A good buddy of mine contacted me a while back to let me know he would be in town for the Labor Day weekend here in the US. He indicated he would be interested in getting together for a game. He has been living in California for a number of years, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to try to get some of the old Gand together to play a WWII game. So, I reached out to some of the other guys and set up a game. I had planned to run it at our current FLGS, but there was a challenge with table availability and I was worried about the noise. So I decided just to hold the game at my house. My basement was finally fixed from the pipe flooding water damage last June , so this would be the first game since then.
I decided to set up the game using the Iron Cross WWII rules. The rules are easy to learn and would be good for a new game. I also like how they flow and the game play. So, I sent a link to the QRG (on the Great Escape website to everyone, so they would have some idea) and worked on the scenario. I decided the Breakthrough scenario in the rules would fit the bill. We would have the entire afternoon, so a big game would work. I had initially planned on running the game in 20mm. However, it turned out I did not have the German needed, so I changed the scale to 15mm (rules work in most scales). This also gave one of my buddies a chance to use his recently painted Soviet Army. So, I opted for forces of 1,100 points. This is a large game for the rules, but with five or six players, I thought it would be appropriate.
I went to the Great Escape Games website to see if they had any new troop listings or QRG. I found both on the site! I wanted the Germans to be better quality and the Soviets to me more numerous. So, I chose the SS listing for the Germans. This gave them some upgrades (and increased cost). I pulled the Soviet troops from the Stalingrad list to make them conscript (I finagled the points for the T-34/85s). I gave some Soviets ATRs and the German infantry Panzerfausts.
The Soviet force ended up with seven T-34/85s and twelve T-34/76s. That gave them two companies of tanks with a battalion commander. The soviets also had sixteen infantry stands (six were SMGs with the assault rule). This gave the Soviets and aggressive force. I left out any artillery, just to keep the game simple.
The German force was built around a company of SS infantry. It included nine infantry stands with Panzerfausts and three HMG stands. This force was supported by three Panthers, four Stug IVs and a JagPanzer IV (it was basically a fifth Stug). The Germans had their company commander as an infantry stand (it set up in the center behind the town). Once again, no artillery to keep things simple.
The breakthrough scenario requires the sides to have the same points, with the defender setting up first. The defender can set up on two thirds of the table, but no unit can be closer than six inches from another friendly unit. This spreads out the defender and makes them have to consolidate and counter attack later in the scenario. The Germans deployed their forces equally across the table, tying to set up fire traps to slow the Soviets. The game ends on turn seven, with the requirement that the attacker must have one third of their starting army in the defenders back one third of the table. The game can go longer than seven turns, as it has the variable game length run also.
The Soviets looked over the German set up and decided they would make a left flank attack, while holding the Germans in the center. With that, they set up their forces in the center and across the German right. Their concentration was to the center to ry to somewhat conceal their plan.
The scenario gives the attacker the initiative the first turn and they it goes to the normal random rule. The Soviets rolled off all their pips using the Conscript rule and then moved forward. They concentrated their orders on the forward tanks to try to clear the forward German infantry with fire, while holding their infantry back. This succeeded in piling up some morale markers on the forward German infantry and forcing a number of units to fall back. The Germans tried to pick off some Soviet tanks with AT fire, but were plagued with poor rolling (I guess it was a surprise attack).
The Soviets continued to cautiously advance and focus their fire on the German forward infantry. These tactics started to bear fruit, as the German casualties started to pile up. The Germans continued to try to pick off Soviet tanks, but they could not get the penetrations needed (victory for those POW factory workers!)
The Soviet attack ground forward, killing Germans had they went. The Germans found their better ammo and started to effectively pick off Soviet tanks. At this point, they committed their infantry to the attack on the town, in face of the weakened German infantry numbers.
The Soviet infantry broke into the town and clear most of the German armor support on the town. The Germans started to shift their left flank forces to support the center, but things were looking bleak. They continued long range AT fire and killed even more Soviet tanks.
Entering turn six, the Soviets realized they needed to speed up the advance to get to the victory conditions. So, they concentrated in clearing the town in front of their units and destroying the remaining tanks in front of them. This included aggressively moving to the flanks to overcome the German front armor. The Germans continued to move to the center and concentrate their fire on the Soviet Armor. The Soviets successfully removed all the forward German threats and were in position for the turn seven push!
Looking at the table, it was clear that the Soviets had the units to move in position for the win. The remaining German units were too far away and blocked by terrain to effectively stop it. With that, the game was called as a Soviet victory! We all had a good time and managed to finish the game in a little over four hours. Some clean up and BSing and it was time for dinner. It was great to get together with the old crowd. Guess I need to start planning on an annual event?
- Manteuffel