IABSM at Winter Wonder Lard

/

Last weekend saw another excellent Winter Wonder Lard at Bristol Independent Gamers. On show were games of Chain of Command, Sharp Practice, Strength & Honour, What a Cowboy and, of course, I Ain’t Been Shot Mum.

The IABSM game was based on the tank battle on the Calais - Dunkirk Road, near St.Omer on 22nd May 1940.

On That day a patrol sent out from the Calais defences reported German tanks on the road between Calais and Dunkirk and fighting towards St.Omer. Staff Officers at Calais disputed this, stating that there were no substantial German forces within 30 miles of St. Omer and this could only be a stray reconnaissance patrol.

A British Force was ordered towards St.Omer to drive off these random German troops, but came into contact with lead elements of 1st Panzer Division, who were attacking French troops on the edge of the town.

Click on the picture below to see all:

IABSM AAR: Les Attaques

/

Another absolutely beautiful battle report, this time featuring a game of I Ain’t Been Shot Mum played using the first scenario from the Defence of Calais scenario pack.

The report was originally posted on the IABSM FB group, which you can access by clicking here.

It’s May 1940, and with British troops being evacuated from the beaches at Dunkirk, the ancient port of Calais stood on the critical western flank of the Anglo-French lines.

In a desperate bid to shore up the flank Churchill committed the British 30th Infantry Brigade to defend Calais to the last. What ensued was an heroic struggle that is writ large in the annals of British military history.

This first scenario features men from the Searchlight Battalion, supported by anti-tank guns, trying to hold off the leading elements of the German advance. Click on the picture below to see all:

IABSM AAR: 3RTR at Hames Boucres

/

Time for another lockdown game of I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum against K, Daughter #1’s boyfriend, trapped with us for the duration.

I used scenario #3 from the Defence of Calais scenario pack: 3RTR at Hames-Boucres. I would take the Brits, K would play the Germans.

The game begins as a squadron of British tanks (a Squadron HQ of an A9 and an A10; two troops of three A13s each; a troop of three MkVIb light tanks; and a couple of recon Dingos) headed in column along a sunken road towards the village of Hames-Boucres (a few miles from Calais) with orders to deal with a few "rogue enemy tanks" that had apparently been spotted roaming around the countryside…

Click on the picture below to see what they encountered:

IABSM AAR: 3RTR at Hames-Boucres

/

One of the reasons I love running this site (at great expense in terms of time and money BTW!) is the opportunity to post battle reports from games based on scenarios from the various scenario packs that I’ve written.

I like seeing whether the game worked or not (fortunately they generally do!), and how people have interpreted the situation, terrain, any special rules and the like. It’s also great to see the beautiful figures and scenery that people use as well.

It gives me great pleasure, therefore, to introduce the following AAR by Time Whitworth using the 3RTR at Hames-Boucres scenario from the Defence of Calais pack (the first I wrote). It’s a great scenario that I’ve played several times myself. Click on the pic below to see all:

IABSM AAR: The Road to Gravelines

/

Tim Whitworth and friends are working their way through the Defence of Calais scenario pack. Here’s a quick AAR from Scenario #04: The Road to Gravelines.

The unenviable task facing the British was to get a massive truck borne supply consignment of rations from Calais to Dunkirk along the road via Gravelines. Early in morning the convoy left the Calais Gate and travelled the route until it reached the village of Le Beau Marais where 1 Panzer Division forward elements had set up a substantial roadblock on the village crossroads and billeted up for the night.

The game begins with the British reaching the roadblock and the Germans being alerted to their presence.

Click on the picture below to see what happened:

Searchlights (literally) in 28mm

/

Those of you who have the The Defence of Calais scenario pack for I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum, and those who have read the Blitzkrieg: The BEF theatre supplement, will know that during the fall of France campaign the British were often forced to use Searchlight Infantry (i.e. line of communication troops whose purpose was to help anti-aircraft units hit enemy ‘planes by shining big searchlights into the sky) in the front line.

Up to now, unfortunately, there’s been no way to differentiate Searchlight Infantry from normal, run-of-the-mill types: after all, they wore the same basic uniform. Now, however, at least in 28mm, Sarissa Precision Ltd has produced a portable searchlight and generator.

Now the model is actually not quite right for the Searchlight Regiments (they used the searchlights either mounted on trucks, or carried on lorries with a slightly different stand) but is the closest thing I have seen so far.

Credit where credit is due: I didn’t see this on the Sarissa site, but on the Bad Squiddo games site, where Annie has created a Home Front female crew for the spotlight, and is selling the Sarissa model for them to, er, man.

Apologies if you’ve seen this before (the model is not marked as a new release on the Sarissa site) but I thought it worth mentioning. You never know, Sarissa might produce a 15mm version as a result or, equally good, Annie might start doing some of her Soviet female infantry in 15mm!

IABSM AAR: Defence of Calais #01: Les Attaques

/

As mentioned in a previous post, there's now a thriving I Ain't Been Shot, Mum! group on Facebook, which you can visit by clicking here.

One relatively recent post was from James Tree, with a brief pictorial report of his game using the first scenario from the Defence of Calais scenario pack: Les Attaques. I'm sure he won't mind me reproducing it here, so click on the pic below to see what happens as the Panzers first arrive at the outskirts of Calais...

IABSM AAR: Les Attacques

/

Vaggelis has begun playing his way through the Defence of Calais scenario pack, beginning  with scenario #01:  Les Attacques.

It is May 1940, and with British troops being evacuated from the beaches at Dunkirk, the ancient port of Calais stands on the critical western flank of the Anglo-French lines. In a desperate bid to shore up this flank, Churchill has committed the British 30th Infantry Brigade to defend Calais to the last...

Click on the picture below to see the full AAR:

AAR: Three for IABSM

/

Originally posted 1st January 2014

Those of you who regularly visit VL (bookmark us now!) will know that I love finding and collecting After Action Reports from all over the web. I especially like seeing how other people interpret scenarios that I have either written of played. So I was very happy, yesterday, when I found Whisperin' Al's blog which has several AARs for either IABSM or CDS.

Here's the first batch covering scenarios from the Defence of Calais and Sealion scenario packs. Lovely photographs of well set up tables and nicely painted figures. More to follow.

Coulogne

Coulogne Redux

Rearguard at Pevensey

The Defence of Calais Redux

/

Originally posted 2nd November 2011

Following the recent release of IABSM v3, I am working my way through the seven scenario packs I have written for the game, updating them in line with the changes to the rules and terminology used. Note that the scenarios are all easily usable with IABSM v1, v2 or v3 (or indeed with any company level WW2 rules): I just want to make sure that they are as easy to use as possible.

First  to be completed is The Defence of Calais: 14 scenarios centred around the BEF's ill-fated defence of Calais, France, 1940.

'Beer & Lard Day' at Burton on Trent

/

Originally posted 15th November 2010

This weekend saw the first Burton-upon-Trent “Beer & Lard Day”: a day’s wargaming that gives those people unable to easily travel down to Lard HQ for our annual events an opportunity to try out games from the TooFatLardies stable of rules.

My role was to run the games using I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum!, the Lardies’ WW2 company level ruleset.  I ran three different scenarios on the day, the first of which was 3RTR at Hames-Boucres: the third game from the Defence of Calais early war scenario pack.