WW II East Front 1945 - Iron Cross Rules AAR

Early July we played a game of Iron Cross pitting the Soviets against the Germans late in the war. We used the capture an objective scenario with the Soviets on the attack.

Soviet OOB

6 X T-34 76

3 X T-70

7 X Infantry Sections (includes HQ)

2 X HMG Units

2 X Mortar Units

German OOB

1 x Pz IV

2 x PAK 38 + Transport

4 x Infantry Sections with LAW (includes HQ)

1 x HMG Unit

1 x Mortar Unit

The Game;

The Soviets using their mortars to lay down smoke (quite effectively) and refusing their right flank advanced with their infantry using woods as cover and their armour going hell for leather toward the objectives, a risky tactic with the defenders hidden setup and the effectiveness of the German Panzerfausts.

The mix of smoke, massed armour and poor German dice rolling led to the Soviets rolling up the German right flank destroying a Panzer IV, two infantry sections and their mortar support in the process! The Nazis were in deep trouble having inflicted no losses on the attackers at this point.

In the centre of the battlefield the Soviets repeating the same tactics were again successful wiping out another German section and their HMG support taking a few hits in the process and losing a T-70. The losses were inflicted by the German PAK units which were unlucky deployed facing the flank the Soviets ‘refused’! They did redeploy and were effective but at this point with the German centre and left virtually overwhelmed their moral was broken and the Soviets secured what turned out to be a relatively easy victory!

Some Pictures;

The Germans under pressure finally get a break when a PAK38 knocks out a T-70 with a flank shot!

The German Panzer IV tried to ambush the T-34 Column it missed with several shots and when it hit twice the rounds were ineffective...

...unfortunately the Soviet return fire was accuarte and when the Panzer was hit the effect was deadly!

It then became an armour rampage!

Unluckily even the Germans Panzerfausts were faulty on the day, normally they'd tear a T-34 apart.

The German centre was overrun with a combined arms assault!

Both the PAK 38 were able to redeploy but the Soviet smoke was very well placed by their mortars.

Summary;

This game was the first time we used hidden deployment and it didn’t help the defenders to much 🙂! Also the first time we used house smoke rules which in hindsight were a bit too generous next time we’ll adjust them. Last thing to note on the first turn of combat the Umpire (ahem me) stuffed up the base to hit number but due to the poor German rolling luckily it didn’t have too much of an effect. We’ll be playing Iron Cross again in a couple of session to iron out the bumps as we enjoy using the rules! In the meantime I'll try catching up with posts here and on Captain Darling's site!

The Battle of Elouges August 24 1914 - 1914 Rules AAR

Last Monday night we up again with some Great War action, a scenario based on the 1914 Battle of Elouges, a pre trench deadlock with Tommy against the Hun.

A.I. told me this about The Battle of Elouges;

‘The Battle of Elouges, on August 24, 1914, was a rearguard action during the British retreat from Mons in World War I. It involved elements of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and the German Army, with the British aiming to delay the German advance. The battle saw fierce fighting, particularly around the village of Elouges, with both sides suffering casualties’

The Game (by George, thanks!);

The Battle of Elouges, a bloody encounter! 

The British stood their ground buying time and take it while the Huns tried to use overwhelming numbers to decide the issue! Unfortunately, the Germans were all from a reserve corps so not quite up to the standard of the defenders.

The sheer numbers told and the British were eventually able to get some remnants of their force back over the bridge. Mention goes to the Coldstream Guards who died where they stood holding up the whole of the German cavalry in the centre, three Regiments in fact. A gallant effort was made by the 2nd Dragoon Guards who took on an entire German regiment of three battalions on their own. They eventually went down fighting but again delayed the German advance. The Black Watch advanced manfully but found eventually that the fire power of the poor quality German Reservists was still overwhelming and they were driven back.

Odd mention to D battery Royal horse artillery who seemed to forget about one of their sections until near the end of the battle. They still managed to incapacitate some of the German Uhlans with long range sniping (but would it could have been oh so much better if their Officer had remembered the other gun section).

The Royal Munster Fusiliers with support did what they could on the road. However eventually only the attached troops from the 15th Hussars managed to scurry away to safety.

The Germans had the entire Cavalry Brigade of three regiments reduced to a single squadron in the hard fight. They lost a battery of field artillery and three battalions of infantry. Two of the remaining battalions were reduced to single companies. The carnage was quite impressive. The British had worked hard to inflict small casualties on lots of units thus downgrading them for the inevitable hand to hand later.

All in all a good tight game that was not so much won by the Germans as not lost by the British.

Some Pictures;

Coldstream Guards stand up to 2 regiments of Uhlans after pushing a third back!

Scots Guards on the high ground prepare to assist the Black Watch

The Munsters with horse and artillery support defend the road to Elouges, they hold the tree line until the Coldstream Guards are defeated and their flank is exposed!

The British 2nd Dragoon Guards (left of picture) start the flank attack on the advancing Germans. They destroy one Battalion and maul a second before being defeated!

A Battalion of the German 22nd Reserve Regiment is across the canal the rest of the Regiment is following them!

Side view of the Munster defensive line, the start of the attack by the 15th German reserve regiment and the 2nd Dragoon Guards debating whether to attack them.

 

The town of Elouges British Horse Artillery can be seen deployed along the tree line beside it!

Summary;

1914 rules like Iron Cross are a pleasure to play, this scenario put together by George is a great one! The Germans with second line troops have one option 'push ahead' whilst the British have two; stand and fight losing some units allowing others to escape or try the "run for it' and get to the town and defend it grimly. I chose the hold option inflicting heavy losses on the endless stream of Germans while taking horrendous casualties but getting some troops off thereby winning a pyric victory!

So good scenario, good rules good terrain resulted in a great evening! George you just need to finish basing those great minis!

Next time we play it will be another Iron Cross game and in the meantime I'll try to post more of our backlog of games!

ECW The Battle of Stow-on-the-Wold - Baroque AAR

Lots of games to catch up on we TSOGgers have been very slack on both this 
Blog and I have been very slack on Captain Darling’s one we will eventually catch up! Earlier this year we used Baroque Rules to play a scenario based on the Battle of Stow-on-the-Wold. Regarding the battle for those interested from the net ‘The last battle of the First English Civil War was the Battle of Stow-on-the-Wold, fought on March 21, 1646. This battle saw the Parliamentarians defeat the Royalists, effectively ending major field operations in the war. The Royalist defeat at Stow-on-the-Wold dashed their final hopes of reversing the tide of the war.’

I did a bit of balancing to make the game worth playing and introduced victory

conditions to ensure a good battle (mainly to make sure the Roundheads didn’t just sit back in their good defensive position, which historically they didn't!).

Forces;

Royalists

4 x Horse Units

1 x Dragoon Units (see post game discussion re this Unit)

6 x Pike & Shotte Units

2 x Artillery Guns

Parliamentarians

3 x Horse Units

4 x Musketeer Units

4 x Pike & Shotte Units

2 x Militia Units

Victory Conditions (Both Sides)

Capture the enemy's camp or break the enemy's morale with a Unit within 30cm of their camp.

The Game;

With both sides lined up historically and both needing to capture the opposing sides ‘camp’ they each advanced their cavalry on the flanks. The results for both sides was not conclusive so a more central battle commenced.

The Roundheads proved more aggressive than the Cavaliers and assisted by their artillery and Dragoons they started to wear down the Parliamentary Foot that had advanced.

Once these were defeated they continued the advanced on the Parliamentarians who remained in the cover of the hedges!

The Cavaliers mounted troops were eventually successful on their left flank and on the other they held the Roundheads to a stalemate.

The decision came in the centre where the Royalists infantry with artillery in support caused enough casualties to break the Parliamentarians morale
which caused them to flee from the field!

Some Pictures;

The armies line up with the Royalists in the foreground both sides have troops that will enter on turn two!

Both sides advance! The Royalists Guns are accurate!!!

The Roundheads that advanced are defeated by Royalists horse...

Action on the flanks heats up as the Royalists infantry advance in the centre…

Horse versus Dragons on the Royalist left, the Dragoons win!

A Cavalry stalemate results on the Royalists right...

The Parliamentarians Militia literally stumble forward!

The battle for the hedge line, it is crucial and the Roundheads take more casualties

than they dish out, they eventually break ending the game!

More Pike & Shotte infantry!

Hard to get enough of men with pikes!

...and even more glorious Pike and Shotte!

Love these figures!

The battlefield at the moment the Parliamentarians morale broke
(from their side)!

Summary;

A really good game played out with both sides having an opportunity to win. The Cavalry actions on the flanks and the infantry battle in the centre was very intense. We modified the Baroque rules concerning Dragoons to make them reflect how they acted during the ECW, as written they are a powerful cavalry unit that can shoot whereas from what we can glean from period writings they were much more mobile infantry which rarely charged, below is what we came up with and they worked splendidly!

Back soon with more catching up, cheers!

ACW AAR 61 to 65 Rules Fence-Line Defence Variation

Well Hello! We've been offline for a while we had a pause in our gaming during the last part of 2024 but resumed in February 2025! We are way behind in listing our AARs for this year (and last year) but will try to catch up!

Confederate Infantry watch a fellow Rebel Unit advance on the Yankee Zouaves!

Last Monday we played a game of 61 to 65 and used a variation of the Stream Crossing Fence-Line Scenario in which we gave the Yankees two Medium width fords in the Stream rather than one large 1 Long width one (Medium/Long are movement distances in the rules and with 28mm size figures they are 12cm and 18cm each, anyone using Imperial measurements divide those by 2.54 for inches 😁 ).

So Maurice took on the Northern troops and George the Southerners I umpired.

The Game!

Maurice's Yankees crossed the stream pretty quickly with good activation rolls meanwhile the Southerners occupied the fence-line and the woods on their left, interestingly they left the woods on their right unguarded (?). 

The Union Zouaves moved to the woods on the right and faced up against the Confederates there. A firefight ensued in the woods while another Rebel unit with skirmisher support crossed the centre fence-line and joined the combat around the woods. The additional Rebels were pushed back to the fence with casualties and the firefight continued in the woods.

The Union Infantry leaving a unit by the ford they pushed the rest of their men hard through the woods to the right of the Rebels defence line which was unoccupied, this advance was screened by skirmishers. The Confederates moved a unit to cover their right and advanced another across the fence-line to attack the advancing Northerners as they moved into the woods. This attack was pushed back with losses and victory was set as the Yankees assembled to carry out their the left hook around the Southerners right!

Caught out the Confederates now had a single unit of infantry on their right flank facing three units of Yankees with skirmisher support! The expected ensued and the Rebel unit was overwhelmed and this broke the morale of the Southerners! The grey clad army fled the field of battle leaving it in the hands of the blue bellies!

Some Pictures (sorry being busy drinking beer and eating nibbles I didn't catch all the action!)

Our battlefield, the Confederates in the foreground and the Federals are deployed behind the stream in the distance!

The Rebs quickly man the fence-line and await the blue bellies!

The Yankee Zouaves quickly advance into the woods on the Confederate left and immediately get caught in a firefight!

Meanwhile the Yankee Infantry quickly advance intent on turning the Rebels right!

Overview mid game, the battle in the woods on the Confederate left is well underway as the main battle develops on their right where one unit will face three 😮!

The final charge, a tsunami of blue sweeps around the Confederates right flank breaking them!

Afterwards Stuff

A great game, the Rebels lost it placing 3 out of five of their units along the fence-line and only redeploying them to the flanks too late to check the Yankee flank moves! We will revisit the ACW soon but next time with either Longstreet of FS2CS rules! Hopefully I'll try to catch up on all the outstanding AARs we have soon!

Strangers in the Night, well Daytime! - A Men Who Would Be Kings Rules AAR

Last Monday TSOG decided it was time we had a little The Men Who Would Be Kings action plus my newly painted British Hussars were eager for some biffo! We played Scenario 1, Just Passing By from the rules as it usually creates a bit of a mobile action rather than one side charging (Mahdi) versus one side firing (British) haha. George and I played the British and Al the Mahdi.

British Force

Colonel Barnstead in Command

1 x Regular Line Infantry Unit

1 x Regular Highland Infantry Unit

1 x regular Hussar Unit

2 x Irregular Egyptian Infantry Units (poorly armed)

Mahdi Force

Osmon Dirrka in Charge

1 x Irregular Camel Unit

1 x Irregular Infantry Unit

2 x Fierce Tribal Foot Units

2 x Veteran Tribal Foot Units

The Game

Both sides lined up for the action and the Mahdi were off to a good start over the first three turns due to Moves being free for Tribal Units plus Good Activation Rolls they advanced at a pace, the poor British however lurched forward their plan to use their regular infantry as a wall to stop the advancing Mahdi exiting the table while the Hussars and Egyptians exited the table for them was not looking good!

Turns four to six saw the first shots fired and sabres rattled! The British Hussars hoping to complete a glorious charge took on some Tribal foots types! Channelling the 21st Lancers they charged a mass of 'Fierce' Mahdi. The result was both sides took five casualties and both retired pinned. Meanwhile the Mahdi Camelry smashed an Egyptian Unit following up their initial attack with a second inflicting seven casualties taking while taking just one! The British firing at the approaching Mahdi hoard meanwhile was not very effective.

Turns seven to nine things heated up. The rest of the British Hussars were wiped out carrying out another glorious charge, the mighty Madhi Camelry were not so effective on their second attack and were beaten back and hammered by musketry, they were not destroyed but they were out of the fight and lastly the British firepower started to slow the Mahdi foot a couple of Units taking casualties and getting pinned.

Turns ten to twelve decided the game. The Mahdi managed to exit an over half strength Unit from the Table , a grand double turn melee saw the Highlanders wiped out to a man but at heavy cost to the Mahdi and the other British Line Unit was reduced to a handful of men and nearly driven from the table. While also this biffo was taking place there was a desultory firefight between the Mahdi Riflemen and the second Egyptian Unit which amounted to nothing.

We stopped the game after 12 turns with both sides battered and punch drunk to work out who had won...

Some Pictures (we all love pictures)

The Mahdi advance!

As do the British albeit much more slowly...

The forces approach, for a moment it looked like a great cavalry skirmish may occur but the British horsemen noticed Mahdi foot in the open!

The Hussars charge the Mahdi, they selected the wrong Unit, they came into close combat with a group of fierce warriors and were soundly beaten...

The Mahdi Camelry made short work of one of the Egyptian Infantry Units!

The Mahdi horde advances!

Both sides mounted Units had charged and charged again, they were spent so it was time for the foot soldiers to step up!

The Mahdi destroy the Highlanders, the infamous men in skirts fought like girls!

The British Hussars charge into eternity...Hussah!

A Unit of Mahdi exit the Battlefield...Yeah shouts Osmon Dirrka!

A final lunge was launched to push the British from the field of battle...

It failed miserably the Mahdi inflicted no damage on the British and were wiped out trying!

The Battlefield at games end, not many fighters left!

The Result

British 3 VPs one each for destroying Mahdi Units

The Mahdi 4VPs 2 from destroying British Units and two from exiting a Unit

A Mahdi Victory!

We used our modified Pin rules and only gave the two Senior Leaders traits neither of which had a bearing on play. As usual The Men Who Would Be Kings Rules gave us a splendid game and in a timely fashion as we say each time we play them we will revisit them again!