An Introduction to Crossfire 2 Initiative and Shooting

This is the second in a series of short videos explaining how the Crossfire WWII rules work and why they're so good.
CROSSFIRE and HIT THE DIRT are both available from On Military Matters in the US and Caliver Books in the UK
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[@steveqo]

Very informative for a beginner thanks

[@shades0000]

Excellent video - thanks for the useful information

[@MatakishiTeaHouse]

Thank you. I hope you enjoy the series.

[@generalpattonpending7256]

2nd time around watching this series great series Paul

[@venusboys3]

Good stuff. Seems straightforward so far. Nice figures for demo too. Where do those cute little heart tokens come from?

[@MatakishiTeaHouse]

They're from a CMON board game called The Others.

[@yyams]

having watched your videos as a primer before delving into the rulebook itself, I thought it may be worth asking you a question the answer to which has eluded me... Perhaps because I'm new to all this stuff, or maybe the answer is there but not on my wavelength. How do hills work in Crossfire? The rule book offers little information on them, and I'm wondering what sort of LoS advantages a hill (or very building for that matter) offer the occupying player. Due to the variety of which in which my tables have been laid out, hills offer a lot of "do they don't they?" questions regarding LoS. This seems at odds with the fast simple no measurements ethos. Getting out the piece of string to establish line of sight on a map with wonky hills over a variety of buildings of different height slows the action to a crawl while many possible sight lines have to be checked etc. Any answer gratefully appreciated, but no worries if you can't go feting in-depth with every question asked in the comment section - totally understandable..

[@MatakishiTeaHouse]

Crossfire doesn't live elevation, the rule book has all the buildings in the supplied scenario as single floored. Hit the Dirt, the only official Crossfire supplement adds ridgelines to hills so it's easy to determine cover from direct fire but doesn't address elevation. Here's what I do, of necessity all Crossfire players have to come up with their own ideas for this, I use common sense wherever possible. Each elevation level on my table is the same height, so all first floors in buildings are the same height as the first level of hills. A church tower will be higher etc. This is for simplicity. Elevation allows LOS over low terrain; hedges, fields etc. but tall hills, woods or other buildings block LOS. This keeps things simple but adds enough benefits to 'holding the high ground' that nobody I've played with has either objected or suggested something better. I'm still open to suggestions though! As always with house rules, feel free to ignore all this, it's your game.

[@yyams]

​@@MatakishiTeaHouse Many thanks dude.... I was starting to suspect it's intended as a 2D view from above type game. I like your house rules on this, as I do on close combat i must add! I appreciate you taking the time to reply to this. Wargaming and the somewhat cryptic (to a noob) rulebooks they emerge from can be a little overwhelming to newcomers, videos and advice like this are invaluable to us lot. Thanks again and happy gaming, if you're in the UK's northwest and ever fancy destroying a couple of newbies while teaching them lessons worth their weight in gold, gimmie a shout:)

[@rockfacenew]

@8:23 ; in a group fire, in the example you provided, one if them scores a 'Miss'. Wouldn't that trigger a "No-fire" status for that squad during the remainder in the Phasing players initiative?

[@MatakishiTeaHouse]

No. 'No Fire' markers are only applied to reactive shooting. The reasons for this are explained in detail in the next video.

[@rockfacenew]

@@MatakishiTeaHouse Thank you!

[@themaraviglia6355]

​@@MatakishiTeaHouseI'm new to this today but I'm reading the rules and watching videos to get the hang of this and the Crossfire rules section on page 10 says under "successful fire actions" to not forget the No fire section from 6.2.1. That is written in the reactive fire section but it reads as if it is supposed to apply to direct fire too. You'll keep the initiative but with diminishing firepower as squads fail to score telling hits. Am I wrong?

[@MatakishiTeaHouse]

@@themaraviglia6355 No fire only applies to reactive fire.

[@themaraviglia6355]

@@MatakishiTeaHouse then why does direct fire reference No fire results?

[@stevetjames7922]

Thanks 👍 So if you're moving out of sight of the enemy theres nothing to stop you? You could sneak loads of teams into their rear without risk of losing the initiative?

[@MatakishiTeaHouse]

Yes. You learn to guard your flanks in Crossfire very quickly.

[@stevetjames7922]

@@MatakishiTeaHouse - wow, thats different. Looking forward to the next one

[@omerfaruk-qg8ez]

Do you know if there are still like active tournaments going on for this game? Maybe in the UK or in the states? Also, do you use 40mm bases for your squads?

[@MatakishiTeaHouse]

I don't think Crossfire was ever a big tournament game.

[@omerfaruk-qg8ez]

@@MatakishiTeaHouse Do you use 40mm circular bases? I want to use circular bases to but for some reason every company out there sends quadrilateral bases. Also, where the miniatures are from?

[@MatakishiTeaHouse]

@@omerfaruk-qg8ez Rifle squads are on 50mm. MG and mortar etc on 60mm Company commanders on 40mm Platoon commanders on 30mm. Most of these figures are from Crusader Miniatures.

[@omerfaruk-qg8ez]

@@MatakishiTeaHouse Have you used Perry's plastic and metal range for ww2? If so, how do they compare to Crusader's?

[@MatakishiTeaHouse]

@@omerfaruk-qg8ez I bought some recently but they're smaller than Crusader so I won't be using them.