Played a great game of I Ain't Been Shot, Mum! at the weekend: scenario #08 from the first September War scenario pack covering the invasion of Poland in 1939, The Tuchole Forest.
The battle, set in the Polish Corridor, was all about territory and objectives, and proved a very different kettle of fish from the usual head-on clash.
Click on the picture below to see who held onto what to win the game:
Cracking game of I Ain't Been Shot, Mum fought this weekend just gone.
We used scenario #13 from the Anzio: Wildcat to Whale scenario pack featuring the action on 8th/9th February 1944 as the Germans advanced on Aprilia (the Factory).
Click on the picture below to see all:
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...
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:
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.
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:
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:
Blitzkrieg in the West: Germany is the fourth in my series of early war handbooks for I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum. The handbook is a massive 185 pages long (over double the size of either the French, BEF or Low Countries books) and covers the whole of the German army that invaded France and the Low Countries on 10th May 1940, seventy-eight years ago today.
The book begins with the humble infantry: not one, homogenous, grey-clad mass, but actually eleven different types of infantry division, each with their own set of core and support troops.
Next, after a quick look at the infantry that doesn't fit into the above (e.g. the Gebirgsjaeger), the book moves on to the ten panzer divisions: with each panzer division given its own section and set of lists. There are, for example, five different lists that relate to 9th Panzer Division alone.
After the Panzertruppen, the book covers the cavalry, the SS and the army level support troops (that's where you'll find the StuGs!) before finishing off with the Fallschirmjaegers and Air Landing troops that dropped into Belgium and the Netherlands. Finally, we have the usual ratings and armoury sections, and a note on air support.
Although designed for IABSM, Blitzkrieg in the West: Germany contains a vast amount of information useful to gamers of other systems, and is really a must-buy for anyone interested in the early war period.
Available now from the TooFatLardies website, we've kept the price at £8.40: the same as the other three handbooks, despite its much larger pagination. That should make the set of four books - France, the BEF, the Low Countries, Germany - absolutely affordable for all.
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:
Just to give my latest handbook for I Ain't Been Shot, Mum a little pre-publicity, I got the cover through from Rich today.
The handbook will be available from the TooFatLardies website on May 10th (next Thursday) and weighs in at over 180 pages!
The good news is that despite its huge size (over twice as big as the other handbooks in the series) we're not making it more expensive than the other books: it will be the same price as the French, the BEF and the Dutch/Belgians.
The handbook will cover the German army that invaded France and the Low Countries in May 1940. It will contain lists for each of the ten different types of infantry division, each of the ten different Panzer Divisions, the cavalry, the SS, the Fallies, the army troops...you name it, it's in there!
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!
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:
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...
I'm very pleased to announce that the third in the series of early war handbooks for I Ain't Been Shot, Mum, Blitzkrieg in the West: the Low Countries, is now available from the TFL website.
The handbook is 88 pages long (bigger than either the French or BEF books) and contains two separate sections: one on the Belgian army of 1940, and one on the Dutch army of 1940.
The Belgian section contains sixteen separate lists covering everything from the Active divisions through to the Cavalry and then on to the Chasseurs Ardennais and Border Guards. There's also a section on the forts and bunkers positioned along the Belgian border.
The Dutch section contains seventeen separate lists covering everything from the First Line divisions through to the Light and Peel divisions through to the three independent brigades, the cavalry and the various territorial commands. There's also a short section on the defence of the main airfields and another on the defence of Rotterdam.
Both the Belgian and Dutch sections contain a lot of background information, so the handbook should be very useful for players of other game systems as well.
And don't forget the other two handbooks that are already available:
As one review on the TFL website says about the BEF handbook:
Picked this up this morning – I got the French one last month. Absolutely brilliant resource that I really look forward to using. Can’t wait for the German one. *****
Jonathan
Just in case people were wondering why it's all still been a bit quiet on here lately, it's because I'm still working hard on the series of Blitzkrieg in the West theatre books for I Ain't Been Shot, Mum.
The French and BEF handbooks are already available from the TooFatLardies website, and I'm pleased to announce that the handbook covering the Low Countries - Belgium and the Netherlands - should be available to buy right after the Easter Bank Holiday weekend i.e. Tuesday next week, 3rd April.
The handbook is 88 pages long (bigger than either the French or BEF books) and contains two separate sections: one on the Belgian army of 1940, and one on the Dutch army of 1940.
The Belgian section contains 16 separate lists covering everything from the Active divisions through to the Cavalry and then on to the Chasseurs Ardennais and Border Guards. There's also a section on the forts and bunkers positioned along the Belgian border.
The Dutch section contains 17 separate lists covering everything from the First Line divisions through to the Light and Peel divisions through to the three independent brigades, the cavalry and the various territorial commands. There's also a short section on defending the airfields and another on the defence of Rotterdam.
Both the Belgian and Dutch sections contain a lot of background information, so the handbook should be useful for players of other game systems as well.
So don't buy that extra Easter egg: save your money for Tuesday morning and a trip to the Low Countries!
I'm very happy to announce that Blitzkrieg in the West: The BEF, the second of the series of theatre handbooks covering the early war in the West is now available. It covers the British Expeditionary Force from 1939 to the fall of France in 1940. Designed primarily for use with IABSM v3, the handbook will still prove useful to all players of WW2 company-sized wargames.
This incredibly detailed guide to British forces, written by me, is 75 pages in size and is packed with data, including the following British forces:
With additional sections on the Second British Expeditionary Force, other British independent formations, fielding British forces, rating your forces and a comprehensive armoury.
Fellow Lardie Desmondo Darkin takes his panzers for a spin in the first scenario from the Bashnya or Bust! scenario pack set against Operation Bagration in 1944.
See how he gets along by clicking on the picture, below...
When IABSM v3 was published, two late war handbooks quickly followed: Battle for Liberation and Vpered Na Berlin. I am very pleased to say that today sees the publication of the first of the v3 early war handbooks: Blitzkrieg in the West #1: The French.
The handbook is 73 pages long, and covers the French Army from 1939 to the fall of France in 1940. It has twenty-nine force listings in it, all looking at core company structure and then the possible battalion, brigade, regimental, divisional and higher level supports. It also has a guide to rating your French forces, and a comprehensive armoury.
Available only as a pdf from the TooFatLardies website, Blitzkrieg in the West #1: The French costs £8.40.
Handbooks covering the BEF, the Belgians and Dutch, and the Germans follow one per month in March, April and May this year.
Blitzkrieg in the West #1: The French contains the following lists:
Infantry Divisions
Infantry Company
GRDI Cavalry Squadron
GRDI Motorcycle Squardon
Motorised Infantry Divisions
Motorised Infantry Company
DIM Motorcycle Company
GRDIM Motorcycle Squadron
GRDIM AMD Squadron
GRDIM AMR Squadron
Independent Tank Formations
Independent Tank Company (R-35, H-35, D-2 or fCM-36)
Independent Tank Company (FT-17)
Colonial Infantry
North African and Foreign Legion formations
Light Cavalry Divisions
Cavalry Squadron
Mechanised Dragoon Fusiliers
Dragoon Mixed Reconnaissance Squadron
RAM AMD Squadron
RAM AMC Squadron
RAM Motorcycle Squadron
Cavalry & Spahis
The Cavalry Squadron
Corps Reconnaissance Groups
GRCA Cavalry Squadron
GRCA Motorcycle Squadron
GRCAm Motorcycle Squadron
Light Mechanised Divisions
Tank Squadron
RDP Mechanised Dragoon AMR Squadron
RDP Mechanised Dragoon Fusilier Squadron
RDP Mechanised Dragoon Motorcycle
RD AMD Squadron
RD Motorcycle Squadron
Reserve Armoured Division
DCR Heavy Tank Company
DCR Light Tank Company
BCP Fusilier Company
Here's a battle report from a game I played in last weekend, using the Tally Ho! scenario from the Operation Sealion scenario pack.
The report is not written by me, but by Dave...who had the unfortunate task of referring a game in which I was participating. John and Mark played the Brits trying to re-claim a small corner of the UK for Queen and country; I played the dastardly Hun seeking to expand the Third Reich over England's green and pleasant land.
Click on the pic below to see how it all turned out...
Although just being published now, this AAR covers my last game of 2017.
It's the Libyan/Egyptian border in September 1940, and the Italians have finally got their act together and invaded. A huge column snakes its way down the desert strip towards Egypt. In their way are the Coldstream Guards and their supports.
Find out how the Italians did by clicking on the picture, below.
Vis Lardica is a website devoted to wargaming and military history, with a special emphasis on the company-sized rulesets produced by the TooFatLardies: I Ain't Been Shot Mum (WW2); Charlie Don't Surf (Vietnam); and Quadrant 13 (science fiction)
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