AAR: Small game of Iron Cross - Italy 1944

My son and I have played a small game of Iron Cross today. It was a pleasure to get some toys out on the table and attempt to teach my 11-year old some tactics and the rules of the game. Iron Cross has really simple mechanics and not very many rules, which makes it easy to pick up quickly, but what it does allow for is permanent involvement from both players...something that is really important when playing against the video game generation!

The game we played was very loosely set in Italy on the basis that the terrain I have been working on over the last few months is all intended for the Mediterranean; the limiting factor making it "loosely based on reality" was that I haven't got full opposing armies for the region yet. 

Like most gamers, I'm not short of figures, but I haven't yet completed forces for this region yet. I have got opposing company-sized forces for North Africa (DAK versus 4th Infantry Division (India)); late war Germans (both Heer and SS) versus British for northern Europe; Romanians versus Hungarians (or Germans) for late war eastern Europe; plus several other single forces for various theatres. Therefore, the forces we fielded were some almost-appropriately dressed DAK versus some British in tropical uniforms. We had an HQ and three units of infantry each.  As the German player, I also had two Panthers and a Marder II; Tom had 5 Shermans. The points were inequal, but in his favour.

I won the opening roll to seize the initiative and deployed some infantry and one of the Panthers near to the road which ran across the centre of the table.

In turn 1, Tom pushed two of his Shermans, an infantry unit and his HQ aggressively up the main road. The Panther and leading Sherman traded shots, but both failed to hit during the first turn.

As soon as the leading Sherman started taking some more accurate fire from the now-stationary Panther, he wisely decided to veer off the main road and take cover the behind the trees and building which obscured the Panther's line of sight.

I think that photo below was from the third turn where Tom started advancing around my left flank with two more Shermans (quantity certainly has a quality all of its own!), and some infantry trailing behind in support.

Meanwhile, using the cover of the villa adjacent to the main road, I deployed my Marder II and started trading shots with the advancing Shermans, which slowed them down a little.

The view from the British right flank with (now) three Shermans advancing...

With the initiative again, Tom spent a few command tokens and targeted the opposing Panther.

Unfortunately, the Sherman scored a direct hit and destroyed the big cat! I thought that I was pretty safe with the Panther's front armour facing towards the enemy...clearly not.  Rolling two 10's was plenty to wipe my tank out.

Meanwhile, on the German right flank, I manoeuvred my second Panther around a small copse and fired whilst on the move at the isolated Sherman, scoring a direct hit and brewing it up. After being the first to lose some armour, I felt slightly better about taking out one of his tanks, which evened up the odds just a little. That's one of the problems with heavily armoured tanks with big guns - when you do lose one, it hurts a lot more than losing a more lightly armed, cheaper vehicle. 

Whilst I was quietly celebrating, Tom continued to advance in force against my left flank.

The Marder earned its pay for a couple of turns, placing repeated shots (even some penetrating hits) onto two of the Shermans, but with each hit it failed to completely destroy them. Tom then had to rally his troops and burn through several command tokens on Company Morale Tests.

The Marder could only stem the tide against a superior number of tanks for so long though and was eventually destroyed. 

It did hold up his advancing Shermans for about three turns though, which allowed me to re-position my remaining Panther into a more advantageous position in the centre of the battlefield for protecting my left flank. However, a previously badly-mauled Sherman, which had been hidden behind the building, taking cover and repairing its damaged turret (make up your own narrative here, if you like!), re-emerged from behind the building at the far end of the road and fired a broadside into the Panther, which punched straight through, killing the crew.

After losing all their armour, the Germans retreated, leaving the British to take and hold the Aprilia-Campoleone road. The photo below is from the German left/British right flank. A great game, even though I lost to my son again.