Iron Cross Game - Kampfgrouppe Counter Attack Scenario

I'm running an Iron Cross game at our club's September game night. This game was a play test of the scenario to insure the September game went smoothly. I adapted the "Kampfgrouppe Counter Attack" scenario from Brigade Games "Skirmish Campaigns Normandy '44 - Monty's EPSOM' campaign book. I stayed true to the map and scenario objectives, but I scaled up the order of battle slightly and removed the variable attachments in favor of pre-selected ones of my own choosing. 

Byron and Bob were the British defenders. Their plan was straight forward. They put one section of their advance platoon in each building and would react to the German's initial advance.  The Brits had two platoons of infantry, a 6 pounder AT gun, a Vickers MMG and a depleted armor platoon of a Firefly, a Sherman 1 (75mm) and a Humber armored car.

 

Rob and Ralph were the attacking Germans. The scenario calls for SS, but I substituted my Wehrmacht Panzer Grenadiers instead having no SS troops in my collection. 

The germans had two well-armed infantry platoons with MG-42 MMGs attached, a headquarters command with a section of 8cm mortars, a 7.5 cm Infantry gun and a full platoon of assault gun tanks: two Hetzers and a Stug IIIg.

Initially Ralph pressed his command up towards the orchard separating his jump-off area from the ruined farmhouse. With him a single Hetzer for support and the Stug III in reserve. The mortar FO positioned itself in the hedge line.

Rob's German right flank with his MG-42 deployed (mostly hidden from view) with three sections of infantry preparing to assault the white farmhouse. Rob's Hetzer starts shelling the center ruined building initially.

In response to the initial German advance, Byron brings in the British Firefly and tries to get off a surprise round into Rob's Hetzer. Unfortunately the round didn't hit home and Rob's Hetzer returned fire and hit home with a non-penetrating hit. Still it was enough to stun Byron's crew and over a couple of turns the Hetzer was able to blow up the Firefly.  Not all lemons for the British, Bob was able over two turns to take out Ralph's mortar F.O. with sustained fire from his Vickers MMG.

Progressing on into the mid-game, Ralph advanced one section into the orchard. This drew significant fire from the British pushing the German squad back out of site to recover. A significant outcome of this exchange was the British brought up two more of their sections on the right side of the battlefield. Meanwhile Rob's assault on the white farmhouse on the left, along with help from Ralph's Hetzer drove Bob out of it and allowed Rob to occupy the abandoned building.

As Rob's assault and Ralph's support of it became clear, the British were attempting to respond by bringing up their Sherman I and also trying to shift their infantry left to defend the white farmhouse. Meanwhile Rob's Hetzer and MMG beat up the defenders of the middle rubbled house. Bob vacated that section and replaced it with fresh defenders. 

The last turn ended up with a 'weird' clumping of activation chits coming out of the bag. The British loaded up early on activations and were able to re-take the white farmhouse easily eliminating Rob's occupying German section. In the second half of the turn the chits came out all German and Ralph's massed force was able to both put enough fire on the farmhouse to eliminate occupying British section and just be able to occupy the farmhouse themselves before the end of the turn. Result: German victory.

I'm looking forward to running this again at game night this month. There's a lot of options for both sides to win the battle.