So finishing the game was always going to be tense, as the players were heavily invested in the result...BUT, in this case BOTH sides were close to break point and BOTH had last minute events which could have swung the battle either way - quite a game!
Testament to the Iron Cross rules to an extent, and these were well enjoyed...though again I salute the QRS mentioned previously, because although everything is in the book, it's not always as intuitive as the QRS makes it.
 |
| Very dangerous German armour moves on the British right |
 |
| ...although on their left, they capture the abbey |
 |
| British armour, not quite disabled...there is a Firefly still very actively 'hunting' |
 |
| German infantry makes a mechanised move in the centre, in a bid to capture the town...although we had Victory Points, so many areas were still being actively contested, it would come down to Break Points... |
 |
| 'Panzer! Panzer!...umm not one of ours Hans!!!' |
 |
| German armour forced to react to the Firefly on the crest line... |
 |
| ...although the STGIII takes it out at range, allowing German thrust in the centre to continue... |
 |
| ...despite some long range fire from scout elements |
 |
| The British left and centre; burning wrecks litter the road and approaches - Iron Cross is very unforgiving for armour |
 |
| In the last minutes of the game, British infantry assault the lonely Stug (now these rules do need checked - but it worked out alright, as the infantry were ineffectivethough...) |
 |
| Despite the Stug's good response, effectively about to end the British assault... |
 |
| A certain 'company morale' roll, managed to rally them on a '6', completely... |
...and in the dying seconds, as each side was about to break, the British called in mortars on German infantry in the open...effectively breaking them, but it was down to the wire...
An excellent game, and despite the vagaries and weirdness of some of those rules elements (I appreciate these are mostly fixed in 'Seven Days to the River Rhine'), it all worked quite well.
 |
| "been busy today mate? ...yeah, we fired one shell mate...cup 'o' tea mate?" |
 |
| "A close run thing Archie eh? Archie? Why you are made of 20mm plastic...damn your eyes! Cup 'o' tea?" |
 |
| "Next time Tommy, vee vill hev a Tiger..." |
yes! more of this, please Darren!
ReplyDeleteThanks Steve - there is another 'Stoumont 44' game in the offing very soon. I also was trying to comment on your blog re. the planning post - but google is giving me lots of trouble at present - thanks for the mention on Vapid Fire - definitely taking a look at that again :)
DeleteA great close ending to the game!
ReplyDeleteThanks Shaun - we're looking at doing Stoumont, during Bulge 44 next, so more to come.
DeleteNice to see Iron Cross played in 20mm. I also found many aspects of the rules confusing and overly fiddly, but I like the initiative system, very clever for tactical games. Some of the mechanisms can be fixed by the application of simple mathematics to the expected results, but it is some years since I last played IC and I can't recall what I did now! Should have written it down.
ReplyDeleteWell I do love 20mm and found myself looking for an exciting ruleset to suit younger players - and to be honest I think the initiative system system keeps younger players engaged, as opposed to something like Rapid Fire; now, given time, i think RF would work well with IC initiative, but that's a lot of work, although the place where I picked up the QRS has tried it...
DeleteYeah - just looking through 'seven days to the river rhine' again this morning, and it fixes a lot of the things that should not have been confusing in IC.
Next stop - operational level 'Market Garden' hehe