Some musing on Shared Fire Missions in Multiplayer Crossfire. Standard Crossfire doesn’t cover this.
Crossfire Musing
I’ve collected together some interesting Crossfireideas from other people. I’ve reproduced them here mainly so I don’t have to go hunting for them again. Most rule variations are untried. Some items – Base Sizes for example – are there because people ask about them a lot, so in some ways this section is a FAQ, but not quite. See also my real FAQ.
In particular I’ve musings on: Command Control, Troop Types, Vehicles, Shooting, Terrain, Converting from other Game Systems, v2 wish list. Plus a whole bunch of other stuff.
Cinematic Time in Crossfire
Gregory ‘Pappy’ Boyington, a WWII US Marine Pilot, said combat “is hours and hours of boredom sprinkled with a few seconds of sheer terror”. He specifically meant combat flying but the principal applies to any combat. Crossfire concentrates on the terror and, being a game, glosses over the boredom. That means time in Crossfire is definitely not like in other games in which turns represent the passage of a specific number of minutes or hours. Most other games have turns where units take time to move into combat range but no combat. Crossfire gets to the meat of the combat issue quickly.
Measuring Ranges in Crossfire using Terrain Features
“The action [in Crossfire] takes place within the effective range of small arms” (p.1). Having said that there are some weapons that had very short ranges, e.g. Infantry Anti-tank weapons) so people have speculated on how to specify ranges in Crossfire. Some people have suggested introducing rulers, but this seems at odds with Crossfire’s intent, so I explored an alternative way of measuring ranges.
Tupara – A Crossfire Variant for the New Zealand Wars
Tupara (literally two-barrel) were the double-barrelled shotguns favoured by the Maori in the New Zealand Wars. Given the devastation this weapon caused amongst their European opponents it seems an appropriate name for a Crossfire variant for the New Zealand Wars.
Hidden Movement in Crossfire (“Ghosts”)
Crossfire doesn’t have hidden movement only hidden deployment. Some rule sets use a system of hidden movement markers, representing both real and dummy troops, to allow hidden movement without the aid of an umpire. These are my thoughts on how this might work in Crossfire. The ideas are largely based on the concept of Blinds from “I Ain’t Been Shot Mum” (IABSM). I’m tempted to use the wargame dummies suggested on the MinatureZone for my hidden movement markers and given their appearance I’ll call the units “Ghosts” rather than blinds.
Ground Scale in Crossfire
Arty Conliffe’s Crossfire has no fixed ground scale. This doesn’t help when converting historical maps/accounts into Crossfire tables/map so I wanted to know what was a sensible ratio. Most players seem happy with the ground scale advocated by Hit the Dirt i.e. from about 1:300 to 1:500. My own conclusion is that 1:1000 is probably the best fit, although anything in the range 1:300 to 1:1700 is defensible.
How to play Multi-player Crossfire Games
Multi-player games have a number of advantages over 1-on-1 games: They’re big and allow lots of toys on the table; they can more accurately simulate a command hierarchy; they can be more sociable. Crossfire is, however, really designed as a 1-on-1 game. This page lists several suggestions for how to turn Crossfire into a multi-player game. Generally I assume that each player has at least a company of infantry.
A Platoon’s Lines of Fire in Crossfire
Some musing on a platoon’s lines of fire in Crossfire. I wondered how different Unit Formations applied to Crossfire. One criteria to measure them is Lines of Fire; more fire is better. In this case I’ve depicted the number of stands that the platoon can bring to bear in various Unit Formations. In other words, it shows how many squads can fire if the platoon is using a crossfire in shooting. Remember squads only shoot forward in a crossfire and all shooting is front the centre of the stand, but the line of fire can’t cross any part of a friendly stand..
Fighting the 1000 Foot General in Crossfire
Some musing on Fighting the 1000 Foot General in Crossfire. It would seem the mass redeployment is seen by some as a positive of crossfire, i.e. forcing commanders to cater for unforeseen events, and as a negative by others as an example of the 1000′ General. I sympathise with both views although I lean toward seeing it as a positive. Here are a few possibilities if you view it as negative.
