Download the Balagan House Rules for Crossfire Armour

People often criticise the armour rules in Crossfire. For anybody who, during 2022 and 2023, was following my Musing on Revised Crossfire Anti-tank Rules, you can download the final Crossfire Armour – Balagan House Rules here. Enjoy.


Backstory

Some people love the standard armour rules in Crossfire. For example, Julian Donohoe had this to say:

I have the impression that a player in Crossfire represents an infantry company or battalion commander. As all infantrymen (and former infantrymen) know, turret-heads are usually not too enthusiastic when they are seconded out to support infantry units and co-operation is often difficult due to the two arms not fully understanding the others’ strengths and limitations. Further more, the terrain set-up on a typical Crossfire table should not be ideal tank country, which would result in the armoured units taking a back seat in the operations until they are on more open ground. The restrictions placed on vehicles in Crossfire, though blunt, seem to do a good job in reflecting this. (Julian Donohoe, Excerpt from Crossfire Discussion forum.)

Despite that, many people dislike the armour rules in Crossfire. There are a number of reasons for this including:

  • Many important vehicles are missing from datasheets
  • Rather questionable ACC and PEN ratings.
  • A single action per imitative makes AFVs very slow compared to infantry
  • A single action per initiative gives them a very inferior fire power compared to a HMG (which can fire multiple times per initiative).
  • Low calibre guns are not worth having for their HE, and hardly for their AP.
  • No rules for group fire of vehicles.

There is, of course, considerable debate about which of these factors are true and/or most important.


Two major editions

With all that discontent it is inevitable that some people have scrapped the published system entirely and come up with their own rules. I’m one of them. In fact, I’ve had two attempts at fixing some of these problems.

1st Edition

For 20 years I used my Crossfire Armour – Balagan House Rules (1st Edition). You can get a copy below.

2nd Edition

1st Edition was a halfway house and eventually I wanted a more comprehensive revision. In fact I’ve thought about revising the armour rules so much I have a tag for it: Crossfire Armour Musing.

2nd Edition is intended to meet a number of Design Goals:

  • Simpler and consistent rules
  • Entire War
  • All Theatres
  • Appeal to tank geeks
  • Don’t scare off normal players
  • Grunty tanks
  • Useful anti-tank rifles
  • Useful 45mm anti-tank guns
  • And address my wish list e.g. support both soft skin vehicles and armoured vehicles

The result of is available below.


Download the Balagan Armour House Rules

You can download the Balagan Armour House Rules as a PDF.
Crossfire Armour - Balagan House Rules - Download


Versions

2nd Edition

2nd Edition, Beta Version 0.2 (16 Oct 2024)

1st Edition

1st Edition, Version 1.1 (22 Nov 2022)

11 thoughts on “Download the Balagan House Rules for Crossfire Armour”

  1. Thank You. Your hard work and dedication to this wonderful game is greatly appreciated. You are an inspiration for me to keep painting miniatures and building terrain for CF on the off chance I find someone to play against.

    Reply
  2. These are much appreciated, but are you planning to add Japanese armour and Stuarts and Grants to the mix?
    Cheers,
    Peter

    Reply
    • I’ll add whatever people ask for. And, of course, I have a selfish interest in 14th Army Stuarts and Grants and their Japanese opponents. Good suggestion.

      Reply
  3. Hello Steven,
    Thank you very much for your great efforts and the many, many contents and articles. Your armour rules inspire me a lot, I must confess. I have a question regarding the topic of house rules:
    Don’t you have any house rules for ‘ordinary’ close combat between infantry?
    I think it’s pretty stupid that one squad rolls a d6 between 1 and 6, but when a second squad joins, only a 1 is added. Shouldn’t each squad have its own dice and the total result be added up? Gladly with a limit of one platoon for the attacker.

    Cheers!

    Reply
    • I’m sure there are good alternatives to the close combat rule. Of course, it is another special rule that could be rationalised. It just hasn’t bothered me enough to think about it.

      Reply
  4. Thank you for your feedback, Steven!
    I’m a little surprised that nothing bothers you (enough) about it. No offence intended! 🙂
    But perhaps you could share a few hypothetical thoughts with us, what you would likely change, if you wanted to work on this topic.

    Cheers!

    Reply
    • Thinking back on it, I was aware that close combat is inconsistent (doesn’t use the standard to-hit system of direct fire) but I like the effect of the close combat rule as it stands. Close Combat in Crossfire is scary. Make or break stuff. And you can load in numbers and good officers to tip the balance, but it takes a lot of additional troops to seal the deal. Which means most Close Combat remains scary. Which I think is the right feel.

      Alternatives, which emphasis numbers, would make it easier to number crunch Close Combat e.g. “Right, all I have to do is put in two squads and my +2 commander and I’m guaranteed to win the Close Combat. That isn’t scary. That is accounting.

      I like the scary.

      I guess the other thing is speed. The current close combat rule is super fast. Dice off and one side wins and the other dies. On a draw do it again. Can’t get faster than that. Alternatives which are more like direct fire will be slower and I can’t see a good reason to do that.

      Fast and scary. I like that.

      Reply
      • Thank you for your answer, Steven!

        Yes, I don’t think it’s a problem that close combat is different from firefights in terms of dice rolling. I find that rather positive. I also like the all-or-nothing principle.
        It’s probably true that the odds increase more significantly if each squad rolls its own dice. But it’s still no guarantee of victory. Example:
        3 rifle squads with +1 platoon leader attack 1 SMG squad with +1 platoon leader:
        2-2-1 is rolled for the rifles. Pretty bad! This results in 5. With the platoon leader bonus ‘6’. The SMG squad rolls a 5. Good! With SMG- and platoon leader bonuses, the result is ‘7’. Bad luck for the attacker. He loses all 3 rifles and the PL!

        I think it will remain scary. But it makes more sense to attack with a superior force, which I think is right and important. By the way:
        We do NOT re-roll the dice in case of a tie in close combat, instead the defender wins.

        Cheers!

        Reply

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