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Crossfire

Arty Conliffe's Crossfire (CF) is an innovative set of WW2 rules that captures the ebb and flow of infantry battle. It's not hardware-driven and it's not designed for armour so it's not actually my rule set of choice for WW2 where these things were important, but it's readily adaptable to - and perhaps even more suited to - 'low tech' pre-war conflicts such as the Spanish Civil War (1936-7). But the rules have interesting concepts and mechanisms which others have adapted and taken as far forward as Vietnam.

The innovative features are (a) no measurement of movement or range, and (b) no fixed turns. If you can see something, you can shoot at it, and a player can continue performing actions (moving, firing, rallying etc) as long as they retain the initiative, i.e. continue to suppress or kill enemy units or take some other successful action, and do not themselves suffer suppressions or kills from 'Reactive Fire'. The rules are simple and easy to learn with no book-keeping and no lookup tables, leaving the players to concentrate on tactics.

Visibility and use of terrain are key. A CF battlefield has to be packed with terrain in order to obscure line of sight (LOS) and thus reduce ranges which are otherwise unlimited, and units typically hop from one terrain feature to another in classic fire-and-movement sequence. The phasing player needs to make judgements about whether a particular action will pay off or lose them the initiative. The non-phasing player, meanwhile, still has plenty to do, constantly eyeing opportunities for Reactive Fire. With no ranges to measure, you don't need a tape, but a piece of string is essential for checking LOS.

Movement and firing can be undertaken by individual elements or groups. The best option is to have a Platoon Commander organising a 'crossfire', hence the name of the rules. Firing factors are easy to remember: three dice are thrown for a rifle element, four for a machinegun. The number of dice is reduced by one if the target is in cover or has 'hit the dirt'. 5s and 6s are hits. Three hits are a kill, two hits suppress and one hit pins. A second suppression also kills. PCs are kept busy rallying elements from pins and suppressions, but fail to rally an element and you lose the initiative.

As in Arty's Spearhead rules, basic elements have a 1.25" square base (I use 30mm) but here they represent a section/squad rather than a platoon. For Spanish Civil War (SCW) four sections form a platoon, three platoons a company, and 3-4 companies a battalion which is the largest unit you'll need. Each platoon has a platoon commander (on a half-size base) who is essential for organising fire groups and re-motivating pinned or suppressed elements. My SCW armies are 15mm Peter Pig figures mounted 3 to an element for rifle groups, so the 'figure scale' is effectively about 1:3. This is the rules standard. But within reason the actual scale and numbers of the models doesn't matter. You can use 20mm figures at two to an element, or go down in size to 10mm or 6mm using 3 or more figures. As this is essentially an infantry game I chose 15mm.

Other alternatives to WW2 include the Manchurian War (1904-1905), the Balkan Wars (1914), the First World War, and the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. With extensions and house rules, CF can be pushed much further. With so few figures needed and the increasing availability of cheap 20mm plastics, this can be a quick, cheap and fun game to get into.

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Pictures of Spanish Civil War Crossfire game and forces.

Last updated: 13 March 2006

Crossfire

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