A Magyar Királyság újjászületése (Revival of the Kindom of Hungary) - a Hungarian AAR

[hobotnicajoe]

A Magyar Királyság újjászületése* - a Hungarian AAR

Historical Background

As a consequence of WW I, after the Treaty of Trianon, Hungary lost approximately 2/3 of its population and territory. For the vast majority of non-Hungarian nationalities the treaty was considered the end of Austro-Hungarian rule and a historical chance to form their own states by acquiring independence. But not for ethnic Hungarians: losing the Great War and the economical crisis caused general desperation and low morale both for those remained inside and the millions stuck outside the new borders.

After WW I an alliance was formed among Czechoslovakia, Romania and Yugoslavia, backed by France, to secure the new borders. Hungary's foreign policy drifted towards Italy and Germany.


Game settings:
Patch 1.3a, no mods, Normal level, Normal Aggression. The campaign starts in 1936.

Game goal:
The primary objective is to liberate the Hungarians living in the newly founded surrounding countries by getting back the provinces that have a significant amount of population of Hungarian nationality – these are more-or-less marked as “national provinces” in HOI2.
The secondary objective is to make Hungary a considerable power of Central-East Europe.
The third objective is to acquire a few ports on the Adriatic and/or Black Sea and build a small fleet.

Territorial claims: the primary objective

* "Revival of the Kindom of Hungary".
The title image was borrowed from http://www.feldgrau.com.

[SirCliveWolfe]

AH!!! the Magyar's are coming run for your lives!!

Nice start, any hope of a monarchist revival?

Look forward to many an update.

Sir Clive

[Funkatronica]

yea i look forward to following this

[Singleton Mosby]

Let loose Hungars

[Lurken]

Looking good! Hungery was somewhat my favorite nation in HoI, and in HoI2 it seems really fun.

[hobotnicajoe]

General game strategy:

Getting back territories using diplomacy seems pretty hopeless, so I will build a modern army and conquer. Building a modern army needs strong economy and advanced technologies. The first one will be achieved by building factories and focusing on industrial technologies in the first years. For the second, an advanced ally is needed to trade blueprints, since Hungary has only two research slots, and average research teams.

The shortage of resources means that I’ll have to trade a lot (especially for rare materials). I’ll use a big part of my IC to build supplies because they’re easy to trade.

Another problem is that military leaders are pretty lousy – a lot of Old Guards, few traits, and basically none having skills higher than 2. The plan is to involve them in as many smaller battles as possible, so they gain experience and improve their skills before they go into huge military actions.

The army consists of only 9 obsolete infantry divisions, a tactical bomber and an interceptor wing. This is significantly less than what the surrounding countries have. So, the army definitely needs improvement in both size and quality.

I can probably not get provinces of Yugoslavia and Romania in the first few years because of guarantees from France, Turkey, Greece, etc. I’ll turn my attention to these at a later stage - I don’t want to start WW II prematurely.

Regarding Czechoslovakia: it has some IC and resources and has guarantee only from Germany and Poland. If I join the Axis, Germany’s guarantee is eliminated (I hope ) and together we can hopefully conquer Czechoslovakia (and maybe Poland, too, if it joins the war to help the Czechs). I speculate on getting the national provinces in Slovakia early in the game.

[hobotnicajoe]

Thanks for the encouraging words!

I see that some of the AARs are abandoned after a few posts, I'll try to keep the thing alive.

/Quote SirCliveWolfe/:"Nice start, any hope of a monarchist revival?"
We'll see. It depends on how it goes...

[SirCliveWolfe]

Thanks for the encouraging words!

I see that some of the AARs are abandoned after a few posts, I'll try to keep the thing alive.

/Quote SirCliveWolfe/:"Nice start, any hope of a monarchist revival?"
We'll see. It depends on how it goes...

Well it better... GRRRRR!!

Nice to see someone with a struggle on their hands, good luck.

[Jape]

Im gonna be following this one, glory to the magyar!

[Funkatronica]

any idea how you'll grab slovakia?
i thought it was germanys decision when they get it in march 39

[hobotnicajoe]

1936

The first thing was to focus on IC: I moved +1 towards Central Planning, and started factory buildings in Budapest, Pécs and Győr. Why here? Because these provinces are the easiest to defend from most directions danger may come.

I set up trade routes to Italy, Germany for energy and to Siam, Argentina, Afghanistan and other Central/South American states for rare materials.

The Hungarian goverment in 1936

On 2nd January, as soon as I reached $11 I joined the Axis. Now, having had Germany, I turned towards Czechoslovakia. It was winter, not helping military operations, but I guessed it’s better to DOW now - I didn’t plan to invest in military in short term, so our inferiority would have been just bigger.


War on Czechoslovakia: The Plan

Since I decided to DOW Czechoslovakia, I had to make sure that I don’t get overrun before the Germans push them from the west. The Hungarian Royal Army consisted of 3 corps, each having 3 infantry ’18 divisions and a single air squadron:



There are 4 provinces neighboring Czechoslovakia, impossible to defend them all. Miskolc seems the most vulnerable because it is adjacent to 3 enemy provinces (on top of this - the terrain is plains and there is no river to the north). The Danube seemed to be a good defense line, so I decided to pull back to the Győr-Budapest-Szeged line and let the Czechs conquer Miskolc and Debrecen. There is no natural obstacle on the north of Szeged, but it’s relatively easy to retreat to Pécs if things go wrong. So, why giving it up?

After this it’s just waiting for the right moment, for the Germans to advance from the west and north, and then counter-attack when the Czechs are weak enough.

In the meanwhile the air force would strike the enemy when the weather allows it.

The defense against Czechoslovakia

[hobotnicajoe]

any idea how you'll grab slovakia?
i thought it was germanys decision when they get it in march 39

Yeah, by a peace treaty or when Germany annexes CZE after our joint attack (AFAIK, in the latter case all HUN's national provinces in CZE will go to HUN and not GER - regardless of who actually occupied it).

[SirCliveWolfe]

Yeah, by a peace treaty or when Germany annexes CZE after our joint attack (AFAIK, in the latter case all HUN's national provinces in CZE will go to HUN and not GER - regardless of who actually occupied it).

What a down right disgusting and dasdardly plan.... I like it

Your style makes you an honnarary English man sir... it's just a shame you can't bribe any CZE's to come over to your side.

[Funkatronica]

best of luck against the plucky czechs

[hobotnicajoe]

War with Czechoslovakia

The same day Hungary joined the Axis, on 2nd January 1936, I DOWed Czechoslovakia. Germany did the same. Unfortunately, Poland activated their guarantee of independence and DOWed the Axis. Luckily, the Western Democracies did not act - it was Germany-Hungary vs. Poland-Czechoslovakia.

As anticipated, the Czechs poured into Hungary, occupying Miskolc and Debrecen immediately. Both cities were lost on the 11th of January. But the defense built up in Győr-Budapest-Szeged seemed solid, so far. In the meanwhile, in the west, the Germans were ready for their offensive.

Czech advance in Hungary - 11st January, 1936

By the middle of January, Germany liberated Danzig and occupied Prague. The Czech capital was moved to Pozsony (Bratislava). In Hungary, Szombathelyi’s 1st Infantry Corps repelled multiple attacks on Szeged. Now, it was time for the Hungarian counter-attack…

Jány’s 3rd Infantry Corps launched an attack on the poorly defended capital, Pozsony (Bratislava), with support from Bajnóczy’s 2nd Infantry Corps from Budapest. Pozsony was liberated on the 21st January. Huge piles of resources of fell into the hands of the Hungarians.

A few days later Szombathelyi’s 1st Infantry Corps attacked Czech forces Miskolc. With the support of Bajnóczy from Budapest, Miskolc was liberated on the 24th January.

Hungarian counter attack - 24th January, 1936

On 25th January the Czechs suddenly offered peace. Their offer was extremely generous: Pozsony (Bratislava), Besztercebánya (Banska Bystrica), Kassa (Kosice) and Kárpátalja (Presov) to Hungary, and Liberec and Usti to Germany. It seems it was more a Czech than a Slovak delegation . I accepted the offer: Felvidék* had been returned to the Kingdom of Hungary. The war with Czechoslovakia had ended, attention was turned towards the battlefields of Poland...

The Czech peace offer - 25th January, 1936

Hungary after the peace offer - 25th January, 1936

*: "Felvidék" is the Hungarian name for the southern part of Slovakia

[hobotnicajoe]

What a down right disgusting and dasdardly plan.... I like it

Your style makes you an honnarary English man sir... it's just a shame you can't bribe any CZE's to come over to your side.

I admit that it's a very nasty plan, lacking back-bone . Dragging the Germans into a war and waiting for them to do the dirty job, then take the benefits - yucks! Sounds like politics in real life . I hope I won't end up like Mussolini

But I promise I'll make it up to the Germans by helping them in their campaigns

@Funkatronica: thanks!

[lifeless]

onward hungary! to poland!

[Hyzhenhok]

May Hungary rise again! Yeehaw!

Now the Poles shall regret trying to deny Hungary's rightful claims to Slovakia...

[Akaki]

Nah, you should know, that there was a serious dilema within Polish diplomacy - friendship with Romania or friendship with Hungary? We wanted both ^^.

And also: after Germans invided Poland, Hungary refused Wermaht military acces through it's territory (they wanted to attack Poland from the south to the north-east, cutting off any connection with Romania... Also, they helped any, many Polish imigrants.

And a little curio - did you knew, that there was a tiny, tiny small chance to create a triple monarchy Austro-Hungary-Poland in the XIX/XX century? But Budapest was afraid that it would decrese it's position within the monarchy... ^^.

Ok, that's all. Keep up the good work!

[hobotnicajoe]

Nah, you should know, that there was a serious dilema within Polish diplomacy - friendship with Romania or friendship with Hungary? We wanted both ^^.

And also: after Germans invided Poland, Hungary refused Wermaht military acces through it's territory (they wanted to attack Poland from the south to the north-east, cutting off any connection with Romania... Also, they helped any, many Polish imigrants.

And a little curio - did you knew, that there was a tiny, tiny small chance to create a triple monarchy Austro-Hungary-Poland in the XIX/XX century? But Budapest was afraid that it would decrese it's position within the monarchy... ^^.

Ok, that's all. Keep up the good work!

Yes, I know that Hungary was actually against the invasion of Poland. I remember from history lessons that Hungary actually accepted a lot of refugees from Poland in 1939. This good relationship is simulated in the game: HUN and POL have pretty good relations by default.

And for whatever historical reason, I know, that the Polish people were always regarded as friends in Hungary. Hungarians even have this motive in their folklore (stories, songs, sayings, etc.).