Operation Crossfire is a fantastic set of introductory and training videos for Crossfire – put together by long-time Crossfire gamer and aficionado Nikolas Lloyd. They are highly recommended to all, even experienced Crossfire gamers (as a nice to watch) – and if you have not seen them previously then be sure to take the time to watch them, especially if you have heard about Crossfire but not seen the game in action. Continue reading “Crossfire Introduction Video”
Category: Crossfire
The Impact of Terrain in North Africa 1940-43
From Tobruk to Tunis: The Impact of Terrain on British operations and Doctrine in North Africa, 1940-43 is a new book by Neal Dando, published just recently by Helion & Co. The author/publisher states “This book focuses on the extent to which the physical terrain features across Egypt, Libya and Tunisia affected British operations throughout the campaign in North Africa during the Second World War. One main theme of the work analyses the terrain from the operational and tactical perspective and argues that the landscape features heavily influenced British operations and should now be considered alongside other standard military factors.“
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Scuffle In The Hedgerows
It’s been a while since Kieran and I played a Crossfire game, but last weekend we managed to get one in – it was great getting back to playing an old favourite. We opted for a simple ad-hoc game which we very loosely based around Normandy and some of the existing Crossfire Scenarios (most specifically “Scottish Corridor” from Hit the Dirt).
Escoville, 7 June 1944, near Caen: The initial British landings have been very successful and although Caen has not yet been taken the British have a bridgehead on the east side of the Orne River & Caen Canal, north of the city, it’s most advanced point near the aforementioned village. Here the 52nd Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry have moved forward to occupy the area to relieve & support the 12th & 13th Battalions, The Parachute Regiment, who have been holding the adjacent areas since the morning of the 6 June… Continue reading “Scuffle In The Hedgerows”
Italeri Church
Following on from my last post (Italeri Country House With Porch) the other model I picked up from Kieran’s cancelled commission project was the Church (Italeri Kit 6129). This includes an attached (custom made) cemetery and is an outstanding model (if somewhat large). Ther design makes this primarily suited to Northern Mediterranean areas (and Southern Europe), such as Spain, Italy, and Southern France, as well as possibly Croatia, Northern Bosnia, etc, and possibly Southern Austria and the like… Continue reading “Italeri Church”
Italeri Country House With Porch
Back at the start of 2013 I posted about my gaming buddy Kieran building some Italeri Kitsets for his WW2 Normandy Games – and that as he did such a great job I might need to get him to build the kits I have in my stockpile for me as well! Well he ended up building some on commission for another AWC member, who then subsequently decided to discontinue WW2 gaming in 20mm scale – and so those completed custom models have ended up in my collection – alleviating the onerous need for me to assemble my existing kits of them! Brilliant outcome if you ask me! The first of them is the Country House with Porch (Italeri Kit 6075). Continue reading “Italeri Country House With Porch”
Normandy Buildings
I recently caught up with my gaming buddy Kieran (6mm Wargaming), and he brought round his completed 1/72 scale Italeri European Building kitsets he has done for his 1944 Normandy terrain. Kieran’s been taking a break from Crossfire and playing a lot of Kampfgruppe Normandy and has been steadily working on his terrain and new 20mm (German & U.S.) armies for that theatre. The Italeri buildings are the Country House, House With Porch, and the Stone House; and Kieran has gone to reasonable efforts to detail them with window shutters, walls & gates (some scratch built, some commercial), and other features – I think you’ll agree they’ve come out looking very good! I’ll be looking to achieve similar with my kits when I get around to them, and may have to talk Kieran into doing them for me since he’s done such a good job of his own! Continue reading “Normandy Buildings”
The Vaagso Raid: A Crossfire Game
Operation Archery, the Raid on Vaagso Island in Norway on 27 December 1941, involved over 500 British Commandos, Sappers, and Norwegians with the intent to take pressure off the Russians and to protect Allied convoys heading to Murmansk – and it’s an excellent action for modelling in Crossfire – check out the excellent recent game played at the Nunawading Wargames Association in Melbourne, Australia, on the Small Sagas blog (which includes the entire town made from “Paper Terrain” buildings).
Continue reading “The Vaagso Raid: A Crossfire Game”More 20mm Eastern Front Buildings
Following on from my order from Lancer Miniatures I previously posted about, as mentioned I had ordered buildings from several other manufacturers as well, and my order from Area 9 arrived a couple of days after the Lancer one. Area 9 is a comparatively new manufacturer that’s started up in 2010 – in fact I only stumbled over them a couple of months ago thanks to a post on the Crisis In Alcovia blog earlier this year! They have some very nice looking stuff, and in the 20mm range I couldn’t resist ordering one each of their three buildings, and an assortment of wooden paling fences…
Continue reading “More 20mm Eastern Front Buildings”Some 20mm Eastern Front Buildings Arrive…
Right now my 20mm WW2 & Modern era buildings are rather bare on the ground – I have a couple of very nice larger 15mm TimeCast buildings (a Belgian Townhouse and a Petrol Station), and a 20mm bombed out German HQ Building from ESLO. Otherwise I have some plastic kits awaiting completion (Airfix Jungle Outpost & the 2 Italeri Farmhouse & Manor kits) and a 20mm resin Jungle Building from Frontline. So my existing Western Europe and new Eastern Europe theatre troops desperately need buildings for their games – not to mention long-term Mediterranean/North African and more Pacific/Burma stuff! Consequently I have been purchasing several new Western & Eastern European buildings from about 5 different manufacturers (i.e. Lancer, Area 9, Hovels, TST, Sentry) – and where possible have chosen to purchase them pre-painted to save time, and get some terrain (especially Eastern Front) usable as promptly as possible. The first of these to arrive are from Lancer Miniatures in the UK, which arrived promptly in NZ just 1 week after ordering.
Continue reading “Some 20mm Eastern Front Buildings Arrive…”
Samokhodnaya Ustanovka Arrive!
Yes, they are here, masses of Soviet Samokhodnaya Ustanovka (SU) Assault Guns and Tank Destroyers – part of (a larger than planned) arsenal I’ve been accumulating for my 20mm scale World War II Russian forces for Crossfire! The real bonus is being able to obtain off EBay 4 Forces of Valor model 85041 SU-122 models (representing a vehicle of an unidentified unit on the Eastern Front, Winter of 1942/1943) – and at a reasonable price – they are rather rare (as they were only ever manufactured in limited numbers by all accounts) and usually quite expensive (due to their collectability) – most recently someone was trying to sell a single model on EBay for as much as US$90 (although about US$40-$60 is more usual)!
Crossfire Training Day!
My friend Wayne has been expressing interest in Crossfire for gaming WW2 and Vietnam – it’s all part of his WW2 Wargaming revival (see “A Bit Of WW2 Wargaming & Some Nostalgia“) – and as he had reason to be here in Auckland the last couple of days we got together for a bit of a Crossfire introduction and training session… We played a couple of simple generic scenarios with about a company a side and the following is a brief summary and some photos of the games…
A Bit Of WW2 Wargaming & Some Nostalgia
A friend of mine recently sent me some pics of some of his WW2 Wargaming terrain – we used to wargame together in the 1980’s and early 1990’s and his stuff has been mainly in storage for the last 15 years – but he’s been cracking it out recently as well as starting to work on some new pieces.