Hit the Dirt (HTD) introduces Cliffs to Crossfire. And with my re-found interest in the Italian Campaign, I figured I needed some. Particularly as the HTD scenario “Cassino Massif” (p. 17-18) has a bunch. I think they’ll also be useful for Burma. So this is my new / updated cliff collection.
Rules for Cliffs
Cliffs are one of the Types of Terrain Features in Crossfire. The cliff rules are:
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*.
* Linear Obstacle: Moving up to, across, and away from a linear obstacle are separate Move actions.
Flames of War Cliffs
Like many of my projects this one has been bubbling away quietly for many years. I picked up some Flames of War Cliffs back in 2013. Well, technically these aren’t actually “cliffs”, they are Battlefield in a Box: Escarpments (BB536). But they look pretty cliff-y to me.
I repainted them to fit my scenery colour scheme: Flocking Wargaming Figures with Flat Earth and Dry Brushing. While doing that I ensured the cliff portion of the feature was lighter/whiter than the normal earth bits. Seems to look right.
There are two variations. I call them Escarpment 1
And Escarpment 2. They are slightly different to look at but have same game effect.
The escarpments appeared on table in Paper Factory – A Crossfire Battle Report from Krasny Bor. You can see them at the big bend in the river.
The main benefit of the cliffs in this game was to give the Spaniards a covered route from one side of the table to the other. And they took advantage of this during the game when they abandoned Watskorowo for Petrowschtschina.
Custom hills with Cliffs
I’ve been getting S&A Scenics hills for some time. I like their solid nature and the fact they come with sand on them so I can finish them to match my colour scheme of using Flat Earth and Dry Brushing.
So I asked Simon to knock me up some new hills with cliffs on part of the feature. As usual the models arrived unfinished. I only get Simon to glue on the sand and leave them unpainted. For these features, he also plastered the cliffs.
Then I finish them using Flat Earth, dry brushing and flock. This particular feature has the cliff at the end.
The other two features are for Cassino Massif. This is what I sent him as a design (in hindsight I could improve on this):
First up is the smaller hill.
And then the larger hill.
I don’t have a lot of cliffs, but probably enough to get on with.
