards Armoured Division takes Kortenberg and Leuven. The U.S. Seventh Army takes Bourg-en-Bresse on the western front."]]> https://www.theblitz.club/message_boards/showthread.php?tid=74473 Thu, 25 Feb 2021 17:32:49 +0000 SaSTrooP]]> https://www.theblitz.club/message_boards/showthread.php?tid=74473 MAP CAN BE DOWNLOADED IN HD UNDER THIS LINK:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1twMbcpB...sp=sharing

ALTERNATE MAP DOWNLOAD LINK (RIGHT CLICK --> SAVE PICTURE AS):

https://i.imgur.com/zjkNr71.jpg

EXPLANATION:

After numerous attempts we were forced to use the less-than-ideal option for map handling.

We are using Google Drawings as a way to move units around the operational map. This tool is easy to use and very practical. However, Google Drawings appears to downsize any picture uploaded there to max of 2 megabytes. This map weigths about 7.7 megabytes. Shrinking it to 2mb means the quality goes down, map turns blurry and mostly town names are barely readable. Players will notice that on their own proper operational maps, links to which are provided in each passworded subforums.

For this reason, it is recommended that each player should download the map on own's disc from any link provided above and use high-quality map for refference in case lower quality map proves to be unreadable.

Remember, that any proper unit movement must occur only and only on viable operational map, precisely the one players have link in each side's subforum. This map serves as general support.

]]> MAP CAN BE DOWNLOADED IN HD UNDER THIS LINK:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1twMbcpB...sp=sharing

ALTERNATE MAP DOWNLOAD LINK (RIGHT CLICK --> SAVE PICTURE AS):

https://i.imgur.com/zjkNr71.jpg

EXPLANATION:

After numerous attempts we were forced to use the less-than-ideal option for map handling.

We are using Google Drawings as a way to move units around the operational map. This tool is easy to use and very practical. However, Google Drawings appears to downsize any picture uploaded there to max of 2 megabytes. This map weigths about 7.7 megabytes. Shrinking it to 2mb means the quality goes down, map turns blurry and mostly town names are barely readable. Players will notice that on their own proper operational maps, links to which are provided in each passworded subforums.

For this reason, it is recommended that each player should download the map on own's disc from any link provided above and use high-quality map for refference in case lower quality map proves to be unreadable.

Remember, that any proper unit movement must occur only and only on viable operational map, precisely the one players have link in each side's subforum. This map serves as general support.

]]> https://www.theblitz.club/message_boards/showthread.php?tid=74455 Thu, 18 Feb 2021 21:52:07 +0000 SaSTrooP]]> https://www.theblitz.club/message_boards/showthread.php?tid=74455

6-Я ГВАРДЕЙСКАЯ ТАНКОВАЯ АРМИЯ
6th Guards Tank Army
Lieutnant General of Tank Armies Andrey Kravchenko

Main armoured backbone of 2nd Ukrainian Front, it operated on the righternmost flank, breaking right into Jassy during the August Offensive and reaching Barlad few days later. It then marched right into Bucharest, before being turned towards Hungarian push to counter and exploit it. While en-route to Transilvania, it was elevated from th 6th Tank Army into the Guards status.
It must be however noted that Soviet Tank Army was rough equivalent of somewhat weaker proper Panzer Korps. It was also weaker compared to eg. western Allied counterparts. Entire such Army usually operated in form of two Corps – one armoured, and one mechanized, but these were much weaker one can first believe. Nevertheless, it was a concentrated power and it surely needed to be reckoned with.
NOTE: As mentioned, elevation to Guards status was purely for the namesake and acting as secondary morale boost. It did not reflect any serious change in training and Guards status does not neccesarily indicate any sort of elite status.]]>

6-Я ГВАРДЕЙСКАЯ ТАНКОВАЯ АРМИЯ
6th Guards Tank Army
Lieutnant General of Tank Armies Andrey Kravchenko

Main armoured backbone of 2nd Ukrainian Front, it operated on the righternmost flank, breaking right into Jassy during the August Offensive and reaching Barlad few days later. It then marched right into Bucharest, before being turned towards Hungarian push to counter and exploit it. While en-route to Transilvania, it was elevated from th 6th Tank Army into the Guards status.
It must be however noted that Soviet Tank Army was rough equivalent of somewhat weaker proper Panzer Korps. It was also weaker compared to eg. western Allied counterparts. Entire such Army usually operated in form of two Corps – one armoured, and one mechanized, but these were much weaker one can first believe. Nevertheless, it was a concentrated power and it surely needed to be reckoned with.
NOTE: As mentioned, elevation to Guards status was purely for the namesake and acting as secondary morale boost. It did not reflect any serious change in training and Guards status does not neccesarily indicate any sort of elite status.]]> https://www.theblitz.club/message_boards/showthread.php?tid=74454 Thu, 18 Feb 2021 20:56:29 +0000 SaSTrooP]]> https://www.theblitz.club/message_boards/showthread.php?tid=74454

27-Я AРМИЯ
27th Army (elements)
Lieutnant General Sergey Trofimienko

The 27th Army was formed twice – first destroyed around the Demyansk Pocket in late 1941, it was reinstated in 1942. It again fought around Demyanks and Novgorod. It then shifted towards south, took part in liberation of Kiev and operations in the northern Besarabia. During Jassy-Kischinev, it attacked directly towards Jassy, being the army that scored one of the mos important victories in early hours of this offensive. Immediately afterwards, it started to gratually shift towards southern Romania with Belgrade as final aim. Fighting in Transilvania however verified the situation and it soon become a main unit in the area attempting to capture Turda.
Note: for the sake of gameplay, only roughly over half of its core size is deployed in this scenario, rest considered to be a currently unavailable reserve.

]]>

27-Я AРМИЯ
27th Army (elements)
Lieutnant General Sergey Trofimienko

The 27th Army was formed twice – first destroyed around the Demyansk Pocket in late 1941, it was reinstated in 1942. It again fought around Demyanks and Novgorod. It then shifted towards south, took part in liberation of Kiev and operations in the northern Besarabia. During Jassy-Kischinev, it attacked directly towards Jassy, being the army that scored one of the mos important victories in early hours of this offensive. Immediately afterwards, it started to gratually shift towards southern Romania with Belgrade as final aim. Fighting in Transilvania however verified the situation and it soon become a main unit in the area attempting to capture Turda.
Note: for the sake of gameplay, only roughly over half of its core size is deployed in this scenario, rest considered to be a currently unavailable reserve.

]]> https://www.theblitz.club/message_boards/showthread.php?tid=74452 Thu, 18 Feb 2021 20:15:43 +0000 SaSTrooP]]> https://www.theblitz.club/message_boards/showthread.php?tid=74452

ARMATA A 4-A ROMÂNĂ
4th Romanian Army
Lieutnant General Gheorghe Avramescu

The 4th Army was the last of four armies fielded by Romania during World War 2. It participated in the later stages of the war on Eastern Front and was famous for recapturing Besarabia back in 1941, but it was destroyed in the Battle of Stalingrad, along with 3rd Army. It was beaten again afer Second Jassy-Kischinev offensive on 20th August 1944 and while covering Romanian’s lefternmost flank became the main fighting force facing Hungary after Romanian about-face. Thus it became first from Allied armies to intervene and mann the southern Transilvania front just few days later.
NOTE: Order of Battle straight after 2nd Jassy-Kischinev is a real mess (and turns veeery different in just under a week, from 19th to 24th August) and this army is reconstructed in this ORBAT roughly basing on what could be interpreted, it is most likely not entirely accurate.

]]>

ARMATA A 4-A ROMÂNĂ
4th Romanian Army
Lieutnant General Gheorghe Avramescu

The 4th Army was the last of four armies fielded by Romania during World War 2. It participated in the later stages of the war on Eastern Front and was famous for recapturing Besarabia back in 1941, but it was destroyed in the Battle of Stalingrad, along with 3rd Army. It was beaten again afer Second Jassy-Kischinev offensive on 20th August 1944 and while covering Romanian’s lefternmost flank became the main fighting force facing Hungary after Romanian about-face. Thus it became first from Allied armies to intervene and mann the southern Transilvania front just few days later.
NOTE: Order of Battle straight after 2nd Jassy-Kischinev is a real mess (and turns veeery different in just under a week, from 19th to 24th August) and this army is reconstructed in this ORBAT roughly basing on what could be interpreted, it is most likely not entirely accurate.

]]> https://www.theblitz.club/message_boards/showthread.php?tid=74441 Tue, 16 Feb 2021 18:22:02 +0000 SaSTrooP]]> https://www.theblitz.club/message_boards/showthread.php?tid=74441

KAMPFGRUPPE SIEBENBURGEN
Task Force Transilvania

Direct Command of 8. Armee General der Infanterie Otto Wöhler

This unit is only losely covered in most of historical books. This is due to the fact it was organized on the spot and it in fact encompassed only one division with several weak units joining it, mostly coming from destroyed 6th Army during Jassy-Kischinev offensive.

]]>

KAMPFGRUPPE SIEBENBURGEN
Task Force Transilvania

Direct Command of 8. Armee General der Infanterie Otto Wöhler

This unit is only losely covered in most of historical books. This is due to the fact it was organized on the spot and it in fact encompassed only one division with several weak units joining it, mostly coming from destroyed 6th Army during Jassy-Kischinev offensive.

]]> https://www.theblitz.club/message_boards/showthread.php?tid=74439 Tue, 16 Feb 2021 17:38:06 +0000 SaSTrooP]]> https://www.theblitz.club/message_boards/showthread.php?tid=74439

2. MAGYAR HADSEREG
2nd Hungarian Army

Lieutenant General Lajos Veress von Dálnoki

Story of the 2nd Hungarian Army is rather dramatic one. Pride of Royal Hungarian Army, it advanced along the Germans in their late gains during Operation Barbarossa in 1941. In 1942, 2nd Hungarian made itself famous during valiant fights around the Don river in the south. As result, it advanced as flank guard security of the German 6th Army commanded by general von Paulus. Hungarians were targeted by first stage of Soviet Operation Little Saturn, as a southern pincer movement, that also struck Romanians. Underprepared for harsh winter and suffering from attrition, underequipped for a battle against future world power, 2nd Hungarian Army did not broke – it held, but then cracked open after Soviet tanks drove through them. After a month, 2nd Army lost 60% of personel, literally dozens of thousands of troops, as well as even 90% of heavy gear. The size of defeat was stunning for Hungarian public opinion and as result Hungarians successfully demanded on the Germans the need of nearly complete withdrawal of hungarian forces back to the homeland. Here, the 2nd remained forgotten in military structures, while smaller (though better equipped) Hungarian Army was being rebuilt. The reformation of 2nd Army appeared as an idea back in early 1944, when Szabolcs II Plan was introducedas an attempt to modernize the armed forces since Soviet threat was looking on the horizon. Szabolcs II Plan was never fully completed though. With Romanian about-face in August 1944, 2nd Hungarian Army was immediately reactivated and attached with units of various quality coming mostly from 1st Army that manned the safer Arpad Line. The 2nd Army was expected to execute a limited offensive before Allied armies will shift through Romania, particularly because in such a case Hungarian Transilvania will be in direct threat and Hungary proper – right afterwards.

Note: some thoughts on Hungarian names and reading, which is easy, but confusing at first. S = Sh (like in „Sharp”), Sz = s, cs = tsch (like in „Czech”), zs = g (but like in Gillete brand). Hungarians – similarily to Germans – build advanced words via connecting of several words describing one particular, eg. dreadful Panceloshadosztaly be: Pancel (armour), -os (posesive, so Pancelos is armoured), then hadosztaly mean simply a division (Had for general word for army, -osz again as posesive, taly means literally bowl, but it is also a measurement unit, like a bunch of something). So in fact it is pancel-os-had-osz-taly, read with English fonetics as several words: „pantzel-osh-had-os-tally”, literally the „armoured bunch of men”.

]]>

2. MAGYAR HADSEREG
2nd Hungarian Army

Lieutenant General Lajos Veress von Dálnoki

Story of the 2nd Hungarian Army is rather dramatic one. Pride of Royal Hungarian Army, it advanced along the Germans in their late gains during Operation Barbarossa in 1941. In 1942, 2nd Hungarian made itself famous during valiant fights around the Don river in the south. As result, it advanced as flank guard security of the German 6th Army commanded by general von Paulus. Hungarians were targeted by first stage of Soviet Operation Little Saturn, as a southern pincer movement, that also struck Romanians. Underprepared for harsh winter and suffering from attrition, underequipped for a battle against future world power, 2nd Hungarian Army did not broke – it held, but then cracked open after Soviet tanks drove through them. After a month, 2nd Army lost 60% of personel, literally dozens of thousands of troops, as well as even 90% of heavy gear. The size of defeat was stunning for Hungarian public opinion and as result Hungarians successfully demanded on the Germans the need of nearly complete withdrawal of hungarian forces back to the homeland. Here, the 2nd remained forgotten in military structures, while smaller (though better equipped) Hungarian Army was being rebuilt. The reformation of 2nd Army appeared as an idea back in early 1944, when Szabolcs II Plan was introducedas an attempt to modernize the armed forces since Soviet threat was looking on the horizon. Szabolcs II Plan was never fully completed though. With Romanian about-face in August 1944, 2nd Hungarian Army was immediately reactivated and attached with units of various quality coming mostly from 1st Army that manned the safer Arpad Line. The 2nd Army was expected to execute a limited offensive before Allied armies will shift through Romania, particularly because in such a case Hungarian Transilvania will be in direct threat and Hungary proper – right afterwards.

Note: some thoughts on Hungarian names and reading, which is easy, but confusing at first. S = Sh (like in „Sharp”), Sz = s, cs = tsch (like in „Czech”), zs = g (but like in Gillete brand). Hungarians – similarily to Germans – build advanced words via connecting of several words describing one particular, eg. dreadful Panceloshadosztaly be: Pancel (armour), -os (posesive, so Pancelos is armoured), then hadosztaly mean simply a division (Had for general word for army, -osz again as posesive, taly means literally bowl, but it is also a measurement unit, like a bunch of something). So in fact it is pancel-os-had-osz-taly, read with English fonetics as several words: „pantzel-osh-had-os-tally”, literally the „armoured bunch of men”.

]]> https://www.theblitz.club/message_boards/showthread.php?tid=74436 Tue, 16 Feb 2021 01:48:44 +0000 SaSTrooP]]> https://www.theblitz.club/message_boards/showthread.php?tid=74436 https://www.theblitz.club/message_boards/showthread.php?tid=74435 Tue, 16 Feb 2021 01:48:08 +0000 SaSTrooP]]> https://www.theblitz.club/message_boards/showthread.php?tid=74435 TRUDGE FOR TURDA

THE BATTLE FOR SOUTHERN TRANSYLVANIA

SEPTEMBER 1944

SPWW2 OPERATIONAL CAMPAIGN

1:1 SCALE

DEDICATED TO THE HEROES OF THIS FORGOTTEN FRONT

INTRODUCTION

World War 2 was the bloodiest conflict of mankind.

Undoubtedly however, the Big War itself encompassed several smaller conflicts occurring to settle some scores. After all, not only the Germans were going for complete and deadly revision of the Treaty of Versailles. There was a nation undoubtedly humiliated much more than the Germans back in 1918.

Hungary.

The Hungarians were treated as co-belligerents, right beside Austria, as a second most influential territory of Austro-Hungarian Empire. Beaten first in World War One, then beaten again in 1919 and 1920 by their neighbors, Hungarians were forced to sign the treaty of Trianon. Under the conditions of said treaty, Hungary proper lost about 70% of their original territory. It was also turned to a landlocked country. Population dropped to about 7.5 million from about 20 million citizens and nearly 3.5 million Hungarians were left outside their country and forced to live as minority. They often suffered persecutions and attempts of dehungarianisation, particularly with their long-lasting enemy – Romania, that acquired entire Transylvania area (Siebenburgen), traditionally considered to be a Hungarian territory. Romanian also occupied Budapest for a time being back in early ‘20s and left with enormous amounts of war loot, stripping its neighbor from austrian-invested heavy industry.

But soon the winds of vengeance started to blow in Europe. German gear up caught Western Allies unprepared and reluctant to pursue another conflict since their victory came at cost. Italy was growing bolder and bolder, while Soviet Union executed a number of interventions in bordering states while modernizing its tank force with aim of destruction of Poland and Finland.

In these conditions, Hungary started to slowly rise. A number of military reforms were introduced and modern equipment procured from their allies. Hungary soon joined ways with the Nazi Germany, that promised considerable gains to their Magyar friends. These promises soon turned to be true.

Hungary first acquired parts of Czechoslovakia in its first partition – as a so called First Vienna Awards – in late 1938. This territory constituted so called Subcarpathia with the town of Kassa (today Kosice in Slovakia). It must be however noted here that this particular area was forcibly annexed by Czechoslovakia back in 1920. Half year later, when Czechoslovakia was disappearing from the map, Royal Hungarian Army marched into Transcarpathia that bordered Poland and moments later got itself into a small war with newly created Slovakia, which was forced to cede some more territory.

In 1940 – at the height of its power – Germany agreed to support Hungary in their claim for the main prize – the Transylvania, known as golden region of Hungary. Hard-pressed Romania, just two months after Soviets claimed Besarabia and Moldova regions, agreed to partition the Transylvania with Hungary, giving them roughly over the half of their gains from the Trianon Treaty. This territory also included the actual capital of Transylvania, the Kolozsvar – or modern Cluj-Napoca in Romania (the so called Second Vienna Award).

With the gains acquired on the Yugoslavia in late 1941, Hungary soon doubled their territory and rose into prominence again.




But soon, the war with Soviet Union started. Hungary promptly joined it in shady and even today disputed circumstances. Early victories in 1941 looked promising, but soon it was evident that even though Soviets cannot bear the mighty German war machine, it is not the case with worse equipped and trained minor axis states. The disastrous defeat of Hungarian 2nd Army at the Horn of Don during operation Little Saturn during winter 1942 caused nearly complete withdrawal of Hungary from any combat. Panicked Hungarian leadership attempted to rebuild own armed forces and develop lagging war industry while war was closing in on their fair territorial acquisitions.

This is how the mid-1944 came in.

Rough rebuild of Royal Hungarian Army – or Honvedseg – was surprised when Soviets first launched the mighty Operation Bagration that destroyed entire Heeresgruppe Mitte in the matter of weeks and then massive onslaught fell on neighboring Romania, in the Jassy and Kischinev area. Romanian and German armies broke within four days and on 23rd of August 1944 a coup d’etat in Bucharest put an end to Ion Antonescu regime. Romania switched sides. Or in other words – about-faced. On 25th August 1944 former ally declared war on both Germany and Hungary and allowed Soviet columns right into central Romania, thus exposing the entire Axis underbelly. In the meantime, German pockets of resistance fought in entire Romania with an attempt of escape to Transylvania.

Obviously, under these conditions, new government in Romania promptly questioned the legality of Second Vienna Award and quickly claimed back the Transylvania.

And this is the way the Romanian-Hungarian War of 1944 erupted, even though it quickly turned into four-nation debacle.

Hungarian Northern Transylvania was well manned with 1st Hungarian Army operating on so called Arpad Line, blocking the mountain passes. But that was not the case with southern Transylvania that remained in Romanian hands. Entire Arpad Line could be flanked from there and Soviets could easily pour into Hungarian plain destroying everything on their path.

Under these circumstances, the mauled 2nd Hungarian Army was activated again and reinforced with several seasoned units from other Hungarian operational formations. The command was given to general Lajos Veress von Dalnoki – old, austro-hungarian officer, himself a Szekely. Szekely is a Hungarian national living in the Transylvania region.

Head of Hungarian State, Admiral Miklos Horthy, gave General Veress a simple order: execute the best offensive Royal Hungarian Army has to offer given the complicated circumstances and secure southern Transylvania, pushing the Romanians away, in order to secure the flank of Arpad Line and protect the Greater Hungarian Plain from Soviet swarm by blocking the mountain passes – mainly the historical Vulkan Pass that served as battle location of several engagements between the Magyars and Ottomans.

In the meantime, Romanians attempted to stand again after complete destruction of half of their army and rapid Soviet takeover followed with rapes, pillages and apprehensions of officers considered to be pro-German. Frozen in despair, they waited for the horror to end. They attacked their ex-German allies with ferocity with an attempt to buy at least a bit of mercy from their occupiers.

But the Hungarian threat – that was a different story. It was about settling the score, an unfinished business to solve. In Transylvania the Romanians would stand and wait for the Reds to come join them, at least securing the favorable post-war settlement in the west with Moldova and Besarabia undoubtedly lost.

In early September 1944, 2nd Hungarian Army descended from the Greater Hungarian Plain into southern Transylvania. Their aim: the city of Turda and then the Vulcan and Turnu Rosu Passes. But the Romanian 4th Army stood and put up a fight, thus opening the battle of Turda, which would soon become one of the biggest battles Transylvania have seen.

Soviets did not plan to wait calmly as their offensive ability was about to be questioned by small Hungary. STAVKA directly ordered General Rodion Malinovsky’s 2nd Ukrainian Front to support the Romanians without delay: the underbelly of Hungary was open, but it could close at any moment.

Germans were aware – and acknowledging – of Hungarian attempts. Even though 6th and 8th Armies were destroyed in Romania, remnants of these dragged into Transylvania and soon joined their Magyar allies in efforts to stabilize the situation. Meanwhile, Oberkomando des Heeres activated scarce reserves in the area, with mighty and experienced 23rd Panzer Division directed in the area to provide a real punch.

Local conflict between the two nations, brewing for years, was turning into a nasty debacle with giants stepping into the old mountains, who are given no rest, when shells start falling…



GENERAL NOTES ON THE CAMPAIGN (DETAILED RULES SHALL FOLLOW):

- TfT or Trudge for Turda, is a SPWW2 campaign that brings the OPERATIONAL aspect of war into Steel Panthers by providing players the tools to plan and execute their moves on operational map. Engagements between the opposing forces are played in Steel Panthers, thus both sides happen to have (smaller or greater) influence of what forces shall take part in the upcoming battle

- The game is run by a Game Master – this will be me, who shall judge the player’s decisions and take care of the map and probable outcomes. Note that I totally want to play my own child, though I will be (similarly to my earlier campaign) play as line player and I will not participate nor suggest anything to the main planners

- Campaign can theoretically fill any amount of players, but the numer of battles per in-game day is limited to the outcomes of operational map

- This campaign is expected to fare better with 5vs5 players. The less the player amount, the slower it will progress, obviously the opposite will speed things up

- Battle size depends on player decisions. However, given the fact this campaign is 1:1 in scale, most battles are expected to be regimental/brigade sized, what makes them quite big by SPWW2 standards. Several rules are however implemented to slightly help up with the might of this game. These rules – if combined with opponent’s fair play – should not turn this campaign weary

- ORBATs provided for this campaign include more than a dozen of divisions on both sides, each recreated with as great details as possible. There was about 200 work effort in recreation of the battle area and forces involded, often contradictory or non-detailed. The result is however a reconstruction rarely occuring in our community. Complete OOB encompasses about 100 pages of military structures converted into SPWW2 format as unit aquision instructions

- If conditions allow, campaign shall simulate operational combat of aircraft – that means aerial warfare will be present and will be played simultaniously to in-game actions. There is a dedicated system for aerial combat that was designed for a different WW2 play-by-forum (PBF) game I designed  (When Diplomacy Fails: Winds of Time) and has been successfully tested there. It will be adapter as a rip-off. The condition is however to enjoy a decent and fluent communication with players

- Standard The Blitz victory calculation system will be used to calculate the outcome of in-game battles. Various results will produce different effects on the operational map

- The campaign shall run as long as one side emerges victorious or general weariness brings it up to the end. I trully hope the first of mentioned instances will be the one I will declare in some time

- Given the size of the project, we expect the campaign to run for several months at least

- We are looking for active and stable players, who could form up the core of the both sides’ commanders. If other player will fall in and out along the way – this is good, anyone is free to join, however I would prefer core players to execute the majority of planning

SNEAK PEAK ON OPERATIONAL MAP
CLICK TO OPEN (IT IS TOO LARGE TO POST DIRECTLY)

IMGUR LINK (ZOOM IN THERE)]]> TRUDGE FOR TURDA

THE BATTLE FOR SOUTHERN TRANSYLVANIA

SEPTEMBER 1944

SPWW2 OPERATIONAL CAMPAIGN

1:1 SCALE

DEDICATED TO THE HEROES OF THIS FORGOTTEN FRONT

INTRODUCTION

World War 2 was the bloodiest conflict of mankind.

Undoubtedly however, the Big War itself encompassed several smaller conflicts occurring to settle some scores. After all, not only the Germans were going for complete and deadly revision of the Treaty of Versailles. There was a nation undoubtedly humiliated much more than the Germans back in 1918.

Hungary.

The Hungarians were treated as co-belligerents, right beside Austria, as a second most influential territory of Austro-Hungarian Empire. Beaten first in World War One, then beaten again in 1919 and 1920 by their neighbors, Hungarians were forced to sign the treaty of Trianon. Under the conditions of said treaty, Hungary proper lost about 70% of their original territory. It was also turned to a landlocked country. Population dropped to about 7.5 million from about 20 million citizens and nearly 3.5 million Hungarians were left outside their country and forced to live as minority. They often suffered persecutions and attempts of dehungarianisation, particularly with their long-lasting enemy – Romania, that acquired entire Transylvania area (Siebenburgen), traditionally considered to be a Hungarian territory. Romanian also occupied Budapest for a time being back in early ‘20s and left with enormous amounts of war loot, stripping its neighbor from austrian-invested heavy industry.

But soon the winds of vengeance started to blow in Europe. German gear up caught Western Allies unprepared and reluctant to pursue another conflict since their victory came at cost. Italy was growing bolder and bolder, while Soviet Union executed a number of interventions in bordering states while modernizing its tank force with aim of destruction of Poland and Finland.

In these conditions, Hungary started to slowly rise. A number of military reforms were introduced and modern equipment procured from their allies. Hungary soon joined ways with the Nazi Germany, that promised considerable gains to their Magyar friends. These promises soon turned to be true.

Hungary first acquired parts of Czechoslovakia in its first partition – as a so called First Vienna Awards – in late 1938. This territory constituted so called Subcarpathia with the town of Kassa (today Kosice in Slovakia). It must be however noted here that this particular area was forcibly annexed by Czechoslovakia back in 1920. Half year later, when Czechoslovakia was disappearing from the map, Royal Hungarian Army marched into Transcarpathia that bordered Poland and moments later got itself into a small war with newly created Slovakia, which was forced to cede some more territory.

In 1940 – at the height of its power – Germany agreed to support Hungary in their claim for the main prize – the Transylvania, known as golden region of Hungary. Hard-pressed Romania, just two months after Soviets claimed Besarabia and Moldova regions, agreed to partition the Transylvania with Hungary, giving them roughly over the half of their gains from the Trianon Treaty. This territory also included the actual capital of Transylvania, the Kolozsvar – or modern Cluj-Napoca in Romania (the so called Second Vienna Award).

With the gains acquired on the Yugoslavia in late 1941, Hungary soon doubled their territory and rose into prominence again.




But soon, the war with Soviet Union started. Hungary promptly joined it in shady and even today disputed circumstances. Early victories in 1941 looked promising, but soon it was evident that even though Soviets cannot bear the mighty German war machine, it is not the case with worse equipped and trained minor axis states. The disastrous defeat of Hungarian 2nd Army at the Horn of Don during operation Little Saturn during winter 1942 caused nearly complete withdrawal of Hungary from any combat. Panicked Hungarian leadership attempted to rebuild own armed forces and develop lagging war industry while war was closing in on their fair territorial acquisitions.

This is how the mid-1944 came in.

Rough rebuild of Royal Hungarian Army – or Honvedseg – was surprised when Soviets first launched the mighty Operation Bagration that destroyed entire Heeresgruppe Mitte in the matter of weeks and then massive onslaught fell on neighboring Romania, in the Jassy and Kischinev area. Romanian and German armies broke within four days and on 23rd of August 1944 a coup d’etat in Bucharest put an end to Ion Antonescu regime. Romania switched sides. Or in other words – about-faced. On 25th August 1944 former ally declared war on both Germany and Hungary and allowed Soviet columns right into central Romania, thus exposing the entire Axis underbelly. In the meantime, German pockets of resistance fought in entire Romania with an attempt of escape to Transylvania.

Obviously, under these conditions, new government in Romania promptly questioned the legality of Second Vienna Award and quickly claimed back the Transylvania.

And this is the way the Romanian-Hungarian War of 1944 erupted, even though it quickly turned into four-nation debacle.

Hungarian Northern Transylvania was well manned with 1st Hungarian Army operating on so called Arpad Line, blocking the mountain passes. But that was not the case with southern Transylvania that remained in Romanian hands. Entire Arpad Line could be flanked from there and Soviets could easily pour into Hungarian plain destroying everything on their path.

Under these circumstances, the mauled 2nd Hungarian Army was activated again and reinforced with several seasoned units from other Hungarian operational formations. The command was given to general Lajos Veress von Dalnoki – old, austro-hungarian officer, himself a Szekely. Szekely is a Hungarian national living in the Transylvania region.

Head of Hungarian State, Admiral Miklos Horthy, gave General Veress a simple order: execute the best offensive Royal Hungarian Army has to offer given the complicated circumstances and secure southern Transylvania, pushing the Romanians away, in order to secure the flank of Arpad Line and protect the Greater Hungarian Plain from Soviet swarm by blocking the mountain passes – mainly the historical Vulkan Pass that served as battle location of several engagements between the Magyars and Ottomans.

In the meantime, Romanians attempted to stand again after complete destruction of half of their army and rapid Soviet takeover followed with rapes, pillages and apprehensions of officers considered to be pro-German. Frozen in despair, they waited for the horror to end. They attacked their ex-German allies with ferocity with an attempt to buy at least a bit of mercy from their occupiers.

But the Hungarian threat – that was a different story. It was about settling the score, an unfinished business to solve. In Transylvania the Romanians would stand and wait for the Reds to come join them, at least securing the favorable post-war settlement in the west with Moldova and Besarabia undoubtedly lost.

In early September 1944, 2nd Hungarian Army descended from the Greater Hungarian Plain into southern Transylvania. Their aim: the city of Turda and then the Vulcan and Turnu Rosu Passes. But the Romanian 4th Army stood and put up a fight, thus opening the battle of Turda, which would soon become one of the biggest battles Transylvania have seen.

Soviets did not plan to wait calmly as their offensive ability was about to be questioned by small Hungary. STAVKA directly ordered General Rodion Malinovsky’s 2nd Ukrainian Front to support the Romanians without delay: the underbelly of Hungary was open, but it could close at any moment.

Germans were aware – and acknowledging – of Hungarian attempts. Even though 6th and 8th Armies were destroyed in Romania, remnants of these dragged into Transylvania and soon joined their Magyar allies in efforts to stabilize the situation. Meanwhile, Oberkomando des Heeres activated scarce reserves in the area, with mighty and experienced 23rd Panzer Division directed in the area to provide a real punch.

Local conflict between the two nations, brewing for years, was turning into a nasty debacle with giants stepping into the old mountains, who are given no rest, when shells start falling…



GENERAL NOTES ON THE CAMPAIGN (DETAILED RULES SHALL FOLLOW):

- TfT or Trudge for Turda, is a SPWW2 campaign that brings the OPERATIONAL aspect of war into Steel Panthers by providing players the tools to plan and execute their moves on operational map. Engagements between the opposing forces are played in Steel Panthers, thus both sides happen to have (smaller or greater) influence of what forces shall take part in the upcoming battle

- The game is run by a Game Master – this will be me, who shall judge the player’s decisions and take care of the map and probable outcomes. Note that I totally want to play my own child, though I will be (similarly to my earlier campaign) play as line player and I will not participate nor suggest anything to the main planners

- Campaign can theoretically fill any amount of players, but the numer of battles per in-game day is limited to the outcomes of operational map

- This campaign is expected to fare better with 5vs5 players. The less the player amount, the slower it will progress, obviously the opposite will speed things up

- Battle size depends on player decisions. However, given the fact this campaign is 1:1 in scale, most battles are expected to be regimental/brigade sized, what makes them quite big by SPWW2 standards. Several rules are however implemented to slightly help up with the might of this game. These rules – if combined with opponent’s fair play – should not turn this campaign weary

- ORBATs provided for this campaign include more than a dozen of divisions on both sides, each recreated with as great details as possible. There was about 200 work effort in recreation of the battle area and forces involded, often contradictory or non-detailed. The result is however a reconstruction rarely occuring in our community. Complete OOB encompasses about 100 pages of military structures converted into SPWW2 format as unit aquision instructions

- If conditions allow, campaign shall simulate operational combat of aircraft – that means aerial warfare will be present and will be played simultaniously to in-game actions. There is a dedicated system for aerial combat that was designed for a different WW2 play-by-forum (PBF) game I designed  (When Diplomacy Fails: Winds of Time) and has been successfully tested there. It will be adapter as a rip-off. The condition is however to enjoy a decent and fluent communication with players

- Standard The Blitz victory calculation system will be used to calculate the outcome of in-game battles. Various results will produce different effects on the operational map

- The campaign shall run as long as one side emerges victorious or general weariness brings it up to the end. I trully hope the first of mentioned instances will be the one I will declare in some time

- Given the size of the project, we expect the campaign to run for several months at least

- We are looking for active and stable players, who could form up the core of the both sides’ commanders. If other player will fall in and out along the way – this is good, anyone is free to join, however I would prefer core players to execute the majority of planning

SNEAK PEAK ON OPERATIONAL MAP
CLICK TO OPEN (IT IS TOO LARGE TO POST DIRECTLY)

IMGUR LINK (ZOOM IN THERE)]]> https://www.theblitz.club/message_boards/showthread.php?tid=74434 Tue, 16 Feb 2021 01:44:24 +0000 SaSTrooP]]> https://www.theblitz.club/message_boards/showthread.php?tid=74434 TRUDGE FOR TURDA
SPWW2 CAMPAIGN
DETAILED RULES

ADVANCED GAME MECHANICS

1) REINFORCEMENTS AND REPLENISHMENTS
Due to the fact that battle takes place for only about a month, no replenishments per se are available – you have to fare with what you got. However, there are two special rules on this:
a) The WINNING side of the battle can salvage some vehicles. This is dice rolled and allows to receive between 0% to 20% of fully destroyed vehicles back;
b) You can, at any time, disband a badly mauled unit and use the freed men to replenish the other unit;

2) BATTLE RESULTS
Standard The Blitz SP Score Sheet v2.0 applies and we do interpret as follows:
a) Minor Victory – the lost side (if it was defending) must retreat 1 or 2 hexes backwards, and sometimes – rarely – on direct Game Master decision the lost side might evacuate their immobilized units;
Medium victory – the lost side (if it was defending) must retreat 2 or 3 hexes backwards;
Decisive victory – the defender must retreat at leaast 2 or 3 hexes backwards and must avoid further battles for entire day (the unit is disorganized). It cannot initiate the battle next day. If that unit is engaged again and suffers any defeat greater than minor loss, entire unit immediately capitulates;
Overwhelming victory – entire unit capitulates before the winner and is destroyed;
ALL FLAGS should – unless said differently – the value of 100 points and they should be placed on the spots of interest: hills, crossroads, villages and towns.
AT ANY VICTORY ACHIEVED the winning attacker is expected to enter the contested hex.

3) GAME MODES
Typical attack on the hex that is defended means the battle is fought as advance-delay. However, if the defender was stationary for at least a day, he becomes entrenched and assault-defence is played instead. If the defender remained stationary for at least 3 days, the unit becomes fortified. Fortified unit add the below listed bonuses:
a) Each battalion that is fortified produces 10 in-game fortify points for each day it is fortified (eg. 2 battalions fortified for 4 days [7 days stationary total] will produce 80 fortify points used for trenches, mines etc.)
b) One company in each line battalion (by that I mean rather infantry units) can be converted into 12 fortifications that are earthen and equipped with machinegun (so that 1 earthen bunker is roughly equivalent to rifle squad).
Mind there are also special rules on fortifications for some Hungarian units that apply before these rules.
If both sides declare an attack on each other or move simultainiously onto an unoccupied hex, a meeting engagement occurs.

4) THE MAP AND BATTLEFIELD SELECTION
External, hex-based map is used for operational scale. Players command their sides via moving the unit markers on their version of the map (so one side does not see the movement of the other unless the enemy unit is sighted).
Each hex on the operational map is rough equivalent of 6x6km (120x120) SPWW2 generated map (however – watch the extra rules on map width). Judging by the location and teritorial markings of the hex, a SPWW2 map is generated with significant typical features, eg. hilly hex on operational map will obviously contain hills and curvy roads in SPWW2. Hex with a village should contain villages, towns should contain towns and so on.
Maps are generated, but Game Master might intervene in the map and add some extra features, particularly the location names or some shape fixes.

5) MOVEMENT ON THE OPERATIONAL MAP
Certain units have certain movement ranges, depending on how motorized they are and what kind of path they traverse.
We are defining those two types of units:
a) Footmobile/Horse traction/Cavalry – these units can DAILY travel: 3 hexes on standard types of terrain (flat, woods), 2 hexes on rough terrain (hills, mountains);
b) Motorized/Mechanized traction – these units can DAILY travel: 5 hexes on standard types of terrain (flat), 3 hexes on woods, 2 hexes on hills and these unit cannot at all travel on the mountains;
Now, there are roads – primary and secondary ones. These roads work as follows:
a) Secondary road – adds 1 additional hex movement range for Footmobile/Horse traction/Cavalry and 2 additional hex movement range for Motorized/Mechanized traction;
b) Primary roads – these DOUBLE the standard speed a unit would normally traverse with, but mind that terrain still matters with the exception that mounts count as hills for mechanized traction;
Example: tank battalion travels on primary road in the mountains. It can do it even though these are mounts, because primary road is present. The mountains in such case count as hills. Tanks would normally move with 2 hexes per day on the hills. But the range is doubled, so they will instead travel a max of 4 hexes. Contrarily, horse-operated artillery battalion on secondary road in plain terrain will travel with speed of 4 hexes instead of normal 3 hexes.

Now, unless Game Master accepts the otherwise (that will usually happen if a unit is very special), the smallest unit that can be presented on the map is the nominal battalion (if it suffered losses and is down to a company – it is still a battalion nominally). The biggest unit that can be presented is a regiment. Entire division can never be presented.

Under no circumstances – except the Hungarian fort units – more than 2 units of any acceptable size are allowed on a single hex.

On operational map, non-recon units are able to spot the enemy 2 hexes away, but only 1 hex away if enemy is blocking its line of sight (so if there is a frontline, one will usually not see the direct reserves available for the enemy. Recon units can do it in range of 3 hexes and only 2 hexes if enemy is blocking its line of sight.

Now, about river crossings.
All rivers in the game are considered important ones that demand crossing equipment. Smaller rivers are ommited on operational map and will be represented as randomly present streams.
If crossing the river, one needs to build a bridge. To do that, units building the bridge must remain stationary for entire day and cannot be engaged by enemy land units, while artillery and aircraft fire will be resolved by Game Master and may lead to delays or other complications. Each battalion participating in the building process provides 1 crossing wooden bridge, while each engineer company provides additional one.
Example: Bridge is built from 2 hexes by two infantry battalions and engineer battalion of 3 companies. If no delays occur, after one day the attacker will be able to execute crossing attempt with 5 wooden temporary bridges - two for each battalion involved and three for each engineer company involved.

One might attempt to cross without bridges, only rafts - in such case however the attack still must be prepared for one day (delivery of the rafts etc.). It must be noted that in such case each engineer company involved provides the attacker with 2 landing barges on trucks.

River crossings are played on... well, river crossing maps. However, wooden engineer bridges are in such case added manually and the attacker selects its placement. Both ends of the bridge demand two of total objectives to be placed - one on each side. Now, the bridge CANNOT be engaged by any fire from the defender (and particularly artillery and/or tanks) for the first 8 turns counted from the initiation of hostilites by discovered enemy units - or unless a single unit crosses such bridge. The latter rule applies to each bridge separately.
Example: There are three crossing bridges. Game is 40 turns long. First shots between discovered enemies occur in turn 5 - lets say MG targeted one of the rifle teams. From that moment on, 8 turns count and at the start of turn 14 (5+8=13 till the end of it) the defender is allowed to attemp crossing destruction. However, lets say by turn 11 enemy armoured cars cross the southernmost bridge. This bridge can be engaged immediately after this situation occured.

One more thing: by engaging I mean the start of artillery plotting, not actual fire mission. If one tries to eg. demolish a bridge with 155mm battery, in the given example turn 14 is earliest possible moment where defender is allowed to plot such fire in the close vicinity of the bridge. Not the turn when shells can start falling.

The ablove rule generally aims for rough recreation of building process and later a try for bridge destruction. SPWW2 does not allow to place objects mid-scenario, so the attacker in such case must be protected as well.


6) BATTLE INITIATION AND BATTLE ITSELF
First of all – a unit can take part in only one battle a day, with one exception (see below).
There are two basic ways of initiating a battle.
a) Planned battle – it occurs when both sides are in the neighbouring hexes and no late joining units are present. Such battle happens if attack is also initiated from any amount of neighbouring hexes (like defender is partly flanked etc.). Such battle is always set on 40 turns, but mind the below detailed rules on withdrawals implemented to easen things up;
b) Hasty battle/Reinforced defense – this is more complex one. It can basically occur if any side (or both sides!) send reinforcements for the attack that need to arrive on the battlefield or a unit enters a battle from the march.
A unit arrives late on the battlefield, if it approaches from a hex that is not directly neighbouring the enemy and is „sticking” to the hex that is initiating the battle. And if unit is motorized – sticking within 2 hexes. Said easier – unit is coming late when it manns the line and spends time to arrive.
An attacker that arrives late suffers the penalty of -13 turns to hiss attack. Thus, typically hasty attack will last 27 turns. The price of bringing more units to the battlefield is the fact that attacker must speed up, as first 13 turns are considered wasted for regruiping into a battlegroup. Alternatively, if defender brings in reinforcements from distant hexes, the battle time rises up for 13 turns – now battle can last 53 turns instead, so the price of overloading the defence is more time for the attacker to wrestle or wear defender down with guns.
If both sides bring in reinforcements, the battle lasts for normal 40 turns as both effects are leveling themselves.

The other situation, where -13 turns penalty will apply is when attacker comes in from the march. In order to come in and start the battle from the march, before entering the contested hex the attacker must have at least half of his movement points available. Thus, attacker can approach swiftly and strike, but the strike must be swift as well.
Example: Tank Regiment is 4 hexes away from enemy position. It is travelling on the primary road, so its normal range of 5 hexes is doubled and Tank Regiment can travel on the roads for 10 hexes a day. The regiment can approach the defender and engage him in the same move, but it will be considered Hasty Attack that will last for 27 turns, unless the defender will rush some forces from hexes neighbouring to reinforce the line.

There are two exceptions that do not cause „hasty” penalty:
a) Divisional Headquarters. These often host some serious divisional firepower. If this unit is adjacent to friendly units, not only it does not cause penalty to occur, but it can spread into several battles happening at once, but obviously a unit cannot be present at two battles simultaniously.
Example: Divisional HQ is made of AT Battery and Engineer Company. It is adjacent to two friendly hexes that both launch attacks in two directions. One attack gets the AT Battery, and the other gets the Engineer Company from Divisional Command. Both attacks will not suffer hasty penalty even though Divisional HQ is not directly in contact with enemy;
b) Dedicated artillery units (note: this rule also applies to Romanian/Soviet Heavy Mortar Regiments) – dedicated arty can stay one hex behind the troops in contact with enemy and for the sheer role of itself still provide fire support. Mind that artillery cannot enter a battle from the march if it is not in contact, in such a case it fight as normal unit. This rule still allows to deploy arty on map if one so wishes;

When all this is done, we are comparing forces that take part in the battle and we prepare a battle in SPWW2 usings the selected forces. The players can now happily enjoy the carnage!
Mind that max limit of units in SPWW2 is 500. If anyhow overload will be soooo great that one side will not fit, the bigger size needs to leave some units behind in the attack. Eventually, if all sides so wish, attack can be spread into two battles, but in such case a map will be smaller for both fights what can cause bottlenecks.

7) SPECIAL TRUCK RULES, WITHDRAWALS AND Z-FIRE
Battles in this campaign can be fairly huge. Terrain also does not make things particularly easier. Thus, these extra rules are implemented to help palyers mutually speed things up.

First of all, Z-fire is only allowed for dedicated HMGs and bunkers (regardless of their armament). No other unit can ever Z-fire. Z-fire remains well too effective given the little amount of ammo it uses and for this reason it is not allowed.

If player wishes to withdraw from a attack, he should first stop attacking. Then he should move slightly backwards with most of his unit and inform the other player he is withdrawing. In such a case, defender can either immediately accept the withdrawal and scenario ends with current holding or can execute the pursuit for 4 consecutive turns. After withdrawal was ordered, it cannot be rescinded. This rule allows to promply execute limited counterattack and end a battle prematurely that would normally last much longer for no reason.

If defender does not believe he can hold, defender should actually start retreating and moving units in the off-map area. If majority of positions are abandoned and attacker went somewhat deeply, defender should inform attacker that this i sit and attacker gets 4 turns to spread and secure some flags.

Trucks – their evacuation offmap after they dropped cargo is lenghly, lots-of-clicks process. However, the trucks of attacking side should not be engaged by the defender if they dropped cargo and went full spead backwards towards friendly lines. Such trucks should face backwards to the enemy, indicating they are no longer advancing, while trucks that are in the attack should face forward (game does so automatically, following the direction of movement). Generally, those trucks should behave like they are clearly not in the fight. Trucks that moved backwards are considered retreated and they do not have to be moved off-map. Defender should avoid hitting them on purpose, but if trucks are parked close to eg. artillery position – well, bad luck. Obviously, attacker should not conceal units this way. Pure reason for that rule is to save the attackers time on evacuating eg. ~100 unarmed vehicles after they ferried the troops and making sure they left the map.
If the attacker wishes to ferry troops in waves and trucks will be back, he should inform the defender that trucks are still in play.

Note the above rules demand some fair-play and some respect for other persons time, particularly if that other person is just moving 400 units around. We are all mature people – stick to it please!

8) LOGISTICS
Logistics are super simplified. Troops should not be cut off from friendly roads in order to be supplied. If they are cut off:
a) For the first day nothing happens, the reserve is used;
b) For the second day they cannot initiate battles and move only half of the speed, rounded up;
c) Third day onwards they are stuck in place and immobile. If attacked, any result greater than a draw causes them to surrender;

9) AERIAL COMBAT
Each side is provided with their own number of Air Sorties. These remain undisclosed to the other side.
Sorties are listed in each side's passworded forums and if assigned, they must be used in given configuration.

While declaring a battle, Air Sorties can be called in. In a single battle no greater amount than 20 air sorties (40 aircraft total) can be brought for support. Sorties can be mixed. For example, if Axis has general support of eg. 20 Stukas, 20 Messerschmitts and 30 FW-190 for support (what would BTW amount to 35 Air sorties total), they can call in as support eg. 6x Stukas Sorties (12 aircraft), 10x Messerschmitts Sorties (20 aircraft) and eg. 3x FW-190 sorties (6 aircraft). This amounts to 22 sorties total - as you can see, in this example sorties are overloaded by 2 of them, so most likely Axis will have to cut down eg. on 4 Messerschmitt aircraft to bring sorties to max of 20 (or 40 aircraft).

Each Sortie can daily participate in just one battle. So they can either be concentrated or spread.
If an aircraft has been shot down, it is written off the Sorties list.

Sortie can be shot down in two ways.
a) First, simply in SPWW2 battle. If sortie was damaged here, it is considered repaired next day unless Game Master says otherwise (eg. damage was super severe)
b) Second, AA formations, including heavy Flaks, normally in SPWW2 serving as AT weapons, can be deployed on operational map. In such case, they provide aerial cover for the hex they are in and each adjacent hex. You need at least a calibre of 20mm to do this though. AAMGs can only be deployed into battle.

When sortie is supporting a battle where enemy has deployed AA cover, we are testing it before the battle deployment. Since we are playing on simplified rules, I will keep liberty of sorting such AA fire, but I will compare the number of AA fires, aircraft and current weather. AA cover will most likely score some randomized shotdowns, but most importantly, Air Sorties might not make it through AA cover and decide to return to base, leaving the calling side without aerial cover in this battle. This will usually happen if enemy fire will be severe and losses mounting.

AAs deployed for off-battle interdictions cannot participate in the battle.

There is no air-to-air combat. Air-to-air is simulated by reduced number of aircraft involved on the both sides.

10) CAMPAIGN END
Campaign ends when pretty much either the time is finished, one side is clearly victorious or general weariness cause players to stop playing and campaign no longer can continue.
In this last occurence – no winner is declared, unless one side effectively surrenders.
- Axis is considered totally victorious if they (somehow) capture both passes (Vulkan and Turnu Rosu) and when they of course hold at least Turda, but also preferably Targu Mures (Game Master will dispute this);
- Axis is considered decisively victorious, if they hold both Turda and Targu Mures;
- Axis is considered majorly victorious, if they hold Turda;
- Axis is considered minorly victorious, if they only hold Cluj;
Allies victory is assured only if they control pretty much entire map – both passes, Turda and Targu Mures as key towns and also the Cluj itself.

In any instance, objective is not considered held, if unit holding it is effectively surrounded and enemy is pushing deep in its rear, except of Cluj.

IF ANY OF THE ABOVE IS UNCLEAR OR MAKES ANYONE UNSURE, PLEASE ASK IN THIS THREAD, I WILL RESPOND, PREFERABLY WITH GRAPHICAL VISUALISATIONS!

PLAYERS ARE ALL ASKED TO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THEY READ AND UNDERSTAND THE RULES

]]> TRUDGE FOR TURDA
SPWW2 CAMPAIGN
DETAILED RULES

ADVANCED GAME MECHANICS

1) REINFORCEMENTS AND REPLENISHMENTS
Due to the fact that battle takes place for only about a month, no replenishments per se are available – you have to fare with what you got. However, there are two special rules on this:
a) The WINNING side of the battle can salvage some vehicles. This is dice rolled and allows to receive between 0% to 20% of fully destroyed vehicles back;
b) You can, at any time, disband a badly mauled unit and use the freed men to replenish the other unit;

2) BATTLE RESULTS
Standard The Blitz SP Score Sheet v2.0 applies and we do interpret as follows:
a) Minor Victory – the lost side (if it was defending) must retreat 1 or 2 hexes backwards, and sometimes – rarely – on direct Game Master decision the lost side might evacuate their immobilized units;
Medium victory – the lost side (if it was defending) must retreat 2 or 3 hexes backwards;
Decisive victory – the defender must retreat at leaast 2 or 3 hexes backwards and must avoid further battles for entire day (the unit is disorganized). It cannot initiate the battle next day. If that unit is engaged again and suffers any defeat greater than minor loss, entire unit immediately capitulates;
Overwhelming victory – entire unit capitulates before the winner and is destroyed;
ALL FLAGS should – unless said differently – the value of 100 points and they should be placed on the spots of interest: hills, crossroads, villages and towns.
AT ANY VICTORY ACHIEVED the winning attacker is expected to enter the contested hex.

3) GAME MODES
Typical attack on the hex that is defended means the battle is fought as advance-delay. However, if the defender was stationary for at least a day, he becomes entrenched and assault-defence is played instead. If the defender remained stationary for at least 3 days, the unit becomes fortified. Fortified unit add the below listed bonuses:
a) Each battalion that is fortified produces 10 in-game fortify points for each day it is fortified (eg. 2 battalions fortified for 4 days [7 days stationary total] will produce 80 fortify points used for trenches, mines etc.)
b) One company in each line battalion (by that I mean rather infantry units) can be converted into 12 fortifications that are earthen and equipped with machinegun (so that 1 earthen bunker is roughly equivalent to rifle squad).
Mind there are also special rules on fortifications for some Hungarian units that apply before these rules.
If both sides declare an attack on each other or move simultainiously onto an unoccupied hex, a meeting engagement occurs.

4) THE MAP AND BATTLEFIELD SELECTION
External, hex-based map is used for operational scale. Players command their sides via moving the unit markers on their version of the map (so one side does not see the movement of the other unless the enemy unit is sighted).
Each hex on the operational map is rough equivalent of 6x6km (120x120) SPWW2 generated map (however – watch the extra rules on map width). Judging by the location and teritorial markings of the hex, a SPWW2 map is generated with significant typical features, eg. hilly hex on operational map will obviously contain hills and curvy roads in SPWW2. Hex with a village should contain villages, towns should contain towns and so on.
Maps are generated, but Game Master might intervene in the map and add some extra features, particularly the location names or some shape fixes.

5) MOVEMENT ON THE OPERATIONAL MAP
Certain units have certain movement ranges, depending on how motorized they are and what kind of path they traverse.
We are defining those two types of units:
a) Footmobile/Horse traction/Cavalry – these units can DAILY travel: 3 hexes on standard types of terrain (flat, woods), 2 hexes on rough terrain (hills, mountains);
b) Motorized/Mechanized traction – these units can DAILY travel: 5 hexes on standard types of terrain (flat), 3 hexes on woods, 2 hexes on hills and these unit cannot at all travel on the mountains;
Now, there are roads – primary and secondary ones. These roads work as follows:
a) Secondary road – adds 1 additional hex movement range for Footmobile/Horse traction/Cavalry and 2 additional hex movement range for Motorized/Mechanized traction;
b) Primary roads – these DOUBLE the standard speed a unit would normally traverse with, but mind that terrain still matters with the exception that mounts count as hills for mechanized traction;
Example: tank battalion travels on primary road in the mountains. It can do it even though these are mounts, because primary road is present. The mountains in such case count as hills. Tanks would normally move with 2 hexes per day on the hills. But the range is doubled, so they will instead travel a max of 4 hexes. Contrarily, horse-operated artillery battalion on secondary road in plain terrain will travel with speed of 4 hexes instead of normal 3 hexes.

Now, unless Game Master accepts the otherwise (that will usually happen if a unit is very special), the smallest unit that can be presented on the map is the nominal battalion (if it suffered losses and is down to a company – it is still a battalion nominally). The biggest unit that can be presented is a regiment. Entire division can never be presented.

Under no circumstances – except the Hungarian fort units – more than 2 units of any acceptable size are allowed on a single hex.

On operational map, non-recon units are able to spot the enemy 2 hexes away, but only 1 hex away if enemy is blocking its line of sight (so if there is a frontline, one will usually not see the direct reserves available for the enemy. Recon units can do it in range of 3 hexes and only 2 hexes if enemy is blocking its line of sight.

Now, about river crossings.
All rivers in the game are considered important ones that demand crossing equipment. Smaller rivers are ommited on operational map and will be represented as randomly present streams.
If crossing the river, one needs to build a bridge. To do that, units building the bridge must remain stationary for entire day and cannot be engaged by enemy land units, while artillery and aircraft fire will be resolved by Game Master and may lead to delays or other complications. Each battalion participating in the building process provides 1 crossing wooden bridge, while each engineer company provides additional one.
Example: Bridge is built from 2 hexes by two infantry battalions and engineer battalion of 3 companies. If no delays occur, after one day the attacker will be able to execute crossing attempt with 5 wooden temporary bridges - two for each battalion involved and three for each engineer company involved.

One might attempt to cross without bridges, only rafts - in such case however the attack still must be prepared for one day (delivery of the rafts etc.). It must be noted that in such case each engineer company involved provides the attacker with 2 landing barges on trucks.

River crossings are played on... well, river crossing maps. However, wooden engineer bridges are in such case added manually and the attacker selects its placement. Both ends of the bridge demand two of total objectives to be placed - one on each side. Now, the bridge CANNOT be engaged by any fire from the defender (and particularly artillery and/or tanks) for the first 8 turns counted from the initiation of hostilites by discovered enemy units - or unless a single unit crosses such bridge. The latter rule applies to each bridge separately.
Example: There are three crossing bridges. Game is 40 turns long. First shots between discovered enemies occur in turn 5 - lets say MG targeted one of the rifle teams. From that moment on, 8 turns count and at the start of turn 14 (5+8=13 till the end of it) the defender is allowed to attemp crossing destruction. However, lets say by turn 11 enemy armoured cars cross the southernmost bridge. This bridge can be engaged immediately after this situation occured.

One more thing: by engaging I mean the start of artillery plotting, not actual fire mission. If one tries to eg. demolish a bridge with 155mm battery, in the given example turn 14 is earliest possible moment where defender is allowed to plot such fire in the close vicinity of the bridge. Not the turn when shells can start falling.

The ablove rule generally aims for rough recreation of building process and later a try for bridge destruction. SPWW2 does not allow to place objects mid-scenario, so the attacker in such case must be protected as well.


6) BATTLE INITIATION AND BATTLE ITSELF
First of all – a unit can take part in only one battle a day, with one exception (see below).
There are two basic ways of initiating a battle.
a) Planned battle – it occurs when both sides are in the neighbouring hexes and no late joining units are present. Such battle happens if attack is also initiated from any amount of neighbouring hexes (like defender is partly flanked etc.). Such battle is always set on 40 turns, but mind the below detailed rules on withdrawals implemented to easen things up;
b) Hasty battle/Reinforced defense – this is more complex one. It can basically occur if any side (or both sides!) send reinforcements for the attack that need to arrive on the battlefield or a unit enters a battle from the march.
A unit arrives late on the battlefield, if it approaches from a hex that is not directly neighbouring the enemy and is „sticking” to the hex that is initiating the battle. And if unit is motorized – sticking within 2 hexes. Said easier – unit is coming late when it manns the line and spends time to arrive.
An attacker that arrives late suffers the penalty of -13 turns to hiss attack. Thus, typically hasty attack will last 27 turns. The price of bringing more units to the battlefield is the fact that attacker must speed up, as first 13 turns are considered wasted for regruiping into a battlegroup. Alternatively, if defender brings in reinforcements from distant hexes, the battle time rises up for 13 turns – now battle can last 53 turns instead, so the price of overloading the defence is more time for the attacker to wrestle or wear defender down with guns.
If both sides bring in reinforcements, the battle lasts for normal 40 turns as both effects are leveling themselves.

The other situation, where -13 turns penalty will apply is when attacker comes in from the march. In order to come in and start the battle from the march, before entering the contested hex the attacker must have at least half of his movement points available. Thus, attacker can approach swiftly and strike, but the strike must be swift as well.
Example: Tank Regiment is 4 hexes away from enemy position. It is travelling on the primary road, so its normal range of 5 hexes is doubled and Tank Regiment can travel on the roads for 10 hexes a day. The regiment can approach the defender and engage him in the same move, but it will be considered Hasty Attack that will last for 27 turns, unless the defender will rush some forces from hexes neighbouring to reinforce the line.

There are two exceptions that do not cause „hasty” penalty:
a) Divisional Headquarters. These often host some serious divisional firepower. If this unit is adjacent to friendly units, not only it does not cause penalty to occur, but it can spread into several battles happening at once, but obviously a unit cannot be present at two battles simultaniously.
Example: Divisional HQ is made of AT Battery and Engineer Company. It is adjacent to two friendly hexes that both launch attacks in two directions. One attack gets the AT Battery, and the other gets the Engineer Company from Divisional Command. Both attacks will not suffer hasty penalty even though Divisional HQ is not directly in contact with enemy;
b) Dedicated artillery units (note: this rule also applies to Romanian/Soviet Heavy Mortar Regiments) – dedicated arty can stay one hex behind the troops in contact with enemy and for the sheer role of itself still provide fire support. Mind that artillery cannot enter a battle from the march if it is not in contact, in such a case it fight as normal unit. This rule still allows to deploy arty on map if one so wishes;

When all this is done, we are comparing forces that take part in the battle and we prepare a battle in SPWW2 usings the selected forces. The players can now happily enjoy the carnage!
Mind that max limit of units in SPWW2 is 500. If anyhow overload will be soooo great that one side will not fit, the bigger size needs to leave some units behind in the attack. Eventually, if all sides so wish, attack can be spread into two battles, but in such case a map will be smaller for both fights what can cause bottlenecks.

7) SPECIAL TRUCK RULES, WITHDRAWALS AND Z-FIRE
Battles in this campaign can be fairly huge. Terrain also does not make things particularly easier. Thus, these extra rules are implemented to help palyers mutually speed things up.

First of all, Z-fire is only allowed for dedicated HMGs and bunkers (regardless of their armament). No other unit can ever Z-fire. Z-fire remains well too effective given the little amount of ammo it uses and for this reason it is not allowed.

If player wishes to withdraw from a attack, he should first stop attacking. Then he should move slightly backwards with most of his unit and inform the other player he is withdrawing. In such a case, defender can either immediately accept the withdrawal and scenario ends with current holding or can execute the pursuit for 4 consecutive turns. After withdrawal was ordered, it cannot be rescinded. This rule allows to promply execute limited counterattack and end a battle prematurely that would normally last much longer for no reason.

If defender does not believe he can hold, defender should actually start retreating and moving units in the off-map area. If majority of positions are abandoned and attacker went somewhat deeply, defender should inform attacker that this i sit and attacker gets 4 turns to spread and secure some flags.

Trucks – their evacuation offmap after they dropped cargo is lenghly, lots-of-clicks process. However, the trucks of attacking side should not be engaged by the defender if they dropped cargo and went full spead backwards towards friendly lines. Such trucks should face backwards to the enemy, indicating they are no longer advancing, while trucks that are in the attack should face forward (game does so automatically, following the direction of movement). Generally, those trucks should behave like they are clearly not in the fight. Trucks that moved backwards are considered retreated and they do not have to be moved off-map. Defender should avoid hitting them on purpose, but if trucks are parked close to eg. artillery position – well, bad luck. Obviously, attacker should not conceal units this way. Pure reason for that rule is to save the attackers time on evacuating eg. ~100 unarmed vehicles after they ferried the troops and making sure they left the map.
If the attacker wishes to ferry troops in waves and trucks will be back, he should inform the defender that trucks are still in play.

Note the above rules demand some fair-play and some respect for other persons time, particularly if that other person is just moving 400 units around. We are all mature people – stick to it please!

8) LOGISTICS
Logistics are super simplified. Troops should not be cut off from friendly roads in order to be supplied. If they are cut off:
a) For the first day nothing happens, the reserve is used;
b) For the second day they cannot initiate battles and move only half of the speed, rounded up;
c) Third day onwards they are stuck in place and immobile. If attacked, any result greater than a draw causes them to surrender;

9) AERIAL COMBAT
Each side is provided with their own number of Air Sorties. These remain undisclosed to the other side.
Sorties are listed in each side's passworded forums and if assigned, they must be used in given configuration.

While declaring a battle, Air Sorties can be called in. In a single battle no greater amount than 20 air sorties (40 aircraft total) can be brought for support. Sorties can be mixed. For example, if Axis has general support of eg. 20 Stukas, 20 Messerschmitts and 30 FW-190 for support (what would BTW amount to 35 Air sorties total), they can call in as support eg. 6x Stukas Sorties (12 aircraft), 10x Messerschmitts Sorties (20 aircraft) and eg. 3x FW-190 sorties (6 aircraft). This amounts to 22 sorties total - as you can see, in this example sorties are overloaded by 2 of them, so most likely Axis will have to cut down eg. on 4 Messerschmitt aircraft to bring sorties to max of 20 (or 40 aircraft).

Each Sortie can daily participate in just one battle. So they can either be concentrated or spread.
If an aircraft has been shot down, it is written off the Sorties list.

Sortie can be shot down in two ways.
a) First, simply in SPWW2 battle. If sortie was damaged here, it is considered repaired next day unless Game Master says otherwise (eg. damage was super severe)
b) Second, AA formations, including heavy Flaks, normally in SPWW2 serving as AT weapons, can be deployed on operational map. In such case, they provide aerial cover for the hex they are in and each adjacent hex. You need at least a calibre of 20mm to do this though. AAMGs can only be deployed into battle.

When sortie is supporting a battle where enemy has deployed AA cover, we are testing it before the battle deployment. Since we are playing on simplified rules, I will keep liberty of sorting such AA fire, but I will compare the number of AA fires, aircraft and current weather. AA cover will most likely score some randomized shotdowns, but most importantly, Air Sorties might not make it through AA cover and decide to return to base, leaving the calling side without aerial cover in this battle. This will usually happen if enemy fire will be severe and losses mounting.

AAs deployed for off-battle interdictions cannot participate in the battle.

There is no air-to-air combat. Air-to-air is simulated by reduced number of aircraft involved on the both sides.

10) CAMPAIGN END
Campaign ends when pretty much either the time is finished, one side is clearly victorious or general weariness cause players to stop playing and campaign no longer can continue.
In this last occurence – no winner is declared, unless one side effectively surrenders.
- Axis is considered totally victorious if they (somehow) capture both passes (Vulkan and Turnu Rosu) and when they of course hold at least Turda, but also preferably Targu Mures (Game Master will dispute this);
- Axis is considered decisively victorious, if they hold both Turda and Targu Mures;
- Axis is considered majorly victorious, if they hold Turda;
- Axis is considered minorly victorious, if they only hold Cluj;
Allies victory is assured only if they control pretty much entire map – both passes, Turda and Targu Mures as key towns and also the Cluj itself.

In any instance, objective is not considered held, if unit holding it is effectively surrounded and enemy is pushing deep in its rear, except of Cluj.

IF ANY OF THE ABOVE IS UNCLEAR OR MAKES ANYONE UNSURE, PLEASE ASK IN THIS THREAD, I WILL RESPOND, PREFERABLY WITH GRAPHICAL VISUALISATIONS!

PLAYERS ARE ALL ASKED TO ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THEY READ AND UNDERSTAND THE RULES

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