The Second World War, Iron Cross, 10mm

It’s been a while. Damn you, Christmas and New Year, for your enforced jollity and closed venues – like the hall we game in! This week though, we were back, or at least Sean and I were. The plan was to try out two rules sets for this scale and period, to see which we enjoyed the most. We began with Iron Cross, a fun set from Great Escape Games. We’ve played it before, but not for a while – hence this East Front clash, set in the summer of 1943. The aim of the game – if there was one – was for the Germans to establish a bridgehead over the Vorskla River, which was crossable at two fords near Borisovka. the main Soviet aim was to contain the incursion, and protect the Belgorod to Poltava railway line. Sean took the Germans, while I commanded the Soviets – both with a tank-heavy force, mainly made up of T-34s or PzIVHs, backed up by infantry. essentially then, this was to be a tank-fest! Sean began by deploying his company of Marders behind the river, facing the centre of the table, while his tanks headed for the ford, one group heading towards each of the two fords. I stuck my T-34s in an arc facing the two enemy prongs. By the way, these red ‘tiddly-wink’ counters represent ‘actions’ taken. A stand can do more than one action, but it gets harder to activate the more you use, or if you get ‘morale hits’ (the mini dice). Ugly but effective. The Germans were operating from the north long side of the table, with the Soviets to the south. I hadn’t been able to deploy far enough to cover the eastern ford, so Sean managed to get across there, without any real opposition. On the western ford though, the T-34s in the central wood had a great line of fire – and made good use of it, shooting up the Marders, and then taking on the PzIVHs as they began crossing the ford. Of course, this battle went both ways. His tanks were every bit as good – in fact slightly better, and while I was in the cover of the wood, it was really down to the luck of a well-rolled D10. Iron Cross is all about resource management – husbanding those chits – you get one per stand, plus an extra one, and can allocate the total – around 17 chits – however you want. So some tanks did a lot, and others not so much. In the first few turns I lost three T-34’s, two in the west, one in the east, while Sean lost his two Marders and two panzers.  I moved up infantry into a farm behind the central wood, and into the wood itself, which should have given me a morale advantage, if I hadn’t lost the one tank facing the eastern ford. For some reason his two tanks there were now completely free of opponents, so one started shooting at other targets, while the other shot up the farm. Over by the western ford though, it was all happening. I’d grouped my three shitty little t-70’s into one unit, and charged out of the western wood, by the other farm, and actually brewed up a Panzer IV and damaged another before my two leading light tanks were destroyed. Sensibly, the third slinked back into the cover of the woods. However, their sacrifice for the motherland had been worth it, as all the Pz IV’s by the western ford had been knocked out. The pair of Marder IIIs covering that side of the table should have dealt with them, but they’d already been knocked out by long-range fire from T-34’s near the railway line. By now it was clear that both sides were running out of tanks, and were reaching their force break points. The rules have a math-heavy  system for working that out, but we  said when you lose eight stands your side retires. We were both getting fairly close to that.  Over by the eastern ford, I’d lost an infantry unit to a German panzer’s firepower (above). I still had infantry in the village and the nearby wood, but we didn’t have any anti-tank weapons – other than satchel charges. I was seriously thinking about using them when the German tank was ‘taken out’ by a heroic T-34, which had made four activations, and fired two shots to pull it off. By this stage that was most of a whole turn’s tokens.With the fields around the eastern ford covered in burning tanks, all I had left in that area were two T-34s – the one that began the game in the central wood – another in a farm, and that last T-70. For some reason though, Sean’s infantry had stayed on their side of the river. So, there wasn’t anything left for me to fight. That shot at the panzer shooting up the western farm was part of my move from one side of the table to the other.The Germans though, weren’t having any of it. Sean brewed up the T-34 in the farm, as it began moving out, and effectively that was that. I’d reached eight stands lost, and Sean had seven. So, it was the Soviets who conceded the game, and pulled back to the south, while the Germans held their bridgehead over the Vorskla. The game was fast and fun, but at times it felt a bit like it was more about mechanics of the activation system, and the luck of the dice.

Tags: Iron Cross