Twentieth century wars provide many accounts of troops defending their positions after losing their will to attack. Physical and emotional limits have been reached though a sense of duty and a greater sense of security in defense prevents the men from abandoning ground they occupy. Temporary loss of offensive spirit occurs in all armies at unit levels due to exhaustion of physical strength and/or emotional will as much as the depletion of fuel, ammunition equipment and manpower. In facts it can occur at army level as well as demonstrated. by the Russian armies in 1917 and the French in the same year when the Neville Offensive failed with horrible losses and the army mutinied refusing to make further attacks though they would defend current positions. In WWII Italians, Romanians, Hungarians and even the Finns reached their limits for offensive action. CROSSFIRE is concerned with company and battalion units where temporary loss of offensive spirit was common in all armies. Troops who have even briefly halted. an advance under fire are difficult to get moving again. Attack requires more physical exertion and greater exposure to enemy fire resulting in greater emotional drain. Defense provides protected positions with movement between these positions being by covered routes whenever possible. Thus relatively less physical and emotional strain is imposed on a defender. Inclusion of morale in CROSSFIRE prevents a game from degenerating into an unreal fight to the last stand by allowing an inferior size or quality unit to win by exhausting the enemy's offensive spirit. In a simple campaign involving a reinforced battalion per side (extra allowed. support as provided. for in the rules) each game represents a day. A replacement stand (player choice from stands killed) is gained at the end of the day on a D 6 roll of 5 or 6. One roll per company plus one for battalion. A battalion which has lost 33% of it's stands after replacements at the end of any day must be relieved. by a fresh battalion that night. The opposing battalion commander has "won"; ic he gets to see how many more days his probably reduced battalion can stand up to a fresh enemy battalion. So how many days can your unit remain at the sharp end without relief? Your men will remember you either way. Painful but proud memories after the war or just plain thankfulness for the time spent out of harm's way. THE SYSTEM Total number of stands in the company that day plus 100 equals company Start Morale. Example: 9 Rifle Squads, 3 PC's. 1 HMG, 1 mortar (observer), 1 Tank, 1 CC equals 16 stands plus 100 equals 116 Company Start Morale. As Stands are killed, subtract their value (given below) from the CSM. When company Morale falls below 100 and each time it is further reduced toss D 100. If the result is greater than the Current Company Morale, no stand may advance closer to the enemy baseline than the positions of their most advanced. stands. They may move freely within the area they already occupy to defend what they already hold. They may also retire their forward positions towards their own baseline but any such ground given up may not be reentered until offensive spirit has been restored on the next day. In a campaign terrain representing more than one table area could. be drawn out on paper and the terrain would be scrolled each game day thus allowing battalion or company frontages to advance or retire over several game days. STAND VALUES FOR MORALE (Subtract from Company Start Morale) Rifle/SMG Squad 3 Towed AT guns 3 No enemy fighting vehicles on table 5 Enemy fighting vehicles on table HMG, Indirect/Observer 5 PC, CC, BC 7 Fighting Vehicles 10 Optional: plus 1 to current Morale for each enemy stand killed in the open or by close combat in terrain. Enemy stands killed by fire while in cover add. nothing to friendly morale. (Did you really hit them or did they just cease fire?) The reductions for friendly stands killed can also be valued by nationality, doctrine, date and location. Examples: French 1940: Rifle/SMG Squad 5 Against Italians the French use Standard Values: eg: rifle squad 3, etc ATG 5/7 HMG etc 7 Command 9 Fighting Vehicles 12 Italians 1940, 1943-45 as French 1940, 41, & 42 Rifle, etc 4 Represents a slight improvement in spirit in N. Africa and Russia ATG 3/5 during these years. HMG etc 6 Command 8 Fighting Vehicles 10 Russians 1939-41 as French 1940 and 100 is the Maximum company start morale for Green and Regular troops.1942-43 Standard values eg. Rifle squads 3 etc 1944-45 Rifle squad etc 2 ATG 2/4 HMG etc 4 Command 6 Fighting Vehicles 9 Japanese 1937-43 Rifles squad etc 2 ATG 3/5 HMG etc 3 Command 5 Fighting Vehicles 6 1944-45 as 1937-43 except 100 is maximum company start morale. This represents the change in Japanese tactics whereby landings were not opposed on the beaches but strong, concealed defenses were placed. inland and fewer Banzai attacks were ordered as they had proved. wasteful in the face of U.S. firepower. As with all rules nothing is written in stone! The start values are suggestions and guides only. Other nationalities and stand morale values can be based on player's own research and. interpretations. I even have values for the Chinese 1937 to 1945! Back to MWAN #98 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 1999 Hal Thinglum This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com