Crossfire

WWII Rules: WWII Infantry

Reviewed by Bill Rutherford

Crossfire, by Arty Conliffe is a set of miniatures rules for company-level WW II combat. The rulebook itself is up to Quantum Printing's normal standards - glossy, color covers, high quality semi gloss paper within, with the whole works staple-bound. Crossfire is 48 pages long, including an introduction, table of contents, 21 pages of rules and examples, 11 pages of organization charts, eight pages of scenario generation information, an introductory scenario, and two pages of equipment data. Game scales are, well, interesting. A stand of troops represents a squad, weapons section, or vehicle. Basing is immaterial as long as both sides in a game are based the same way, so you can use whatever troops you already own... The time scale is variable and isn't measured other than to the extent that a single action by a squad or platoon takes a very short time.

The distance scale is similarly undefined, beyond the occasional determination of whether one stand is within a base-width of another. The entire tabletop is considered to be within small arms range. Movement is likewise unusual in that squads may move as far as they want - in a straight line. Terrain plays a BIG part in Crossfire because it's what stops movement - troops entering a terrain feature cannot exit it during the same move. Linear obstacles similarly interrupt movement.

Troops may move by squad or by group, the advantage of the latter being that no matter what happens, all group members get a chance to move. Fire combat is simple to the extreme. What you can see (that is, have LOS to) you can shoot. One can see into adjacent terrain features but not through them, which, in your first game or two, precipitates fire fights before you realize what you've done. Combat's resolved by simple dice roll (the number of dice depending on the type of shooter), with a couple modifiers for terrain, and results include pins, suppressions, and kills.

As with movement, terrain limits fire ranges; actual distance does not. The rules address single and group fires, as well as reactive (a.k.a. opportunity) fire. Indirect fire works in a very similar manner, though smoke rounds may not show up. Close combat takes place when hostile squads come into contact and is also resolved with simple modified dice rolls.

There are no clearly defined turns in Crossfire. In essence, a player moves and fires until he loses the initiative. This can be the result of a missed shot, a failed rally attempt, or a casualty. A single stand can move and fire as often as desired, so long as the initiative isn't lost. When the initiative is lost, this process is repeated for the other player. The play sequence is therefore quite unpredictable - you can never be sure just how much of a plan you will be able to complete before the initiative shifts.

Leaders have ratings that influence both morale and close combat dice rolls. Command control is simple and effective - based on nationality, troops have to meet a LOS-to-their-platoon-leader criterion.,though I found it more useful to think in terms of "These troops have good command control and these, bad...", rather than in terms of "These are Germans and these, Soviets..."

The vehicle mechanics are like those for the other troop types, except that vehicles have armor (front and flank) and large guns. Crossfire wasn't designed as a tank versus tank game. The armor rules work well, but keep them in their "proper" context of supporting and influencing infantry. One design decision that took me a bit aback was the decision to use "platoon" transport vehicles. Though the stated scale is one model per vehicle, each half-track or truck represents a platoon's worth of vehicles. If this doesn't look or feel right to you (it didn't to me), the solution is simple. Simply play using the proper number of half-tracks and reduce the fire rating (i.e. number of attack dice) of each half-track so as not to overwhelm things.

Vehicles and heavy weapons are an exception to the normal movement and fire rules, as they can move only once and fire their main guns only once per initiative. It sounds clunky but it does a good job of replicating the infantryman's perception of a tank as a big, lumbering beast. Crossfire is best played as a one-on-one game, though the mechanics will reasonably handle up to about three players per side. Ideally, a player controls about a company, though one can go higher. In keeping with the idea that an action takes only a very short amount of time, it's interesting when playing to watch how the "action" shifts back and forth across the front - rarely does a company get into motion all along its front.

How does it play? Very well. Combat, once the first platoons get stuck-in, tends to go fast and furious. One gains an appreciation of why exposure to enemy fire is a bad thing and why staying in cover is a good thing. We've played two-on-two battalion games in about two-and-a-half hours. Company games go a bit faster. After a playing or two, one tends not to even refer to the well laid-out reference chart. The focus away from hard equipment data at this scale has surprised some and distressed others, but I think the game benefits from it because one can focus on maneuvering and attacking and not on the minutiae of each squad's specific weaponry. I enthusiastically recommend Crossfire. It's simple to learn, fun to play, and doesn't require any investment other than the $19.95 for the rulr book. Available from your FLGS or from Wargames, Inc.

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