This battle was a re-creation in 15mm of the famous 999th Marine Battalion's landing, in July, 1944, on the Japanese-held island of Wallio, in the South Pacific. For our purposes, Wallio Island was laid out on an east-to-west axis, about 3 feet long, and 1 1/2 feet wide, and was located on the gaming table of Dave Waxtel's basement. Dave Waxtel is the publisher of CROSS FIRE, and to my surprise, announced that he had never played the rules before publication... this would be a first for him. CROSS FIRE (CF) is a squad-level game of WW II. Here, one token represents a squad, and the status of the squad is categorized in one of four states: good, pinned, suppressed, or destroyed. Individual casualties are not tracked, and the squad reacts in battle as a single entity. I was the defending Japanese commander, and under me, to defend all of Wallio Island, I had one company, 3 platoons, of Highly Imperial Japanese Marines, cream of the Emperofs crop. Each platoon consisted of 3 squads, and each squad was a stand measuring about 1-inch by 1- inch. Thus my basic company-size force was composed of 9 stands, 9 tokens. Facing me were 3 Marine company commanders, each with a force equal in size to my own. Captain Andy Waxtel, lean and mean, landed his men on the east of the island. Captain Dave Waxtel, rough and tough, landed his men on the north shore, and Captain Fred Haub, big and brawny, set out his men on the westem part of the island. The southern shore was free of the invaders. Cap'n Dave's men landed first. A landing craft was placed on North Beach, and the men of Platoon A jumped out and ran up the sands. As soon as they did so, I yelled: "I can see you!" and the men in my Highly Imperial Kawasaki Platoon commenced firing. Under CF, the side having the initiative, i.e., the active side, moves his forces untiI the men of his non-active opponent "sees" them. At this point, the non-active side gets reactive fire. Kawasaki Platoon's 3 squads had been placed in 2 small houses on North Beach, and they could easily see the oncoming Marines. By having the platoon commander coordinate fire, I was able to amass a quantity of 6-sided firing dice. Each rifle squad, firing at the Marines in the open, received 3 dice, thus giving me 9 dice. Looking for 5's and 6's, I got only one hit on the target, pinning one Marine squad. Remember that: 1 hit...squad is pinned, can fire, but cannot move until rallied 2 hits... squad is suppressed, can neither fire nor move until rallied. 3 hits... squad is destroyed Cap'n Dave's men having completed their initial action, we moved to East Beach, where Cap'n Andy's men landed. As soon as his men debarked from the landing craft, I shouted: "l can see you!"... for I had placed my second platoon, Mitsubishi Platoon, at that location. Again I tossed 9 dice and this time, achieved 2 hits, suppressing one squad. This proved fortunate for me, for if the reacting, non-moving side, can score a suppression or a kill, he wins the initiative, and can commence firing and moving his own men. In this case, however, instead of the initiative instantly reverting to me, I waited a moment for Cap'n Fred, landing his men on West Beach, to complete his action. The sequence ensures, therefore, that even though I had won the initiative, all the players on a side receive at least one action before the initiative is transferred. When Cap'n Fred's men landed, I did not shout: "l can see you!", for the simple reason that my remaining men, those of Yokohama Platoon, didn't have a clear view of West Beach. I had held them inland as a reserve. Thus Fred's platoon got a "freebee" unopposed landing. Now that all three of the invading players had received their action, the initiative finally reverted to my side. On North Beach, Kawasaki Platoon fired... 9 dice for "targets in the open". Of the 9 dice, 2 were hits, suppressing one squad, and so I retained the initiative. My second action was to have Mitsubishi Platoon fire again on East Beach at Cap'n Andy's men... again 9 dice, again 2 hits, and I moved on. This time my reserve, Yokohama Platoon, moved forward, advancing to West Beach where Cap'n Fred's men had landed. As the Highly Imperial Marines of Yokohama Platoon moved forward through the rough, Fred shouted: "I can see you!"... and BANG!... he scored 2 hits on my men, suppressing one stand. Since my men were in cover, each of Cap'n Fred's 3 squads received only 2 dice, giving him 6 in all for his 3-squad platoon. But he had won back the initiative for the Marines. And so it went. In time, other Marine platoons of 3-squads-each landed (the Marines had a total of 9 platoons), and with each wave, the attacking firepower increased in intensity. One of the key landings was made by Cap'n Andy at South Beach, thereby completing the encirclement of my defending troops. The Highly Imperial Marines fought on, however, in accordance with their Highly Imperial Military Code... to the last man. More and more of my stands were being suppressed (2 hits) and on occasion, when my rally attempts on these suppressed squads failed, I would lose the initiative, and the invading Marines would pour it on. I should note that the two key ways to have the initiative transfer from one side to the other were (a) to attempt to rally a pinned or suppressed squad and fail, or (b) to have the opponent's fire suppress or kill one of your squads. Note that in (a), it might be said that you "lost" the initiative, in contrast to (b), wherein your opponent "earned" it. Eventually, my Highly Imperial Japanese Marines were no more; Wallio Island had fallen. I had lost a full company (9 stands), and the American Marine losses were slightly larger. Post Battle After the battle, I asked the participants as how to how much battle-time had passed in capturing the island. The answers ranged from 3 to 4 hours to a full day of battle. I should note that, on the beaches, I had initially placed a series of machine gun bunkers, which were targeted by the Marine invaders' pre-landing artillery. We gave the Marines a total of 12 artillery barrages, each barrage consisting of 4 dice. For each barrage, the procedure was the following... first, a roll of a "1" or "2" on a single die indicated that that particular barrage never came in, and then, if successful, the 4 dice were tossed. Most of the machine gun emplacements were knocked out prior to the battle. I also had one tank with a machine gun on it whose 4 dice proved totally ineffective. I've played about a dozen games of CF, and I find it fascinating. The procedure of having one side react to the opponent's movement reminds me, in part, of a system we toyed with years ago. Side A would point to an enemy unit and state: "My unit will fire on yours." or "My cavalry unit will charge your infantry." or the like. Then the opponent, Side B, got a chance to react by stating "lf your unit will fire at mine, my unit will run for the nearest cover." Side A then tossed percentage dice... he had 70 percent chance of targeting Side B's unit before it moved. If Side A was unsuccessful, Side B's unit ran to cover, and received A's volley protected by a cover modifier. Similarly, if Side A's cavalry were to charge, Side B could state: "My infantry will form square and fire." Again, Side A tossed percentage dice, looking for his basic 70 percent chance of success. If successful, his cavalry had caught Side B's infantry still in line; if unsuccessful, Side A's cavalry were fired upon, and he found his horsemen attempting to impact upon a square. Conliffe has, in very clever fashion, simplified this procedure... there's no percentage dice throw required to react, and units of the non-active side react quite logically according to the dictates of the situation. I'm curious to see if the procedures employed in CF will be accepted by the WW II gamer, so different are they from the standard fare being fed the wargaming public. Back to PW Review September 1997 Table of Contents Back to PW Review List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1997 Wally Simon 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