Crossfire
|
Library Shelf Tags
Wargame Library Review |
by Greg Wagman (2024)
|
Written almost 30 years ago by legendary game designer Arty Conliffe, Crossfire stands the test of time as one of the most innovative World War II wargames ever written. It is a game with no rulers and no turn sequence. Play simply proceeds until one player can interrupt his opponent by taking well-placed opportunity fire. In Crossfire you’ll command an infantry company with supporting elements and games can be resolved in about two hours.
Presentation |
The old-school, text heavy layout isn't easy on the eyes, but it does teach you how to play with a minimum of fuss.
|
The best wargame rule books tend to do two things when you open them: (1) Teach you to play the rules; and (2) Get you excited for your first game. In its presentation, Crossfire manages one of the two. Everything about the look, feel, and writing in Crossfire screams “1980s technical manual.” It’s a black and white staple-bound book with dense, edge-to-edge text and bare bones illustrations. The prose is clear, but dry. The book is not what I’d call a fun read, but it will teach you how to play the game—and it does so in a relatively brisk 19 pages.
As you’d expect in any technical manual, there’s a detailed table of contents with numbered sections covering each game mechanic. The rules are explained in the first 19 pages, and the second half of the book includes orders of battle, data sheets, and a few scenarios. The aforementioned examples of play aren’t going to win any awards for graphic design, but they are clearly done and useful when learning the game. Crossfire also includes a cardstock quick reference sheet. It’s a bit crowded and could be better organized, but the QRS does include most of what you need to play the game. I’ve given this sheet to new players and taught them the rules using only the cardstock QRS. I’ve often heard it said by fans of Crossfire (and I do count myself among them), that for a book published in 1996, Crossfire is a product of its time. “Full color, professionally illustrated rule books didn’t become predominant for at least another decade, so you have to judge the look and presentation of Crossfire on a curve.” But the American Civil War classic Fire and Fury was published six years earlier, in 1990, and comparing the presentation of these two games offers a pretty stark contrast in quality. Crossfire is rather underwhelming in this unflattering comparison. |
Resource Links |
Playability |
You can start playing Crossfire with very limited space and a handful of miniatures in any scale. The only real impediment to play is the unsightly rule book.
|
Assuming you slog through the technical manual, Crossfire rewards you with a highly playable wargame much easier to play than the text-heavy rulebook lets on. Games can be quite small—a 4’x4’ playing space is enough—and they don’t require large numbers of models. Those models can be any scale you want, as the rules have no stated ground scale or measuring (unusual, and we’ll get to that under Mechanics). Crossfire looks and plays great in 6mm, 10mm, 15mm, or even 20mm. Moving up to 28mm is possible, but you will want a bigger playing area and I’m not sure I’d recommend it. Flames of War players will find their armies well suited to Crossfire.
Like Flames of War, a base of figures represents a squad. It doesn’t matter what size your bases are or how many figures you mount on the base. Heavy weapon teams are mounted on their own base, and do you need to represent platoon commanders (any size base will suffice). Vehicles and support guns are represented individually, but you generally won’t need many of them. Crossfire is an infantry-centric game. As a player, you typically command at least a company, perhaps up to a battalion in large scenarios. With each base representing a squad, that means your company averages about 10 bases. A small scenario could involve just one reinforced company per side, which means getting started in Crossfire is easy. A dozen units per player is a good minimum entry point. This means a new player doesn't need to spend a lot of money or invest a ton of time painting models to play. If you don't have any World War II miniatures in this scale yet, the sidebar offers some suggestions for ways to get into Crossfire for under $75 (including both sides you need for your first game). Once you start to play, the games are quick and the basic mechanics are not fussy. Mechanically, this is a game that feels modern and in keeping with the current “streamlining” trend toward shorter, simpler wargames. You’ll resolve everything with a few six-sided dice. No tape measure is needed, but you do want your tabletop packed with terrain and obstacles (more on that in a moment…). The QRS is well done and gives you almost all the information needed to play an entire game after you’ve read the rules a couple of times. Overall, as a new player, you can be up and running with Crossfire in short order. And that, more than anything, is the sign of a highly playable wargame. |
MiniaturesIf you're getting started in this period, Battlefront sells two excellent "starter boxes" that include basic forces for two opposing sides. What you get in the Hit the Beach or Stalingrad boxed set is easily suitable for a standard game of Crossfire, allowing new players a quick, affordable entry point.
Click the images above for product links. You support the Wargame Library with a small affiliate commission when using our Amazon links. |
MECHANICS |
Simple, elegant, and wildly innovative.
|
Crossfire is an unusual game. I want to quote the author, Arty Conliffe, from his Design Notes on the first page of the book: “At Historicon 1995 a friend challenged me to design a historical miniatures wargame that lacked two features present in most rulesets: rulers and fixed game turns. The result is Crossfire—a fast-paced simulation of shifting tactical initiative, where the action unfolds like a film highlighting the critical events of a battle. I tried to push the envelope with this design and extend the possibilities of traditional miniature games.”
INITIATIVE SYSTEM Mission accomplished, sir. Crossfire delivers on Arty Conliffe’s design challenge. The inescapable core of gameplay is the brilliant initiative system. There are no turns as you’d find in most wargames. One player starts the game by activating a platoon under his command, and that initiative player can continue moving, firing, and rallying his units as long as he likes. This includes activating the exact same platoon again and again. In fact, it’s theoretically possible you could hold the initiative the entire game. I’ve never seen this happen in practice, but part of the inherent drama in Crossfire is knowing that your opponent could outmaneuver and outplay you based on sheer skill. FIRE COMBAT In all likelihood, the initiative player will not get to keep moving and firing his units forever. Your initiative ends as soon as you fail any action. This could mean failing to hit in shooting, failing to rally, or most likely of all—being interrupted by your opponent’s fire. There are no rulers or measurements needed in Crossfire. You move from terrain piece to terrain piece, declaring your intended path of movement aloud. If your opponent can see you at any time during this move, he can take Reactive Fire to interrupt you. And if he rolls well enough, it will end your initiative and allow your opponent to become the initiative player. This is why smart tactics and establishing good fields of fire are critical in Crossfire. You need to cover as many lines of approach as possible to ensure that you can interrupt and stop your opponent. I’ve seen a good player maneuver multiple platoons all the way across a 6’ long table, hopping from cover to cover, without being shot. That’s possible in Crossfire if happen to be playing an opponent who hasn’t guarded his flanks properly. It’s always a pleasure to see good tactics and maneuver rewarded in a game’s mechanics. The game is called "Crossfire" for a reason. This is an important mechanic in the rules. Company commanders can coordinate the fire of multiple machine guns to establish a “crossfire” against a target within line of sight (there is no range in the game…units can shoot across the entire table if unobstructed by intervening terrain). The ability to fire multiple units in one round of shooting is central to smart tactical play in Crossfire, because remember, as long as you score enough hits, you retain the initiative and can act again. MOVING Movement, as noted earlier, is dead simple. You simply announce it and move from cover to cover. This is why it’s important to fill your tabletop with a lot of terrain and obstacles. Firing is also dead simple. Each unit has a Firepower, stating the number of dice it can roll for a round of shooting. You typically need a 5+ to hit. Terrain and some modifiers may apply. Scoring a lot of hits will eliminate enemy bases, while scoring fewer hits can Suppress or Pin him. A bad round of shooting will end your initiative, so you do need to think carefully about when to shoot. Not every shot is one worth taking! CLOSE COMBAT If there’s one area of the mechanics I find suspect, it’s close combat. Base-to-base assaults in Crossfire are absolutely merciless. All units involved roll a single six-sided die, add a handful of modifiers, and the high roll wins. It’s that simple. The losing side, even if they lost by 1, is completely wiped out. That could mean losing an entire platoon in a single die roll. I’ve seen it happen in many games. It’s punitive, but the real issue is the modifier for mass. Mathematically, it makes very little sense to bring multiple squads into a close combat, even if you heavily outnumbered your opponent. The risk of losing them all is high and not commensurate with the modifier bonus. In our club, I’ve instituted a “house rule” to address this particular issue. We allow players with multiple squads to roll one die per squad, selecting the highest value. This relatively simple fix seems to have eliminated the most glaring problems with the close combat system as written in the original game. THE OTHER STUFF Suppressed units can be rallied with a simple die roll (remember, a failed rally costs you the initiative). There are rules for smoke, mortars, engineers, and other World War 2 equipment you’d expect. The armor rules in Crossfire have never been especially popular, even among the game’s most ardent fans. Tanks in Crossfire are very restricted in their actions, though I think in an infantry-centric game there’s every reason to see why Arty Conliffe designed it this way. Because there are no “turns” in Crossfire, you do need a way to end the game. Establishing a clear objective for one or both sides is essential, but I also recommend adopting another house rule we have in our club. You don’t want to give players all night to capture that farmhouse in the middle of the table. I’ve seen games where each side trades fire repeatedly, without moving, until one side can whittle down the other. This can become a bit of a slog unless you enforce a strict time limit. Because there are no turns, we like to use a real clock. In a small scenario, we may give the attacker 90 minutes to reach his on-table objectives. In bigger scenarios, you could stretch that to two hours or more. But adding the pressure of a real-time clock turns Crossfire into a thrilling pressure cooker. |
Basics of PlayYou'll find a number of videos online teaching you how to play Crossfire, walking through specific examples of fire, movement, combat, and basic company organization. The video below is a very quick, concise explanation of movement and reaction fire.
For longer, more in-depth tutorial videos, check out Paul Ward's series on YouTube. The playlist link appears under "Game Resources" earlier in the review. Smoke & MortarsProper use of smoke to cover your advance is critical in Crossfire--a tactical tip many new players forget. This brief video by Lindybeige explains how mortars and smoke can be used to help close assaults!
|
Historical Flavor |
Weapons and equipment are generic, but Crossfire delivers the pressure of being a World War II commander in all the right ways.
|
Crossfire is not a game for rivet-counters or tread-heads. “Rifle Squads” from all nations are treated the same way, with generic Firepower ratings. The same is true for “Machine Guns” and other basic unit types. Tanks and guns receive some differentiation in the Data Sheets at the back of the book, but it’s still quite basic by most World War II standards. If you want to see the difference between an MG-42 and an American .30-cal, Crossfire will not appeal to your love of historical crunch.
There are some nods to the differing tactical doctrines of the various armies involved. The Germans have flexibility with platoon commanders that other nations like the Russians do not. The Japanese get special stats for knee mortars, and you’ll find a few other unique rules sprinkled throughout. It’s fairly lite in this regard, and I would have appreciated a bit more diversity, especially in the infantry stats. That said, Crossfire very much delivers in what I would argue is a more important aspect of historical flavor. Depending on the size of your scenario, you’ll serve as a company or battalion commander and Crossfire squarely puts you in the boots of that role. Battalion commanders were less concerned with the rate of fire of an MG-42 and more concerned with deploying their machine guns to have the best overlapping fields of fire. This is a game less about the kit and more about the proper deployment and coordination of said kit. Within the opening ten minutes of your first Crossfire game, you’ll feel the pressure of being a World War II lieutenant or major, with all the critical decisions those officers faced. And isn't that what "historical flavor" should really be about? |
|
Support |
For a publication this old, you’ll be amazed how much game support still exists for this all-time classic. All this game is missing...a proper second edition!
|
Remarkably for a 30 year old tabletop game, Crossfire is still played around the world. You can find it being run at conventions and still find gamers posting blog reports and scenarios for it. That alone is a testament to the staying power of the rules. Arty Conliffe is no longer active as an author and you will not find an official website or homepage for Crossfire, but there is an unofficial page currently run by John Moher. Balagan’s website includes a fair number of free scenarios, while the official scenario book “Hit the Dirt” includes 21 engagements spanning multiple theaters of World War II. A link to scenario book through On Military Matters is in the sidebar! But there are many other fan blogs with Crossfire content you can find online. Wargame Library has links to many of these resources for you at the top of this page, plus a truly awesome free PDF in the sidebar! This is an 18-page booklet you can download by Steve Thomas & Dick Bryant, including a series of small, introductory scenarios designed specifically for new players. These are all low-figure count scenarios with basic terrain to get you started! Thanks to Steve & Dick for assembling such a tremendous resource for new Crossfire players. Steve's own website, Balagan, is one of the best fan-made Crossfire sites you'll find anywhere on the web. Maddeningly, what you will not find is a second edition. Crossfire deserves a glossy reprint with an upgraded layout and modern graphic design. A few rule enhancements and clarifications would be welcome, but overall, the original 1996 mechanics hold up remarkably well. Until Arty Conliffe authorizes a new edition, On Military Matters and Caliver Books are the only two current distributors for the game. In 2024 a PDF version finally released. |
|
Final Review
Ever since its debut in 1996, Crossfire has remained an instant classic. It has its quirks, but the unique initiative system and lack of a traditional turn sequence provides a tension unparalleled by other World War II wargames. The limited table space and small starting forces should appeal to new World War II players, while Crossfire’s tactical depth will keep veteran gamers coming back time and again.