“Race for … X” Crossfire Campaign

A Race for … X mini-campaign can be used anywhere where two friendly forces are competing to reach the same objective – the “X” of the title. The campaign mechanisms are based on some work by Martin Rapier as modified by Huda (2003). I have tried to make it more generic than either of the originals, and also show how to apply the mechanisms in Crossfire.

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Krasny Bor Campaign: Phase 1 – Break the line

Krasny Bor Campaign - Phase 1 Tables - Banner

Phase 1 of the Krasny Bor Campaign is the Soviet attempt to breakthrough the Spanish Front Line troops and get as many troops as possible into the Spanish rear for use in Phase 2. It starts at 08.00 hours and is fought on the Front tables.

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Krasny Bor Campaign – A Crossfire Campaign featuring the Blue Division

Krasny Bor - Crossfire Campaign - Zones - Banner

In mid-2003 the guys at the Shed asked me to set up a scenario for a weekend bash. The parameters they outlined were: WW2, Crossfire, 8-9 players (optional umpire), 4 tables, 2 real days of gaming, and BIG. Krasny Bor appealed to me for a number of reasons:

  • It involves the Spanish Blue Division
  • It is very BIG
  • There aren’t many tanks
  • It is seemingly one-sided, and I wondered if I could still make it a good game.

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Arnhem 17-25 Sep 1944

In the English speaking world at least, Arnhem is one of the defining battles of World War II. Vince Lody from the Shed ran a multi-player Crossfire game based on the last stand of the Paras at Arnhem. A last stand poses certain challenges for a scenario designer, i.e. you know the defender has to lose, so I wondered what other aspects of the battle would make for interesting gaming. I’ve sketched out the course of the battle and outlined what I think might make interesting scenarios.

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Multiplayer Pocket – A Three Table Crossfire Scenario

Multi-player Pocket - Crossfire - Banner

I was asked to run a one-day Crossfire game for 6-8 members of the Guildford Wargames Club. This is what I came up with. It was designed to use all the WW2 / Eastern Front infantry I had at the time – one battalion a side – plus supporting equipment, however, with play testing I decided to increase the forces of each player to at least 1 company. This meant the total forces on each side ended up being 4 Infantry Companies + 1 Infantry Platoon + 2 AFV + 2 or 3 ATG.

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Free For All Campaign

In his article “The East is Ablaze: 1919-1926” Chris Peers outlined a simple but effective method for running a campaign without a map, and ignoring all those pesky things that can bog a campaign down (politics, diplomacy, economics and logistics).

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Wargaming Campaigns for DBx, DBA, HOTT, DBM and DBR

I am a fan of campaigns and I’ve tried a few things involving the DBx family of tactical rules. The campaign system included in DBA/HOTT is ideal for one day events. And the same DBA/HOTT campaign system can be tweaked to make campaigns with more detailed tactical rules; I’ve run a couple of big DBM campaigns like this. But over time I have returned to the basics and used DBA/HOTT for the tactical rules as well. My latest initiative like this was Britannia 600 AD. DBA/HOTT are also a good complement for campaigns using Engle Matrix Games.

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