Nights of Fire: Battle for Budapest

Nights of Fire: Battle for Budapest covers the fighting in Budapest between Hungarian insurgents and Soviet troops from 4 to 7 November 1956 during Operation Whirlwind.

Nights of Fire: Battle for Budapest is the second game in the duology adapting the events of  the 1956 Hungarian Revolution into board game form. The first game – Days of  Ire: Budapest 1956 – dealt with the first week of  the conflict (23rd to 30th of  October) and the plight of the revolutionaries to get the Soviet occupation out of the city. This game deals with the second week of  the Revolution, the 4th to 7th of  November.

The game starts as the Red Army returns to the capital and pushes into the heart of  the city, bent on retribution, destruction, and ruthless pursuit of  control. For the players in charge of  the Hungarian defense there is no time left for organizing and sedition. This is a hopeless war of  survival, plain and simple.

The Revolutionaries have to try and save as much as they can, and to cause the Soviet side to lose Prestige by:

• Helping as many civilians to escape as possible.
  
• Delaying the onslaught of  the Soviet Regiments.
  
• Disabling the Soviet units as often as possible.
  

The Soviet side must concentrate on reducing the Morale of  the insurgency by:

• Arresting the civilians before they can escape.
  
• Eliminating the Hungarian insurgents.
  
• Placing occupying Garrisons throughout key locations of  the city.
  

The game ends when all Hungarian fighting units are eliminated or surrender, or when Morale reaches zero. At this time, if  the value of  the fled civilians is less than the remaining Soviet Prestige, then the Soviet victory is absolute, and the iron grip of  Moscow will be tighter than ever.

If, however, the Hungarians managed to save civilians totaling more value than the remaining Soviet Prestige, the Soviet’s military victory is hollow: the whole world has seen how a band of  lightly armed youngsters can hold back the greatest army in the world for days on end, and hundreds of  thousands of  refugees will tell the Western world of  the atrocities, causing severe loss of  face to the Soviet side – for gameplay purposes this counts as a Hungarian victory, even though military victory is literally impossible.

Contents:

• 1 game board
• 1 rulebook
• 83 cartes (57 x 89 mm)
• 30 wooden blocks (with stickers)
• 59 cardboard tokens
• 4 glass bead markers
• 1 six-sided die