AAR - Operation Barbarossa

After many months of not being able to game, Stuart and I managed to get in a big game of Iron Cross a couple of weeks ago; I have only just got around to writing it up because I've been spending lots of time out of the house making the most of not being in lockdown. All the miniatures and vehicles that I have been painting during lockdown got a good run-out onto the table. Here's a mostly pictorial after action report from the game we played, which was loosely set during the German invasion of the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa) in June 1941.

I had about 780 points of a German panzer division versus Stuart's Russians. He was defending a village, so started the game with all units dug in and hidden with approximately 350 points. We were trying out a new rule for units in ambush positions too, which seemed to work well, other than my tanks being on the receiving end - see the photos below for the full visual impact!  

Stuart has moved to new premises and has the space to set up some permanent (large!) gaming tables. The table we were playing on was 18 feet in length by 6 feet wide; the fully motorised Germans had to attack from one table edge and advance rapidly up the length of the table with the objective of securing three key buildings, which was the victory condition we agreed beforehand. The vehicles are mostly from Rubicon, with a few Warlord models, the buildings and trees are all from 4Ground and the miniatures are mostly from Great Escape Games.

My German force was constituted of the following armoured units:

• 3 x Panzer (35)t
• 6 x Panzer III including a sub-commander
• 2 x Panzer IV
• 2 x Panther

And some lorry transported infantry and support units:

• 1 x HQ
• 1 x heavy machine gun
• 1 x mortar
• 5 x infantry platoons

I'm not entirely sure what Stuart had on the table because (spoiler alert) he destroyed my force before I could expose much of it. He definitely had some T34s, a couple of AT guns and a couple of units of infantry. In hindsight, I would have benefited from some lighter recce units to scout ahead and locate his units, especially the dug-in/hidden tanks and anti-tank guns.  These hidden units, combined with the new ambush rule, made mincemeat of my tanks at long range. It was still lots of fun though!

This first photo shows the German panzers blindly advancing.

This shot is taken from the German deployment zone down the length of the table towards the Russian held village in the distance.

At the bottom of this photo, you can see the Panthers advancing along the road protecting the lorry-borne units. So far, there has been no sign of the Russians.

As the Germans reach the outskirts of the farm, the infantry round the corner and come face-to-face with a well-camouflaged T34...

...which immediately puts a round straight into the lorry causing heavy casualties.

At the same time, the Russian infantry open up from the cover of a wall.

Now that the action has started, more Russian units a bit further to the rear start to move up in support of their comrades on the front line.

One of the German infantry platoons rallies, along with some fire support from the Panther, and causes the Russians to fall back. The other German unit, heavily wounded, falls back into the safety of the woods (at the top of the picture).

Following the early action around the farmhouse, the main panzer force creeps inexorably toward the waiting enemy. A well dug-in T34 fires off a shot at the rearmost Panther on the road, but misses. The Panzer Ace in the Panther returns fire and punishes the Russians for their poor gunnery.

The number of casualties per side is slightly in the Russians favour at this point, but the menacing clanking of tracks, the look on the Commissars face is definitely one of worry!

The T34 in the open field behind the farmhouse is also destroyed by the Panther's big gun, though the (red) tide is about to turn.

Seeing the oily smoke in the distance, the German medium and light tanks push forwards quickly sensing a quick victory.

Great Escape Games makes some great casualty figures, which look great when strewn around destroyed tanks.

The German panzers push forward in haste, but now lose the cover that they had, which was obscuring the Russian's line of sight. The Panzer III at the junction is about to come to sticky end at the hands of Russian infantry with Molotov cocktails.

The second lorry full of infantry rushes forward and disembarks straight into vicious combat with the group of Soviets who had just assaulted the Panzer III.

The main Panzer force on the left flank is now bogged down in fighting against a couple of T34s, so the Panthers attempt to turn the Russian flank and push forward into the open field behind the farm buildings...straight into the sights of an anti-tank gun in ambush position.

Meanwhile on the German left flank, a pair of T34s in good positions make very short work of several Panzer IIIs and 35t's. Pretty soon the assault grinds to a halt amid dense clouds of black, oily smoke.

In a last ditch attempt to encircle the Soviet line, the Panther (at the top of the photo) drives over the top of the AT gun and fires into the rear of the T34. Unfortunately, it is too little, too late: the Germans have reached their break point and fall back.

I think that we played about 7 or 8 turns, but for most of that time the Germans were being ground down in a war of attrition with some well-placed Russian units, rather than continuing to advance. The new ambush rule that we played gave the outnumbered defender a new tactic, which made the placement of units, with overlapping fields of fire really effective in defending.

The ambush rule, for any other Iron Cross players who want to try it out, is:

• A unit which starts the game in a hidden position may declare, as long as it has not moved at all, that it is going to fire from an ambush position. None of the opposing player's units may interrupt an ambush. As soon as the ambushing unit has fired then it is revealed. An ambushing unit, which does not have the initiative, may attempt to interrupt the active player, but is revealed whether the interrupt attempt succeeds or fails.

After reading a lot of books about the Eastern Front during lockdown, it made me realise that the Russians were very successful in camouflaging their positions and setting ambushes against the advancing Axis forces. Even in the featureless steppe, which is ostensibly open and giving no obvious cover i.e. an open field, they were able to successfully dig in and launch an ambush. This translates to the gaming table too using the rule described above; even if a hidden token is placed in the middle of open terrain, then it can start the game as being hidden and use this rule.

Lesson for countering this: take some fast-moving recce units. Next game I will dig out my motorcycle infantry and a couple of SdKfz 222's to screen ahead of the main force.