Time in Crossfire  

Offers some thoughts about Crossfire's non-linear Time Scale and offers some variations on Hit the Dirt's Moving Clock (Turns, Minutes, Clock ticks).

Time Scale 

According to one soldier war is "large amounts of boredom punctuated by brief moments of terror".  Crossfire concentrates on the terror and, being a game, glosses over the boredom.  That means time in Crossfire is definitely not like in other games in which turns represent the passage of a specific number of minutes or hours.  Most other games have turns where units take time to move into combat range but no combat. Crossfire gets to the meat of the combat issue quickly.  

Where other rules give an effect like watching CCTV footage, Crossfire breaks the action into scenes as in a movie. According to its introduction, Crossfire is "a fast-paced simulation of shifting tactical initiative, where the action unfolds like a film highlighting the critical events of a battles".    The film-like effect reflects first hand accounts of small unit actions.  One common thread of these narratives is that just about everyone in combat thinks time passes by much faster than it really does. Participants often describe feeling like hours had passed when in reality only a few minutes had gone by.   Crossfire concentrates on these action packed events - the "brief moments of terror" mentioned above.  

One of the implications of this is that Crossfire time is not linear.  Because Crossfire runs on events rather than specific finite points in time, a lot can happen on the table without much time passing by, or time can pass by quickly (if you are using HTD's moving clock rules) without many events.  

And just because you perform your actions in a particular sequence does not necessarily mean they have actually occurred in that sequence. And as with reminiscences of veterans accounts of the same event will vary.  From the game perspective, any interpretation that makes sense is acceptable.  Tim Marshall offered the following example: 

Consider the following sequence of events, in a German/Soviet game, beginning with the Soviets with initiative:

1. Soviet T-34 moves forward, stopping near a woods feature.
2. Soviet infantry squad moves near the T-34 and is suppressed by reactive fire from a nearby building. Initiative passes.
3. German squads in building group fire at suppressed Soviet infantry causing another suppression and killing it.
4. Another German squad, armed with panzerfausts behind the building takes a number of move actions, moving around other woods features/buildings out of line of sight of the T-34 so no Soviet reactive fire can take place.
5. The PF squad moves into the woods feature beside the T-34 out of the forward arc of the T-34 which can't see it and therefore cannot reactive fire (not sure if there are blind spots in AFVs in the vanilla rules or 
not).
6. PF squad destroys T-34.

Here's one interpretation:

The T-34 accompanied by an infantry squad moves forward and grinds to a halt when fire from the building sends the infantry to the ground. While the infantry re being fired upon, that's a signal for another German squad to move forward and manouvre to the flank of the T-34. Once the Soviet infantry has been wiped out, the German squad unlads a PF into the side of the T-34.

Here's another perfectly valid interpretation:

The T-34 accompanied by an infantry squad moves forward and is destroyed by a PF armed German squad that made its way into the wood feature area while the Soviets moved forward. With their tank burning, the Soviet infantry are then pummeled and wiped out by the Germans in the building.

Finally, if you are using HTD's moving clock rules, then don't take time passing too literally.  If you set the
time increments to 15 minutes and the clock doesn't move in the game, who's to say that 14 minutes and 23 seconds didn't pass.  

Lloyd Nikolas has an example to illustrate this: 

Imagine this: 

1. a platoon charges an MG.

2. The MG makes a reactive fire action and causes a suppression.Initiative switches.

3. The MG fires again and fails to suppress. Initiative switches.

4. The charging men rally, and continue the charge.

5. The MG fires again, but fails to suppress.

6. The platoon charges in, and fights a close combat, and somehow manages to lose. Initiative switches again.

That's three switches of initiative. If a die roll at the end of an initiative says "move clock half hour forward", then this series of actions could have taken between 90 and 120 minutes. On the other hand, it might be easier to imagine that the whole sequence was over in a few seconds. Between 2 and 3 there might not even be a pause. Perhaps a couple of men dived for cover, while others continued to run, and some men glanced at their leader for reassurance, saw that he was surging forward undaunted, and inspired by this, they carried on. Between 4 and
5, there might not even have been an interruption to a continuous stream of bullets, but perhaps a new belt was fed into the gun, taking a couple of seconds.

On the other hand, perhaps between 3 and 4, darkness fell, and the men spent the night within range of the enemy, too scared in the moonlight to move. The following day, the men had a second go.

I have heard tales of Russians being mown down by German MG fire during the day, then lying still until darkness, then standing up and charging anew.

Moving Clock

Hit the Dirt introduced the concept of the Moving Clock.  For example: 

Special Rule 4: The Moving Clock is in use.  The scenario starts at 0600 and ends at 1800.  The clock advances 30 min on 5+ on one die, rolled at the end of each defender initiative.   The attacker gets reinforcements at 1200 and 1230 hours.  (Based on Cassino Massift from HTD)

I've done an Analysis of the Moving Clock and also dreamed up some variations on this concept.  

• Turns
• Minutes 
• Clock ticks

Analysis of the Moving Clock

I wanted to know how long a typical Hit the Dirt game was.  Simple question; complicated answer.  The following scenarios use the Moving Clock.  There is enormous variation in the nominal duration (from 3 hours 15 minutes through to 13 hours) and in the average number of defender initiatives this time corresponds to (from 20 to 75).  And there is no direct correlation between the duration and the average number of initiatives as the moving clock tick also varies, both in number of minutes (15 to 30) and probability (either 4+ or 5+ on 1d6).  Each initiative nominally corresponds to between 5 and 20 minutes, although 10 minutes is the most common.  

Possibly the best illustration of this is the Battle for Hardt scenario and the Debacle at Hitdorf scenario.  Both take 39 defender initiatives on average, but one scenario has a 13 hour duration and the other is over in 3 hours 15 minutes.  By chance these are the longest and shortest games in Hit the Dirt.  

So what can we learn from this?   Well, perhaps not a lot, but there are a few observations: 

• The average nominal scenario duration is 6 hours 30 minutes.   
• Each defender initiative is nominally about 10 minutes.  
• 5+ is the most common probability for the Moving Clock ticking over. 
• 30 minutes is the most common duration of a Moving Clock tick.  
• There are on average 39 defender initiatives per game, although this varies a lot.  
• Even if your nominal scenario duration is more or less than 6 hours 30 minutes, then the other variables are still usually the same. 
• Only in exceptional circumstances would you use a shorter/longer clock duration or use 4+ instead of 5+ to trigger a clock tick.  

If your scenario fits the standard profile, then your life is simple: 

Special Rule 4: The Moving Clock is in use.  The scenario starts at X hours and ends at X + 6.5 hours.  The clock advances 30 min on 5+ on one die, rolled at the end of each defender initiative.   

Variation 1: Turns 

Example from a scenario: 

Special Rule: Turns are in use.  The Clock advances one Turn on 5+ at the end of each initiative of the Defender.  The game ends after 24 Turns.  The attacker get reinforcements on Turns 12 and 13.  Each Turn is nominally 30 min.   

Preparation 

Calculate the number of Turns for the scenario.  This is the elapsed time in minutes divided by the amount of time the clock can advance when the clock die roll is met or exceeded.     

For example, in "Cassino Massif" the game starts at 600 and ends at 1800; this is 12 hours or 720 minutes.   The moving clock advances 30 min on 5+ so there are 24 Turns in the scenario.  

You'll also have to calculate on which Turn any special events occur.  Calculate these in the same way, but using the time of the special event instead of the end of the scenario.  

For example, in "Cassino Massif" the Germans get reinforcements at 1200 and 1230.  These are 6 hours (360 minutes) and 6.5 hours (390 minutes) into the scenario, which corresponds to Turns 12 and 13.  

During play 

During play this system is simple.  At the end of the defender's initiative throw for advancing the Moving Clock as normal.  If the score is met then the clock advanced one Turn.  Special events and the end of the scenario occur as per the numbers you've prepared.  

Variation 2: Minutes

This system comes out much the same as the Moving Clock of Hit the Dirt, but ensures that time progresses each initiative, rather than occasionally leaping up in fixed amounts.  Scenario events (start, end, reinforcements) still happen at the times given in the scenario.   

Throw 1d6 at the end of the second player's initiative and multiply by a scenario specific factor to give the number of elapsed minutes. 

Example: In the Hit the Dirt scenario "Cassino Massif" the clock advances 30 min on 5+, you would use a multiplier of 3.  So at the end of the defenders initiative throw 1d6 and multiply by 3 - this is the number of elapsed minutes, e.g. if the defender throws a 2 on 1d6 then 6 minutes pass. 

I tried this once but got confused when multiplying the die score, so invented the next variation to make my life simpler.  

Variation 3: Clock ticks 

Example from a scenario: 

Special Rule: Clock ticks are in use.  The Clock advances 1d6 clock ticks at the end of each initiative of the Defender.  The game ends when the Clock gets to 240 ticks.  The attacker get reinforcements after 120 clock ticks and again after 130 clock ticks.  Each clock tick is nominally 3 minutes of game time.  

Basically at the end of the defender's initiative 1d6 is added to the Clock; when the Clock reaches a certain number special events occur, or the game ends.  It is important to note that each "Tick" on this clock corresponds to a number of minutes.  For example, the German player might throw 3 at the end of their first initiative; this corresponds to 3 clock ticks.   A 6 at the end of the second initiative means a total of 9 clock ticks have passed.   

Conversion from Hit the Dirt 

If you're converting from Hit the Dirt style Moving Clock then do this 

1. Calculate the number of clock ticks for the scenario.  This is the elapsed time in minutes divided by the Divisor from the table below.   (Effectively each Short Clock Tick equals the Divisor in minutes.)  

For example, in "Cassino Massif" the game starts at 600 and ends at 1800; this is 12 hours or 720 minutes.   The Divisor for this scenario (30 min on 5+) is 3, so the game ends when the Clock gets to 240 ticks. 

2. You'll also have to calculate on which clock ticks any special events occur.  Calculate these in the same way, but using the time of the special event instead of the end of the scenario. 

For example, in "Cassino Massif" the Germans get reinforcements at 1200 and 1230.  These are 6 hours (360 minutes) and 6.5 hours (390 minutes) into the scenario, which corresponds to clock ticks 120 and 130. 

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