Crossing The Wire

This is the combat resolution system for a command post game about commanding brigades and divisions in WW1 – particularly focused on 1916. The rules are intended to be run in real time, and by umpires – who then write messages to the HQ players in the form they would have been historically, and subject to the delays and inaccuracies that would have existed at the time.

The players never see the rules at all, and must work from a map (ideally in a smelly cellar by the light of a flickering oil lantern while umpires chuck buckets of earth at then).

– Crossing The Wire introduction

Designer: Jim Wallman
Status: In Print
Contents: Available online (8-page PDF)
Scale: Time Scale
The rules are expressed in 5 minute time-slices for convenience – though there is no reason why these cannot be multiplied up – especially when the circumstances are not changing for a time. Sometimes you can work on ‘critical event’ – adjudicating a long period in one go – say 30 minutes or more at a time, remembering to time reports appropriately.
Ground Scales
Actually any scale can be used, as the rules express distances in metres. The maps I use are 1:2,500, so the cm equivalents at that scale are also quoted.

Ground scale 1:2,500
1cm = 25m

– Crossing The Wire page 2