Steven’s growing collection of wrecks

Wreck-302 The junk yard - Banner

I have a growing junk yard comprising nicely painted, but wrecked, vehicles. Nominally these are potential objectives for Crossfire, but I’ve only ever used one wreck. That was the Fieseler Fi 156 Storch for Papa Eicke. The rest of my junk yard are, well, waiting for inspiration for a Crossfire Scenario. These are all 15mm scale.

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Musing on Terrain Density in Crossfire

Terrain Density in Crossfire 101 Woods - Open, Moderate,Dense, and Mixed - Banner

One of the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for Crossfire is Are real terrain features represented 1:1 on the table? The answer is “no”. A single real-world terrain feature can be presented by more than one Crossfire terrain feature (e.g. woods) or several real-world features can be grouped together as one on the table (e.g. buildings). In this post I explore that answer a bit more at least for woods, fields, hills and rough ground.

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How big are Crossfire Terrain features

Standard Terrain Template Sizes in Crossfire - Banner

Sometimes people ask, how big should my Crossfire terrain be? It is really up to you. For myself, I started Crossfire using whatever terrain I had, but over the years I have standardised on the sizes. This is to make it easier to Draw Maps for Crossfire Scenarios. Check out the various Crossfire terrain type if you don’t recognise some of those I mention.

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Steven’s Gurkha Battalion for Crossfire

With my Japanese battalion ready for duty in Burma, my next project was the Gurkhas to face them. This is a battalion nominally from 17th Indian Light Division, the guys who fought at Bishenpur, Potsangbam and Ningthoukhong on the Imphal Plain 1944. You might recall from my A Case Study in Balagan Thinking – How I justify collecting Japanese, my justification for collecting Japanese was that I’m (kind of, sort of) Welsh, and so are the 2nd Battalion, 4th Prince of Wales’s Own Gurkha Rifles (kind of, sort of). Anyway, I’ve now got a battalion of Gurkhas for Crossfire. Yay! Can’t wait to get that bag piper on table.

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Custom made Manipuri Hindu Temple for 14th Army

Temple-117 Temple in village - Banner

The Burma Campaign includes the Japanese invasion of India in 1944. So the setting flips from Buddhist Burma to Hindu India. Our Experiment in Ningthoukhong made me realise that to refight Bishenpur, Potsangbam and Ningthoukhong, I really needed to supplement my Home made Burmese Pagoda with a Hindu Temple from Manipuri state. Here it is. I designed it and Warbases laser cut it from MDF.

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Steven’s Japanese Battalion for Crossfire

Japanese-206 1st Company - 1st Platoon - ID J-1-1 - Banner

My WW2 Japanese are ready for duty in Crossfire. I went for a high priority Type ‘A’ Battalion. Then I added in all the support elements. So I’ve got a massively reinforced Leg Infantry Battalion. Weaker formations, i.e. battalions from a Type ‘B’ Division, Type ‘C’ Division, Mixed Infantry Brigade, or Independent Mixed Brigade, would have less than this.

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Modular Raised Roads sections for Burma

Raised-Road-213 British convoy approaching bridge - Banner

My research on Japanese Roadblocks in Burma. Roadblock Battles on the Retreat from Burma and Bishenpur, Potsangbam and Ningthoukhong – Gurkhas on the Imphal Plain 1944 convinced me I needed some raised road features for Burma. I designed the raised roads, S&A Scenics made them for me. and now I’ve painted and flocked them.

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Unlimited Vehicle Movement – Revising Crossfire Anti-tank Rules 8

Musing - Revising the Crossfire Anti-tank Rules - Corssfire - Banner

My recent musing on the anti-tank rules in Crossfire got me thinking about my current rules on vehicle actions. CF11.1 Vehicular Actions is massively restrictive as it only gives vehicles the option to move or shoot. So I for 20 years I’ve been giving vehicles multiple move actions (1-3 depending on speed) and unlimited shooting. Both of these rules are contrary to the unlimited actions of infantry in standard Crossfire. It would be great to give vehicles unlimited actions, like the infantry. So I look at the rules that have come before then look at options for unlimited vehicle movement.

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Ningthoukhong Experiment – A Crossfire Battle Report

Ningthoukhong-104 Table from south-east - Banner

At 16.30 hours my raised roads for Burma arrived. Unpainted of course. By 20.00 hours they were painted and ready to play. My Japanese have been ready for a while and I recently based my new Gurkha battalion. It was three years ago when I got all keen and wrote up some notes and drew some maps for Bishenpur, Potsangbam and Ningthoukhong – Gurkhas on the Imphal Plain 1944. Finally we could play some Crossfire at Ningthoukhong.

Summary: In a tense game the Adam’s Japanese held the south of Ningthoukhong against a fierce attack by Chris’s Gurkhas.

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Designing Modular Raised Roads sections for Burma

Raised Road 124 Examples - Banner

Following on the previous success of my custom crests version 2 and the high rice paddy bunds for Burma, I’m now thinking of a set of raised roads. Raised roads were a common feature of Burma. They’ll be the same height as the previous features (1/4″ / 6mm). Otherwise they’d be, well, just roads. I’m hoping to convince Simon from S&A Scenics to make the base features then I’ll do the work to make them look like roads. This post is about my design for the roads, which was a project in itself.

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Soviet Cavalry Regiment in Crossfire

Order of Battle - Crossfire - Banner

I’ve had a hankering to build a dismounted Cossack Cavalry Regiment for a while. For service on the Eastern Front of WW2. What has held me back was the lack of 15mm figures. Flames of War had a great set, but discontinued it. Luckily Peter Pig have brought a new Cossack range to market so now I have to figure out what I need for Crossfire.

Although there were Soviet Cavalry Divisions and Corps, the building block was the Cavalry Regiment. Zaloga and Ness (2003) describe the various TO&E for the Soviet Cavalry Regiments (p. 101-117). The regiment was about the size of an infantry battalion, so perfect for Crossfire. I’ve listed the Crossfire Orbat for the various Soviet Cavalry Regiments. Although Soviet cavalry could and did charge mounted, generally they fought dismounted and the order of battle acknowledges that.

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