In the late Summer of 1944, the Soviets were poised to invade the Balkans after having inflicted a crushing blow to the Wehrmacht at Belarus. On August 20, 1944, after a period of relative calm in that front, the Soviets opened up their offensive between the Black Sea and the Carpathians. Despite of German counterattacks and setbacks such as Debrecen, by Christmas Eve the Red Army was besieging Budapest, had joined hands with the Yugoslav Partisans, and had occupied Bulgaria and Romania. Balkans 1944 is a wargame simulation of the Soviet offensive across the Balkans of the late summer and fall of 1944. The Soviet-Yugoslav player must conquer as much territory as possible within a limited time frame, while the German-Hungarian-Croatian forces must try to delay the Soviet advance as much as possible. Each game turn represents 10 days. Each hexagon is 30 miles (50 kilometers) from side to opposite side. Units are corps, divisions, brigades or equivalents and some specialized smaller units.