Bagration Axis Allies – Hungry for Hungarians, the Command Cards

This article will look at the new units and formations the cards offer the Hungarians, as well as any cards that pip my interest.  The generic cards such as lucky are not mentioned (but are still there).

This is the second part of my delve into the the Late War Hungarian force.  If you missed part 1, check it out here.

Allies for everyone

Up until now, allied units and formations had been the preserve of the US & Brits in Late War.  Well, be lonely no more; while a Hungarian force may take a German Black Box unit as support or a German formation, you can now do it in reverse thanks to this lovely card.  Fancy some Zrinyis in your German Force?  Well now you can.

New Formations and Units

Pioneers

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While the Pioneer rules are pretty standard across all forces the ability to take a Flamethrower is rather tasty.  Mixed in with a platoon of ten stands of confident/cautious infantry with a ‘faust plus a panzerskrek and you have a very capable unit.

The Assault Pioneers are basically the same but get Veteran ratings.  Again this makes them better on the attack with a nasty 3+ in assaults.

Motorized Rifle Company

Compared to the Rifle Company you lose the 3+ last stand and gain a 3+ follow me.  This makes them a little more aggressive and able to move up the table quickly.  The make up of the formation also changes slightly.  The 40mm gun option is gone along with the 120mm mortars and Huszar troop.  Instead you gain a Nimrod AA option.

I think this really depends on your play style.  For me the basic Rifle Company is more flexible, but its a nice option to have.

Border Forces

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The Border Guard platoon is pretty interesting.  You can put them into your normal Rifle Company, where they provide the Flamethrower option of the pioneers, but without the associated cost of the card plus the option for a 20mm AT team.  Losing the Panzerfaust is a big loss but I think swapping one platoon out may be an option.  It will also be useful as formation support to a tank company which already has lots of AT.

The company option is of course a lot more limited in options than the Rifle Company but very thematic.

Here comes the Cavalry

I think a lot of people were surprised that this wasn’t in the main book, the Huszars are very iconic for the Hungarians.  Now we can field a whole formation of them.  This force will do great in attack and maneuver with their awesome dash speeds.  Turn 2 you should be getting stuck into assault.  Preferably under the cover of smoke. 

Artillery

The Command Cards come with a few different gun options giving the Hungarians an incredible range of firepower.

75mm guns – An upgrade to the 100mm guns where you drop direct fire to AT5 but gain a veteran rating and also the ability to move!  Also not brutal anymore.

75mm Mountain Battery – As above but not veteran.

149mm Artillery Battery – Another upgrade to the 100m battery.  Gain auto firepower for direct fire, drop to a AT2 bombardment and lose your smoke bombardment option.  Given the upgrade cost I just don’t get this card.  I do wonder if it was meant to be a FP 2+ on the card as its 149mm and its a typo?

Volunteer Rifles

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This could be a really cheap formation to get into your force; 6pts for 10 rifle/mg teams is not to be sniffed at.  You can field 20 stands and HQ for 14pts!  It will make a nice blocking force and screen your armoured formation.  Support is very limited and its a shame their is no integral mortars, but the Heavy AA could be useful.  Also worth noting you can swap out the units in your Rifle Company for this and therefore keep all the nice options that come with that force (82mm and 120 mm mortars!).

Zrinyi Fun

As a fan of the Zrinyi Formation I love this card.  The loss of the 3+ last stand doesnt bother me; the unit has 10 stands of infantry after all.  Veteran is very nice and the upgrade cost is minimal and fair.  This will also add some staying power to the formation morale of the assault gun company.

Another great card for my Zrinyi force.  If you are not taking the Hetzer or Stug formation then you may want a little more AT and FP for those pesky tank on tank engagements.  This allows just that.  I quite like it for the HQ, I don’t really want to drop my bombardment on one of my platoons to re-roll hits.

Scouts

Another new company with some different mandatory units and armoured cars as core.  It comes with a hefty cost for the formation which I do not understand.  This will likely mean it isn’t seen on the table very often, which is a shame.

Fresh Divs

Another good card if you want quantity over quality.  Not a massive discount and not as generous as the Volunteer Rifle platoon, however it affects all units in the formation so overall, likely to be a bigger saving.  Not sure I want Green Mortars though. 

Paras

Last, but not least, for new units is the Paras.

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These are the elites of the Hungarian forces with the stats to match.  There are also cards for the other units.  

I must admit 4pt per rifle platoon surprises me.  We already know we can get a veteran upgrade to a rifle company (and gain Huszar) for minimal points for the Assault Artillery Rifle Platoon, therefore this is charging a lot to upgrade to fearless.  However in fairness its a similar point cost to other FV units such as US paras or Fallschirmjager.

Heroes

The Hungarians get a very generous six hero choices.

Josef Barankay – Zrinyi HQ that gives 2+ remount to formation units within 8 inches.

Sandor Hanak – Also a Zrinyi commander and improves the counter attack of the formation.

Barnabas Koszeghy – Stug HQ which remounts on a 2+ and may re-roll a dice to hit.

Erno Billnitzer – Another Zrinyi commander and gives a 2+ last stand, rally and remount to units within 8 inches.  

Janos Bozsoki – Gives 2+ tactics to units within 6 inches.

Conclusion

Considering this is a minor nation (and there are two other nations in the card pack) that’s quite a lot of stuff.  It provides some new options and expands out the infantry choices.  The volunteer rifles are very cheap and certainly has my interest.  I think Hungarians are going to be a solid reliable addition to the tabletop.