Iron Cross 2024 - Preview

Iron Cross 2024 - Preview by Tony Bates 2024 will see the fifth iteration of my Wellington based Iron Cross competition. Iron Cross is my attempt to recreate some of World War Two's famous or influential battles and/or campaigns.

The Fifth Iteration

In the past years we have fought: 2016: Barbarossa to Berlin (Part I, Part II) 2017: Torch to Tunisia 2020: Beachead to Bocage 2021: Rapido to Rome (no link)

This fifth iteration sees the competition return to the Eastern Front, the Battle of Stalingrad specifically. It will feature historically accurate tables with key terrain and building features such as the Grain Elevator, Department Store, Barrikady Factory, Mamaev Kurgan, the workers district and Gumrak Airfield.

Past Iron Cross competitions have always been a “team” event, in that the 20 players are divided into Allied (or Soviet in this instance), and Axis teams. Whilst the players score points based on their individual tactical battles, they are also able to score points for their “team”. These team points ultimately declare the winning team (medals all round!), but also influence the individual tactical battles in a variety of ways, such as the units that can be deployed from each side’s reinforcement pool (more on this in another article).

With each iteration I look to shake up the competition norms, be it through army organisation, introduction of competition specific rules, or (rarely) modification the core rules. With Iron Cross V, I was fortunate to contact Joel Williams in Australia who has run some excellent FoW competitions as part of the annual CanCon. Joel ran a similar "campaign" competition based on Stalingrad in 2012 & 2013.

The key element of this iteration is that the 10 tables essentially interconnect; success (or failure) on one table, will in minor or major ways influence subsequent battles (on that table or even on neighbouring tables). The schematic below shows how the tables will interconnect (note that some of the schematic language is relevant to a previous edition of the game, circa 2012).

Deployment

An innovative approach to deployment will be used. The front line at the end will be marked and will be the basis of future deployment options for the next player who is assigned to the table. Using a secret pre-prepared allocation, players will always play on a different table against different opponents.

Each player will build two Formations, one purely infantry at 65pts (tbc) and one other of their choice at the normal size of 100pts. The smaller force will be used exclusively on the smaller “city” tables (4’x4’), whilst the larger force will be used in battles played out on the standard 6’x4’ tables.

To ensure historical accuracy of the Formations present at the battle certain units and models of tanks won’t be permissible (i.e. PzKfw VI Tiger Ie). There will be a heavier reliance on Battlefront’s Command Cards than in previous competitions.

Lastly, as part of the authentic table presentation, here’s a sneak peak at a couple of the terrain pieces that will feature in the competition; the Tractor Factory and one of the many destroyed worker’s huts.

~ Tony