Political Cooperation Special Rules for Crossfire

Some musing on impact of political cooperation, or more specifically of lack of cooperation, in Crossfire. Standard Crossfire doesn’t cover this.

Poor cooperation between the forces of different political parties plagued both sides in the Spanish Civil War – particularly the Republicans. Similarly there was usually very poor battle field cooperation between different branches of service.

See my SCW: Political Cooperation for what I actually use.

Political Cooperation as Reactive Fire (Hand of Fate)

Poor cooperation between the forces of different political parties plagued both armies in the Spanish Civil War – particularly the Republicans.

All stands have an allegiance: Regular Army, Communist, Socialist, Basque, Marxist, Republican or Anarchist. For cooperation purposes all Nationalist forces have an allegiance to the Regular Army, even the militia, ditto for Paramilitary forces including those on the Republican side. Even when the Republican Popular Army was formed units retained their previous allegiances. So, for example, an POUM militia unit that is incorporated into a Republican Mixed Brigade is still counted as a Marxist unit even though it is officially Regular Army now. “Republican” allegiance means a allegiance to the Republican party, as opposed to Communist party etc. It is not a catch all for all those on the Republican, i.e. government side, of the war.

A player gets extra Hand of Fate (Free Reactive Fire) rolls depending on the composition of the force opposing him. The number of rolls is determined from the following table.

Factor Extra Hand of Fate rolls
Any enemy with allegiance to Regular Army +0
Any enemy with allegiance to Socialist party +1
Any enemy with allegiance to Communist party +1
Any enemy with allegiance to Marxist party +1
Any enemy with allegiance to Republican party +1
Any enemy with allegiance to Basque nationalist party +1
Any enemy with allegiance to Anarchist party +2
A significant portion of the enemy (>25%) do not have Spanish as their first language +1

Example, if a player is facing an enemy force containing both Socialists and Anarchists, then the the player gets +1 (Socialist) + 2 (Anarchist) = +3 Hand of Fate rolls.

The language barrier factor reflects the difficulties facing higher echelons of command when directing units using different languages.

Example, if a player is facing a force containing both Spanish and Foreign Communists then he would get +1 (communist) + 1 (Language Barrier) = +2 Hand of Fate rolls.

Auto-Pin Variation

Use the rules above but the Hand of Fate is automatically a Pin. When Hand of Fate is invoked one enemy moving stand is immediately pinned. The moving player must immediately try to rally the pinned stand. Success means the stand rallies and can, if the player with initiative wishes, then take the intended move action. Failure means initiative passes. In the case of a group move only one stand is pinned.

Political Cooperation Matrix

All stands have an allegiance: Regular, Communist, Social, Basque, or Anarchist. For cooperation purposes all Nationalist forces have an allegiance to the Army, even the militia, ditto for Paramilitary forces including those on the Republican side.

Any time a stand of different branch of service or a stand under the immediate control of a different officer (PC, CC or BC) is to take an action then the opposing player can ask the player with initiative to make a cooperation roll. A successful roll on 1d6 means initiative passes to the next force successfully; otherwise initiative passes to the opposing player. The following table gives the cooperation roll necessary:

Cooperation Roll: Next action by:
Army Socialist Communist Marxist Republican Basque Anarchist
Current action by: Army 1+ 1+ 1+ 1+ 1+ 1+ 3+
Socialist 2+ 1+ 1+ 1+ 2+ 2+ 3+
Communist 1+ 1+ 1+ 2+ 2+ 3+ 3+
Marxist 2+ 1+ 2+ 1+ 2+ 2+ 3+
Republican 1+ 2+ 2+ 2+ 1+ 1+ 3+
Basque 1+ 2+ 1+ 2+ 1+ 1+ 3+
Anarchist 3+ 3+ 3+ 3+ 3+ 3+ 1+

Note “Republican” in this table means a allegiance to the Republican party, as opposed to Communist party etc. It is not a catch all for all those on the Republican, i.e. government side, of the war.

Even when the Republican Popular Army was formed units retained their previous allegiances. So, for example, an POUM militia unit that is incorporated into a Republican Mixed Brigade is still counted as a Marxist unit even though it is officially Regular Army now.

Example of Cooperation roll: If a Regular Army HMG took the current action and a Communist Rifle Squad will take the next action then cooperation is achieved on 1+, i.e. it is automatic. Alternatively if the next action is to be taken by an Anarchist Rifle Squad then a 3+ is necessary.

If the next action is by a different branch of service then +1 to the scored needed. For game purposes there are effectively only two branches of service: Infantry/Cavalry and Tanks. For example, if a Socialist rifle squad (Infantry) took the current action and a Communist T-26 (Tank) will take the next action, then a 2+ is required to cooperate successfully rather than the normal 1+.

Similarly if there is a language barrier between the two stands then a further +1 to the score is needed. This is not simply that the two stands speak different languages, it is more that higher echelons of command can not cope with directing units using different languages.

Because Artillery and Aircraft also have a mechanism where they might not activate – they fail their to hit roll – they are excluded from the cooperation rolls. Just ignore them, and pay attention to the stand that acted before and the stand that will act after the artillery or aircraft action.

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