IABSM AAR: Operation Compass #11: Bardia/One

Some great desert action from Tony Cane, as he and friends play the eleventh scenario from the Operation Compass scenario pack: Bardia/One.

The scenario covers one of the Australian assaults on the Italian-held town of Bardia as Compass turns from raid to army-beating campaign.

Click on the picture below to see what happens when you underestimate the opposition...

IABSM AAR: Blenneville or Bust! #5M: Chemont

Another great battle report from the excellent blog of Sergeant Steiner. 

Here, he and his friends play scenario #5M: Chemont from the Blenneville or Bust! scenario pack: involving a clash between Fallschirmjaeger and US armour.

My enjoyment comes as much from working out which BoB scenario the game is taken from as reading the report itself! Blenneville or Bust!  is a pyramid campaign involving five levels, so there are thirty-one possibilities in all. There's no mention of the name of the village in the report, but only the village of Chemont has a layout like that shown in the picture below. That means it's one of #5B, #5F or #5M. Only #5M involves German Fallschirmjaegers, so scenario #5M it is!

Click on the pic below to see all:

IABSM AAR: Bashnya or Bust! #4A: Holm

Another great I Ain't Been Shot, Mum! AAR from Sergeant Steiner's marvellous blog, this time also supported by the comments of the Duc de Gobin, author of the epic Warfare in the Age of Cynics blog.

This time, The Sergeant and the Dice Demon, Steve, are playing one of the scenarios from the Bashnya or Bust! scenario pack for IABSM: scenario #4A Holm.

What's quite fun for me, as the author of Bashnya or Bust!, is working out which exact scenario they're playing from the photos. On this occasion, I knew it was Holm immediately (distinctive terrain!), but which one. Well the only one with that exact number of T-34/85s and that exact number of Panthers is 4A...so hopefully that's it!

Anyhow, click on the pic below to see all. Recommended...along with a quick visit to the two blogs this comes from as well. Excellent stuff.

 

As usual, I hope that neither of the gentleman mentioned above objects to me re-posting their text and pictures. It is genuinely intended as a way to spread awareness of both IABSM and their excellent blogs rather than anything else.

IABSM AAR: Blenneville or Bust! #4G: Belle Maison

Another AAR taken from Sergeant Steiner's excellent blog.

Here, the game is taken from the Blenneville or Bust! scenario pack, specifically scenario #4G: Belle Maison.

Click on the picture below to see all:

IABSM AAR: A Bulge in the Morning

Here's a slightly fuller battle report from the game of I Ain't Been Shot, Mum! that I played in the morning at Operation Market Larden yesterday.

Click on the picture below to see all:

IABSM AAR: Normandy Scenario

One of the blogs I visit regularly is that of Sergeant Steiner. He plays a variety of different games, and always writes a good battle report.

Here's a game of I Ain't Been Shot, Mum that he played recently: a scenario set in Normandy as the Shermans hunt some StuGs.

Click on the pic below to see all:

IABSM AAR: Piotrkow Trybunalski

Just written up an AAR from the game we played yesterday using scenario #45 from the second September War scenario pack: the battle of Piotrkow Trybunalski.

A big game covering the actions of 5th September 1939 as the Germans drive down from the Borowska Heights.

Each side fielded a company of infantry and tanks, with the game taking about 3½ hours.

Click on the pic below for more:

IABSM AAR: Eastern Front

Another great battle report from Burt Minorrot's excellent Spanish-language blog Las Partidas de Burt. As I have said before, I hope he doesn't mind me reproducing it here.

Here, in a game dating back to 2014, Burt and friends fight a battle on the eastern front: a Soviet column advances against hidden German opposition.

Click on the pic for more:

IABSM AAR: Ham & Jam

A nice little battle report posted on the IABSM Facebook page by Desmondo Darkin.

Club night down at the South London Warlords, and the Germans are trying to take back to bridges from British Paras.

Click on the pic below to see all...

IABSM AAR: Bashnya or Bust! #02: Near Osen

Vaggelis Miliarakis recently added a number of photographs of a 1/160 game of IABSM using the first Bashnya or Bust scenario to the IABSM Hellas (Greece) Facebook group.

Click on the pic below to see all:

IABSM AAR: Bashnya or Bust! #2B: Sorok

First time IABSM player Thomas Sloan decided to start with scenario #2B; Sorok from the Bashnya or Bust! scenario pack.

An advance party of Germans have to clear some Soviets out of the path of their advancing column. Find out whether they do by clicking on the pic, below:

IABSM AAR: Great Normandy Game

A great after action report from Iain Fuller from his excellent Tracks and Threads blog.

A new wargaming shed is christened as Iain and friends lead a force of Canadians against the Germans in Normandy.

Click on the pic below to read all:

IABSM AAR: Operation Compass #18: Siret el Chrieba

Tony Cane has been working his way through the Operation Compass scenario pack for I Ain't Been Shot, Mum. His last post featured the tank battle at Mechili, this one covers the Australian attack on the Italian aerodrome at Siret el Chrieba.

Here, the Australians are faced by a huge expanse of open ground (“flat as a table and devoid of cover” as the official history puts it) dotted with the occasional hanger or building. Their target is to take the hangar and buildings on the other side of the open ground.

Click on the picture below to see how they do...

Loving the aircraft hanger and the dust-covered Blinds!

IABSM AAR: Eastern Front Action

James Mantos posted a few photos of his latest game of I Ain't Been Shot, Mum onto the IABSM Facebook page.

It's action on the eastern front: click on the pic below to see all:

You can also check out James' blog here.

IABSM AAR: Operation Compass #17: Mechili

Ton Cane and friends recently fought the Mechili scenario from the Operation Compass pack using 10mm miniatures.

The game is a tank-vs-tank battle, with the Italians actually attacking for a change.

Click on the picture below to see how the game went:

Operation Compass AAR

Always nice to see some of the IABSM scenario packs in use, especially "Operation Compass", as it's one of my favourites.

Fellow gamer Yarkshire Gamer is working his way through the pack but using his own house rules rather than I Ain't Been Shot, Mum

Click on the pick below to see his latest AAR...

IABSM AAR: Wave Goodbye!

It's been far too long since we saw one of Mark Luther's amazing 6mm IABSM after action reports...but I'm pleased to be able to say that the drought is over.

Mark played one of my scenarios - Wave Goodbye - taken from the 2011 TFL Summer Special: a French armor counterattack is hitting the flank of a German panzer column in an area east of the Ardennes in May 1940.

Click on the pic below to see all:

IABSM AAR: Russian Front Action

A very quick battle report from James Manto, taken from the IABSM Facebook Group.

Here, James gets a chance to get all his lovely new Soviet stuff onto the tabletop for the first time.

Click on the pic below to see all.

IABSM AAR: Winter Wonderland

Those of you who live in the UK may be aware that the Wyevale Garden Centres always sell off their winter model Christmas trees in early January (see previous post here). This year, I’d taken full advantage of the sale and bought several packets worth, and then added a new snow mat from Tiny Wargames to put them on. Now all I needed was an excuse to get everything onto the tabletop, and a game this Saturday just gone gave me the opportunity to do so.

As I seemed to have bought lots of trees, it would need to be a big game. Out came the extra bit of table, giving me an 8’ by 5’ playing area, on went the new mat, and on went the new trees. The result: a winter wonderland of epic proportions.

This was to be a Soviet/German encounter battle set sometime in and around January 1944. As I found myself short of time in the preparation stages, I used the troop lists from one of the scenarios from the IABSM Bashnya or Bust scenario pack. A couple of the scenarios give listings of a re-inforced company for each side from which the players pick a number of platoons. As this was to be a big game, I used those lists but gave each side the entire list, not just a proportion of the list.

See how we got on by clicking on the picture, below...

IABSM AAR: North of Caen

I was browsing the 'net, as one does, and came across David Burden's excellent blog Converj

On there was an equally excellent account of his first game of IABSM: a solo game split across four or five posts and using the North of Caen scenario from the rulebook.

I hope he doesn't mind (as I haven't found a way of e-mailing him) but I've merged his posts into one AAR for you all to enjoy.

Click on the pic below to see all, and make sure you visit David's blog to see the other good stuff on there.