Wargaming | Crossfire | Musing
Science Fiction Variant of Crossfire

Posted 12 May 2010 at 14:17

Roby from Italy asked my advice on Sci-FI Crossfire. I'm no expert but here's some ideas ...

It really depends on your genre but to quote Paul Ward “any changes are done via force organisations and firing dice”.

For each type of squad/vehicle/etc assign …

  • Armour: go for the standard CF of using different mechanisms for anti-personnel fire versus anti-armour; or give Armoured targets cover benefits like entrenchment and/or bunker
  • Direct Fire Anti-Personnel capability: e.g. like a Rifle Squad, or SMG squad, or HMG, Direct Fire Gun with HE
  • Direct Fire Anti-Armour capability: e.g. ACC in range -1 to +1 and PEN in range -3 to +3. Is everything armoured as you can ignore it for game purposes and just use anti-personnel mechanics?
  • Indirect Fire Capability: e.g. Firing dice; Number of Fire Missions (FM); does it need a FO to direct fire or is this handled by satellite etc?
  • Arc of Fire: e.g. like a squad or HMG
  • Number of firing dice: must be in the range 2d6 to 5d6. The standard squad should get 3d6. Potent weapon systems should get 5d6. Particularly weak shooting ability should get 2d6.
  • Number of attacks: e.g. I give tanks a main gun and machine gun which fire separately and can combine in a fire group. This makes tanks very potent compared to standard CF
  • Number of move actions per initiative: either 1-3 moves actions or unlimited
  • Movement style: ground and/or air
  • Morale: Green, Regular, Veteran
  • Close combat bonus: 0, +1, +2 on top of moral bonus
  • Command and Control
  • Size: is anything big enough to be seen over and see over terrain that normally blocks LOS? This is a very dangerous tweak for CF. Woods and Hill should always block. Houses probably should. Fields might not block a Battle Mech. What happens if a big armoured thing enters a building?

So, for example, in a genre where everything is armoured …

  • Battle mech: Veteran, Armoured (counts as bunker), Direct fire main gun 5d, Direct Fire secondary gun 4d6, squad arc of fire, Indirect Fire 4d6 10 FM no FO required ; German Command & Control ; +1 close combat (and veteran)
  • Ground troops squad: Green, direct fire 3d6, Russian command and control, squad arc of fire
  • Ground troops heavy weapons: Green, direct fire 4d6, Russian command and control, heavy weapons arc of fire

This battle mech would kill a lot of ground troops.

You’ll need rules for flying and/or air support.