Lockdown Crossfire – Kiwis in Italy – A Crossfire Scenario

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Bruce Stewart, like many of us, has been trying to figure out how to wargame during the Covid-19 lockdown. Bruce’s idea involves video conferencing, a situation from the Band of Brothers, and New Zealand accents. You might recall that last year Bruce sent through a couple of battle reports for Kiwis in the Italian Campaign using Crossfire. Well, there is more of the same here.

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Kiwi Vehicle Names in WW2

Kiwi Vehicle Names in WW2

I’ve posted on Kiwi Vehicle Camouflage during WW2 but didn’t spend any time researching specific vehicles. Some of the Kiwi vehicles during World War 2 were named e.g. “Discord” and “Katipo”. I thought I’d have a look at my books and see what came up. This is inspiration for my Kiwis in Italy – Steven’s Wargaming Project.

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Kiwis in Italy – Two Crossfire Battle Reports from Bruce Stewart

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Bruce Stewart has a collection of Kiwis for the Italian Campaign. He posted a couple of Crossfire after action reports on Facebook and gave me permission to repost them here. One of them is for my own 2 Companies a Side – A Generic Crossfire Scenario. The second is a scenario from the Italian 1944. Bruce games with 1/56 figures and 1/48 – 1/50 vehicles. Being from Facebook these are predominantly photographic reports.

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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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Darkest Waikato: New Zealand Wars variant for In the Heart of Africa

Darkest Waikato

In 2003 Martin Craig sent me his Heart of Africa (Foundry) variant called Darkest Waikato. In hindsight I wish I’d published them on my site back then. But, in the principle that is it never too late to rectify old mistakes, I’m posting them now. All words are by Martin and the rules are copyright by Martin. You can download the rules as a PDF.

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What is the Operational Level of War?

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I’m interested in operational level wargames for World War II. But my definition of “operational level” has been pretty vague. Something about campaigns and major offensives. So I thought I’d explore operational level war in more detail … and it turns out I was right. It is all about campaigns and major offensives.

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The Battle of Long Tan – An Incoming Scenario by Matt Spooner

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The Battle of Long Tan is one of the most famous battles of the Vietnam War, fought by Australian infantry against overwhelming odds. This is a Incoming! scenario by Matt Spooner and published on the new deceased Grunt! website, probably around 2000. Because Grunt! has disappeared I thought I’d republish the scenario here for the benefit of the Crossfire community. All words are Matt’s.

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Long Range Desert Group of WW2

Major R. A. Bagnold, Royal Corps of Signals instigated the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) on 10 Jul 1940. It’s main purpose was long range reconnaissance in the Libyan desert. The men quickly gained a reputation as the best navigators in the desert during WW2. The LRDG operated from Sep 1940 until Mar 1943. Technically it was part of the British Army but initially at least the LRDG was staffed by Kiwis of the 2 New Zealand Division.

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