Friday Night Game - Iron Cross WWII in 20mm

It was four of us a Julians last night for a game of "Iron Cross" from Great Escape Games, using Julian and my 20mm WWII collections. These were put together quickly and cheaply (in my case!) a few years ago, to play "Nuts" and then "Chain of Command" - a few packs pf plastic 20mm infantry from Valiant and PSC, plus vehicles from Amourfast and a couple of others. Most of Julians are the very nice AB Miniatures.

Julian had set up a table with a road crossing and farm buildings, set amongst rolling hills and small woods and he let me decide what the forces should be and who would attack or defend, so I chose three Brits to two Germans (as we had been expecting Rick to join us as a fifth player). In the event, Chris and I attacked with the Brits while Julian and John defended - we had approx 3:2 advantage and we imagined this was 1945 somewhere inside Germany.

Here is a brief summary of how it played out.

General view of most of the table - Brits were attacking from the bottom right table edge.

I had the bulk of the British armour, at Chris' insistence - two Fireflies and two Achilles SP AT guns - all 17lb ers! The infantry was split between us 50/50 more or less.

Chris had the right flank with a couple of Challenger medium tanks - nice looking vehicles but a bit under gunned (as was common for Allied tanks, of course)

Julian and John each had one of these Big Cats, plus a Stug (John) and a Flak 36 88mm gun (Julian) plus they each had a PAK ( 75mm I think) and infantry who had a few man-portable AT weapons!

German infantry holding the main objective.

Johns command on the German right, opposite me.

The British advance kicks off!

Nice looking Zvezda 88mm gun .....I wonder where Julian got that??

Yes - I had quickly got this painted and based the previous evening - and brought it along for my opponents to use it against me - not such a clever idea!

Red markers show units that have used a command token, not casualties!

My troops advance cautiously through the Deutsche Wald!

On the other flank, Chris gets stuck in with the bayonet, driving back Julians two German sections.

At this ;point, Julian had expended all his order tokens and we still had a few left (John had lots too!), so I thought I was safe to drive from cover with my Firefly and take a shot down the road at the 88.....BUT....we were playing this game with three "special event/attribute" cards each (for the first time as far as I can recall) and Julian played one which allowed him to have an extra free action that he did not have to pass a test for, if he had expended all his order tokens.....

"Feuer!"

"BANG!!" buggeration, scratch one Firefly! Adjacent units within 6" also took one "casualty" marker each (the little teardrop next to the Bren gunner)

Revenge was not too far off though. Earlier, one of my Achilles had engaged Julians Panther but came off second best, so I put down smoke with a mortar to prevent the Panther finishing it off. At the start of a new turn, the smoke cleared, the Panther activated to fire, and I rolled to interrupt, needing 5 or 6 on a D6 - and succeeded! The 17lb fired first and scored a direct hit, with a 50/50 chance the German vehicle was brewed up.....

....... and it was - hurrah

But almost immediately, Johns Panther replayed the complement to my second Firefly - bloody hell!

Meanwhile, Chris continued to drive back Julians infantry in the woods.

My second Achilles advanced to the edge of the wood, catching Johns Panther with a flanking shot, but the round bounced off the tough German tank, only causing a couple of hits. A second shot was taken, and this time, the gunners aim was spot on, sending the 17lb AT round right into the weak spot on the turret ring....

BOOOOMMMMM!!

Chris brought his two Cromwell's into the woods to support his infantry, wiping out one of Julians two sections there.

But on both flanks, the German defenders still had potent anti-tank weapons available.

Which John proceeded to demonstrate when a Panzerschrek armed Landser knocked out my Achilles in the woods!

At this point, with the game in the balance, we had to call a halt, as Chris needed to leave, and it was past 10pm. We all agreed it had been a great little game although the tanks do seem quite vulnerable! Chris managed to preserve both of his, but I lost 3 out of 4 and both the Panthers were also smoking hulks! Chris and Julian were the only ones to engage in infantry combat and Chris had won that decisively - Julian lost one section and the second was about to go too. 

A few final shots of the toys before we tidied up.

AB Germans by Julian

Valiant "heroic" 20mm (ie they are VERY big for 20mm but not really 25mm!) Brits from my collection

Next up, as requested by my Aussie mate Kev, will be a quick 20mm WWII parade!

Thanks for dropping by and reading this post, and I look forward to your observations!