We threw together a quick Iron Cross game at our last gaming night. The terrain was just a functional blocking position set up by the Germans to cover some cross roads and a destroyed town. The Soviets mission was to attack the position.
The terrain was to represent an area in Western Germany. I just set up the terrain throwing down the Cigar Box Battles fields mat (this is my favorite game cloth these days!) on top of shallow hill sections that my FLGS had. I laid down a road network and then I grabbed some ruined building from my FLGS. Added some woods areas and covered these areas with what trees I had with my and some clump foliage (which I just bought, because I left my foliage clusters at home). Not great, but would do the trick for the game.
The scenarios was that the Germans would set up first on their half of the table. After they set up, the Soviets would set up, but not within 18″ of a visible enemy and not within 6″ of a hidden enemy. This would require the Germans to spread out a little and maneuver their forces to best meet the Soviets (not just sit in the town and wait). The rubble was considered heavy cover, the woods light. The side that held the most objectives at the end of turn eight would be the winner.
The German Forces included three infantry squads, a command squad, two medium machine guns, an anti-tank gun, two 8 cm mortars, a Panzerschreck squad and a sniper. The Soviets had 12 infantry squads, three command squads, a PTRD squad and a two 82mm mortar sections.
The German plan was to set up wide, so keep the Soviets away. They would then consolidate into the center to hold the objectives. The Soviets decided to cover the frontage of the table to find the German weak point and then concentrate to eliminate isolated German units and slowly grind towards each objective (not very Soviet!).
The Soviets began with launching an attack using their left flank forces. The right flank held back and awaiting the German reactions to the flank attack. The attack was beat back with heavy German fire. Once the left flank attack was pushed back, the Soviet right flank began their attack. They quickly overwhelmed on of the German machine gun sections, but were then beat back by the German fire also.
Once the left flank recovered their morale and some of their losses, they once again began their attack, but this time joined with the company commander. With a lot of effort, they were finally able to break into the town and capture one of the objectives. However, they had taken enough losses to pause their advance. The right flank forces continued to maneuver out of fire range and recover their losses. They used the medium mortars to try to soften up the Germans in the meantime. This triggered the German sniper, who was able to silence one of the sections.
With the losses the Soviets had taken, it was clear they would not be able to take two more objectives to win, so they called the game as a minor German victory.
- Mantueffel