IABSM AAR: The Initiation of Dashwood-Brown

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The TFL Specials are a great source of inspiration and scenarios. Here, Charles Eckart plays through Mike Brian's scenario from the 2005 Summer Special: The Initiation of Dashwood-Brown.

It's Normandy, 1944. Suave ladies-man Captain Royston Dashwood-Brown and his men of 6th Dorsetshire Regiment are about to get their first taste of action on the battlefields of France.

Click on the map, below, to see how they did...

OML5: The After Action Report

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My chosen scenario for Operation Market Larden 2017 (the TFL games day held in Evesham each year) was scenario #06 from the Poland 1939 supplement, The September War: Wegierska Gorka.

Taking place between 2nd and 3rd September 1939, the battle for Węgierską Górką, or the “Hungarian Height”, took place near the Polish-Slovak border and was fought between Polish mountain troops and German infantry. The Polish position included a number of anti-tank bunkers overlooking the valley below, and was therefore of significant strategic importance.

Here are the two AARs from the day: one game in the morning, one game in the afternoon. Click on the pic for all. My thanks to Noddy, Ty, Bob and Vlad for making it a great day's gaming.

IABSM AAR: The Dunkirk Perimeter Given the Luther Treatment!

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Back in January 2015 I put together a quick game for the lads from Benson featuring a fictional action on the Dunkirk perimeter. Set, obviously, in 1940, some plucky British defenders attempt to hold back the German tide. Click here to see that AAR. 

Mark Luther read that battle report, and put on his own version of the game. Click on the picture below to see how it turned out:

IABSM AAR: Bashnya or Bust #5M: Near Bashnya

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Here's a cracking AAR from the Norseygamer blog: scenario #5M: Near Bashnya from the Bashnya or Bust! scenario pack.

The Germans have their backs against the wall: well, Bashnya's walls to be exact. Here they attempt to stop the Soviet advance one last time.

Click on the pic below to see all:

Another Modern AAR: Chetequera

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As people seemed to like yesterday's modern AAR, taken from Mark Kinsey's excellent blog Daddy's Little Men, here's another in the same vein.

This time, we go further back in time to Historicon 2010, where Mark and friends are running a game based on the battle of Chetequera: part of Operation Reindeer, which began on 4 May 1978, and was South Africa's second major military operation in Angola, carried out under the Apartheid regime. This phase of the South African operation consisted of an assault by 2 South African Infantry Battalion on two South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO) base complexes, Chetequera and Dombondola, near to the then-South West Africa/Angola border.

Click on the pic below to see all:

Modern AAR: Cassinga

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Here's an historical AAR I've been wanting to post for some time: Mark Kinsey and Jon Yuengling's Cassinga game for Fall In 2013.

The Battle of Cassinga took place on 4th May 1978 during the South African Border War. The battle involved South African forces raiding a suspected SWAPO base at Cassinga, Angola and, covered in the game below, the intervention of a Cuban armoured force operating out of the nearby Techamutete village.

The game was played using a combination of I Ain't Been Shot, Mum! and B'Maso!, the latter being the Wars in Africa 1950-99 supplement for IABSM.

Click on the picture below to see how this great game played out:

IABSM Scenario Book Sale

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No, not mine, before you ask!

Fellow Lardy Chris Stoesen has written several scenario books for Lardy products, including the excellent In the Name of Roma covering the Italians on the Eastern Front:

"In July of 1941, the 80° Roma Regiment of the Pasubio Division boarded a train bound for Romania. Along with the rest of the Italian Expeditionary Corps in Russia (Corpo di Spedizione Italiano), they would advance through the Ukraine alongside their German allies. In the coming months, the 80° would be engaged in brutal fighting across 1400 miles of the Eastern Front – covering most of that on foot.

"IN THE NAME OF ROMA is a wargame supplement that contains 30 company and platoon level scenarios covering the actions of the 80a Roma Regiment from August to December of 1941. You’ll follow the 80th from the open steppe to the Donetz industrial basin, including the amphibious attacks across the Dnieper, and the fateful decision of Column Chiarimonti to attempt to seize Nikitovka."

This normally sells at $11, but is currently available at just $5.50 from Chris' website at Wargamer's Odds & Ends.

Incidentally, my scenario books are, from today, now available from this website using PayPal to buy them (previously you had to use a credit card). They are available from the BUY IABSM SCENARIO PACKS page of this website, available by clicking on the link or in the NavBar above.

As a reminder they are:

HISTORICAL

  • The September War, Part One (the invasion of Poland, September 1939)
  • The Defence of Calais (the defence of Calais, May 1940)
  • Operation Compas (action in the western desert, June 1940 to February 1941)
  • Fall of the Lion Gate (the fall of Singapore, December 1941 to February 1942)
  • Bloody Burma (the fall of Burma, December 1941 to May 1942)
  • Sicilian Weekend (the invasion of Sicily, July 1943)
  • Anzio: Wildcat to Whale (the Anzio campaign, January & February 1944)

FICTIONAL

  • Vyazma or Bust! (Eastern Front, 1941)
  • Bashnya or Bust! (Eastern Front, 1944)
  • Blenneville or Bust! (Normandy, 1944)

All my scenario books are fully IABSM V3 compatible.

IABSM AAR: South of Radekhov

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Another fantastic battle report from Mark Luther from a game of I Ain't Been Shot, Mum played with micro armour. This encounter was a colossal tank fest, with huge numbers of AFVs on either side.

I've also presented the pics in a slightly different format to the usual gallery. Let me know if toy prefer them that way, and I'll go back and change some of Mark's other AARs into the same format.

Click on the pic below to see all:

IABSM AAR: Random Game in Russia

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Here's another game report from the blog "Burt's Stuff". That's my translation of Las Partidas de Burt : a Spanish language blog devoted to all sorts of wargaming.

I've used Google and my own limited Spanish to translate the report, so any inaccuracies or poor use of English are mine alone!

Similar to some of Burt's other games, here is a Soviet attack on a German-held town somewhere on the Eastern Front in 1944. Click on the picture to the right to see all.

Now that's an awful lot of Soviet Blinds!

IABSM AAR: The Assault on Gela, 10th July 1943

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Had a great game of IABSM yesterday, using the first Gela scenario from the Sicilian Weekend scenario pack.

The game involves a composite force of US Rangers and combat engineers carrying out an opposed landing against a company of troops from the Italian Coastal Defence Battalion.

Click on the picture below to see whether the Italian commander got to finish his breakfast...