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  • Writer's pictureRed Brotherhood

CROSSFIRE

Crossfire is the new Cult ability. Who gets it, how does it work, and how do we make the most of it?

It might just be me, but Crossfire feels like a Big Thing™. It’s not massively complicated, but it’s woven right through the Cult codex, appearing on datasheets, a relic, a proficient planning ability and a host of stratagems (to both gain and exploit Crossfire in different ways). It even pops up in the Myriad Cults. So keeping tabs on which units can do what and when is going to be important.

THE CROSSFIRE KEYWORD


Let’s start with the Crossfire keyword. It applies to three distinct groups within the codex: all of our core units, all of our vehicles, and all of our shooty characters (except the Reductus, but she’s more about the explosions).


o Core: Acolytes, Neophytes, Metamorphs, Jackals

o Vehicles: Ridgerunners, Rockgrinders, Goliaths

o Characters: Jackal Alphus, Kellermorph, Sanctus (with sniper rifle)


In addition, the Alphus can further enhance a core unit’s shooting with a free Exposed, and the Nexos can drop a crossfire marker on an enemy unit each turn, which is nice.


The only units that don’t have access to Crossfire are Genestealers and Aberrants, but that’s okay. They can’t shoot anyway, and the two crossfire-linked stratagems that are of interest to them (turn off overwatch and fight last) work without the keyword. The same is true for our combat characters, like the Patriarch, Primus (maybe) and dagger Sanctus. And the rest of our characters don’t really want to be mixing it up close and personal anyway.


So far, so good.

TRIGGERING CROSSFIRE


If your army is more than 25% Brood Brothers, includes any other units that aren’t Genestealer Cults, or mixes different Cults, stop reading – you don’t get to play with Crossfire. If you pass that hurdle, keep going.


Crossfire comes in two stages: placing crossfire markers, and setting up Exposed.

Setting up the markers is straight-forward. Any crossfire unit targeting a single enemy unit and achieving five hits (not wounds or casualties) with single-damage weapons (like autoguns, shotguns or hand-flamers), or a single hit with a multi-damage weapon can put a crossfire marker on the target unit. It lasts until the end of the turn.


Exposed is a bit trickier. An enemy unit with a crossfire marker on it is also Exposed if we can draw a straight line from one crossfire unit to another visible crossfire unit, with that line passing over the enemy unit but not over any obscuring terrain (unless one of the relevant units is in or on that terrain, as per the usual LoS rules).


This then leads into a sliding scale of benefits for crossfire units making ranged attacks:

o If the target unit has a crossfire marker – gain +1 to hit

o If the target unit has a crossfire marker and is exposed – gain +1 to hit and +1 to wound

o If the target unit has a crossfire marker, is exposed, and is within 12” – gain +1 to hit, +1 to wound and target unit gains no benefit from cover


There’s a slight catch here. In order to gain the +1 to wound, the target until must have a marker and be exposed. There are a few abilities that allow us to treat a target as exposed, but exposed on its own doesn’t do anything – unless those abilities are played on a units that also have crossfire markers on them, we won’t get any benefits. One to watch out for.


We should also notice that gaining a crossfire marker requires our units to only target a single enemy unit (so no dropping in a hand-flamer or seismic cannon bomb and lighting up everything in sight). But there’s no similar requirement once the marker is down – we can target crossfire-marked and exposed units however we like, splitting fire or not.

ALTERNATIVE WAYS TO GAIN CROSSFIRE MARKERS AND EXPOSED


We have a variety of other ways to either drop crossfire markers on units, or treat them as exposed even when they aren’t. I suspect that these are going to be critical for effective use of the Crossfire rules. Being able to activate +1 to hit without using up a unit to generate crossfire markers, or gaining the exposed bonus without sacrificing a unit’s positioning – that gives us a lot of flexibility.


Here are the different ways we can activate elements of the Crossfire rules:


DATASHEETS

* Jackal Alphus (Priority Target) – allows a core unit within 9” to treat an enemy unit as exposed

* Nexos (Battlefield Analysis) – add a crossfire marker to any one enemy unit

* Jackals (Raiders) – treat enemy units as exposed to ranged attacks within 6”

RELIC

* Oppressor’s Bane – treat target as having crossfire marker and exposed

[Magus, Iconward, Alphus, Nexos, Clamavus, Reductus, Biophagus]

PROFICIENT PLANNING

* Perfect Ambush – when coming from underground, treat target within 12” as having crossfire marker and exposed [Crossfire unit only]

STRATAGEMS

* Dig Them Out (shooting phase) – attacks with industrial weapons treat target within 12” as exposed

* Pack Hunters (shooting phase) – enemy unit within 6” of and visible to Jackals unit treated as exposed

MYRIAD CULTS

* Martial (2) – crossfire infantry that remain stationary treat target as having crossfire marker

OTHER WAYS TO USE CROSSFIRE AND EXPOSED


There are also several stratagems that make use of crossfire markers or exposed units in other ways beyond the usual +1 to hit and wound bonuses:


STRATAGEMS

* Raking Fire (shooting phase) – Atalan or Ridgerunner units reroll hits against exposed units [where the unit is exposed by rule, not by one of the tricks above, which includes the Atalans’ own Raiders ability]

* Massed Firearms (shooting phase) – crossfire unit with 6+ models targeting enemy unit with crossfire marker; unmodified 6s to hit cause automatic wounds

* Covering Fire (charge phase) – enemy unit with crossfire marker cannot overwatch, set to defend or make a heroic intervention

* Coordinated Assault (fight phase) – enemy unit with crossfire marker and within engagement range fights last

THOUGHTS


We have a good number of units capable of setting up crossfire without too much effort.

o 5 acolytes/metamorphs with hand-flamers get five hits every time

o The Sanctus hits automatically with a D2 weapon

o The Nexos gets a free marker, no rolling at all

o Anyone firing the Oppressor’s Bane gets at least one D2 hit 99.5% of the time

o 10 neophytes within 12” (for 20 shots) will get at least five hits 99.4% of the time

o A Goliath Rockgrinder is at 98.4% with the D2 seismic cannon, or 83% for five hits with the incinerator

o And a Goliath truck lands a D2 autocannon hit 94% of the time

o A single Ridgerunner has an 87% chance with the missile launcher (the best option for setting crossfire), or around 99.8% for a unit of three.

o Surprisingly, the Alphus has just an 83% chance of landing a sniper hit

o 5 jackals are 60 points; with small arms, they get five hits 62% of the time


If we really want to lean into crossfire, we can do a lot with just troops and transports. And despite not having the crossfire keyword, the Nexos looks like it has a lot of utility – a free marker anywhere on the board (helping out with any abilities that just confer exposed), and the option to throw the Alphus’ abilities onto any unit to take full advantage.


It’s interesting that the Jackals aren’t great at setting crossfire (their weapons aren’t geared towards it, unless we field them in larger numbers) but are potentially helpful in exploiting exposed for other units, whilst getting it for free themselves. But that might be part of the whole synergy thing – getting the right unit in the right place at the right time. And I wonder if taking Oppressor’s Bane on the Alphus might work out, particularly if she’s riding alongside the Jackals, rather than hanging back with a firebase – it’s an almost guaranteed marker, which the Jackals then treat as exposed on top.


And hand-flamers potentially open up options for acolyte and metamorph units. For example, we could have a brood of ten armed for combat with rock saws, but still fit in those five flamers. Drop in, flame one enemy unit to set up crossfire, enable exposed, then charge in and finish something off or go after an entirely different unit with the saws (or mining weapon of choice).


There’s way more to think about here, but I’m not laying any claim to tactical expertise or experience, so I’ll leave others to pull out the best combinations and approaches. Hopefully this has given you (and me) something to think about as we add Crossfire to our armoury. And with that, it's back to the uprising...

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