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Category: WargamingWargaming and Military History are the interests I pour most of my spare time into. This section concentrates on the wargaming rules I’m interested in. I’ve got quite a lot on running wargaming campaigns. I’ve also got sub-categories on: Crossfire, DBx (including DBA and HOTT), Twilight of the Sun King, Engle Matrix Games, Megablitz, Liberators QPR, Field of Glory. All other rules are lumped together. 
I recently discovered 2 by 2 Napleonics by Rod Humble, John Rigsby and Eric Sprague. They are simple but elegant way of representing corps level actions with units as either brigades or regiments. Here is an overview of the rules and my take on them. 
The Spanish surprised their French and Swiss opponents in the Italian Wars by putting arquebusiers behind a ditch and bank. So I thought I should make one. Or, more accurately, make some modular sections of ditch and bank so I can make any shape of fortifications. The modular features are using my Big Bases for use with Big Base DBA and DBA-RRR. 
DBA-RRR has lots of army lists for the Italian Wars. I can field all the variations so the question is, which army lists will we use for each game. In our recent games we have arbitrarily chosen a date and that has given us the army lists. One night I went for 1512 (Battle of Ravenna) and another night Adam chose 1525 (Battle of Pavia). I’d like to systematise the choice, preferably using a die roll or cards. So in this post I do a bit of analysis on the battles in the Italian Wars and line them up 
Following Brett Simpson’s last post on the pacific war I asked him, how do you make your bamboo groves? I think the bamboo is a key part of the look of Brett’s table and, well, I want to copy them. Here is what he said. 
Brett Simpson has reached the 2nd Anniversary of his venture into Crossfire in the Pacific. Brett sent through a battle report and his reflections on his two year journey. I continue to be impressed by the visual spectacle of Brett’s table top. All words are his. 
Jamie couldn’t make it to our regular meet up, so Adam brought along his fresh off the painting blocks figures for the Burma Campaign and I set up a pick up game that I thought would be interesting. Japanese Imperial Army and British 14th Army. Adam doesn’t yet have enough figures for Mac’s Missions in Burma, so this is a fairly small game in Crossfire terms. 
Bruce Stewart has a collection of Kiwis for the Italian Campaign. He posted a couple of Crossfire after action reports on Facebook and gave me permission to repost them here. One of them is for my own 2 Companies a Side – A Generic Crossfire Scenario. The second is a scenario from the Italian 1944. Bruce games with 1/56 figures and 1/48 – 1/50 vehicles. Being from Facebook these are predominantly photographic reports. 
A while ago I created a couple of generic scenarios to play test new elements of Crossfire . One of them featured three companies attacking two and is called the amazingly creative name 2-3 Companies a Side – A Generic Crossfire Scenario. Andrew Fisher and friends played this scenario and Andrew sent through a battle report. Unlike the original this game features Germans and Poles in the 1939 Polish Campaign. Most words are Andrews. 
Day 2 of the 2019 World Wide Stalingrad Campaign for Crossfire is upon us. This is, more or less, the Crossfire material that Stephen Phenow sent the Finchley Wargaming Club. I have changed the format and put it into my normal template. And I’ve added a few bits that seemed missing. Where possible I’ve used Steve P’s words. The Germans have replaced their depleted battalion with a fresh one and given them more combat engineers and more heavy artillery. The Moving Clock (Timeslip) is now under German control. The Soviets had their infantry refresh but lost support elements e.g. 
Chris Harrod, Jamie Wish, Adam Landa and I played Day 1 of the 2019 World Wide Stalingrad Campaign based on Steve Phenow’s Briefing. Crossfire of course. 
This is, more or less, the Crossfire material that Stephen Phenow sent the Finchley Wargaming Club for Day 1 of the 2019 World Wide Stalingrad Campaign for Crossfire. I have changed the format and put it into my normal template. And I’ve added a few bits that seemed missing. Where possible I’ve used Steve P’s words. 
I’ve already posted on How many figures will I need to start playing Crossfire?. The answer is about 40 figures per side, about 80 total. But following a comment by Andrés F., after my Play Test of Mac’s Crossfire Missions v3, I thought it would be interesting to calculate how many figures are necessary to play Macs Missions on the Eastern Front. We’re talking pick up games for Crossfire here. If you want to be able to play all main force options and all the reinforcements, the answer is, quite a lot of figures. 
Back in 2014 I blogged about What to use for Crests in Crossfire. To be fair I didn’t really like any of the ideas but the “Long tiny hills” had some merit. So I did a version 2 of them and I’m very happy. 
Andrew Fisher and a couple of friends played my Crossfire at Position Four: The Village P Scenario. In the absence of Russian figures they had to substitute Polish and moved the date back to 1939. And that meant replacing the StuGs with Panzer Is and IIs – totally appropriate for the Polish Campaign. Andrew kindly sent through an account of the battle. Judging from the battle report it seemed to be a good game. All words are Andrew’s. 
Decades ago I purchased some lead headstones from Military Miniatures in New Zealand (now defunct). I figured I should do something with them. So here you go … a home made cemetery in 15mm. |
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