AAR: Iron Cross, Germans vs Romanians

Here are a few pics and some narrative of a recent game of Iron Cross that Stu McCorquodale and I played; Stu had a nicely painted army from his (Great Escape Games) range of Romanians versus my Germans. If you are familiar with Iron Cross and wondered about the deployment and some of the action, we were trying out some new rules and a new scenario.  Great fun!

The table was 8 feet wide by 6 feet across, so we set up on opposite sides of the table. The scenario was 415 points per side, which were deployed in two stages: a recon force and then reinforcements, which came onto the table in turn 4. The Germans (me) started with:

• HQ plus 4 units of infantry
• 2 x HMGs
• 2 x SdKfz 222

From memory, Stuart started with the following deployed as his recon force:

• HQ plus 4 units of infantry
• HMG
• Mortar
• 2 x anti-tank rifles

The scenario we were playing did not have defined deployment zones: we each rolled a d6 to see where our recon force entered the table edge. Germans deployed to the left and the Romanians in the centre, though both forces made a beeline for the high ground on the German left flank, which also had plenty of tree cover obscuring line of sight, and the hard cover on the edge of the farmyard in the centre.

Germans deploying onto the left flank.

View of the battlefield from the Germans' right flank, facing towards the Romanians.

Romanian infantry advancing in toward the centre of the battlefield.

The first couple of turns were taken up with rapid moves forward (lots of platoon moves) to get into a good fighting position. Aiming to exploit their greater mobility in turn 3, the Germans quickly pushed forward into the central compound with one of the 222's and immediately had a hole punched through the side armour by a well-aimed shot from one of the Romanian AT rifles. First blood to the Romanians!

Smouldering SdKfz222 with the two German HMGs moving up to the wall as quickly as possible to establish a killing zone in the farmyard.

Infantry from both armies advanced to the base of the hill and then paused to await armoured support.

Romanian infantry and several support weapons moving up to the base of the hill.

In turn 4, the reinforcements for both sides entered the battlefield. On the German side were a Panther and two StuG IV's; the Romanians were heavily reinforced by three more infantry platoons and six AFVs: three R1s, two R2s and one T3. By choosing lots of low cost units, Căpitan McCorquodale-escu maxed out on his command tokens compared to the points-heavy AFVs selected by SS-Gruppenführer von Morton. At the start of turn 4, Stuart had 20 command tokens versus my 12; I needed to start killing some of his troops to whittle down his numerical advantage. No problem, I thought: I've got a Panther!

One StuG and the Panther deploy on the centre-right; second StuG is positioned towards the top of the photo on the centre-left.

The big engine of the Panther revs up and causes some consternation among the Romanian lines.

The Romanians deployed all of their reinforcements from the centre of the battlefield too and then fanned out onto the two flanks; the two R2s screening the T3 as they advanced towards the two heavier German tanks. The balance of the Romanians headed towards the edge of the farmyard and the large hill.

In turn 5, the Germans started to cautiously advance up the hill in sufficient number to discourage the Romanians from attacking too early without sufficient support.

Second 222 moving towards the centre of the battlefield to reinforce the two HMGs, one of which had been taking heavy fire from the Romanian machine gun.

One HMG forced to fall back to save it from getting wiped out too quickly; it then skipped over the wall to the right.

German HMG in a new position putting down a lot of fire across the centre of the battleground wiping out one of the Romanian infantry platoons as it incautiously advanced.

Down the barrel of the Panther to the three Romanian tanks in the far distance.

The Romanians had the initiative and pushed forward with one of the R2s firing at the StuG as it went. The German commander confidently eyed the approaching tank, waiting for the right moment to fire back. Unfortunately, the foolhardy tank commander never got the opportunity as the R2 scored a direct hit on the ammunition magazine blowing the StuG apart.

StuG in ambush position.

The brewed-up StuG on the German right flank.

As the tanks traded shots at long distance, the Romanian infantry charged forward. The T3 moved up with some infantry in support and the surviving R2 broke off towards the farmyard to add more weight to the central push from the Romanians

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Romanian T3 in the foreground with the R2 heading through the farmyard.

The R2 and the second SdKfz222 trade shots across the farmyard, but the R2 makes short work of the 222.

I think the photos below came from turn 6 and show Stuart's Romanians massing in the centre, but moving towards the hill. I had two German infantry platoons on the reverse slope of the hill and towards the end of the turn, when Stuart had spent a lot of his tokens on restoring company morale, I moved one unit to the top of the hill and fired down-slope inflicting some damage on his HMG. I re-activated the same unit, poured more into the HMG and destroyed it, then retreated back down the slope into cover. I repeated the same manoeuvre with the second unit: move and shoot, shoot and retreat. This put a dent in the Romanians' aspirations to claim the high ground for themselves.

The second StuG has moved in support of the infantry on the hill, who were leapfrogging up and down the hill in the vanguard of the attack. One of the HMGs has fallen back, after taking significant fire (recovered a few morale tokens!) and then set up to cover the crest of the hill in anticipation of the Romanian counter-attack.

A few burning vehicles and light skirmishing across the farmyard, whilst the weight of both armies manoeuvre into better attacking positions and spend a significant quantity of Command Tokens restoring morale.

The Panther deals with the T3 to secure the German right flank.

Căpitan McCorquodale-escu gives the order for a massed infantry attack with some limited tank support. As the forlorn soldaten cross the farmyard, the Germans open up with everything they have and cause the Romanian attack to stall, causing heavy casualties in the process. The Romanians have no choice but to retreat; they only caused some light injuries to the landsers. Some cigarettes are smoked to calm the nerves!

Later into the battle, when all of the Romanian reserves have made it to the front line, they make a concerted push towards the summit.

The surviving StuG moves onto the far left German flank to stop the progress of the platoon of R1s. 

The R1s are only equipped with machine guns, so they cannot do any damage to the StuG, so what could possibly go wrong? 

A squad of Romanian tank hunters crawl through the undergrowth and fire a panzerfaust straight through the schurzen and into the crew compartment. Damaged, but still capable of fighting on, the AFV commander slams his vehicle into reverse and falls back, hoping to get out of range of the hand-held AT weapons.

Unfortunately, there is still a unit equipped with an anti-tank rifle, which fires and hits the StuG! The German left flank starts to collapse, allowing the infantry and R1s to outflank the defenders on the hill, who now get caught in a cross-fire.

The Romanian strength on the hill is too much for the Germans, who start taking significant casualties.

The Romanians press the attack over the top of the hill.

Germans on the reverse slope coming under fire.

Outflanked and outgunned, the Germans take heavy casualties.

Despite it being really close for a lot of the game (the initiative in the battle ebbed back and forth several times), the Romanians caused the German army to break. Losing four AFVs meant that the German side lost a lot of break points, even though the Germans had almost whittled away the Romanian numerical superiority towards the end, therefore the battle was lost.