Operation Konrad - The End

[OnePingOnly]

The final battle of Round 6 is now complete.
End of Round 6 map state is shown below.

The Soviets (@Aurelius and @jackal ) repelled German attacks at Osi (@Guardsman ) and Balatonfokajar (@KingOnyx ) ...again.
@dkchapuis narrowly defeated @Gorst to advance once again to Csakvar.
@Brille won a meeting engagement against @Monty's Mighty Moustache to secure Dorog, which had been eluding him.
@Bleskaceq captured Csepel Island from @Cargol 's beleaguered Budapest garrison.

In the end, none of this mattered as much as @Drifter Man defeating @Spoogles ' counterattack in the Buda Hills. With this victory, the Germans can use the once-per-campaign ability to advance and capture the jumping-off point for the Soviet counterattack. Capturing Budakeszi relieves Budapest and wins the campaign for the Germans.


Campaign end state - looking in shape not unlike a map of the actual Konrad operation - just getting further than historical:



Congratulations to the German team, and I will single out @Drifter Man 's leadership of the German team and his great understanding of what was necessary for victory in both his battles and the overall campaign. For the Germans, I also applaud @Cargol for holding out long enough in Budapest for the campaign win. His was a demoralizing position - always on the defensive, odds always against him - a bit like the real thing. He has my respect for seeing it through despite the inherent frustration of the role he had to play.

A HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who signed up and participated. We started this in April 2023, so it has taken over 2 years to fight 6 battles of 30-45 minutes' duration. That is a huge commitment from this group. You guys persevered through an untested campaign system, rule changes, rule confusion, slow play by some opponents, real life interventions, and even the GM being away for ~6months. To complete it at all is well deserving of ribbons, regardless of which side you were on. I have appreciated all the DAR/AAR's, and the time taken to do them.

Final stats are shown below. The Campaign Total row is...amazing.

• Over 22,000 men were in combat, with around 10,000 casualties on both sides.
• Casualty rates were similar, but in general the Germans did not inflict the disproportionate % of casualties that would be needed to dominate.
• Tank losses were similar, but the Germans suffered far more AFV losses (most SPWs), which makes sense as these were the backbone of many of the German formations and they were often on the attack.
• The Attacker won 50% of the time. Note that for Meeting Engagements, this was typically the team with a 10% bonus, which suggests that the 10% bonus was needed, but not game-breaking.
• However, Attackers won 60% of the 45 minute battles, but only 43% of the 30 minute battles, which may indicate that that 45 minutes is too long and the best solve is 30 minute battles with appropriately-sized maps.
• @Drifter Man and @Aurelius each won 5 of 6 matches, followed by @dkchapuis , @Brille , @Gorst and @Bleskaceq with 4 each. (I hope I am counting right ).

Big thanks to @Rico for the map and the counters! This made a lot of difference in setting the theme and providing visual clarity.

I'll tee up some specific topics for feedback in the interest of improving future campaigns, although much has been said the last 2 years which I have taken to heart in my planning for the next outing.
Key regrets:
1) My absence last year
2) Maps that were much too large for 30 minutes, leading to me changing the duration to 45, then back again. And randomly setting one of the Budapest battles to 45 minutes at odds with all the others (wtf? in retrospect).
3) Some maps and their starting zones and objectives placement just sucked - especially for particular matchups. The Round 6 Dorog and Osi maps and the Round 1 Tolna map come to mind.

Thanks again to everyone. I hope you enjoyed it (mostly )!

Time to work on some ribbons!

@Shady Side

 

[Aurelius]

It was a great campaign, I am glad I was part of it. Congratulations to the opposing team. To my team I can only say that I hope that the military tribunal will send us to penal battalions...

Overall, I destroyed 2 armored battalions, one mechanized and two infantry battalions. Lost two infantry battalions. I am quite pleased with that.

 

[Rico]

Congrats to everyone to seeing this through -- an epic marathon of a campaign! Well done!

 

[Monty's Mighty Moustache]

Enjoyed this one, learnt a lot about fighting as the Soviets and enjoyed the variety of the maps.

I think we need to give a HUGE shout out to @OnePingOnly for the gargantuan effort that it took to set this campaign up and keep everything on track, bad back and all. Well done and thank you.