Hungarian independence starts at Pákozd (1848)

For an 18-month conflict that mobilized over half a million combatants, the Hungarian War of Independence of 1848-1849 is not very well known in the Anglophone wargaming community. I have been accumulating books about it for years but had never quite got round to putting armies on a tabletop. But a few months ago the bug finally bit, and I started serious reading and researching, which developed into full-blown obsession. The creative juices are flowing, scenarios are being written, and now  the campaign has begun: at last I have played my first game from the szabadságharc.

It was a good one, too. Really obscure – just the kind of esoterica we like – and with some wacky incidents to make it colourful and different. The scenario in question was one I wrote for the first significant battle of the war: Pákozd.

Kempen's Croat Grenzers (in incorrect white coats, but beautifully painted) 

confront Hungarian honvéds and national guards

The situation was that the Austrian Emperor Ferdinand I, not daring to directly suppress the peaceful Hungarian revolution, tipped the wink to his vassal Josip Jellačić, the Bán of Croatia, to march into Budapest and do the suppressing for him. An invading army of 50,000 Croats looted its way into Hungary. After a couple of weeks, their 35,000-strong main body was confronted by half its number of annoyed Hungarians. It was a very confused situation in which the Hungarians especially were desperately seeking a peaceful resolution, diplomatic envoys were flying around everywhere, and loyalties and authority became very fuzzy. Jellačić finally ordered his army to advance and attack the Hungarian army blocking his way – but he himself was detained in a negotiation with the Hungarian prime minister in person, Count Batthyány, so he sent his chief of staff ahead to do a (not very good) job of commanding on the field. By the time Jellačić arrived, his troops were already half-beaten, and some were hunting sheep and firing so wildly that one of Jellačić's escort was wounded and messengers could not get to him. Effective Hungarian artillery fire and determined Hungarian bayonet charges were too much for the Croats, who were almost all second-line troops or militia. Jellačić and his routed army had to straggle to Vienna, leaving an isolated division to surrender ignominiously.

Our game was every bit as entertaining as the history. Dave and I played the Croats, as I share his penchant for commanding rubbish armies. Mark J took the Hungarians, joined later by Jim in time to indulge his love of bayonet charges.

Dave’s plan was that we should reinforce Kempen’s division on our left and bid to capture the Objective at Lovasberény. This became my task, while Dave with the remainder of Schmidl’s division would just hold Pákozd itself.

Despite being Passive and commanderless, my force moved out reasonably briskly and was soon massing in front of the first Hungarian defensive position. We bogged down in a firefight, but when the Hungarian unit under most pressure ran low on ammo, Mark got anxious and to support them, advanced his reserve unit from behind the safety of a protective stream into the open, exposing it to my attack and also leaving its artillery to guard an open flank alone. This cost him on both counts, as even my poorly motivated rabble were able to overrun the few Hungarian national guards, then swarm through the gap and outflank both his artillery and his remaining defenders on their hill.

Seeing that the only way out was forwards, Mark's men charged off the hill. At the same time, both his cavalry regiments galloped over from the Hungarian left to rescue the right. A random events roll dictated that one of my Grenz Landwehr regiments chose that moment to disperse and hunt sheep rather than fight miffed Magyars. The cavalry were destroyed but took with them twice their number of Austrian cuirassiers and Grenzers. Meanwhile Jim's Hungarian left wing, which had been sitting passively around Sukoró, surged forward and drove Dave's Grenzers out of Pákozd.

With the Hungarians now holding all three objective villages, even though the Croats had carried out more successful charges (which earned us a victory point) the Hungarians were in a winning position. That changed, though, as my armed mob overwhelmed the remainder of the Hungarian right and marched down the now open road to take Lovasberény; but even with the arrival of Hartlieb's advance guard, Dave could not retake Pákozd.

On the last turn of the game, then, we were now ahead by a nose, since we had won one more charge than the Magyars, thus the VPs were tied which meant a Croat win. The Hungarians needed to conduct one successful charge to erase our advantage and make it a draw, or two to turn the tables for a Hungarian victory. They managed to throw in attacks against two of our units. Of course, one succeeded, the other failed - a draw! A perfect edge-of-the-seat finish, and the perfect honours-even result.

The scenario is in the files of the BBB Yahoo group , and in Flickr along with a few photos.

A glorious draw makes my score for 2016:

Played: 23
Won: 10
Drawn: 4
Lost: 8