The Fourth Crossfire Game This Week!

Good afternoon,

I have just finished my fourth Crossfire game this week, which is quite unprecedented.

Andy and Dave came round, Andy promptly wiped the board with his (now mine, thanks to his exceeding generosity) Germans against my Kiwis, and then he and Dave sat down, same set up, same forces, to see if Dave could have any more success...


Andy moved up one of his FOs in a cute wee Kublewagon and advanced towards and then entered the town, all in his first initiative...




...while Dave awaited the arrival of Andy's Hetzer down the western flank.


Which it duly did.


Andy pulled the Hetzer back so it couldn't be surprised in the flank, and then had to shoot through to look after his daughter so's his wife could go off and watch some wedding or other on the telly. Something about a prince and a commoner, future monarch of NZ or something.

Anyway, with Andy's departure, I stepped into the role of the German commander. Here was the situation.


(Those empty bases are my smoke stands at the moment!)


Dave laid down some smoke right in front of the Hetzer, and then snuck around its side...


...while he moved two squads of infantry to the edge of the hill, across from the town.


He then moved the 105mm Sherman to bombard the town (at 5 dice, minus one for the terrain the target was in), and missed, passing the initiative to me. The Hetzer lives!

I group moved my infantry to the edge of the town, so they could shoot out, but the 105 reacted to my movement and pinned my anti-tank squad.

During his next initiative, he duly dispatched the said anti-tank squad with the aforementioned 105.



He then moved the 105 to the edge of the town to shoot in. And again, missed!


However, seeing as my closet squad was pinned (and the next one suppressed) by the infantry to their front, I couldn't close assault it.

So I laid smoke in front of the other Sherman, and moved the Hetzer around to shoot at the 105 from the rear.

Dave threw for reactive fire from the 105...


...failed to penetrate the Hetzer's front armour and I was able to finish the 105 off. Cool!


I then wheeled the Hetzer around, drew more reactive fire from the 76mm of the other Sherman...


...which failed to penetrate...


...but then I missed!

The same was repeated over the Dave's next initiative, until I was finally able to finish the 76 off.


(The smoke should have been removed)

I brought up the squad from behind the hill, managed to suppress Dave's HMG on his eastern flank and pinned Dave's PIAT squad in the center with the Hetzer.


Wasn't enough to retain initiative though, so Dave laid down more smoke in front of the Hetzer and laid down some effective fire into the town.


His next initiative saw him sending in a HMG re-enforced squad to assault my suppressed squads in the town.


Against the odds, the assault was thrown back.


(Well, apart from where it wasn't!)

And that was the game. Dave had to call time, he also having to get ready to go round to watch the very same wedding as the one as Andy's wife. Though in different locations. The viewers, that is, not the wedding.

The game was still in the balance...the Germans would most likely loose the town, but they might well be able to win on the East and bring pressure into the centre. Specially with the Hetzer roaming in the West...


Just before he left I got some shots of his Americans.




Cool!

And a good time was had by all. Thanks for coming round boys,

Nick

Nick's Crossfire Day Game 2

Good afternoon,

Again,

Soon after Stan left, Dave arrived for his first ever Crossfire game. Same set up as before...



...with the same objective (which was moved to the road).

Dave moved round to the cabbage fields under the cover of smoke (a lot of smoke was used in this game). I moved round a platoon supported by the Shermans.


I also moved into the centre, a threat that Dave quite quickly neutralized.


Well almost. More of that later.

In response, I moved my left most platoon back into the centre.


After a lot of swapping of initiatives, smoke screens, shooting and the like, a particularly effective strike by mortars and the remaining Sherman effectively nullified Dave's platoon in the cabbages.


So I switched my attention to his troops in the centre. Again, with some success.




(Notice the Stug lurking behind the hill? Dave was using historical shoot and scoot tactics...which would explain why one of the Shermans lived to tell the tale...)

In the meantime, he had brought up the platoon on his right across to just a smoke screens distance away from my centre rear platoon.




Rather than assaulting my waiting HMG supported platoon he planted smoke, assaulted and ran over my isolated FO and continued on with the intention of wiping out my remaining FO in the centre, the other side of one suppressed squad and a single PC.

The first assault succeeded.

The second assault succeeded.

Then he mobbed my PC...


...and got beaten back. For the loss of three squads!


After cutting down Dave's remaining squad that had traveled all the way from his right flank, Dave conceded the game.


And a good time was had by all. A great time, in point of fact.

Thanks Dave and Stan for a fantastic end to my holiday break.

Nick

Oh yeah, does anyone know...

1. Can mortars/FOs reactive fire?


2. Can mortars/indirect weapons target armour?

Postscript - this just in from Dave...

Now I've read the rules, I see we were missing heaps of things on Sunday:
too many fire missions per initiative, FOs observing for both mortars, tanks
firing at infantry when there were tank targets, loan PCs not being
immediately captured during assaults, smoke not lasting long enough...:-)

Just goes to show that I don't read the rules!

Does this mean my heroic PC's actions were invalid? Rats!

Stan's Stupendous Stug!

Good afternoon,

I have just had a very enjoyable game of Crossfire with Stan. I took a company of Kiwis with a couple of Shermans in support, he took Andy's [Winter] Germans with a Stug. A Super Stug, as it happened.

And a good time was had by all. I was a very fun game, even though I got my ass handed to me on a plate!

We set up the table with an objective kinda in the middle and lots of terrain thither and yon. The idea was to get the IED before the other bloke!



I tried to sneak around the flank behind the burning Shermans, courtesy of Stan's Super Stug...




...but it didn't really work, seeing as I had to cross open ground between said wrecks.

So he switched his concentration to the Company's HMG assets on the hill, and then to the company commander himself.


So I switched to the other flank, trying to get across some more open ground to a depression. Stan's mortars kinda put paid to that...




At that point, only having one squad and one FO left...


...and having only killed one squad of Germans, I conceded the battle.

The men of the match? The Super Stug, who zipped from one flank to the other, laid waste to the two Shermans and then proceeded to menace the centre...


...and the German mortars, who pretty much wiped out my left.


'Twas a lot of fun!

Nick