The Wargamer

You Can’t Play Them All

When I chat with other gamers they often share their opinions about their favorite games. Usually I have played them but sometimes I have not. Those times when I’m not familiar with a true classic my only defense is, “you can’t play them all”. During the 90’s when PC based wargaming was a mainstream activity I got totally hooked on SSI’s Steel Panthers. It was so good that I didn’t need another wargame for years. So it came to pass that I never took the opportunity to play the other great classic wargame series, Close Combat. So when Close Combat – Cross of Iron was released this year I was eager to give it a shot and see how it had weathered. It turns out that I’m totally addicted to it. The more I play it, the more I like it.

A few weeks ago I was in our forums discussing thoughts on Close Combat – Cross of Iron and suddenly the thought struck me that I should write an After Action Review (AAR) of some of my experiences with the game.

The Road to Berlin Begins With A Single Footstep

In Close Combat – Cross of Iron the historical campaign is broken down into groups of games called historical operations. Within each historical operation are a series of maps, each representing a scenario of the battle. This AAR starts with the first scenario in the third historical operation entitled Moscow Retaliates. The first two historical operations began in June 1941 and I found that making my way to Moscow was, as the Germans historically experienced it, a breeze. Any resulting AAR of those battles would read essentially as a description of a hot knife through butter. As a result there isn’t a need to share an AAR of them.

Moscow Retaliates unfolds as the Germans have been pushed away from the Kremlin and the Soviets were getting their act together. The previous scenarios in the campaign have been simple affairs to win but now the tide has begun to change. Winter has set in, and supplies are running low. How will I fare against them with those odds stacked against me?

This isn’t my first battle in this historical campaign. I have already played it once and successfully held my ground. However, in that first battle I got greedy and tried to take all the victory locations. Unfortunately that cost me a valuable Stug in an ambush that, naturally enough, I hadn’t seen coming (it was near the end of the game and I thought I had cleared the area).

The objective in this historical battle is simply to hold every inch of ground.

As the second battle unfolds I don’t have sufficient resources to replace that Stug. I have managed to cobble together some infantry to hold this line. Key to my defense is an 88. It is the only weapon in the German arsenal capable of stopping Soviet armor. My strategy on this map is to employ a type of reverse slope defense. I need to protect my troops as much as possible and try to engage the Soviets in a piecemeal fashion. If they coordinate an attack and try to take an objective with multiple units, especially armor, then I’m doomed.

I have placed the 88 in the woods sheltered by a hill, Strong Point Ivan, to the east. Here it has some excellent lines of sight. In the last battle the Russians attacked it just as I had hoped, with single tanks appearing at odd intervals. The result was total destruction of their armor.

Although I hold ground further to the east, I like my reverse slope strategy. Sometimes I will give up ground in order to hold a better position, especially if I’m on the defense. This worked in the previous battle, and so I elect to withdraw from the east and hope to beat the Russians again in precisely the same manner.

I have placed my sharpshooter to the north where he can scout and sight the approaching enemy. Everyone else is either behind a slope or deep within the woods where they hopefully can hold on until a unit exposes itself to the 88. I place some troops in the woods, two squads behind Strong Point Ivan, and one to my south to spot infantry approaching from the open area to the southeast.

With that plan in place I begin the game.