AAR - Operation Weserübung

I've had a great afternoon's gaming versus Stuart playing an Iron Cross scenario loosely based on Operation Weserübung, the German invasion of Denmark on 9th April, 1940, which lasted approximately 6 hours before the Danes capitulated. I was attacking with 400 points of a fully motorised Aufklarungsabteilung of the 198th Infantry Division.  Stuart was defending with 200 points of partly mobile Danish infantry - he fielded a mixture of motorcycle and bicycle troops, plus a couple of units of foot-sloggers.

The order of battle for the Germans was:

• Infantry HQ
• 7 x Infantry
• Heavy machine gun
• Mortar
• All of the above infantry and support units were mounted in either trucks, half tracks or on motorcycles
• 2 x Panzer 38(t)
• 2 x SdKfz.222 scout cars

The order of battle for the Danish was:

• Infantry HQ
• 2 x infantry on bicycles
• 2 x infantry on foot
• Autocannon mounted on a motorcycle
• Heavy machine gun

We played the Capture scenario, which meant that the Danes were hidden at the start of the game and could benefit from the new Ambush rule. It also meant that, as defender, Stuart rolled for additional command tokens at the start of each new turn, something he excelled at! The mission objective for the attacking Germans was to capture the white house (and gate across the road) to the bottom-right of the photo below; the start line was the table edge at the top of the photo.

Please excuse the un-Danish looking terrain...we only decided the night prior to the game that we were going to give Stuart's Danes a run-out, otherwise I would have prepared something a bit better than French buildings on a Mediterranean table. Having said that, I don't think it looked too bad. The Danish troops looked absolutely ace though.

In the first turn, the majority of the German forces deployed onto the table and moved forward, leaving one-third in reserve. On the left flank, astride the road, the two Panzers and two units of infantry in half-tracks advanced incautiously because they had not yet spotted any opposing forces. As they neared some likely points of resistance, the infantry dismounted and took up firing positions.

On the right flank, the two scout cars and two units of motorcycle infantry moved forwards towards the edge of a dense woodland.

As soon as the grenadiers had dismounted from their half-tracks they came under intense fire from hidden Danish forces; a vicious, close range firefight erupted. The 38(t) moved up to provide fire support for the grenadiers, but was then engaged by a Danish anti-tank weapon.

The defenders' second line then opened up adding more weight of fire to the now-isolated Germans.

Emboldened by the success of their opening ambush, the Danish command squad, replete with bugler, charged down the main road to encourage his front line soldiers in the defence of their homeland.

The German front line started to dissolve when a unit of Danes on bicycles pedalled hard towards their flank, dismounted and started to pour more fire onto the isolated infantry unit. The morale tokens were piling up on my infantry and despite trying to recover them with Company Morale Tests (lots of ones were rolled!), things started to look dire.

The anti-tank gun scored a direct hit on the Panzer causing it to explode and burst into flames; meanwhile the grenadiers succumbed to the combined weight of fire from the Danes and were destroyed. 2-0 to the Danes by the end of the first turn!  We were playing a new rule regarding hidden units being able to fire in ambush, without being interrupted, which worked out well for Stuart, but not so much for me. The game mechanics felt right though.

The second turn meant that the German commander could bring up his reserves: three units of infantry and the HMG moved up the road and joined in the battle on the German's left flank. One unit occupied the top floor of the house, which gave them a superior firing position and the HMG set up and started laying down some withering fire. The Danish bicycle troops made a sharp exit by slinging their bikes over the hedge and pedalling for all they were worth down the road back towards their own lines.

The newly arrived German infantry, ably supported by the mortar and HMG, started to make their superior numbers felt and caused the Danish soldiers to slowly fall back bit by bit as they took casualties...the AT gun roared off down the road to take up a new position. 

They put up stiff resistance all the way though, not least due to the number of sixes that Stuart rolled when taking Company Morale Tests. I only managed to roll one 6 all game, despite probably taking a few dozen CMTs throughout ;-(

Further support arrived on the left flank in the form of more mounted infantry to keep up the pressure. However, despite their overwhelming numbers, the Germans could not get into gear to mount a convincing attack; too many units suffered from morale problems and could just not get a break when taking morale tests.

Meanwhile, whilst this action was taking place, the leading German motorcycle troops were racing around the right-hand side of the forest in an attempt to outflank the Danes and get into their rear.

A second troop was hot on their heels.

In the centre, the two scout cars were trying to provide some support to the suppressed infantry, but also trading shots with the Danish AT gun. Given the morale problems elsewhere on the battlefield, the German commander decided to pull the scout cars back behind the cover of the building in the middle of the battlefield where they could continue to provide some fire support, but without being mortally threatened by the AT gun.

To counter this new threat in their rear, the Danes hustled an infantry squad back down the road and took up a defensive position next to the gate.

Back on the left flank, the enfilading fire slowly took its toll on the Danish infantry with casualties starting to mount. The battle was now starting to turn in favour of the attackers.

The Danes took up positions behind walls adjacent to the house on the main road.

With the Danish perimeter starting to collapse, the German commander ordered his units forward in a concerted attack. The scout cars moved forward and combined their fire with the mortar, which proved to be deadly accurate, and eliminated the AT gun. Next in their sights was the Danish HMG, which kept up a significant rate of fire and held the centre of the battlefield for most of the battle.

The perimeter continued to draw closer and closer to the house, with significant morale markers being inflicted onto the Danes, but only for them to be recovered again. I blame the bugler!

The coup-de-grace was delivered by the now-dismounted motorcyclists who destroyed the last Danish infantry squad, who had been valiantly defending the gate.

Overall, this was a really enjoyable game, not least because I managed to achieve a rare win over Stuart. We road-tested a few Iron Cross rules amendments too, which I will post about another time.

AAR - Pikes and Panzers

A two-for-one after-action report today: a game of Pikeman's Lament followed by Iron Cross. (Scroll down for the Panzers)

Russell brought his 15mm miniatures and terrain over to the shed for a game of English Civil War using the Pikeman's Lament ruleset. PL is really easy to pick up, but provides some fun gaming as the uncertainty about passing the various activation tests means that nothing ever quite turns out as you want it to. Not knowing much about the ECW period hasn't really hampered me either: I've managed to win a couple of games out of the few that we have played over the last couple of months.

We both started with 24 points of troops, plus an officer, as per the rules, though because Russell had some "Commanded Shot" units, he had one more unit on the table than me. I had two units of Trotters (slower cavalry with guns), two units of pikes and two units of muskets, which I deployed on my table edge.

Russell advanced a lot more quickly (better dice rolling), so managed to bring his Commanded Shot into range quite quickly.

On unit of my pikes pushed forward as quickly as possible intending to have a "push of pikes", but never quite made it as far as his pikemen because of the infernal Commanded Shot.

On the other side of the table, my Trotters held off his Gallopers for a couple of turns, though after several turns of ineffectual combat, I lost one too many units (after Wavering) and my army routed from the battlefield.

Thankfully, my knowledge of WWII permits to write a more informed after-action report of a game of Iron Cross. We played the Capture scenario again, but with me taking the role of defender (Greeks) this time versus Russell as the attacker, who had a very well equipped Panzer army. 

All of my defenders started the game hidden, which caused the advancing Germans to cautiously move forward. The centre of the gaming table had a church surrounded by a stone wall, with an incomplete barbed wire fence flanked by trees and vineyards off to either flank.

I used my new terrain pieces on this board, which provided a bit of cover for the attackers.

One of the great advantages of being a hidden defender is that you get lots of dummy tokens to place around the battlefield.

As soon as some German infantry disembarked from their transport, the Greek sniper opened up from behind the church bell tower...where else are snipers supposed to go?  He successfully engaged the infantry placing down plenty of accurate shots before he was spotted. The heavy machine gun, also placed within the compound, opened up on the same units causing lots of damage.

A couple of turns into the game, the Germans started advancing on a broad front, necessitating the revealing of more hidden Greek troops. The supporting panzers were still hanging back near their starting point trading shots with a single anti-tank gun.

With the German attack stalling, Hauptman Russ ordered his scout units forward, only for them to stumble onto a hidden anti-tank rifle.

In the centre of the battleground, the Greeks, sensing victory, skirmished forward aggressively.

However, on their right flank, things started to turn sour. The Greek infantry faced panzers crashing through the barbed wire, their commander having foolishly chosen to place all his anti-tank weapons in the centre and left of the battlefield.

Back in the centre, the Greeks rapidly deployed additional units in form of some captured Italian CV-35 light tanks to start putting an increasing weight of fire onto the German infantry.

On the left flank, a couple of units of infantry and an anti-tank rifle caused more casualties to the German motorised units, who were lacking infantry support, who were in turn suffering a pounding from the resilient Greeks.

The gap in the right flank was plugged following the rapid redeployment of a mountain gun and some additional infantry units.

Late in the game, the Greeks, with their blood up, advanced incautiously and broke through the German line causing a rout.

The Greeks certainly benefited from being dug in and hidden for the first couple of turns, which enabled me to reactivate just a couple of units many times (and take several important morale checks), which slowed the German advance sufficiently. Another fun game and, unusually, one that I won!

Iron Cross - After Action Report

Here are some notes and photos from my game of Iron Cross against Russell this weekend, which was set in North Africa. We played the Capture scenario, so Russell was defending with 327 points of 4th Indian Division versus my 544 points of Deutsche Afrika Korps. All of Russell's forces were dug-in and hidden at the start of the game, so I had to advance my DAK blindly onto the gaming table. However, I had a reasonable idea of where they were located because the objective was for my to capture the village, which was completely surrounded by barbed wire.

In turn 1, I moved four trucks containing 8 infantry squads and the HQ unit (in a car) forward, split equally onto the two flanks. I also quickly advanced two Panzer IIs and one Panzer III along the central road to try and encourage Russell to reveal his forces by shooting at me.

This had the desired effect as one of his four infantry squads, one Matilda and the 6-pounder were revealed. We exchanged fire back and forth, but with Russell having plenty of command tokens to spend on just a few units, he was able to keep reactivating the same units. Fortunately for me, his shooting dice were terrible with my Panzer III being hit perhaps 5 or 6 times in the first few turns, but without being destroyed. Thankfully, when the accumulated morale got close to 5, I managed to spend a few command tokens to recover.

On my right flank, I rushed one of the trucks up to the wire and disembarked one of the infantry squads, who promptly got stuck on the wire.

On my left flank, two trucks (with 4 infantry units) and the command unit drove ahead at full speed, with the intention of cutting through the wire at a different point. As with most best-laid plans in Iron Cross, events disrupted my plan due to me having to spend lots of command tokens to sustain the morale of the Panzer III in the centre.

In the centre, the two Panzer IIs and the Panzer III were trading shots with the Sikh infantry, who were equipped with a Boys anti-tank rifle.

Despite suffering from the worst dice rolling, Russell managed the first kill of the game. His Boys rifle-equipped infantry in the sangar managed to destroy one of the Panzer IIs.

Second casualty of the game (in turn 3, I think) was also scored by the Sikhs: the Panzer III finally succumbed to a devastating hit from the 6-pounder. My infantry on the right flank had been engaged by a couple of units of Russell's infantry by this time, so could not put enough suppressing fire onto the 6-pounder until it was too late for the poor PIII.

At this point, having lost a couple of tanks in exchange for no return casualties, I decided to push forward with my infantry a bit more aggressively, under covering fire from my heavy machine gun which was situated on a small hill to the rear. Unfortunately, Russell decided to reveal the position of his own HMG, which ripped into my infantry crossing the open ground, this stalling the advance.

We were playing an update to the rules, which Stu from GEG and I have been trying out over the last few games. When a unit accumulates more than half its morale value, then it can no longer move towards the enemy. We have found this to be really effective in simulating the effects of defensive fire, especially machine guns in fixed positions, so I think it works really well at stopping advancing troops.

Over the course of the first four turns of the game, I had slowly (poor dice rolling!) been bringing on my reserves, all of which were Panzers (4 more Panzer IIIs and 2 x Panzer IVs). These were starting to enter the fray in turn 4, but slightly too late to provide covering fire for the truck on the left flank that had reached the wire, which was destroyed by some superb shooting from an Indian Pattern Carrier.

I did manage to breach the wire with the first infantry unit out of the truck, who started to put some fire down onto one of the demoralised Sikh infantry units, who were now cowering in the vineyard.

Additional fire support provided by the command squad and a pair of Panzers. Because he was defending a small area, Russell was able to easily move his forces around behind the wire to the points that were under most stress without having to spend lots of command tokens...a tactic that I might have to borrow in the future.  He also had the benefit of lots of concealing cover to move injured units behind to rally without any interference from the numerous DAK units.

Meanwhile on the DAK right flank, the infantry were battling forward inch by inch and finally causing some casualties.

Most of my command tokens were consumed by the battle at the edge of the village, which became an attritional war.  Unfortunately for me as the attacker, I needed to have pushed forward more aggressively at the start of the game because as my attack got bogged down, I started losing too many units and eventually lost the game based on reaching my company break point.

A view from the Indian side of the battlefield below, better shows the positioning of the IPCs, which provided excellent fire support for the infantry and caused the attacking DAK to slow down too much.

It was a really enjoyable game and, despite the collapse of the Germans in the last couple of turns, it could have gone either way at several points during the game, which is one of my favourite things about wargaming (and especially Iron Cross). 

We've all played those games where whoever has the most dice wins, or games that start with moving forward, a bit of shooting, then the inevitable close combat phase.  Yawn!  Give me Iron Cross with lots of decision making, fog of war and uncertainty, any day.