Wishlist for Crossfire Version 2

At some point Arty Conliffe will put together a version 2 of Crossfire. Just to get some things off my chest, here are some things that would be nice in CF II. Basically I’ve gone through my House Rules and FAQ looking for unclear / annoying things.

Design notes

Design notes on, or perhaps just more design notes on:

  • What makes CF a ” Company Level” game
  • CF1.0 Prepare to Play, subsection Ground Scale/Time scale, p. 1
    • Time scale, e.g. cinematic
    • Be slightly more explicit, e.g. something like ” ground scale can be 1:300 (1 m on table = 300 m in real life) through to 1:1700 (1 m on table = 1,700 m in real life)”
  • CF4.3 Terrain Features
    • Terrain philosophy, e.g. how many Wood features to a real Wood; what does “flat” terrain look like in CF
    • What desert terrain looks like in CF.
  • Morale, e.g. why there are no platoon / company / battalion morale rules
  • CF5.0 Spotting
    • This section is really about visibility rather than what people normally think of as spotting, i.e. the detection of enemy considering visibility, concealment, and perception skills.
    • Should explain spotting as it pertains to RBF and direct fire.
  • CF4.4 Feature Capacity/Protective Cover, Subsection Bocage/Hedges/Walls, p. 5
    • Hedges versus wall, i.e. why a hedge offers more protection than a wall
  • CF6.2.1 Reactive Fire, Subsection Reactive Fire Limitations and “NO FIRE”, p. 9.
    • What NO FIRE represents
      • Being caught with their pants down.
      • Failing to spot the moving units.
      • Poor morale meaning the unit fails to fire at the critical moment
      • A machine gun having to change barrels
      • Ammo running low.
      • Being silenced through opposing suppressing fire.
      • Continuing to pump lead into empty ground, possibly as the original target outflanks it.
      • Being so focused on one target the shooting stand can’t bring effective fire on any other enemy units.
  • How LMG are factored into the game
  • Why there are only two states of damage for vehicles: alive/dead

Rule Clarifications

Rule Clarifications on

  • Distinguish between a squad (rifle, SMG) and a stand (squad, commander, gun, mortar, vehicle, etc)
  • CF1.0 Prepare to Play: Figure Scale, p. 1
    • Clarify figure/model scale. It is ambiguous at the moment. Define for all possible stands, e.g. commanders, squads, guns, mortars, vehicles, etc.
  • CF2.3 Commanders, p. 2 and CF9.0 Rallying Pinned//Suppressed Squads, p. 16
    • What commander benefits are allowed when the commander is pinned or suppressed, e.g. crossfire, rally.
    • More precisely define “within a stand width”; if three stands are in contact and in a row are the two on the outside “within a stand width” or not
  • CF3.1 Actions, p. 3.
    • List all the actions in section 3.0. Some that are missed out are Close combat, Removing Mines/Wire, Replacing killed PCs, Unbogging.
    • In particular make it clear that Close Combat is a separate action to the Move actions that precede it.
  • CF4.1 Movement Actions, p. 3-4.
    • Section is ambiguous. Make it clear that a move action includes a pivot followed by a straight ahead. (It would help if armour worked the same way.)
  • CF4.2 Group Movement, subsection Group move Procedures, p. 5.
    • Section is ambiguous. Make it clear that all must move once nominated.
  • CF4.4 Feature Capacity/Protective Cover, Subsection Bocage/Hedges/Walls, p. 5.
    • Where you have to be to get protective cover from a Bocage/Hedge/Wall feature
  • CF5.2 Line of Sight “LOS”, p. 7.
    • Clarify Bocage versus Hedges.
  • CF10.1 Minefields.
    • Remove the ambiguity.
  • CF11.0: Vehicle, Guns and Bazookas.
    • APC versus Halftrack. Rules mix the terms but probably should just use APC.

Rule Changes / Additions

Rule Changes / Additions related to

  • Include example victory conditions, e.g. terrain, casualty, breakthrough, raid, recce
  • HTD
    • Merge HTD rule 1-6 or variations into CF II
      • Used and essential:
        Night fighting
        Crests
        Moving Clock
        Bogging Down
      • Used, and some variation is essential, but wouldn’t use the HTD version exactly as they
        are:
        Direct Fire Mortars
      • Never used, and probably need something, but not exactly the HTD version:
        Indirect Fire on Vehicles
      • Never used but see the need:
        Cliffs
    • Ditto for Contour Lines and Road
  • CF4.0: Movement/Command & Control.
    • Give generic names to what is currently national attributes, e.g. “German” could be “Adventurous”.
    • Address the 10,000 foot general dash across the table to close combat then dash back cheesy maneuvre
  • CF6.8 Submachineguns (SMGs)
    • What about Assault Rifles?
  • CF7.2 Smoke
    • Defenders with established fire lanes should be able to shoot through smoke.
  • CF8.1.1 Japanese and Russians
    • Give a generic name to the Japanese and Russian charge attribute, for example, “Reckless” Troops as it might apply to people who aren’t Japanese or Russian (e.g. Moroccans in SCW).
  • CF10.3 Entrenchments, Bunkers & Hardpoints.
    • Add points for these to the points system.
  • CF11.0: Vehicle, Guns and Bazookas.
    • With current rules it isn’t worth having tanks. Which even in an “infantry game” is a bit odd.
    • Tanks/guns should have better fire power than infantry when factoring in both the number of dice and number of times they can shoot in an initiative (they don’t at the moment)
    • In particular tanks/guns should be better at shooting at structures than infantry (they aren’t at the moment)
    • Vehicles should have better fire power than their ability to close combat (they don’t at the moment particularly APC with a platoon on board but even +3 tank is a killer) and need to limit number of stands that can close combat a vehicle
    • Unlimited range of Infantry Anti-tank Weapons (IAT) often get people bothered. Either limit this or give a bonus for squads with IAT in Close Combat against vehicles representing close range shooting.
    • Tank/gun stats (e.g. ACC, PEN, HE) should reflect actual fire performance in total (they don’t at the moment)
    • Soft skinned vehicles, e.g. unarmed trucks (for an ambush scenario for example) or Portee ATG in WW2 (OK I’m biased as I’m looking at “Technicals” for 1960-70s Portuguese Colonial War)
  • CF11.1.1: Towed Weapons.
    • Allow man-handling of guns, at least small ones.
  • AR1. Multi-player.
    • Preferably allowing simultaneous movement of more than one player. But avoiding Initiative Blitz.

2 thoughts on “Wishlist for Crossfire Version 2”

  1. I like the ideas posted above. How about tanks close-combating infantry? This isn’t allowed under the rules unless infantry are in entrenchments and one other instance that I cannot recall. We need a house rule to cover this. Do you have a suggestion for tanks close assaulting infantry in the open?

    Reply
    • Good spot there James. Standard Crossfire encourages rampages by tanks and APCs, particularly APCs loaded with passengers. My house rule is “Tanks can initiate close combat with infantry in entrenchments and with gun stands, but not other stands. APCs cannot initiate close combat.”

      Reply

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