Operation East Gate – Pacific Mini-Campaign using Mac’s Crossfire Missions

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Brett Simpson sent through a report for his recent Crossfire mini-campaign set in the Pacific. The campaign is a series of three games, each using Mac’s Missions. The report features his 20mm Australian Imperial Force (AIF), Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) and Special Naval Landing Forces (SNLF) (i.e. Naval Marines). All words and photos are Brett’s.

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3 Round Mac’s Missions – A Three Game Crossfire Campaign

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I’ve been looking at Mac’s Crossfire Missions and it occurred to me that the system would be good for a Three Round Campaign. I like campaigns that are short and lead to a clear result and a Three Round Campaign offers those benefits. I’ve used the missions and main force orders of battle from Mac’s Missions v3 to drive the campaign.

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Player Handicap in Mac’s Crossfire Missions

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I’ve been thinking about player balance in Mac’s Crossfire Missions. If the two players are mis-matched in terms of experience or ability you might find the stronger player consistently wins every game. This is probably not very much fun for either player. I think a handicap system gives a way to cope with these situations. Handicapping gives the weaker player an advantage, to make it possible for them to win whilst maintaining fairness. This is Crossfire, of course.

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Crossfire Terrain Cards

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When I created my Terrain Cards – Random terrain placement for pick up wargames, Dick Bryant asked “When are we going to see the Crossfire version?” And then recently tiberius asked whether I had “considered creating a ‘modular tiles’ type map for Crossfire” (this was in the context of Mac’s Missions v3 – Revised Pick Up Games for Crossfire, although his comment was on v2). So here they are: modular terrain cards for Crossfire.

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How many figures to play Macs Missions on the Eastern Front

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I’ve already posted on How many figures will I need to start playing Crossfire?. The answer is about 40 figures per side, about 80 total. But following a comment by Andrés F., after my Play Test of Mac’s Crossfire Missions v3, I thought it would be interesting to calculate how many figures are necessary to play Macs Missions on the Eastern Front. We’re talking pick up games for Crossfire here. If you want to be able to play all main force options and all the reinforcements, the answer is, quite a lot of figures.

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Play Test of Mac’s Crossfire Missions in the Pacific

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Brett Simpson play tested Mac’s Crossfire Missions v3 using his Pacific War kit. So this was a pick up game for Crossfire with Japanese facing Australians.

Summary: fun and exciting game. Brett’s Australians won, making a successful Withdrawal in the face of a Japanese Breakthrough attempt.

All words are Brett’s.

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Play Test of Mac’s Crossfire Missions v3

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Chris Harrod and I played a game of Mac’s Crossfire Missions v3. So a pick up game for Crossfire with the option of reinforcements.

Summary: Good tense game. I conducted a fighting withdrawal in the face of massive Soviet firepower and took the game. Reinforcements gave more options (good) and did not unbalance the game (also good). I wax lyrical about the game in the conclusions and observations section at the end.

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Mac’s Missions v3 – Revised Pick Up Games for Crossfire

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A frequent suggestion for Macs Missions v2 is to give the attackers more troops. In v2 both sides get the same order of battle. Attackers have to capture enemy territory and are likely to take losses in the attempt. In compensation they get bonus victory points for achieving their more challenging mission. In the new version of Mac Missions (v3) both sides get the option of reinforcements but taking reinforcements makes victory harder. Or, put another way, taking more troops offsets any victory point bonus.

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Play Test of Mac’s Crossfire Missions v2

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Jamie Wish and I had a play test of Crossfire Missions v2. Mac’s automatically generated Crossfire Missions provided another great game of Crossfire. In what turned out to be a fighting withdrawal, I managed to blunt the attack of Jamie’s Germans and withdraw the majority of my Soviet force.

If anybody wants to try a nice little scenario with a reinforced company a side, you could try refighting this game. I’ve included the orders of battle with victory conditions of each side to enable you to do this.

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