In 1943 a Soviet company supported by T34s attack a Romanian position in the Hasty Defence scenario from I Ain't Been Shot, Mum.
Despite initial success against the light Romanian tanks and infiltrating the flanks, the Soviet advance is blunted by Romanian reinforcements gathering strength and holding the line. the Soviets will have to wait for another chance to capture the railhead.
Alex Sotheran
British Shermans come under fire from the German PaK 40 Anti-Tank gun
The second scenario of the IABSM Blenneville or Bust campaign featured an attack by the British against German positions near the fictitious town of Avaux. We played this scenario way back in the spring, so details are sketchy at best, but it was a good, close run game. As with the previous installment of the campaign, if you are planning to play the campaign and don’t want to know the particulars, consider this your official spoiler alert.
The British objective was to push six tanks off of the far table edge. They were attacking with an infantry company and a tank company with support from a battery of 25 pdr artillery, sopme MMGs, and roving Jabos of the 9th Tactical Air Force. The Germans were defending with an overstrength infantry platoon, a couple of StuG IIIG, a couple of MG-42s, and a PaK 40. They also had fire support from some off-table mortars and a FlaK36 88mm gun set up to fire onto the main road.
Looking South: the view of Avaux from the British side
The German defenders were dispersed across the table with a couple of squads in the town center, one in the farmhouse on the eastern side, and one in the manor house among the orchards on the west side. The PaK 4o was positioned in the southern part of the orchard with commanding lines of site onto the road. The StuGs were deployed to assist the infantry squad on eastern side.
The German forward MG post opens fire on British troops trying to move through the gaps in the boccage
The British advance was primarily directed down the more open east side of the table and along the main road. As they approached the center of the table, German forces began to open fire. A platoon on the east side was caught bunched up and had two squads gutted. The tank support on that flank “discovered” the StuGs positioned over there and began a firefight that would see most of the Shermans destroyed or damamged at a cost of one of the two StuGs.
In the center, a forward MG post opened fire and stalled the advance before being silenced. As the British continued to push ahead, the main German position in the town center came into play, further limiting advance up the road. Soon however the British were able to range in their battery of 25 pdr artillery on the town square and the resulting fire, along with support from the MMG carriers, mostly silenced the Germans and pinned the company commander in place.
Much of the German success would rest in the hands of the lone PaK 40 guarding the main road. The crew of the gun got off to a rocky start when presented with a golden opportunity to cut the head off the British attack. The British company CO drove his White Scout Car up the road and into line of sight of the hidden PaK. I got the required card and brought the gun out of hiding to try and take out the British commander. Several shots later – all misses – the lucky Englishman had scurried into cover. The next couple of firing opportunities were also duds as the British Vickers MMG carriers escaped. However, the guns earned their pay once the Shermans arrived. The gunners put rounds into several of the British tanks, immobilizing them or breing them up, including one specatular explosion that blasted a number of nearby infantry.
Panzerjaeger: the PaK40 creates a parking lot of destroyed British armour
As the game came to it’s end phase, the British were down to barely enough running tanks to satisfy the victory conditions. However, German AT assets were running thin, with one StuG down, most of the panzerfausts spent or with so much shock as to be worthless, and the PaK 40 about to draw the ire of both the 25 pdr battery and the surviving MMG carriers. It would all depend on the sequence of the cards and the Germans were aided by having Big Men in charge of the gun and the surviving StuG (plus the AT Gun bonus fire card). The Germans got the jump on the British and dispatched enough tanks to prevent them from securing the victory.
STuGs vs Shermans: Allied and German armour duel around the farmhouse on the east side of the battlefield
Another great game of IABSM. The Germans enjoyed considerable early success, especially as the British infantry often found themselves bunched up trying to use the terrain. As in previous games, this one reinforced the deadliness of MGs against troops moving in the open. However, the British recovered well and were able to use their artillery and MMG carriers to break the central German position. Had they had a little luck and gotten the first shots against the last two AT assets they might have had success, but the Germans still had an ace in the hole in the form of the off-table 88mm gun and had redeployed their last panzerfaust equipped squad to a reserve blocking position. The main thing I could see that the british could have done was to shift fire on their 25 pdrs sooner in order to hit the AT Gun. That was the key asset given their mission and they probably should have focused more effort on knocking it out.
The German win sets up the third battle of the campaign, in which Allied forces move to take the town of Pierrecourt.
Thanks to Brian for all of the terrain in this game. He hand-made the buildings using Sculpey and they looked quite good. Brian also painted all of the British.
Brian Cantwell
It had been a long week, and writing a scenario for the Q13 battle that Neil wanted to play in our usual Saturday night game was not something that I wanted to do. Luckily I had options: in this case whipping out the Blenneville or Bust! scenario pack and setting up one of the scenarios I had only play-tested not played through. It would also give me a chance to test out my new IABSM-specific movement trays (see post here).
The British would attack from the 'bottom' of this picture
The scenario is a simple one: two thirds of a squadron of British tanks supported by a company of infantry would attempt to eject a supported platoon of Germans plus two StuGs and an anti-tank gun from a village in France.
Avaux is a small village in Normandy bisected by a long straight road running north-south. Just near the village is a sizeable manor house surrounded by orchards. All the hedges you can see in the picture are actually supposed to be bocage, but Neil hadn't brought his bocage with him as he'd thought we were playing sci-fi!
After a preliminary stonk, the British would enter the table from the 'bottom' of the picture on the right, with the Germans beginning the game on-table under hidden Blinds. As the Germans had not a lot of troops to cover an awful lot of battlefield, they deployed their two StuGs to the south (i.e. behind) the orchard, ready to move to wherever the British developed their main axis of attack. The anti-tank gun was just in front of the lone grey house to the east; supported by two squads of infantry in the two houses just to its left. There were another two squads of infantry, supported by an HMG, in the manor house; with the final HMG being in the house on the north face of the village square. Dummy Blinds were in the house next to that one and lurking behind the hedge with the StuGs.
The game began with the British stonk. This they landed on the manor house and orchard, causing lots of Shock but only one casualty. The Shock would wear off before any of the troops suffering from it were in combat, so I got away quite lightly with that one.
The British then began advancing cautiously on table. There was huge amounts of spotting from both sides as the lead British Blinds approached the first line of bocage, with most of the German positions being identified (but not what troops were in them), and most British Dummy Blinds being dispersed. In addition, the British tank squadron and infantry company HQs were revealed and placed on table half way along the first line of bocage. The squadron HQ tanks were held a few yards back from the bocage, so were effectively un-shootable.
Now that they could see that the centre-right (from the British point of view) was looking like a possible main thrust, the two StuGs, under Blinds, entered the orchard and drove north towards the line of bocage on its northern edge.
Swamp the second StuG!
They had just arrived there and gone hull-down when the British, conscious that time was ticking away, finally decided to start moving forward. One of the two HQ tanks moved up to the line of the bocage in front of them, its commander peering over the hedge embedded on top to see what was what.
What they saw, of course, was one of the StuGs, that promptly came off its Blind and opened fire, blowing the Sherman to bits!
This was a nice success for the Germans, particularly as the revealed StuG was then able to scoot backwards out of danger to wait to do the same thing again. The other StuG remained under a Blind at the hedgerow, but was soon spotted through the combined efforts of the two British infantry officers dismounted from their scout car and crawling up to the top of the bocage with binoculars.
Taking their time, again, the Brits called in artillery and, luckily for them, it arrived almost immediately and dropped right on top of the StuG after only some minor adjustments from their FOO. With the StuG rocked by the 25-pounder shells falling around it, a platoon of British tanks revealed itself and sprang into action, hammering the StuG with AP shells until its crew abandoned ship.
Two of the British tanks then smashed through a gate and advanced forward as their two colleagues and squadron HQ tank maintained overwatch from behind the bocage. Half-way across the field, however, the two brave tankers halted, unwilling to advance further forward and give the remaining StuG an almost identical pot-shot as before: it now lurking on the edge of the orchard.
Meanwhile, a platoon of British infantry supported by a couple of Vickers MMGs mounted on carriers had advanced under a Blind towards the two shelled houses on the eastern side of the road.
Unfortunately for them, they were spotted by a German Dummy Blind. One of the carriers was hit by the PaK40 anti-tank gun and destroyed; with the infantry, caught out in the open taking horrible casualties (Great shot, Close range, 4D6!) from the German HMG in the house on the north side of the square. The remains of the British platoon and remaining carrier went to ground, and would only start moving forward again towards the end of the game. The German anti-tank gun, on the other hand, retreated to a position just behind the two houses containing the two infantry squads on the southern side of the square, waiting to see where it would be needed next.
Immediately after the close combat
Still nervous about advancing forwards against the one remaining StuG, the British commander decided to change his axis of attack. Two Blinds headed down the eastern edge of the town: one covered another infantry platoon, the other another platoon of four Shermans (well, three Shermans and a Firefly).
Obviously it would be foolish to advance with tanks against a ready-for-action, PaK40, so the British FOO called up the artillery again, and again it came down immediately and landed straight on top of its target. Ooof! The anti-tank gun crew, caught limbered, staggered from the remains of their SdKfz 11 tow, and desperately tried to get their weapon ready for action again.
Not wanting to give them any chance to recover, the British infantry platoon, still under a Blind, charged forward, intending to close assault the German gun crew. As they did so, however, they passed the two houses where two squads of German infantry lay waiting. As the British approached at the run, the first German squad opened fire, doing significant casualties but not enough to prevent a close combat from occurring. Outnumbered three to one but in a far superior position, the German squad lost the combat by only one 'kill', and so were pushed backwards out of the house, leaving the British platoon milling around on the other side.
This was too good an opportunity to miss. The other German squad (you can see them 'on the roof' in the picture above - just under the beer bottle in the background!) ran out of their house and poured fire into the disorganised Brits, effectively wiping out the entire platoon!
"I'm your huckleberry!"
Luck was now not with the Germans. Unfortunately the British artillery, and now air support, was both plentiful and, apparently, readily available. The German infantry and anti-tank gun crew, themselves now caught out in the open, was shelled and strafed...leaving them battered and reeling. In the centre of the photo above, you can just see the 'fall of shot' marker by the anti-tank gun poking out from behind the tree behind the house.
Up came the platoon of British tanks, and it was 'gunfight at the Avaux coral' time with two squads of battered German infantry, each with a single Panzerfaust, and a PaK40 versus four Shermans. Incidentally, in the picture to the right, the remains of the British platoon have been removed from the table: in reality the Shermans are parked on a lot of dead bodies. Not a pleasant thought.
Fire was simultaneous (shooting on the Tea Break card), and we decided to calculate my (German) results first.
Unfortunately (I seem to be using that word a lot lately) my troops were just too battered to do any significant damage. You can see that just one Sherman has taken a point of Shock: not exactly a spectacular result!
The tanks opened fire with their MGs, and knocked one German squad and the PaK40 crew into next week. Well, into retreating nine inches each, Pinned and with more Shock you could shake a stick at.
At that point I called the game and conceded defeat. If I'd taken out two, or maybe even one, of the British tanks on the right then I would have continued, thinking that perhaps the remaining StuG could have got across the table and done something.
It had been an epic game, much enjoyed by both Neil and myself. He had certainly felt very nervous about advancing forward against unknown quantities of Germans sheltering behind bocage, and the fact that he had effectively lost two out of three of his infantry platoons (mostly dead as well) shows how careful you have to be. In the end, the Germans had been a bit unlucky to get hit so quickly and accurately by the British artillery and, as a result, to be at such a huge disadvantage in the final clash, above.
In our usual beer-fueled post-match discussion, we agreed that I came reasonable close to winning and very close to achieving a very respectable draw, which is effectively a win for the Germans. One thing I would say, though, is that this scenario only works with the forces as written if the Brits don't know how few troops they are facing. That's why I played the Germans, and why Neil was seeing Germans behind every hedge!
Robert Avery
Map, as seen from the German perspective
The panzergrenadier recon platoon for Kampfgruppe Engel had arrived at the small maison earlier during the day. A bridge over the small stream was one of the points where the Amis might try to cross and battalion commander had sent his east front veterans to secure the area. Their task was simple: either to stop Amis cold or blunt their advance and then withdraw in good order. Hauptsturmführer Gudelius had two platoons of veteran panzergrenadiers and a small platoon of armoured recon. A section of 81mm mortars were on call a kilometre behind the lines. His only concerns were the platoon leaders. Obersturmführer Ernst Kaltwasser leading the first platoon while having a long service record, had not previously been leading front line infantry, while Untersturmführer Arno Rost was straight out of the school, way too keen to impress everyone. At least Dieter leading the armoured platoon was an old hand, veteran of countless battles and most of his infantry squad leaders had already earned at least their bronze close combat clasps.
His plan was a simple one: infantry in the front would stop the Amis and armour would provide a mobile reserve ready for a counter attack. Intelligence had no idea what kind of forces where facing them, but the Allies rarely lacked tanks or artillery. Rost had volunteered to lead the right flank with the expected main approach for enemy. He did not still trust the blue-eyed youngster enough, so Klatwasser took the forested hills, and Rost was tasked with defending the bocage in a line stretching from the stream to the maison.
To the Amis' credit, their attack came in hard and fast, spearheaded by Greyhound armoured cars and jeeps. Kaltwasser's zug was well camouflaged and but their leader too inexperienced - Obersturmführer revealed his position by staying too exposed with binoculars. He had just given the orders for everyone to open fire and then at his mark withdraw deeper. The mark never came, as the first burst from the .50 cal AAMG from the leading Greyhound neatly decapitated him. His men returned fire, driving one Greyhound back and causing some casualties to the leading jeeps and their teams. One Greyhound tried to flank the defenders, but a fireball caused by a 'schreck rocket hitting the side of a paper-thin armour quickly discouraged the rest of recon platoon.
Panzerschreck hits, US big man plays hero
By the streamside, another US recon platoon, on foot was slowly advancing, when their patrol came running back. A some sort of tank with a huge gun had been sighted at the field by the next gate. Cries of "Tiger! Tiger!" went up as a German vehicle rounded the corner. 2nd lieutenant Cork's assuring "Hey, boys, that is just an armoured car!" fell on deaf ears as SdKfz 234/2 Puma opened fire with 50mm gun, thoroughly suppressing the first squad, driving men to ground. Cork saw his chance and started running forward with the second squad. His platoon lacked proper AT weapons, but the hunting cat did not have that much armour and might be taken out from close. Unfortunately for him, Untersturmführer Dieter Leimbach had plenty of practise with human waves and a few bursts from co-axial machine gun pinned Cork's squad. His new driver's screams of "They are going to overwhelm us, we must withdraw!" was met with a laconic "Greenhorn, this is nothing compared to Kursk."
"Just a Puma, boys. Nothing to worry about!"
On the other side of the field, Kaltwasser's platoon was eagerly waiting for the signal that was not coming. .50 cal machine guns and 60mm mortars were hammering their positions and now two 75mm howitzer carriages had passed the Amis column and were adding their considerable punch to the fray. One rifle gruppe took the initiative and withdraw to a better position, but the MMG team and two other squads stuck to their positions. Their fire only slowly slackening and more and more vehicles came forward. Where was the promised artillery support?
Beginning of the end: the HMCs arrive
As the panzerschreck team abandoned their position and weapon after receiving several almost direct hits, another Greyhound felt brave and came forward, only to find out that the long stretch of road was guarded by an eight-wheeled SdKfz 231 armored car. Service was long overdue for the gun and sights of the old recon car, but the first burst found its' mark and the Greyhound disappeared in a ball of fire, taking the whole crew with it. Later the commander of SdKfz 231 swore that a very strange sound came from the sights mechanism as the recoil struck, jamming the optics to a weird angle.
"Hans, what was that sound?"
The ever-present Amis Jabos also arrived to the field, making a strafing run against Rost's platoon, fortunately not causing any damage. As soon as the Jabo disappeared, Rost left his position and ran to his second squad, ready to take control of the mortars. Stopping the Amis advance with a brave dash and well-placed mortar barrage would surely earn him the Iron Cross so many of his men and officer comrades were already carrying. "Sir, too much incoming, come down. You want to water that Iron Cross with only a drop of blood, you'll get wooden cross by drowning things with blood." was met with "Nonsense, motherland demands courage! Now, give me the rangefinder." And then the bocage wall shook with a direct hit from 75mm howitzer. Gefreiter Schmitt shrugged with a "told you" and pushed what little remained of his platoon leader to side, so the corpse would not block machine guns line of sight. He could not even remember the name of the youngster, did not really care.
"Hans, what was that sound?"
While on the left defenders were slowly attritioned by overpowering firepower, on their right flank the Amis were faring much worse. Cork and his men were pinned down and when they rose to close assault the tank, most of the second squad was cut down and the whole platoon ran as the survivors lost their bottle and ran past their comrades. Leimbach kicked his driver and told him to reverse back: "This truly is not Kursk, there they came by battalions, did not run. Let's go hunt some Amis tanks, shall we." A sharp eared listener might have heard a muttering to the effect of "Kursk this, Kursk that." from the direction of driver's seat.
Nothing compared to Kursk, only a company of them
After the Puma disappeared between the bocage, some running survivors from the American recon platoon reached their company commander and the Stuart platoon in reserve was ordered to clear the riverside, while the attached armoured infantry was committed to the main road.
Stuarts arrive by the riverside. A plan to bottle them up by killing the first fails.
At this point, seeing even more Amis emerging from the sunken road, the remaining troops from Kaltwasser's platoon decided that they had done enough and withdrew, abandoning heavy equipment to carry at least few wounded friends back with them.
A well oiled machine starts to work
On the both sides of the field, the disrepair of the defenders' equipment was starting to show. By the riverside one SdKfz 231 has a clear shot at the approaching Stuart platoon, but despite frantic corrections, all burst missed and the leading Amis tank calmly put shell after shell through the armoured car's front, knocking both gun and engine out. And by the main road, the other SdKfz 231 was keeping the fire up, but only succeeded in hitting the barn behind approaching American vehicles. The Germans used few turns, several cards, upwards of 15 actions to fire and aim. Odd of rolling at least one 5+ on 2d6 on 10 or so tries are bad when dice are against you. Leimbach's own Puma was calmly gunning down targets of opportunity, but did not want to risk a gunnery battle with multiple targets at once.
When the 60mm mortars, after cutting down Rost's second squad, zeroed on his armoured reserve of light Luchs tanks and SdKfz 251/10 with a 37m AT gun, immediately immobilizing the halftrack, Hauptsturmführer Gudelius called the battalion and asked for a permission to withdraw. He had not yet suffered too bad casualties, but his capability of stopping the enemy's armoured might was nearing zero. And after a long agonizing moment, Engel came back on line, granting the permission to withdraw.
Last reserves, already under fire
This was done in good order, with Hauptsturmführer Gudelius ordering mortar barrage to cover the bent on the road by the maison, infantry withdrawing in bounds through the bocage.
Withdrawal in a good order
A clear victory for the attacker. Defender had a solid plan of stopping the attack at the jump of point, using the crossing as a choke. Mortars would drop barrage on bunched up attackers and light tanks would then counter attack. This unfortunately did not work, as the infantry Big Men died as soon as they came to view. This combined with German player's complete inability to hit any armoured target with his tanks meant that the game was over. A good game, this time decided by the lady Fortuna. Of course, it did hurt even more that the attacking player was moving slowly and methodically after first explosions, utilizing his firepower to the fullest. After the American machine started rolling, enemy squads in cover disappeared in a turn, first pinned by .50 cals, then pummelled by 75mm and finished by multiple 60mms mortars. Infantry just walked behind the barrage.
This was a modified first scenario from the Blenneville or Bust! campaign for IABSM - we are still building forces for the theatre, so had to use what was available. We were not sure if light mortars, 60mm in particular, should be allowed to shoot at armoured targets, but after a brief discussion ruled so that they can shoot at soft skins and open half-tracks, using the artillery die to check if they actually hit.
Topi
The modified OOBs were:
Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop/21st Armored Division
Recon HQ
BM1: Major Herbert Cartwright (Level IV)
1 x Jeep with AA 0.50cal HMG
Recon Platoon 1
BM 2: Captain John Fontanelli (Level III)
3 x M8 Greyhound armoured cars
3 x Jeep with non-combatant driver and 0.30cal MMG
3 x 60mm Mortar Team (2 crew)
1 x Bazooka Team (2 crew)
Recon Platoon 2
BM 3: 2nd Lieutenant James Cork (Level II)
3 x Scout Squad
Cavalry Assault Gun Platoon
BM 5: 1st Lieutenant Chris Townsend (Level II)
2 x M8 Howitzer Motor Carriage (HMC)
1st Platoon / C Company, 830th Armored Rifle Infantry Battalion
1st Lieutenant Erroll Allen (Level II)
2 x Rifle Squad (10 men each)
1 x LMG Squad (2 LMG with 3 crew each)
2 x M3A1 Halftrack with 0.50cal HMG
2 x M3A1 Halftrack with MMG
Light Tank Platoon/Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop (reinforcements)
BM 6: Sergeant William Salisbury (Level II)
5 x M5 Stuart Light Tank
Air Support
Roll D6, appears on a 5 or 6: strafing fighters with MGs
Aufklärungs-abteilung, Kampfgruppe Engel
Kompanie HQ
BM 1: Hauptsturmführer Heigel Gudelius (Level IV)
1 x SdKfz 251/10
2 x Panzerschreck Team (2 crew)
1 x MMG (5 crew)
Erste Zug
BM 2: Obersturmführer Ernst Kaltwasser (Level II)
3 x Rifle Gruppe (each 8 men with two LMGs)
Zweite Zug
BM 3: Untersturmführer Arno Rost (Level II)
3 x Rifle Gruppe (each 8 men with two LMGs)
Schwerer Spahwagen Zug
BM 4: Untersturmführer Dieter Leimbach (Level II)
1 x Panzer II Luchs
2 x SdKfz 231 or 232
1 x SdKfz 234/2 Puma
Well the weekend has arrived, and I have spent a couple of hours in the past few days putting together components for a game of I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum by the TooFat Lardies.
This is their company level WW2 wargaming rules set, which is a bit of a first for me. Not because I haven’t played Too Fat Lardies’ games before – because I have played both Chain of Command and Sharp Practice - rather, it represents me stepping out of my normal sphere of skirmish wargames and in to something bigger. Will my tactics hold up? Will I make a fool of myself, as I did in my Sharp Practice game when I couldn’t take the beach?
However, I am a firm believer that you should stretch your wargaming muscles, so company level battles it is. I shall do my best to guide you through the rules as well.
I’ve set the game up in Battleground's Gaming Engine. This is quite possibly the best piece of virtual tabletop software I have found for wargaming and I recommend it. However, do be ready to put in some effort with it as it is quite detailed. You should also be a bit familiar with image creation software as it comes with no components.
As usual, I have used Junior General (that awesome site!) for my minis, and created the map straight from the IABSM rulebook. I did that by copying the image from the pdf, creating a canvas that was 72 inches long x 60 inches wide (6 ft. x 5 ft.) and then tracing over it using textures. So far so simple.
The scenario is titled “North of Caen” and can be found on page 96 of the IABSM rulebook. It is designed to be simple to play and covers a pure infantry combat, with a British company attempting to capture a small village from a weakened company of German defenders. Simple is good as I am still learning the IABSM rules.
Recent patrols inform us that the small hamlet of Le Moulin has been occupied by German troops, probably forming an outpost ahead of their main line of defences.
In view of the forthcoming offensive it is important that we seize the road junction as the fields immediately to the north have been designated as an assembly point for our armour prior to their advance on Caen. To accomplish this you have an infantry company consisting of three infantry platoons.
Your advance will be preceded by an artillery bombardment in the form of a Stonk on three 12” square sections of the table.
Your force will begin the game on Blinds on the northern table edge. You must advance southwards and clear the table of any enemy forces.
In the last few days it became clear that the enemy had not occupied the hamlet of Le Moulin so your Company, or what remains of it, has been pushed forward to fortify it. You have been able to make some progress towards digging your force in. However, Tommy patrols have certainly discovered your presence. You can expect to get some unpleasant visitors very soon!
You must defend your position and drive off any British attack. To achieve this, you have two platoons of infantry supported by a couple of MG42s.
You may deploy your force on the table on Blinds (or hidden amongst the terrain features) anywhere within 12” of any building. Additionally five Gruppe or weapons teams may be dug in with foxholes. These provide good cover from fire and spotting. You may keep your MG42 teams together as part of the Kompanie headquarters or may cascade them down to the rifle Zugs.
For this tutorial scenario both the British and the Germans are Good Regulars. To keep things simple both sides have had their infantry anti‐tank weapons removed from their organisation.
This scenario has no time constraints. It should become obvious that one side or the other will fail to achieve its objectives. If the British manage to take four of the five buildings the Germans will be obliged to withdraw, abandoning their positions.
The table represents the flat open terrain to the north of Caen where the small hamlets and villages are the only features, clusters of buildings surrounded by their apple orchards. The wheat on the northern part of the table is high, standing at around 5’, so provides good cover from spotting. All of the areas of trees are apple orchards and have no undergrowth. The hedges are scrappy affairs with only small banks so provide only light cover. The buildings are well built of Norman stone and provide good cover. The ground is firm apart from in the freshly ploughed field at bottom right which has a -1 pip per dice on any movement.
I will add that the houses are 2 storey affairs.
I am going to play this IABSM scenario as a solo wargame, so I need to set up some ground rules to help me do that. The primary problem seems to be the pre-game stonk. I should not know where the Germans are deployed – or at least retain some mystery – however, I need to know the effect of the Stonk.
So I came up with a solution.
I would give the Germans three dummy blinds, plus the three they start with (good regulars would normally only get one dummy blind for three units on the table). I will then place these, fire the stonks, record the damage to each blind, and then reveal them as the game goes. In that manner, I won’t know where the German forces are, nor which ones I have damaged, until they actually appear on the table.
When a blind is spotted, to determine if it is a real blind or a dummy blind, I’ll roll a D6 on the following table:
1-3 Dummy Blind
4 Infantry Platoon 1
5 Infantry Platoon 2
6 Company HQ
That way I won’t know where the Germans are deployed. Obviously, as a platoon or HQ is revealed, its number is added to the dummy blinds results. So, if I reveal infantry platoon 1, then the next time I roll on the table, a dummy blind is generated on a roll of 1-4, rather than 1-3.
Finally, once I generate three dummy blinds, the rest will be units. I cannot generate more dummy blinds than there are units.
Being as the strongest positions in the game are the houses, I place a blind in each of them. I then place a blind out in the field. If that is revealed to be troops, they will be in foxholes.
This gives the Germans some strong defences. Also, troops can be deployed up to 2″ from a blind (and blind markers are 6″ x 4″) so there is a fair area to deploy in.
I could deploy blinds further forwards, as the scenario states they must be within 12″ of a house. However, a blind on its own will quickly be overwhelmed, and provide minimum benefit. I would rather concentrate the German forces in the village to spot down the road.
Having deployed the German Blinds, it is time to fire the British Stonks. These represent pre-game artillery barrages, which is just as well as the British are attacking without any artillery support.
The first thing I have to do is position the Stonk templates on the map. Each is a 12″ square. I prepared these in Adobe Fireworks (which is an great image program – like Photoshop, but without the many confusing bells and whistles).
Next I rolled for both the infantry and crew served weapon effects of the Stonks on each blind. Why? Because I don’t know if there is going to be infantry or MMGs there until the blind is revealed, so I need to know the effect on both.
The results were as follows:
Blind 1
Infantry: unaffected by stonk
Crewed Weapon: unaffected by stonk
Blind 2
Infantry: 3 shock
Crewed Weapon: 3 shock
Blind 3
Infantry: 1 dead, 3 shock
Crewed weapon: 6 shock
Blind 4
Infantry: 2 dead, 4 shock
Crewed Weapon: weapon KO’d
Blind 5
Infantry: 2 dead, 4 shock
Crewed Weapon: 6 shock
Blind 6
Infantry: 3 shock
Crewed Weapon: 1 dead, 3 shock
Now I could have concentrated the stonks for cumulative effect. But seeing as half of these German blinds are dummies, I thought spreading them out would be better. We shall see if I was right. However, my feeling is I have made an error by not concentrating the fire.
Next, I place the British blinds on the table. They can deploy along the northern edge, and do so.
Now, I have no intention of splitting up my force and engaging in lost of equal fire fights. My intention is to concentrate in one mass and punch through German defences and defeat Jerry in detail. No messing around around. The good, old, “squash Jerry in detail” trick. Why would I consider massing them on one side? Because the Germans have no artillery. If they did, I’d be a lot more concerned.
So I stick all my troops on the west flank, with a dummy blind thrown on the other side for good measure and to scout out.
Oh yeah – BGE’s got it’s own card table
I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum has a turn sequence whereby units are activated by cards drawn from a deck. So let’s activate the Battlegrounds Gaming Engine card table.
Because everyone is on blinds, the only cards applicable are the blinds cards and the Tea Break card. So these turns may be a bit short until we get troops on the table.
Axis blinds is drawn first. Now they get 4 actions each blind. Yes, this is more than most units get, but reflects that while troops are unspotted and not being shot at, they act much more efficiently.
The Axis Blinds card allows all of the German blinds to remove a point of shock. So I update the table as follows:
Blind 1
Infantry: unaffected by stonk
Crewed Weapon: unaffected by stonk
Blind 2
Infantry: 2 shock
Crewed Weapon: 2 shock
Blind 3
Infantry: 1 dead, 2 shock
Crewed weapon: 5 shock
Blind 4
Infantry: 2 dead, 3 shock
Crewed Weapon: weapon KO’d
Blind 5
Infantry: 2 dead, 3 shock
Crewed Weapon: 5 shock
Blind 6
Infantry: 2 shock
Crewed Weapon: 1 dead, 2 shock
I’ve been quite lucky with my stonk rolls and that will make my life much, much easier. But I still have a niggling feeling I should have concentrated fire.
Now, some of the German Blinds can have a go at spotting my British blinds. That will make my movement slower, and allow the Germans to fire on my troops as I move in.
I’ll start with German Blind 4.
Yes, I am showing off what BGE can do!
The British blinds are well over 24″ away (they are around 45″ distant), and badly obscured by the 5′ high wheat. That gives a base target of 14 for the Germans to spot. The Germans can use all four actions to spot (troops on blinds all get four actions, irrespective of quality) and occupy the upper stories of the houses to gain a height advantage. That gives them a +4 modifier (+3 for actions and +1 for the height) so they need to roll a 10.
Blinds 1, 6 and 2 cannot spot. There is just too much in the way.
Blinds 3 and 5 have a bunch of trees in the way, in addition to the wheat. That means they can only spot British troops if those troops move within 9″. That means the Germans may need to send out some patrols to delay the British.
British Blinds Advance Rapidly
Aggression is key here. We need to get up to the town as quick as possible and knock out the Germans while they still have shock from the pre-game bombardments. All dice will be used for movement.
The British Blinds have advanced around 15″ on average, closing the distance quickly. I’ll need to be a little careful in subsequent turns so one does not pull well clear of the rest. I will also want to spot the Germans. So, as I get closer, it will be a little bit of a juggling act with actions.
The Tea Break card is the first one out of the deck. So we move to Turn 3.
I could deploy troops from blinds on the Tea Break, but don’t want to yet.
Axis Blinds is drawn. All German blinds recover a point of shock. German Blind 5 attempts to spot British Blind 4, but fails. German Blind 4 also attempts to spot British Blind 3, but also fails. The Tea Break then ends the turn.
Hmmm… it would seem getting my men on the table will help me move them faster as with just three cards in the deck, I am struggling to get men across the table. Next time I activate we deploy!
German Blinds advance and spot
The Axis Blinds card comes out first and all German blinds recover one shock. Blinds 2 and 3 move up. Time to catch the Tommies in the field!
Blind 4 fails to spot British Blind 3, but Blind 5 spots British Blind 4 as a dummy.
Out comes the Tea Break card, ending the turn.
An Axis Blinds again. All German blinds recover one shock – most are almost recovered completely now. Blinds 2 and 3 move up in to cover, while Blind 6 starts a flanking manoeuvre now that the Germans know they have the British penned in one flank.
The Germans stand as follows:
Blind 1
Infantry: unaffected by stonk
Crewed Weapon: unaffected by stonk
Blind 2
Infantry: unaffected by stonk
Crewed Weapon: unaffected by stonk
Blind 3
Infantry: 1 dead
Crewed weapon: 2 shock
Blind 4
Infantry: 2 dead
Crewed Weapon: weapon KO’d
Blind 5
Infantry: 2 dead
Crewed Weapon: 2 shock
Blind 6
Infantry: unaffected by stonk
Crewed Weapon: 1 dead
Spotting occurs, but no British are spotted.
An Allied Blinds card allows me to move and deploy.
The Blind uses two dice to move, and then deploys. It uses its remaining two dice to spot German Blind 3, but fails. Blind 3 moves and deploys, while Blind 1 moves up.
That means I now have platoons 2 and 3 deployed, while Platoon 1 is still on blinds in reserve. I will attack “2 up and 1 back” to see how that goes. The British Cards “Platoon 2″, “Platoon 3″, and the two big men get added to the deck.
First card out is the Allied Blinds. I really need to spot some Germans so I can shoot at them, and so use all four actions of British Blind 1 to spot. But I fail.
British Platoon 3 is the next card out. Section 3, being the closest to German Blind 3, roll to spot and succeed. The Blind turns out to be the German Company HQ. The German MMGs and commanders are deployed, with markers for the two shock each MMG team has as a result of the British pre-game stonks. Now to overwhelm those MMGs before they can fire!
We fire the mortar at MMG 1, causing a point of shock. We then fire section 1 at MMG 1, rolling a miserable 5 on 3d6 which causes a single hit. However that hit is a kill. I mark the kill with a white number token to differentiate it from the red shock ones. Section 2 I move 2d6 and use their final action to take cover.
The next card out is the Axis Machinegun Bonus card (which went in to the deck when the blind was revealed). That allows one MG squad a free activation. MMG 2 activates and fires on British Section 3 of 3rd Platoon. They roll a total of 7, which as the British are in the open being fired at by an MMG, causes 7 hits. those hits translate in to two shock and twohree kills, and the section is automatically pinned. I remove two men and mark the men pinned. The pinned status will not have any effect on the British troops as they have already moved and fired this turn and the pinned status will be removed at the Tea Break card.
The next card out is the Axis HQ card. It is a dark day for the British. MMG 1 fires first at Section 2 of 3rd Platoon, scoring 15. However, as the MMG has three shock, that is reduced to 12. The British have taken cover and so count as being in light cover, but still suffer five hits, which translates as two kills and two shock. I adjust the British section accordingly.
MMG 2 fires again at British Section 3, causing a massive five kills and three shock. That leaves just a single man with a Bren gun, with five shock. The British unit falls back 8″ (2″ for every point of excess shock).
Things are not going well for my attack.
Sergeant Mick McAlpine, the Level 3 sergeant in charge of 3rd Platoon, activates next. He runs forward to the second section and rallies their two shock.
The Tea Break card then ends the turn and removes any pinned statuses.
The Axis Blinds card is first out of the deck. Both Blind 1 and 6 immediately begin to move in to flanking positions. Blind 4 deploys as German Platoon 1 (I diced for it), which means out of the four remaining blinds, only one is a German platoon. Section 1 opens fire on the British Section 2 of 3rd Platoon, causing two kills.
The Axis Machinegun Bonus card comes out next. I hold my breath, but MMG1 firing at close range still only causes two points of shock to 3rd Section of 3rd platoon.
Allied Platoon 3 comes out next. I decide to pile on some fire to the Germans to get my men moving forward, hoping to stick to my original plan (which is rapidly falling apart and turning in to a pile of dead English bodies). The British troops open fire, but only manage to cause two points of shock to MMG 2, and one point of shock to MMG 1. The British 2nd Section now only has four men remaining, meaning it only has one action per turn, so can’t fire with more than a single d6. That means it is pretty ineffective. An entire British platoon has been mostly neutralised. Finally, the British mortar adds another point of shock on German MMG 1, which causes it to fall back 2″ as its shock now exceeds the number of men in the team.
The German machineguns are losing their bottle. If I can keep that up, I can bring up more men and get a foothold on the village.
Sergeant McAlpine activates next and removes the shock on 2nd Section.
The British Blind card is next and the British troops advance and deploy, ready to take over from 3rd platoon that has been mauled. The lead section fires at German MMG 2, causing a casualty. The MMGs are suffering. As the British troops have come within 4″ of German Blind 6, the blind is automatically spotted. It turns out to be the remaining German platoon (a 1 in 5 chance) and I now have to contend with being surrounded and outflanked.
I fire on the newly revealed German troops, but with no effect. The platoon mortar adds another point of shock to MMG 2, making that weapon fall back. At least there is some mercy for me.
The Tea Break card then ends the turn. I removed the other German blinds as they are dummies and there is no further spotting for them to do.
British Platoon 3 are the first to be activated. I can see a window of opportunity here. The German CO is still in the front line, while his MMG teams have pulled back. So I move forward a section and shoot at him, hitting and killing him. The other, mauled section shuffles forward, while the mortar misses.
The next card out is Feldwebel Adler, the Level 3 commander of the German 2nd Platoon. He uses all three initiatives to activate his three squads. German Section 1 fires on Section 2 of the British 1st Platoon, gaining a bonus +2 to firing due to the proximity of the platoon mortar team to their target. They wipe out the mortar team, and cause two shock and two kills on the British Section. The British Section is also suppressed (marked with red base markers).
Not good.
Section 3 of the German 2nd Platoon moves up to the hedge and fires in to the massed British. They cause two kills and four shock which are spread between two British sections. Finally, the German 2nd Section moves out on a flanking manoeuvre. Both British sections are pinned. (marked with yellow base markers).
The British decide it is time to withdraw
So far the British have lost seventeen men, while the Germans have lost three. Worse, the British have a platoon pinned and suppressed, one mauled one, and one out of the main action.
The German HQ activates next and the MMGs fall back towards the houses. There they will be able to recover shock and keep up the fire.
The British Lieutenant Watson activates next. As the leader of 1st Platoon, he moves forward and removes the pinned status on both sections in his platoon.
Lieutenant Toby Scott of 2nd Platoon is next. He activates two sections and sends then running forwards.
Obergefreiter Mittel of the German 1st Platoon is next. He moves in to contact with 1st Section and directs their fire against the advancing British. The fire catches 1st and 2nd sections of the battered British 3rd platoon, leaving four dead and a bundle of shock. The British troops are suppressed.
Next card is Axis Platoon 1. They move a section and gun down more British, pinning them too. A second section takes up position in the vegetable patch to act as a reserve and to hold the flank.
Allied Platoon 1 comes out next and the British move up another section in to the meat grinder. Gefreiter Beyer comes out next and moves back with the MMGs.
Finally the Tea Break Card ends the game.
Firstly, let me say Battlegrounds was fantastic. It did everything I needed it to do and more. It was easy to use and a joy to game with. This is definitely my “go to software” for wargaming.
The battle itself did not go anywhere near as planned. The Germans were able to organise an aggressive defence and took the fight to the British, catching them in the open field and turning the stiff upper lip to quivering jelly. By enveloping the British, the Germans could pour fire from everywhere. I stopped the game as the British had lost about a platoon of men and had little chance of breaking through the German line. The British squads were rapidly becoming pinned and suppressed from the close range firefight, and to play on would have simply resulted in their utter destruction.
The scenario is designed to help you learn the game. It certainly did that. I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum is a hugely fun game, that really does offer some deep tactical choices.
This just became my new favourite set of rules.
And I really enjoyed the company scale too. I am definitely looking forward to my next game. Hopefully, I can handle the Brits a bit better in that one!
The Wargaming Addict
Having painted all the Belgian armour from bayonetsandbrushes.com, I was keen to get them onto the table, so set up a scenario where elements of the German 3rd Panzer Division would attempt to force the crossing of a canal “somewhere in Belgian” around 11th-12th May 1940.
As the game began, German blinds poured onto the table. The reconnaissance element heading for the foot bridge over the canal was spotted almost immediately, and took some fire from a squad of dug-in Belgian infantry.
Meanwhile, a platoon of German anti-tank guns decloaked on the hill overlooking the town, hoping to deny any movement to any Belgian armour present.
At this point the Belgians blew up the footbridge, not quite with the German recon platoon on it, but it was a near run thing!
In other news, German engineers tried to sneak over the canal in their rubber dingies.
Realising that the only way over the canal was a direct thrust over the main bridge, the 1st Platoon of the German medium panzer company (the Panzer Is) tried to storm over the bridge in an attempt at armed reconnaissance.
This worked very well: too well, in fact, as Belgian tank was hidden behind one of the townhouses and blew the lead Panzer I to bits. Belgian T-13 tank destroyers were also lurking on the other side of the town square.
A cautious approach wasn’t going to work, so the company commander ordered the 81mm mortars that had just arrived to lay down smoke in the town square, then sent three blinds across the bridge as fast as they could go.
Next followed a sequence of very short turns when the Tea Break card made a rapid appearance. This caused the German 3rd Platoon to get spotted then cut to pieces by infantry in the townhouses around the square: effectively ceasing to exist!
RIP 3rd Platoon!
Automatic spotting also ensured that the other two German blinds and more Belgian troops were revealed: the townhouses were packed with infantry and machine guns, and a massive traffic jam emerged on the bridge.
The German Panzer IVs opened fire on the townhouses around the square, and with an incredibly lucky series of dice rolls, set both sides ablaze (well, the summer of 1940 was very, very hot), forcing the Belgian infantry to abandon their positions or face being roasted alive!
Unfortunately for the Germans, the smoke had now cleared, and one Panzer IV was lost to fire from a T-13, although the other T-13 broke down as it changed position.
Meanwhile, both Belgian ACG-1 tanks to the left of the bridge had been neutralised: one blown up by fire from the Panzers, one whose crew abandoned after being hit by cannon fire from the German recon armoured car.
At this point the plucky Belgians decided that their pluck had run out and retreated off the table, ceding the canal crossing to the Germans.
A win for the Germans, but at quite a heavy cost: one platoon of infantry hors de combat, and three to four tanks destroyed. Also, although the engineers had managed to cross the canal, the Belgians had managed to get a T-15 light tank over to face them and they were going nowhere.
Here’s a few final shots from the Belgian side of the table:
A great game of I Ain’t Been Shot Mum!
I’ve been intrigued by I Ain’t Been Shot Mum (IABSM) for a while now. The rules from Too Fat Lardies have clearly got a large online following and are now in their third version, priced at £12 for a PDF, the rules were certainly worth a punt.
Last night Matt and I tried out one of the scenarios from the rulebook, “North of Caen”, which pits a company of British infantry against a couple of platoons of Germans dug in around a cluster of buildings. I won’t try to do a review of the rules or an explanation of the mechanics as there are already good ones out there. What I will say is that we were both very pleased with our experience and although we had a raft of questions resulting from our game, and although I spent a large amount of time with my head in the rulebook searching for x,y or z so we didn’t finish the scenario, I think we were both pretty impressed and are looking forward to the next game.
I took only a few pictures as the light was pants due to the whopping big lightning storm we had half an hour before which lingered around for the evening. Small dice recorded casualties and Irregular Miniatures 6mm explosions are used to count Shock points. All miniatures are 10mm Pendraken painted by me, terrain is a mix of resin buildings and hedges from Timecast, doormat and teddy bear fur fields and trees made by myself and bought from The Last Valley.
Porte Royale
Battle Report 2: 26th September 2012
Wednesday night at Gavin's saw a rematch of the previous IABSM scenario, but with the rôles reversed, and me playing the Germans against Pete and Matt, with Gavin umpiring.
Some of the resources at my disposal
I deployed a platoon of infantry along the northern edge of the wood, along with a Pak40 and a tank killer squad with a Panzerschrek and my FOO, and waited. The British opening artillery stonk shook up a few sections and took out a couple of the Pak40 crew - could have been worse.
The advancing British
Fairly early on I spotted a couple of platoons of British (despite a little confusion with how many dummy blinds the British were allowed) but couldn't get the Axis Blinds card to call in some mortar fire - and once I did, couldn't get the Axis Support card for it to arrive.
In the meantime, the British had spotted something in the woods, but weren't sure what, so one of the British Big Men bravely snuck up for a better look and found the Pak40.
"My word, chaps. A Jerry anti-tank gun!"
A couple of infantry sections opened up on it, and despite it being dug in, it took a fair amount of damage. And finally the Axis Support card came up.... and I blew the roll.
The Germans in the woods open fire
One of the British sections came up to the nearer hedge, so I deployed a couple of sections off blinds and opened up. Most gratifying, as the section in question took four casualties and about ten shock, and didn't stick around.
About then, one blind of British tanks deployed and commenced unloading on the Pak40, to surprisingly little effect. And finally! An Axis Support card and a successful roll.
"Incoming!!!"
Not a bad result: one British section pinned and rather shocked, and one blind, which I suspected was tanks, reduced to zero actions for the turn.
The following turn, they made the smart choice and deployed off blinds. On my Blinds card, I deployed the PanzerKnacker squad and the PanzerSchrek...
"Here, Hans. You did know this is the last round for the PanzerSchrek, yes?"
Just in range of the lead Sherman, too. Which was nice.
The next turn saw the card for the PanzerSchrek come up before the Shermans. Which was, as they say, also nice. Three actions, so fire, reload, fire.
"Ja. It was my lucky round."
First roll - double 1. Which means (a) I miss, and (b) the next shot is the last because the PanzerSchrek is out of ammo.
Oh well. Better make the most of it. Double six. I get to roll 16 dice (13 for the PanzerSchrek and 3 more for ambush) against the Sherman's 6, and beat it by four hits. Result, a very satisfying KABOOM!
The Pak40 gets in trouble. Under the trees further to the left, things weren't going so well - an infantry section close-assaulted the hapless Pak40 (which had managed one shot on a Sherman and quite convincingly missed), and that, predictably, was that for the crew.
That was followed by the two infantry sections under the trees getting picked on, one being down to zero actions (and only two men).
And sadly, about there, we ran out of time. Hopefully Gavin and the guys can finish this off sometime, in which case, watch his blog for the second half!
Mike Whitaker
Battle Report 1: 24th September 2012
Last night saw me umpire a game of IABSM at the club between Reuben (as the Germans) and Carl (British) - we used the opening scenario from the rulebook.
You will note the rules (on my iPad), Rueben's nice 15mm Germans and British (and please ignore the MG42 team's paint job, he says), and some custom made Warbases blinds markers, which I am very pleased with.
As an introduction to IABSM it went pretty well - I completely spaced on a couple of rules, but nothing that I didn't realise and fix (hint, the fire table returns hits not shock!) :D
Carl advanced until he found - the hard way - Reuben's two MMGs, which he'd separated and left one Big Man with each. It took him quite a bit of work to winkle them out of their well dug in positions, but he did, in the end. I suspect that Reuben could have done a little better if he'd supported them with one or both Zugs of infantry rather than left them on their own.
We ran out of time, but it would have been interesting to see if Carl had managed to winkle the two German Zugs out of the buildings.
Above are the very nice Warbases blinds markers - for those curious, the 10 markers (five of each design) plus postage came to £9, and I am as happy as a very happy thing. Debating whether to base a couple of scout-type figures or vehicles on each of the appropriate nationality and base them, or let them be. If you want some the same, I'm sure you can drop Martin from Warbases a line via http://www.warbases.co.uk/ and ask for 'the IABSM blinds like wot Mike 'ad' :D
Mike Whitaker
The city of Caen presented a big target during the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944. One of the larger cities in the region of the invasion, it also occupied an important series of crossroads straddling the Orne River. Less than ten miles from the British Commonwealth forces landing zone of Sword Beach, Caen was a target for British and Canadians wading ashore on June 6th. Despite a relatively easy landing at the beach, Allies with their eye on Caen were met with a hastily-organized armored counterattack from the German 21st Panzer Division. By the end of the day, the British sat just halfway to their objective and Caen remained in Axis control.
Over the next two months, the area around Caen became a bogged-down front as Anglo-Canadian forces positioned themselves around the city. The eventual capture of the city on August 6th was costly for all involved. The ancient city was nearly leveled with Allied bombing campaigns and much of the French civilian population fled. The British forces suffered around 50,000 casualties, a devastating loss of men and equipment for British commander Bernard Montgomery. With the costly British victory, it had achieved not only the occupation of Caen but had also provided an enormous distraction for German forces which suffered even greater losses than the Allies.
This past weekend at Metropolitan Wargamers in Brooklyn, NY, a couple of us ran through a non-historical scenario typical of the British-Germany engagements just north of Caen in early July 1944. The “North of Caen” scenario is provided in the basic rule book for I Ain’t Been Shot Mum, the fantastic company-level World War II game that has fast become a favorite for some of us at the club.
British infantry advance under Blinds through an orchard north of Caen
The small infantry engagement is set in the fictional hamlet of Le Moulin on a table of flat, open terrain with fields, orchards, low hedge rows and five stone buildings set at a crossroads. The game begins with three British infantry platoons entering from the north under blinds after an initial off-board artillery bombardment of the Germans dug under in around the farm and crossroads. The objective of the game is for the Germans to eliminate the British advance while the British are tasked with seizing four of the five buildings or otherwise eliminating the German troops.
British rifle platoon takes heavy German MG42 fire and is pinned behind a barn
Following my initial bombardment, my British advanced under blinds for a few turns through the orchard northeast of the crossroads. The German blinds positioned themselves in a wood at the crossroads and in a small orchard southwest of the hamlet. Three of my blinds moved toward cover to my left behind a barn while my third false blind moved toward the road. My first blind was spotted behind the barn by a German platoon armed with three rifle sections and a deadly MG42. With the Germans deploying in a nearby barn and within the orchard, they opened up on the British rifles. With not enough cover behind the small barn, one British rifle section was all but eliminated in the first round of fire.
British platoon runs bravely under a Blind across an open field between two barns
The British survivors behind the barn returned fire, firing their rifles and 2″ mortar into the Germans in the orchards and nearby barn. In the meantime, my false blind was revealed as a second British platoon slipped to the hedge to the other side of the barn. Firing at the Germans from each side of the barn, the MG42 was forced to retreat back south of the crossroads. But the damage had been done to my first platoon at the barn, and two fire teams fell back to the orchard leaving one safely inside the barn. Sensing a brief opening, my final blind sprinted across the wide open field between the barn.
The British blind is exposed, take fire and break for hedge in the distance
Midway through the field, the German rifles in the second barn spotted and revealed my blind, slowing their run and forcing them to deploy in the open. The final German blind revealed itself among the buildings west of the crossroads. My fresh British platoon hopped the hedges and likewise crossed to the west of the road, opening fire at the Germans in the building just the other side of a small orchard. Subsequent turns of fire were exchanged and my British losses started to pile up on my right.
Back at the field on the British left, combined rifle and mortar fire poured into the Germans in the barn. Despite shock stocking up on the Germans, their position in the barn allowed great enough cover allowing them to slowly begin wearing down the exposed British platoon which became pinned from movement. With British taking losses to the right and less against well-protected Germans in the heavy stone buildings, it was not working out as a good day for the British who ceded the tiny hamlet to the Germans. More costly days were to come after this day just north of Caen, but a month off there would be victory for the British.
Brooklyn Wargaming
My FJ company defending a town against American Armored Combat Team.
I chopped up his rifle platoons, but his tanks got around my flanks and pushed in my forward line with heavy casualties.
15mm mix of Battlefront, PSC, Peter Pig, and assorted other figures.
James Manto
Photos from today's game of I Ain't Been Shot Mum. 18 x 6 ft table using 28mm figures by 1st Corps and an assortment of 1/48 and 1/50 scale vehicle's.
Ended as a British win by crossing the Bailey bridge.
Michael Curtis
And here are some pics of the table set up and ready to play:
“The Monmouths at Mouen” … when the Monmouthshire Regt were accidentally in the line of advance of the Leibstandarte in Normandy, June 1944.
Thanks very much to Lloyd Lewis for helping with the last play test game for “Come and have a go …” at Southampton next weekend. Those Tigers were hard work to stop !!
Phil Turner
Another go at this campaign: after one solo and one face-to-face, I thought I would give it another go solo. So this is my third play of this scenario.
This is the map at the start which was all Major Bob Boston could go on from an RAF photo taken the day before.
The objective was simple: get to the bridge at the far end. Simple enough as he had plenty of M8 Greyhounds and even some Stuart Light Tanks and two M8 Howitzers. In fact they were too many of a lot of units for what I have in stock, so Matildas, Shermans and others were dragooned in as proxies!
Boston ’s plan was to advance his few infantry over the hills to the right and hopefully clear these before pushing towards the bridge. The HQ and 2nd Recon Platoon would follow the road in the shadow of these hills once they had cleared the building near the jump-off point. The Cavalry Sections would advance to this building and the 1stRecon Platoon would advance south down the river road, to be followed by the Stuarts.
Hauptmann Heigel Heffwehen was tasked with holding the bridge and on no account to allow the American to get over it. His plan after much thought was to hold the bridge and nearby buildings with his 2nd Zug and have the 1st Zug in the building and hedges to the north. The HQ was placed in the centre behind the second line of bocage, with Panzerschrecks on both corners by the road, and the MMG on the hill for overhead firing. The AT section was placed in the area north of the bridge covering the western road, whilst the Armoured Cars were placed by the river bend to guard the eastern road.
The centre was the first to get some action as the Greyhounds (proxied by Matildas) of 1st Recon opened fire and, combined with the mortars, caused numerous shock from which this German section never really recovered. Those American mortars are very useful and can do some real damage, and both squads certainly earned their coin.
In the east, 1st Recon happily set off down the road and, despite being a recon unit, managed to miss spotting any enemy, and only saw the 2nd Section of Germans when almost upon them.
Meanwhile, the position for the German 1st Zug was getting critical, suffering from the fire of the Greyhound and mortars, and it was soon decided that the position was untenable and that the building should be left as soon as possible.
Luckily here for the Germans, their Armoured Cars moved to the south of the road and began a brilliant defence that would last all day. The firepower and armour of the combatants here don’t allow for a quick finish, although several brilliant shots certainly did some real damage. This is the long view up the river and at the moment the view is clear!
As mentioned the 2nd Recon were upon the Germans before they realised it. One fell to the Pumas, with the other hit by a Panzerfaust whilst trying to get into a field: all in two shots. This was the best shooting all day.
Unfortunately for this unit, Oberleutnant Ars Apfelwein was then hit immediately by a stray shot...and that was the end of him.
The RAF then joined in and finished that section off!
This is the position at the middle of the day looking from the German position as on the right the Pumas and infantry stop the 2nd Recon and one can see both the Mortars and M8 Howitzer deployed in a long drawn out battle which ended with no mortars and some very ineffectual Howitzers.
To the west one can see the American infantry advancing over the hills. The MMG here was easily destroyed without managing to get a shot off: a great triumph for the Intelligence section. You can also see the HQ and 1st Recon on the road now. Although not seen here, the AT section of the Germans was fighting both these units in the climatic fight of the whole battle as the winner here would either have an almost clear run to the bridge or have held the position.
Now to see the trial and triumphs of being a Tank Killer unit. The following picture was taken just after the eastern positioned Panzershreck had totally surprised first the Stuart Tank then itself as it managed to only get equal hits on it, and was then immediately destroyed by the tank’s MG.
This photo on the other wing was taken at the same time but this was just before the western positioned Tank Killers managed to throw double 6 and hit the flank of the tanks with strike 16 attack. It was messy, but of course it was also its last shot with a double. Brilliant and one of those moments!
As all this excitement was going on, the American infantry had pushed everything before it and looked to be about the clear the field on its own. First they Shocked the infantry in the same field as the German AT section, and then one US section charged it. It looked easy, but the Germans had other ideas: for three dead they managed to get leave seven Americans on the field. A great show, and one that would have got Leutnant Erik Wierlikor an Iron Cross if only a loose mortar shell hadn’t got him almost immediately afterwards. The second Zug commander killed in his moment of glory!
With stalemate in the east and in the centre it was the US 1st Recon and HQ that finally knocked out the Anti Tank Section and opened the way to victory. The mortars and air force hit the enemy units in the building guarding the bridge and this allowed the 1st Recon to send their last mobile Greyhound onto the bridge and so win the game.
Here is the triumphant Greyhound in place.
A truly excellent game was had by me, and the result was only decided in the last few minutes and in a way that seems almost Pyrrhic for the Americans. The Germans had caused great losses on their enemy, although the German infantry also suffered horrific casualties.
I am not sure it is a good idea to split the German forces to hold the northern buildings, but thought it would be a good delaying tactic and it nearly worked. The American infantry normally likes the centre, but in this case did its task brilliantly.
The two stars of the show are US Captain Martin Minnesota for both his destruction of two positions and then also having one of his Greyhounds sitting on the bridge; and,for the Germans, it had to be Leutnant Siggi Spaten for, again, two excellent reasons: the first for the brilliant defence of the east road, and second due to the fact he was the only German officer left alive at the end!
Now let’s see how the British do at Avaux!
Craig Ambler
Gave IABSM 3 a solo try out today using the included 'Action At Galmanche' scenario (which I last played during 2020 lock down) as possible contender for club game but feel system not really multi-player friendly with unit card activation system.
But its certainly works well as a low level 'not quite skirmish' game (although sadly somewhat overshadowed now by Chain of Command in Lardy world).
Plenty of Big Men in this one (8 on British side and 6 Germans) so lots of options (once their cards and associated Platoon cards get into deck) although the Allied Blinds card seemed to take ages to appear.
Had forgotten that quite a lot of markers needed in game but system overall fits its level well (of course solo not optimal for blinds/hidden stuff).
German Pak 40 opened up on a Sherman early on (Blinds in open easily revealed) but failed to achieve any damage or shock despite using aimed shots and was then pummeled by return HE fire by Sherman and mates whose card appeared immediately with result that 3 crew died and 3 shock inflicted.
British infantry however up against it with Germans dug in along wood edge and Brits in open or light cover (hedges).
Did not complete game (other things planned for table) but must revisit this set again for 2 player as it has a lot to offer and we did play quite a few games with set several years ago (time really does fly !)
Sergeant Steiner
However, I do find the time to play through the I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum! campaign book Operation Compass by Too Fat Lardies.
We (Petrus Regulus and I) have managed two scenarios so far. It has been a rather one sided affair as the only opposition to the British has been Libyans with hardly any weapons at all.
Dr. The Viking
However, I do find the time to play through the I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum! campaign book Operation Compass by Too Fat Lardies.
We (Petrus Regulus and I) have managed two scenarios so far. It has been a rather one sided affair as the only opposition to the British has been Libyans with hardly any weapons at all.
Dr. The Viking
In a blast from the past I managed to arrange a game with my old gaming buddy Steen. We have played all kinds of games over the years, but especially I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum! by Too Fat Lardies, has been a recurring favourite. A bit of moving countries, and some pandemic stuff has kept us from connecting recently, but now we finally had the chance.
We decided to catch up where we left – in the middle of the campaign supplement Operation Compass. This campaign is set in the Western Desert and most of the fighting is between Libyans/Italians and British/colonials. So far in the campaign it has been a disaster for the Italians, and it is very difficult to see a way forward.
Without giving out the whole TFL supplement, I will say that this game was sort of a meeting engagement where two forces encounter each other on the way to various other destinations. The brief was simply – both sides had to stop the other from exiting the opposing narrow table edge. Many of the scenarios we have played so far, have been hopeless if not impossible for the Italians, and have left us with a sense that maybe it doesn’t make for the best gaming material. This scenario, however, I could actually see giving some sort of game.
IABSM has a “fog of war phase” where you move around blinds to position your troops. This works really well… at least until the deck gets too many cards, then it starts to bog down a bit. My plan was to head up the road with my main force and cut off the Italians with my bren carriers.
This proved to be a super effective tactic. The bren carriers annihilated the Italians as they were coming down the road, and stood overwatch whenever there wasn’t a clear target.
Having taken care of the Italians trying to exit the board, I turned my attention towards the Italians trying to stop me from exiting the board… Actually they were Libyan colonial troops.
I dismounted a platoon of Indians colonial troops and ordered them to hog the ground. Then a slow firefight started. The Italians had green troops, which meant that they could either move or shoot.. not both, when they got their turn. They also didn’t have many leaders, and therefore couldn’t get to order their troops on the ground efficiently.
The only real danger I faced was the small tankettes with twin barreled LMGs. The anti tank rifles I had, couldn’t really make a dent in them. My only AT rifle team was gunned down in fact. Hence, on a “Heroic Leader” card my big man “Havilder Tin” picked up the Boys AT rifle and charged forward trying to put holes in the Italian tank. He was unfortunately very unlucky, and the LMGs dispatched him quickly afterwards.
The Libyan infantry’s unit card never came up before they were under fire, and thus too poorly to start moving about before removing shock. The casualties also racking up, meant that they lost their dice also, and were down to just 1 die of movement pretty quickly. The green rule, meant that as soon as they lost a couple of men they could no longer shoot, as they lose one die to fire.
I managed to get my MMG platoon into a very good spot on a ridge next to the road. The game was effectively over at this point as the combined fire from the Indian infantry and the MMGs was going to rip apart the Libyans.
We decided to end it here. I’ve included an overview shot here to show how the Italians were cut off:
The truth is that the bren carrier platoon could probably have finished off the whole Libyan/Italian force single handedly. I know that this probably leaning towards “playing the rules” but I really think that for a game to be interesting it needs to offer a bit more than what the Italian player is dealt here.
One solution might be to bump the Italians up a notch quality wise, just to give them a bit more to do. Having just 2 dice is not a lot, and coupled with “green” where you have to forfeit a die to shoot makes it really really difficult. Also 1 die of shooting rarely leads to even a point of shock.
All this being said and rationalised in hindsight, I will say that playing a game of IABSM was still super good very enjoyable and meeting up with Steen again was also super good.
Dr. The Viking
We continued our play through Operation Husky and the invasion of Sicily in July 1943 this past weekend at Metropolitan Wargamers in Brooklyn, NY. We’re working our way through the events of July 11th in the Sicilian Weekend book by the Too Fat Lardies for their I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum rules for 15mm World War II play.
Operation Husky, July-August 1943 (Gela in green)
The scenario represents the northeast section of the town of Gela where ferocious fighting had taken place the day before in the early actions of the Allied invasion of Sicily. The table was set up with a couple dozen buildings from a variety of manufacturers, including JR Miniatures, Battlefront, Mark IV Miniatures, Miniature Building Authority and Games of War. The occupying US troops all began hidden in Gela with the Italians arriving on blinds at the opposite end of the table over a small railroad cut, bridge and road surrounded by open farm fields dotted with trees. The objective was simple: the Italians had to take back this corner of Gela and the Americans had to hold what they had fought so hard for the previous day.
The Americans deployed in well-defended positions in the town with two platoons of rifles and light machine gun squads perched in buildings. A combat engineer platoon armed with a 37mm M3 anti-tank gun in tow sat hidden along the main street through town. Off board, 4.2 inch M2 mortars and 105 mm M2A1 howitzers from the 33rd Field Artillery Battalion were available as support to be called in by the captain from the company HQ perched in the tall building at the center of town. Tough and dug into great positions, the Americans looked to have a clear advantage.
The tabletop battlefield for Gela
As in the previous scenario southeast of Butera, the Italians again represented a massing of manpower from the Livorno Division with six small rifle platoons and a machine gun support platoon. Accompanying them this time was Mobile Group E compromised of light French Renault R35 tanks and pre-war Italian CV33 Tankettes. What the Italians lacked in a starting position on the field and quality of equipment and troops, they certainly made up for in volume as they began the game arriving on three blinds per turn.
Italians arrive northeast of Gela
As the Italians neared the town, the Americans bided their time and sought not to reveal their positions until the approaching forces were nearly on top of their positions. Approaching in the open, the Italian blinds were spotted in the open to reveal tanks and infantry closing in at the center and edge of town. With IABSM’s randomly card-activated units mechanic, my US commander was perhaps overly cautious in waiting a turn or two too long to start getting the American cards into the deck. This all but negated off-board US artillery support for the game and allowed the Italian attackers to get dangerously close to seizing a quick victory with nary a shot fired.
Italians swarm the edge of the town and the hidden American positions
On the Italian left, one of their early shots fired down the street took out a crew member of the M3 anti-tank gun, forcing the remaining American crew to haul it back around a corner to safety. In answer, the US engineers opened fire at close range and threw back the initial push by the Italians on the American right. At the center of town, US rifles, machine guns and bazookas firing from within a massive central building ripped into the Italians marching forward in the open. Under heavy fire at their center, the Italians fled for cover to either side as their approach was slowed and their returned rifle and tank shots had little effect on the Americans.
Italians encounter fire from US engineers defending from buildings
Italians encounter fire from US engineers defending from buildings
Italian armor repositions away from American fire
With nowhere to go but forward, an Italian rifle platoon at their left assaulted the US engineers holding down the American right from a building. The Americans took heavy casualties and were thrown backward from their position into the open street to the rear. In response, returned fire from engineers in a nearby building flung the Italians back from their brief victory.
Italian rifles push a US engineer platoon from the building position
Back at the center, another round of combined arms fire from the Americans in the large central building continued to feed shots into the Italians, forcing them to continue to slide into cover to either side of the open field outside town. While pushing the Italians back with casualties and shocking fire provided a short-term positive for the US, it also allowed the Italians the chance to redeploy and set themselves for a move into town on the American left.
Italians slide from the center toward the American left
Meanwhile on the US right, the surviving engineers were chewed up by additional fire in the street which stalled them out of the action. With the main street into town wide open, the first Italian tank positioned itself to roll down the cobblestones. Waiting in the distance was the American anti-tank gun with a clear field of fire down the street looking to stave off an armored assault into the heart of Gela.
Italian armor sneaks around the American right as the US 37mm M3 anti-tank gun waits in the distance
With the Italians abandoning the center, the fight moved to the flanks. One US rifle platoon moved to reposition into buildings further to the edge of town on the American left as two Italian platoons, one already having suffered heavy casualties, snuck between buildings for cover. The American engineers on their right sought to hold down the approaching Italian tanks and three rifle platoons, and the US anti-tank gun crew had yet to fire a shot. The American rifles, machine guns and bazooka crews who had caused so much damage at the center were facing a choice of redeployment as their Italian targets skirted to either side.
Italians mass for an attack on the US engineers
Several hours in, we called the game. The small-scale tactical nature of IABSM is highly contingent on when a platoon or command ‘big man’ card activates. With so many Italian cards in the deck, a run of activated Italian unit cards may have provided the push they needed to get to the main street and victory. That said, each US card drawn was continuing to have devastating results on the somewhat weaker Italians, causing casualties and flinging them into reconsidering different routes. The large number of Italian on the field were still poised to match up with the higher quality American troops, although the US had clearly blown an early opportunity to use their off-board artillery effectively. Good and bad command choices had left Gela contested for the day.
Brooklyn Wargaming
Today Neil, my regular gaming opponent, and I played Scenario 12 from the Sicilian Weekend scenario pack: The Biazza Ridge. A German kampfgruppe is heading for the Operation Husky landing site when it is hit in the rear by a small number of marauding paratroops led by the indefatigable Colonel James M. Gavin. Some of the Germans turn back to deal with this menace...but the Airborne troops prove such a pain that eventually the whole German column has to turn around to deal with them. This scenario covers the German assault on where the paratroopers are dug in: the Biazza Ridge.
The tabletop was largely empty, with only a narrow trip of dense wood on the left, and a thin salient of light wood in the middle interrupting what would prove to be a very open field of fire. A road and railway track ran up the right of the battlefield. The ridge itself was surmounted by two farmhouses. The initial force of US troops [a platoon of Airborne infantry with two pack howitzers] was lightly dug in on the ridge's crest, the Germans would advance from the opposite end of the table. The Americans could expect reinforcements, the Germans had a company of average infantry, two Tiger tanks and a single Hummel SP 150mm gun.
The Germans entered the table under Blinds but were soon spotted by the Americans, who enjoyed the advantage of high ground. The Tigers and one platoon of infantry were advancing down the road on the US left; the Company HQ on the right; with the other two platoons of infantry coming up the centre.
On the German right, the lead Tiger was struck by shells from the US 75mm howitzers, and was shaken, but not stirred. The panzers advanced slowly up the road, pausing to fire HE back, killing one crewman. The infantry advanced along with the tanks.
On the German left, the Company HQ fought its way through the dense woods, with its two squads bursting from the woods and up the final stretch of slope leaving two MMGs behind as fire support. They took some casualties from the Airborne troops who popped up from behind the ridge to fire at them, but the concentrated fire from the MMGs kept the US infantry from doing too much damage.
In the centre, the two infantry platoons also reached the end of the woods and headed up the slope, also taking a couple of casualties, this time from the howitzers who had decided to pretend the Tigers weren't really there!
The Germans kept creeping their men forward, but crossing the open ground and equally open lower slopes of the ridge was proving very difficult and time-consuming. The six foot tables seemed very long indeed! Meanwhile, on the right, the Americans had received reinforcements in the shape of an anti-tank gun, which promptly slammed several shots into the lead Tiger, eventually forcing its crew to bail out after its main gun was destroyed. The anti-tank gun then became the target for every German that could shoot at it (1st Platoon, the other Tiger, the Hummel) and was eventually knocked out, along with one of the pack howitzers that had been doing sterling service hammering the German 1st Platoon. Colonel Gavin had unfortunately been killed shortly before: he was manning the .50 cal on the half-track that had pulled the anti-tank gun into position when it was critically hit by one of the Tigers and blown to atoms!
American reinforcements were now arriving thick and fast. Next up were two FOO teams: one from a battery of four 105s, and a naval liaison party in touch with the cruiser Boise and its six-inch guns. The Boise had almost single handed stopped a major German panzer attack on the beachhead in a previous scenario from the same supplement, so I was very wary of its firepower! The FOO teams and US Big Men quickly called in the off-table assets available, and the German advance slowed even more as squads became pinned under the blasts.
Two Shermans arrived next. Rather than challenging the Tiger to a stand up fight, they headed up onto the ridge to support the infantry there. Finally, two trucks arrived with another two platoons of US paratroopers. These set up shop opposite where the Tiger was still crawling forward, and started exchanging fire with the German 1st Platoon.
Meanwhile, the German Company HQ squads, protected by the suppressing fire of the MMGs and other two platoons had crept up to ridge line and given the Airborne troops there a taste of their own medicine: popping up to blast them before popping back down under cover. Several turns went by with either one side or the other popping up to shoot, but the other two German platoons were still creeping ever closer, even if they were still losing men to artillery fire.
The battle continued in the same vein right up to when we had to call time because the 'real world' beckoned! At the end of the game, the Germans still hadn't quite taken the ridge, but were still moving forwards despite the tender ministrations of the US off-table guns. The Tiger was now seriously threatening the US left flank, and although both Shermans were now in position to support the infantry, they had taken several barrages from the Hummel, whose 150mm shells had managed to knock out the alignment of both tanks' main guns. The final position is shown below:
We called the battle as a draw: the game was still balanced on a knife edge. Although the Germans hadn't achieved their victory conditions yet, with a bit of luck they could have done so. Historically, Gavin and his men fought their enemy to a standstill and, likewise, could have done so here. A really good game, despite the (relatively!) small number of men deployed.
What was really good was the way that IABSM 3rd edition played on this, our second game. Big Men were rushing here and there on the battlefield, using their command initiatives in a much more "command-y" way than the more rudimentary system of 1st and 2nd editions. The modified artillery rules worked brilliantly (far too brilliantly if you happened to be German!) and, once again, everything just seemed a bit tidier, more logical, and neater. We are already planning our next game: perhaps a return to the Far East and Bloody Burma...
Robert Avery
