Spanish and Portuguese Military History,
Wargaming, and other stuff
The North-West Europe Campaign of 1944-1945 started with the landings in Normandy and ended with Field Marshal Montgomery taking the German military surrender of all German forces in Holland, Northwest Germany and Denmark on Lüneburg Heath in Northwest Germany
Aidan Boustred has been running a Normandy Campaign using Crossfire. My wargaming group are not involved because we couldn’t sign up to the commitment of regular games, but as a one off Aidan asked us to play Game 7. The 5th Duke of Cornwall’s attack towards Feugret and Orbois with 2nd Battalion, 2nd Panzer Grenadier Regiment defending.
Summary: Big game but fun. Being part of a campaign gave the game features that were not possible in a one shot. I’d say it was a bloody draw.
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.
I’ve been talking to Arty Conliffe about potential Official Supplements for Crossfire. Official because they have Arty’s blessing and input. I’m thinking about both a commercial scenario book and some freebie booklets. My megalomaniac aspirations for 2022 mean I want to write one of each. There are lots of possibilities and I thought I’m share my thinking.
Through the late 1970s and 80s, Gene McCoy wrote a series of articles called “Battle Stations: Small Unit Actions” for his magazine the “Wargamer’s Digest”. The Battle Stations posed tactical problems and then offered solutions. The idea was that wargamers could compare their solution to McCoy’s. The Battle Stations are good candidates for conversion to Crossfire scenarios.
Here is the first conversion based on “US Infantry Action”, originally published as a Battle Station in October 1978 (hence BS7810). A US Motorised Company is tasked with opening the supply route for the neighbouring division. To do this they must destroy the armoured German blocking force.
In my mountain of unpainted lead are some goumier. Irregular Moroccan auxiliaries fighting for France in Italy during World War 2. Cool. I wondered what they would look like under Crossfire.
This post is long overdue. Roland painted the last of the Fallschirmjaeger in June 2011 and I got them based soon afterwards. Tragically I haven’t used them in a game of Crossfire. I guess I don’t often create Crossfire scenarios for German paratroopers. Perhaps when I have some Kiwis to fight them in the Italian Campaign; I should bump the New Zealanders up in the priority list. Anyway, here are my Fallschirmjaeger.
Brett Simpson developed an idea of a friend of mine into a Crossfire scenario called “Where is the Fuel?”. Brett sent through the scenario and associated battle report for the play test.
One of the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) for Crossfire is “How many figures will I need to start playing?” The answer is a company a side. 78 figures in total, if you follow my recommendations.
This is Anders Christian Böss’s Crossfire scenario “The Pontville Bridge / Race for the Last Bridge”. It is 6 June 1944 and a German force is defending against US paratroopers and ground troops. This scenario is one level of organisation lower than normal Crossfire, so a stand is a fire team not a squad; so, although it might not look it, that means this is a pretty big scenario by Crossfire standards. All words and photos by Anders.
Brett Simpson ran a Crossfire mini-campaign over a weekend. Four games were played in total: two Meeting Engagements and Two Bridgeheads. Saturday’s scenario was a Meeting Engagement with the objective of taking the rail hotel (Provincial Beige Building). Sunday used the same table layout, but switched to a Bridgehead. This simulates a counter-attack by whichever force lost on Saturday. There were four games because the players swapped side on each day. Brett wrote up two of the games.
There has been a flurry of interest in Nikolas Lloyd’s Scenarios on Lloydian Aspects including StuG Smuggling. We tried to smuggle a StuG last week. This week Brett Simpson has a go.
Brett Simpson sent through another small Crossfire Scenario and battle report. This time for “Holding the Fort” where a small German force had to fend off British troops and French resistance forces. It is tiny, there is only one German platoon (although they get a Panther) and two British platoons, which illustrates you can have a good game with Crossfire without a lot of figures.
Brett Simpson has kindly been sharing photos of his Crossfire kit as he builds it up. He is doing some nice scratch building for his scenery.
This time, however, Brett shared the battle report from his first Crossfire game. Called the “Assault on Chez Patrick” after the British objective or “Operation Whitehall” after the British operational code name. Most words are Brett’s.
