Types of Terrain Features in Crossfire

I wanted a list of all the Crossfire Terrain types in one place. The list is compiled from Crossfire and Hit the Dirt. House Rules are in italics.

KB1F-05 Table
KB1F-05 Table

Terrain Types in Crossfire are characterised by the following attributes:

  • Shape: Area feature or Linear feature.
  • Protective Cover from Indirect Fire
  • Protective Cover from Direct Fire
  • Block LOS

In summary:

Feature Shape Indirect Cover Direct Cover Block LOS
Hill Area No Yes Yes
Contour Lines Area No No Yes/No
Crest Linear No Yes Yes
Cliff Linear No No Yes
Depression Area No No Yes/No
Bridge Linear No Yes Yes
Stream, Ditch, Sunken Road Linear Yes/No Yes/No Yes/No
Woods, Orchard (in season), Boulder Fields Area Yes Yes Yes
Rough Ground, Orchard (out of season), Rock Fields Area Yes Yes No
Fields (in season), Wet Rice Paddy Field Area No Yes Yes
Fields (out of season), Dry Rice Paddy Field Area No Yes No
Wall, Raised Rice Paddy Dyke Linear Yes Yes No
Hedge / Bocage Linear Yes Yes Yes
Structure: Building, Building Complex, Hard Point, Bunker Area Yes Yes Yes
Entrenchments Area Yes Yes No
Road Linear No No No

Hills in standard Crossfire

Crossfire offers Hills. If you use these in combination with Hit the Dirt style Contour Lines then treat the normal hills as a contour line with Rough Ground on top.

Hills: Block LOS. Protective Cover from Direct Fire only. HD capable AFVs can go hull down.


Huge table at the Shed
crammed with terrain

Hills in Hit the Dirt

Hit the Dirt doesn’t use the Hills of the standard game, and introduced Contour Lines, Crests and Cliffs in their place.

Contour Lines: Block LOS if cross 2 contour lines forming a ridge. Higher stands can see over lower hedges (and walls), crests and fields (in or out of season); in this situation hedges (and walls) and fields provide protective cover as normal, but crests do not. Contour Lines can contain other terrain features.

Note: being on a Hit the Dirt style hill formed from contour lines provides no protective cover, and is not a feature for hidden deployment purposes.

Crests: Block LOS unless the spotter or target are touching the crest. Protective Cover from Direct Fire if target is touching the Crest and the Line of Fire crosses it.

Cliffs: Block LOS unless the spotter or the target is touching the cliff face. . Vehicles may not traverse cliffs. Other stands take 3 move actions to do so, like a Linear Obstacle*.

Depressions: Invulnerability from all Fire from enemy outside the Depression – except from stands on Hills, or on the edge of the depression, which may see them and fire on them with no penalty. A Depression may contain other terrain features, which must be entirely within the Depression; such features do not block ground level LOS, except Woods.

Bridge: It blocks LOS regardless of how LOS crosses the bridge. Otherwise treat the crown of the Bridge as a Crest running at right angles to the traffic lanes.

Streams (also Ditch and Sunken Road): Linear Obstacle*. Possibility of protective cover when inside.

Anti-tank Ditch: Linear Obstacle*. Possibility of protective cover when inside. Chance of Bogging down when crossing.

Woods, Orchard (in season), Boulder Fields: Block LOS. Protective Cover from all Fire.

Rough Ground, Orchard (out of season), Rock Fields: Protective Cover from all Fire.

Fields (in season): Block LOS. Protective Cover from Direct Fire only.

Fields (out of season): Protective Cover from Direct Fire only.

Barbed Wire: Linear Obstacle*. Chance of getting Hung-up.

Hedge/Wall: Linear Obstacle*. Target touching the feature gains protective cover from indirect fire and also from direct fire if the Line of Fire crosses the feature. Hedges: Also Block LOS unless the spotter or target is touching it. Thorn Hedges: Also chance of getting Hung-up with automatic +1 modifier. Bocage: Also Impassable to Guns; fully tracked vehicles (i.e. tanks and such like) can cross, but expose their belly when doing so (no protective cover when on the hedge, +1 to enemy ACC and ARM 0).

Road Block: Linear obstacle* to vehicles. These must roll 3+ on 1d6 to cross. Failure loses initiative. Success removes the road block.


Huge table at the Shed
crammed with terrain

Buildings: Impassable to vehicles. Block LOS. Protective cover from all fire, except Direct Fire HE. May be occupied by up to 2 stands unless otherwise specified (PCs & FOs are not counted in the limit). Occupants do not see “over” intervening terrain.

Building Complexes: Unless otherwise specified, contiguous clusters of 3 or more buildings constitute a Building Complex; a multi-story building is always a Building Complex vertically. Treat as a Building and in addition … No Reactive Fire when Target moving between sections of same complex. No Direct fire between sections of same Complex.

Bunker/Hard Point: Treat as a Building except … provides superior Protective Cover when shot at from protected sides. They can be entered/exited from any un-protected side, or if all 4 sides are protected, from the rear. They can be attacked in close combat from any side.

Entrenchments: Provide Protective Cover from Direct Fire from one direction and from Indirect Fire. Entrenched stands lose their protective cover as soon as they Move.

Roads: Vehicles on roads don’t bog down.

* Linear Obstacle: Moving up to, across, and away from a linear obstacle are separate Move actions.

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