crossfire is a set of war game rules
written in 1996 by party Conliffe and it
simulates world war two combat at
company level
I got it soon after it came out and I've
been playing it pretty much ever since
and I love it now you may have heard
people say about the said of war game
rules ah these set this sentence is
really different you've got to try it it
has loads of novel mechanisms well yeah
then you tried and you find out it's not
all that different but what marks
crossfire out is different from other
sets of rules is that he needs actually
different from other sets of rules arty
was challenged could she come up with a
set of war game rules it didn't require
measuring tapes rulers and the like and
he did now one of the first things that
people say when they see a table set up
for crossfire is whoa that's a pretty
table and yes they do tend to be pretty
that's because they have lots of terrain
on them and you need lots of terrain for
crossfire to work properly and that's
because instead of using a ruler to work
out how far you can move you just move
they're using terrain features a bit
like squares on a chessboard another
thing I like about it is it just uses
d6s and not bucket loads of them either
four or five dice aplenty and there's
something physically satisfying about a
few cubes in your hand and throwing
those in crossfire
it's vital you always look at the table
and think what is my priority I think
I'm going to move these guys is my top
priority and you might move those and
then if they're not stopped you might
move them again and if they're not
stopped you might move them again and if
they're not stopped you just keep going
until the enemy stopped you so it's
possible for a unit to go right the way
across the board if no one stopped that
unit which means that you've got to
protect your flanks you've got to deploy
your troops very sensibly with
interlocking fields of fire mutually
supporting positions you got to keep a
reserve as well which is historically
accurate don't just put everything right
at the front and here's the best thing
about this system almost immediately
even new players stop thinking about the
rules and start thinking like a
commander who was actually there so for
instance imagine I'm commanding
these plucky Brits British infantry
lucky that's the rule um I want to
decide what is my priority maybe these
guys are pinned down by fire and maybe I
could try to rally those but maybe
that's going to risk the initiative and
I don't want to fail in my attempt to
rally those because everyone's gonna be
waiting whilst I try to run those guys
if they don't rally and don't cooperate
I've lost initiative and the Germans get
to do something so maybe I'll leave them
where they are I'll move through with a
fresh unit but if I go into line of
sight of the enemy then the enemy might
react to me and shoot at me and possibly
suppress me and then I've lost the
initiative again so maybe I should try
making some safe moves over here where
the enemy can't see me because I know I
can definitely get away with those and
then I will look at the situation anew
and decide what my next priority is and
straightaway I'm thinking like an actual
commander who's actually there ah that's
gone wrong maybe I can try something
else or maybe I've just got to fix the
thing that's gone wrong it's exciting
it's fluid and it gives very decisive
results rather than just a huge long
slugging match and then you don't quite
finish the game you end up packing all
the toys away and discussing what do you
think would have happened had we had
time to carry on that doesn't happen
almost never happens in the crossfire
instead you get a decisive result at
some point one side makes a gap in the
opposition's frontline manages to pull
through a load of troops sweep round
with the flank and mop everyone up and
it's all over very quickly a bit like
real battles
lemurs