Multiplayer Pocket – A Three Table Crossfire Scenario

I was asked to run a one-day Crossfire game for 6-8 members of the Guildford Wargames Club. This is what I came up with. It was designed to use all the WW2 / Eastern Front infantry I had at the time – one battalion a side – plus supporting equipment, however, with play testing I decided to increase the forces of each player to at least 1 company. This meant the total forces on each side ended up being 4 Infantry Companies + 1 Infantry Platoon + 2 AFV + 2 or 3 ATG.

I had considerable input from my mate Mark Doherty and the guys on the Crossfire Discussion forum (notably Tim, Lloyd, Chuck, and Jeff). Thanks guys.

Multi-player Pocket - Map - All tables - Crossfire
Multi-player Pocket – Map – All tables – Crossfire

General Situation

Setting: Eastern Front; Autumn 1943

Basically there are three simultaneous games/tables loosely linked together – see the Sub-table approach to Multi-player Crossfire. Each table has victory conditions. And the overall winner is the side with the most table wins. Although each table is asymmetric in terms of forces, the overall situation is symmetric – hopefully making for interesting games.

The map does not show the full strategic situation; only the key conflicts are represented, so just assume there are other troops and conflicts off-table.

The setting is autumn 1943 Eastern Front. The general idea is an earlier German attack has ground to a halt and the resulting salient has been pinched off forming a pocket. The surviving Germans of the earlier assault are occupying a town inside the pocket (North Table and South Table). A Soviet force blocks their retreat, basically occupying the original Soviet positions (West Table). As other Soviet troops mass to crush the pocket (South Table), a German relief force is attempting to break through (West Table). Other Soviet forces attempt to pin the remaining German troops and prevent them salvaging valuable equipment (North Table). Both sides have a central reserve that can be used to reinforce any table, and also some shared artillery. Each table has victory conditions. And the overall winner is the side with the most table wins.

The map does not show the full strategic situation; only the key conflicts are represented, so just assume there are other troops and conflicts off-table.

All tables are 4 foot by 4 foot. The terrain is a mix of urban (grey on the map) and country side (green on map). Each table should have about 50 terrain pieces, excluding the roads. Roads are only significant for the scenario of the North Table.


Table Briefings

The briefings for each table are on separate pages:


Victory

Victory is measured in levels depending on the performance on the table.

Multiplayer Pocket - Victory scale
Multiplayer Pocket – Victory scale

Victory is measured for each of Tables, Players and Teams.

Table Victory

Indicates which team won on a particular table. Basically it means the Player met the their objectives.

Instant Victory: Each table has instant victory conditions. The winning player can then reinforce another table with one tank if their table still has one or one infantry platoon (full strength, despite any earlier losses); throw 5-6 at the start of subsequent friendly initiatives to see if they arrive. They will arrive on what ever table edge makes sense from the Map. The original player retains control of these troops. Once committed to a new table, they cannot be redeployed unless a Major Victory is achieved on the new table.

Player Victory

A measure of how well a player did on the table. This is basically the same as Table Victory, but is modified by how much outside help they had. The victory decreases by one level for each platoon the table was allocated from the central reserve, and increases by one for each reserve platoon the enemy used. (Unlike reinforcements from the central reserve, reinforcements due to a Instant Victory do not count against Player Victory). The player with the highest score is overall winner.

Team Victory

Indicates if the team won across all tables. Each Table Victory (of any level) is worth one point for the team. The side with the higher total is overall winner, and wins by the difference in the scores.


Heavy Artillery

Each side has 4 FM of Heavy Artillery that can be called in by any FO on any table; the FO cannot call in their normal FM during the same initiative. All friendly players must agree on the allocation of the Heavy Artillery, otherwise it doesn’t shoot.


Central Reserve

Each side has a central reserve. All friendly players must agree on the allocation of the central reserve to a table, otherwise it doesn’t appear. Despite the geography of the tables, assume that the central reserve can reinforce any friendly force on any table. Once committed to a particular table the central reserve will appear on the base edge on a 5-6 on 1d6 at the start of any subsequent friendly initiative. It is then permanently assigned to the player(s) on that table, and cannot be allocated to a different table.

  • German
    • 1 Rifle Platoon: 1 PC (+1); 3 Rifle Squads (1-stand/platoon has an AT-Rifle)
  • Soviet:
    • 1 Rifle Platoon: 1 PC (+1); 4 Rifle Squads (1-stand/platoon has an AT-Rifle)

Umpire Ploys

Use some Umpire Ploys to spice things up if a table gets bogged down.

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