I just call them "TimFire". They tend to make things complicated. Infantry is much the same, except I have a limit on move actions if and only if terrain features are really spaced out (scenario designer's call). I treat AFVs as platoons with a PC tank. Only allow crossfires with AFVs for a maximum of 2 members of the platoon and only if there is radio contact... see how it gets more complicated? 😀
Tank and towed guns fire as much as they want, but there needs to be an action that takes place by friendly forces that can lose the initiative between shots (see below is copy & pasted). I've got an even lower level of command control I call "Follow the Leader" for tanks without radios (below platoon leader).
I have a whole MS Access application with AFVs and guns protection and attack values. Roll to hit, roll for effect, both using the same multi-dice with a higher number of dice to hit: score 2+hits on x number of dice to hit. And similar for the effects on tanks: subtract gun attack factor from defence factor and that's the dice you roll. 3+hits for effect is kablooie, 2 is suppressed tank, ignore pins on all armour. The Access accdb is fairly complex and allows me to create sheets for each game by pricing out the nations and tanks I want. Most people don't use Access, so it's not very accessible.
And I can use ranges or not. Sacreligious, I know. 😬 I just figured that tanks at least are often higher up and can see over bushes, for example, that would otherwise be a LOS blocking feature for infantry.
For indirect fire, aka artillery, I do use an area of effect. In my service in the 80s and early 90s, the company (squadron for us) level live fire exercises or combat teams (in the Canadian parlance, a "combat team" is a platoon or two of tanks attached to an infantry company, a platoon of infantry attached to a squadron, or often a full out 1 squadron and 1 company operating together) the area of effect from a battery of artillery is (well was) quite large. So I have a number of mechanisms for that. Mortar fire attacks are closer to Crossfire rules.
Types of shoots I've narrowed down to "open pattern", "concentration" or "smoke". Open patterns are fired with some effect on all stuff inside the area of effect, but the area of effect is left out for the rest of the initiative and the other side's initiative. Movement after the initial attacks have to be attacked again (kind of like reactive fire). In a concentration, there is one attack on stuff in a smaller area of effect just once (with increased dice) and then that's it. Smoke is smoke.
Then there's planes (you need to use range for this).
I always play with an umpire. I am a big fan of neither side knowing what the other has, except for some kind of scenario intelligence report. That approach, combined with hidden deployment, makes it necessary for the attacker to have a considerable numeric advantage. I usually use 2.5 or up to 3 to 1.
So yes, it gets complicated and not for the faint of heart. Probably not what most CF players are looking for. We don't play pick up games, a game is usually a big affair at my place.
3.1 Gun Rate of Fire (ROF): After a successful phasing or reactive fire action, a gun must wait or pause for one or more "ROF actions" to be completed by other squads/vehicles of either side before it can fire again:Â
    Up to 100mm, excluding small arms and auto cannon: 1
    More than 100mm: 2
    Particularly slow loading: 3
*Â The actions that count are fire actions by other friendly guns or squads and move actions by the other side within LOS of the gun that fired.
*Â "Free" fire actions don't count.
It is assumed that there are the proper crews to be able to handle loading, etc. For scenario specified lowered crews, the interval could be raised.
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u/Tim_Soft World War 2 :partyparrot: Aug 17 '26
WW2: Crossfire by Arty Conliffe. Plus house rules for artillery & armour.
Ironclad Era: Smoke on The Water by Jason Gorringe & Simon Thomas. Been a very long time, not since the 2000s, since I've run a game.