Yesterday my war games club had an evening of games inspired by Talk Like A Pirate Day. There were games of Legends of the High Seas, which features 18th-century pirates, and several other rule sets for table-top pirate play.
On a suggestion from Mike Goldyn, I decided to push the theme by organising a CrossFire game feature a British Commando raid. Pirates were more commonly raiders from the sea, which is what Commandos did. In fact the Germans regarded the Commandos as pirates, and treated them as such.
I put more than 90 hours work into making terrain, models and rules for a CrossFire scenario based on Operation Archery, a Commando raid on the Norwegian village of South Vaagso. The reconnaisance photo below shows the table top for our game. The raid occurred on 27 December 1941, which justifies the snowy look.
On Friday myself and two others passed the evening playing the scenario. I played the Germans and tried to follow historical tactics. Matt and Stephen played the British. We found that our game followed closely the actual history of the raid - the machine gun bunker was flanked on the right, the German forces in the hotel just to the right of the church provided stiff resistance, and it was difficult to flank the town from the hill above because of open ground just before the houses.
Like many game scenarios that follow closely the historical situation, the historical outcome occurred. This was total elimination of German resistance by midday. That though pleased me, as it shows that CrossFire simulates WW2 infantry combat well, and that I designed the scenario well.
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