A Passion for History, Miniatures, & Gaming
John Lander’s group once again put on an impressive 1/35th scale Crossfire game in the UK – The Oosterbeek Cauldron (1st British Airborne Division in Market Garden, September 1944) – and you can see more photos at the Wargames Society Forum (scroll down to images 314 to 317). John’s Crossfire demo games & his models are fairly well known in the UK, and have previously been featured in Wargames Illustrated Magazine (issues 221 & 222 from March & April 2006) with Operation Goodwood.
Ryan Davies is a member of the Crossfire Yahoo Group, and he recently put together a document detailing his techniques for painting and basing his 1/72nd scale figures – as a way to give something back to the wargaming internet community which he believes has helped him a lot over the years with his wargaming efforts. Ryan details how to cut bases from brass with a jewellers saw, his technique for labelling & indentifying his bases, and storing them.
Ryan then moves onto painting, especially soft plastic figures, covering how to paint, shade and seal them. He covers the merits of just brands of commonly available model paint, and the moves on to the actual techniques for basing the figures.
I thought I’d throw up some preliminary photos of my 20mm Japanese troops – these are the bulk of a Battalion for Crossfire, along with some extra supports and an assortment of guns and tanks to represent most typical Japanese forces throughout the Pacific and Burma campaigns. The figures are mostly Eureka & Warmodelling (Fantassin), with a handful of Sgt. Major’s Miniatures chaps, a few SHQ Officers & NCOs (and a pair of 8cm Mortar Teams), and a couple of Combat Miniatures Officers and a few Scouts/Snipers (plus the Mounted Command Group).
The force represents a Japanese Battalion of 3 Rifle & 1 MG Company, with Regimental Support coming from a pair of 7cm Infantry Guns, and a single 7.5cm Mountain Gun, from the Regimental Gun Companies (visible in the background spray painted in grey primer).
Conducting Group and Cross-Fires in Crossfire can sometimes be a bit of a ‘trap for young players’ for the beginner. As a result I’ve endeavoured to provide a simple little graphic tutorial that hopefully will illustrate the process fairly clearly and help explain some of the benefits…
There are several common mistakes (or perhaps misreading of the rule’s text is a better term) so this basic example will attempt to step through the main points. In our example a German Platoon has somehow managed to enter a small orchard (or olive grove) encountering a single British Squad within. Both the British Squad and the entire German Platoon are fully within the terrain feature – this means they both gain the advantage of Light Cover, and both sides have clear line of sight to each other despite the trees (as there is no intervening terrain feature or obstacle). A German Squad was previously PINNED and the British Squad has just finished phasing fire at the Germans, managing to PIN a second Squad before losing the initiative to the Germans; as Pins are not sufficient to retain the initiative (a Suppression or better being required). We take things up in our example as initiative has just passed to the German Player…
Something that Is not always generally recognised is that it is intended in CF that all (on table) vehicles and heavy weapons are modelled at a scale of 1:1 – i.e. 1 model of a tank, half-track, or gun is one real tank, half-track, or gun. While this seems logical to some, based on extrapolating the scale of Rifle Squads, HMGs, and Mortars to these, it is not always so to all players, however Arty has also stated this on a couple of occasions when asked… So in the interests of providing a clear guide from the author himself I have asked Arty again to reconfirm that this is what his original intent was, and we have had an ongoing discussion confirm & clarify this. As such the following is the key parts of a post and subsequent discussion on the Crossfire Yahoo Group, and Arty has also read and approved the main content prior to public posting so it can be considered as the closest to an official clarification there is likely to be on the subject.
In April 2009 the Crossfire community conducted a global mini-campaign where games were played on the same day all around the world and linked together so the result of the games in each time zone affected what happened in the games in subsequent time zones. You can read all about World Crossfire Day 2009 here at Wargaming.info.
Now in 2010 its time for a different idea, again linking players from the Crossfire community located all around the world… This time its going to be a simultaneous game, played all over the world at the exact same time, and with Commanders in Chief located elsewhere in the world who will be receiving reports via email, and sending orders by the same, and who can transfer troops from one game to another (in real time), choose where to commit reserves, and so on…
Close Combat in Buildings and Building Structures can sometimes be a little perplexing for players new to Crossfire. This page attempts to outline the process in clear logical steps to help walk the new player though the mechanics. While it may appear complex at first it is in fact relatively simple and will become second nature after a few combats.
In Crossfire, an individual building is generally intended to represent a single small to medium size dwelling or similar. It might also occasionally represent a small complex of 2-3 small buildings (like a small Eastern-European farmhouse with attached barn). As a rough guide, the playing area occupied is roughly about the same as what 4-6 squads would occupy.
Occasionally there will be exceptionally large buildings (such as the tractor factory in Stalingrad, or a row of adjoining terraced houses) – these are known as building complexes, and are treated as multiple ‘buildings’ with some special considerations (see page 6, Section 4.4.1a of the rulebook).
As mentioned in by blog entry Time To Do ‘The Pacific’ with Crossfire I have been inspired by the release of “The Pacific” by HBO to finally build a Japanese force for Crossfire, to game the early Pacific Campaigns of 1942-44 and the Burma/Malaya Campaigns. As I have a sizeable force of 1/72nd scale Japanese coming, I thought I would give some thoughts to how Japanese Battalions & Regiments were organised historically, what peculiarities and special weapons they had, and how these are best represented in Crossfire (i.e. as defined by the rules or by an alternate method). As a result these are my current thoughts on representing Japanese forces and most especially the presence of their main support weapons at Battalion level, over and above HMGs…
I’ve always had an interest in the Pacific Theatre, most especially the 14th Army in Burma & Malaya, and the early U.S. Marine operations such as in the Solomon’s (as the 3rd NZ Division was involved in additional actions in the chain after the main U.S. battle ended on Guadalcanal), the Gilbert (Tarawa) & Marshal Islands campaign, and perhaps ultimately the Mariana & Palau (Peleliu) Islands… After years and years (OK make that Decades) of procrastination I have finally bit the bullet and ordered the figures inspired by the release of “The Pacific” by HBO.
A full report of World Crossfire Day with photos has just been published in the latest Miniature Wargames Magazine (Issue 316 – August 2009). Continue reading “World Crossfire Day Report in Miniature Wargames”
Arty Conliffe announces plans for Crossfire II and hopes it will be published around the end of 2009; read his announcement at the Crossfire Website.
Date Played: 04 April 2009 4.00pm US PDT (04 April Midnight GMT); 1830 WCFD Game Time.
Game Report by Stephen Phenow.
The Germans had retreated to the fortified head of a steep valley. Here they had emplaced a very well-camouflaged ‘88’ that was picking off Allied vehicles on the road (off-table). The 88 couldn’t be used vs. targets on-table because it couldn’t depress sufficiently to target the valley, and its view was obscured as well, but it was a menace to the off-table traffic. The British had to send in men to find it and destroy it. They had an air liaison officer who was having problems calling in Typhoons, and the British could resupply infinitely. How long could the Germans hold out?
