Iron Cross at Ralph's

Last Friday, a group of us got together at my uncle Ralph's house to play Iron Cross. Ralph set up a gorgeous table with his fake fur table cover and beautiful Miniature Building Authority town. The table also featured his recently painted up Quonset huts and a scratch built farm using my laser-cut parts. The Quonset huts were set in a compound surrounded by home made barbed wire barricades and a scratch built sentry gate.

The scenario was for the Americans to capture impressed Polish scientists in the compound. Of course the scientists were present in model form, nice touch there. The Germans were to protect the compound and escort the scientists to safety if the Americans attacked any of the Scientists. There were other zones of the table that were also in play as far as scenario objectives are concerned. I was on the German side with Ralph. Rob, Earl and Bob were the American liberating force.

The research compound was flanked by a pillbox. I put a squad of my volksgrenadiers in it. I also stationed a prime mover near the gate for a hasty exit should the compound come under fire. In the stone tower in the town I set up an MG-42 as an overwatch asset. The rest of my teams took up positions behind the stone walls further from the town.

The Americans: Bob, Rob and Earl plan their attack.

A German SdKfz 251/5 engineer command half track with a Panzerbüchse 41 AT gun looks over the open field hoping to stop the American half tracks. During the battle it would redeploy on the left flank to try to counter an American Priest SP gun.

The American force bivouacked overnight on the rear of this large hill after encountering resistance from a pillbox left of the farm (not pictured). The scenario starts at dawn as American reinforcements arrive. To kick off the battle, the Americans brought up a Priest SP gun to neutralize the MG bunker near the farm. Accurate HE fire from the priest did its job very effectively.

Soon after that, Earl gets aggressive with one of his half tracks to try to put some more effective .50 cal fire onto the farmhouse to destroy the remaining defending infantry. Ralph aggressively moved forward and blew up the half track with a panzerfaust.

Mid game. One of Ralph's squads hold behind the hedge row on the road, as my command squad defends the crossroads. The Prime Mover and scientists are on their way back to Berlin after Bob's American infantry killed one of the scientists. Intent follows the bullet Bob!

Late in the game Rob made a great aggressive play on the Farmhouse with two of his squads bringing Ralph's volksgrenadiers in the farmhouse near their break point. Fortune favored the young Germans as rousing words from their commander brought them back into the fight. A fortunate turn of events that stopped an otherwise perfectly executed assault by Rob.

This was an excellent evening of gaming. Good company, beautiful table and easy to play fun rules.