Crossfire For Novices

Game 1

For our very first game of crossfire we have two American platoons with mortar support and an attached HMG hiding somewhere on the board. Their force is rated veteran with US/ Commonwealth command and control. The Germans have a full company with mortars in support and 2 HMG's scattered along the treeline, their force has German command and control but the troops are rated only average. Their objective is to capture and hold the hill at the centre of the table. This scenario can be found at Crossfire For Novices - A Scenario to Introduce Newbies - Steven's Balagan. We tweaked it slightly to accommodate our fewer but larger terrain pieces, which definitely seemed to have an impact on the games!*

The German platoon in the southern woods use reconnaissance by fire to uncover an American HMG on the hill, and manage to pin it. Keeping it's focus on them and preventing it from pivoting to interdict any other avenues of approach.

Unfortunately it is still able to fire, and the southern German platoon gets chewed through, losing a section.



The German's try to outflank the machinegun by sending forwards a section to reconnoiter the northern part of the board. They run straight into an American platoon in ambush behind the hedges and get wiped out.

The American HMG doesn't let up and successfully knocks out one of its German counterparts, securing dominance over the southern half of the table.

Smoke is laid to mask the Americans behind the hedges. Then a German platoon with attached HMG swings around onto their flank in the field, but are halted by scattered fire from the nearest American section.



A firefight ensues in which the American section is  pinned, but then successfully outgun and inflict dangerous casualties on the German platoon.



The American platoon redeploys so that it can bring its entire firepower to bear on the German platoon on their northern flank.



That firepower is put to good use, successfully eliminating another German HMG!



In a last attempt to press the attack the Germans pull a platoon out from the centre and under cover of smoke push forward into the woods to the north. The Americans meanwhile lay their own smoke to safely bring up their reserve platoon from the orchard into the hedges.



The combined American firepower destroys the last of the platoon in the field. The German commander decides his losses have been too great and calls off the attack.**

Game 2

The Germans have their forces in ambush in the orchards behind the hill. They plan on allowing the Americans to get close to the objective before launching a counter assault.



The Americans keep their heavy machinegun and FOO's pulled back in the north with clear line of sight to the objective hill. Their 3 infantry platoons amass and push forward behind the orchards in the south.

With patrols reporting back a complete dearth of American infantry in the north, the German commander seizes the initiative. He takes a platoon and advances rapidly into the northern woods, overrunning a forward observation post for the American artillery!

The Germans then smash into the flank of a surprised American machinegun nest, easily wiping them out.



Finally they swing round into the central woods and establish a firebase with their attached HMG overlooking the Americans forming up area! Their combined firepower against troops in the open rapidly knocks out a platoon.***



The Americans try to press their attack through the orchard, but only 1 platoon makes it into cover. The other is suppressed and then mown down in the open, utterly routing the American attack before it can get going!



*The lack of terrain pieces (nearly half of the recommended number for the scenario) seemed to limit and make predictable avenues of attack, allowing the defender to concentrate overwhelming firepower. For out next game we will either use smaller terrain, or play on a bigger board allowing room for more pieces. 
** The Americans threw fantastic dice all through this game, creating this fun albeit lopsided result.
*** This is a real case of being new to the rules and not understanding just how 'wide open' gaps in a line with no troops covering them are in crossfire. In many other rulesets the American deployment with mass weighted in the south would have made perfect sense, but not here! We both agreed however that at company level the punishing attack on an open flank made perfect sense, especially accounting for a non linear timescale.