SU-152s Up Close and Personal – A Crossfire Battle Report 2

“This is a cracking scenario”. Mark Bretherton played my SU-152s Up Close and Personal scenario for Crossfire. The words below are Mark’s unless indicated otherwise. Aside from the after action report itself, Mark explains the house rules he used for this scenario and muses on potential house rules for attacking buildings and bunkers.

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Papa Eicke – A Crossfire Battle Report

Eicke 120 Table - Banner

Chris Harrod and I played my Papa Eicke Scenario for Crossfire.

Summary: Chris, playing Kampfgruppe Masarie, recreated history and secured the body of Papa Eicke and his insignia and consequently won the game. However, he did this at the cost of a half his armoured fighting vehicles. The scenario had the right elements but could do with some tweaking.

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SU-76i in 1902nd SAP – A Crossfire Battle Report 2

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I love the tension that comes with a good game of Crossfire. Chris Harrod and I had loads of tension in our game of SU-76i in 1902nd SAP. As a result of this game, and the earlier play test by Dick Bryant, I’m now convinced the secret to a good Breakthrough scenario is defence in depth. The game was knife edge but my Germans managed to hold Chris’s Soviet steam roller.

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SU-76i in 1902nd SAP – A Crossfire Battle Report

Table SU-76i from Short Edge Dick Bryant - Banner

Dick Bryant has been play testing my SU-76i in 1902nd SAP – A Crossfire Scenario. In his first go he found the same flaw I had previously, i.e. the attacker just makes a hole and pours through. I Mused about how to solve that and suggested he try attacking from the short edge. Dick tried this with much better results.

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SU-76 “Colombina” in Action – A Crossfire Battle Report

Colombina-72 SU-76 goes No Fire and the boys are off - Banner

One Thursday night Chris Harrod and I played my SU-76 “Colombina” in Action Scenario. I picked this scenario because we have at most four hours to play in an evening, including set up. Being on the 4’x4′ table with a small company defending I figured this would be quick enough to fit.

Summary: Chris as the Russians won. Good game with some interesting choices for both sides. But the scenario does need some tweaking to make it even better.

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Village P – A Crossfire Battle Report

VillageP-168 Village P - Banner

Grant Floyd flew in from New Zealand to have a wargame, so Chris Harrod and I obliged with a game of my Crossfire at Position Four: The Village P Scenario. I picked this scenario because, after a prompt by Vaggelis, I recently drew the map and updated the victory conditions.

Summary: Great game that poses interesting choices for both sides. And despite being very, very unbalanced in force composition – the Germans are attacking into twice their numbers – the scenario seems balanced.

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Seestrasse Sector in “Operation Crossfire” – A Battle Report

Seestrasse-56 Aerial Recon in Seestrasse Sector - Banner

Chris Harrod, Joe Harrison and I played the Seestrasse Sector part of Operation Crossfire. Chris was ISIS SUNRAY, commander of the attacking Allies/Soviets and host for the day. Joe was our guest from Peterborough and took the role of SONNE GUNTHER, commander of the Axis/German defenders. I was the UMPIRE and provided the kit. Steve Spence was OFFA and Michael Stringer was NORN, the Commander-in-Chiefs of the Allies and Axis respectively – of course they were only involved in our game via an erratic radio (email) link.

The event was fantastic. An exciting battle fought as part of an inspired one day campaign. Full marks to the Nikolas Lloyd (BIG CHEESE), who was the inspired genius behind the event and the Commander-in-Chief of the umpires on the day.

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