Marston Airfield – A Crossfire Battle Report in the Pacific

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Brett Simpson sent through another Crossfire Battle Report in the Pacific, this time a Bridgehead scenario at an Australian defended Marston Airfield. Marston was the type of portable matting that was used to make these airfields. The game feature’s Brett’s brand new Japanese Special Amphibious Landing Company (SNLF) and, of course, his new airfield feature. All words are Brett’s.

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Pick up game in Burma – A Crossfire Battle Report

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Jamie couldn’t make it to our regular meet up, so Adam brought along his fresh off the painting blocks figures for the Burma Campaign and I set up a pick up game that I thought would be interesting. Japanese Imperial Army and British 14th Army. Adam doesn’t yet have enough figures for Mac’s Missions in Burma, so this is a fairly small game in Crossfire terms.

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Home made Burmese Pagoda for 14th Army

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Adam is keen on the 14th Army in the Burma Campaign. Accounts of the campaign feature pagodas (i.e. temples) in the villages. Luckily you can buy roughly 1/100th scale pagodas from pet stores (or Amazon or eBay). Unfortunately, these are all Chinese or Japanese. And it doesn’t take long on google to discover Burmese pagodas are unique. They feature a golden umbrella in a variety of patterns but basically a spire with wider and narrower bands around the spire. Gold of course. And the base is a white dome. Hmm. I can’t buy one, so I’ll make one.

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A Case Study in Balagan Thinking – How I justify collecting Japanese

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If you didn’t know, Balagan means messy or chaotic. And lately my head has definitely been balagan. I’m trying to justify building up a Japanese force for Crossfire. I’m trying to find ways to fit the Japanese into my Official Focus of Spain, Portugal, New Zealand, and Israel. I’ve got to say, it ain’t easy. But with quite a lot of mental gymnastics I might manage it.

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Japanese Leg Battalion – Revised Organisation for Crossfire

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John Moher’s post Modelling Japanese in Crossfire prompted me to think about the Crossfire order of battle for the Japanese. John highlights some ways where the official Crossfire order of battle is incorrect but he doesn’t write it out in full. So I set out to document a new Crossfire organisation for a Japanese Leg Infantry Battalion. Turns out it was more complicated than I anticipated. And I ended up diverging from John’s suggestions a bit.

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Musing on Japanese Knee Mortars in Crossfire

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In World War II the Japanese issued three 5cm Mortars to every Rifle Platoon. Standard Crossfire makes the Knee Mortar rather useless. John Moher reinstates them as an effective piece of combat kit. And I do the same, but in a much simpler fashion.

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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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Grass Tufts or Wargaming with Fairy Door Grass Mats

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Brett Simpson kindly sent me some “Fairy Door Grass Mats”. I’d asked about the grass tufts in his jungle photos and wanted to know the source. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, Fairy Door Grass Mats are only available in Australia. So Brett sent me some. Despite the mushrooms and bugs, these mats are a useful source of jungle foliage. Perfect for the Portuguese Colonial War.

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Dig in and Wait! A Crossfire Scenario in the Pacific

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Brett Simpson sent through this Crossfire scenario pitting the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) against the Australian Imperial Force (AIF). Like all Brett’s scenarios it is small – a company level game that fits on Brett’s kitchen table, which is roughly 3′ x 5′, using 20mm figures.

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