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A fictional scenario set in late May 1940. Using IABSM 3 & Platoon Forward (tweaked for company level ). 

Ed's Note: i.e. Tony would play the Germans with the Allied force generated randomly

The German forces are heading for the English channel, Luftwaffe reconnaissance have spotted several undefended river crossings in a small market town some miles north. Division have sent you ahead to secure the crossings and town before a coherent defence can be organised.

German Force

Company HQ

Big Man Level 3 

2 x MMG 

1 x ATR 

1 x Mortar 50mm

Kradshutzen Platoon

Big Man Level 3 

Big Man Level 1

3 x Panzer II 

3 x Squads of 8 on Motorcycles

Platoon Two

Big Man Level 3 

Big Man level 1 

3 x Panzer III 

4 x Squads of 8

Air Support

1 x Stuka

The Allied force Blinds were totalled, then one third were placed on board representing remnants of French units and two thirds would represent a BEF force sent to bolster the defence. 

These would arrive on turn one to four diced for at the beginning of the game. It turned out to be move one! In Platoon Forward the blinds are classed A,B or C so that you can deploy them with some degree of knowledge of what type of troops they represent but they are diced for only when they are spotted or deployed. In this game, the dice threw up a few surprises!

Platoon One with the Panzer IIIs take the left flank bridge; Platoon Two cross the centre ford; and Company HQ and the Panzer IIs head for the rail bridge.

During the game the first few Allied blinds revealed two armoured platoons and an anti tank gun, subsequent blinds melted away revealing little else, just one HMG and an infantry section. Without the poor bloody infantryman the town could not be held, the Germans had won.

Until the last two blinds melted away the game could have gone either way. It was also unusual to have so many tanks come up on blinds ( in my experience anyway ), but it was an enjoyable solo game playing against the unknown.

Tony Hobbz

 
 
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Just back from holiday in Scotland via Birmingham. When we stopped over in Brum (well, near Solihull actually) I managed to get in a game of IABSM using our friend's 10mm 1940. He has only painted a limited amount so I had to fit the scenario around what he had.

Andy has read but had never played IABSM (I haven't played a lot either mind you) and I conscripted my 14 year old to play the British. We did not formalise commander's names but we did use a few which I will refer to.

German forces are racing for the Channel, Maj. Bob 'Boozy' Smythe of the Loamshires has been ordered to delay the enemy at the bridge at Limmette on the River Lys with his C Company (less a platoon held as battalion reserve), a carrier section, the battalion's one remaining 3in mortar and a borrowed MMG of the Cheshires.  A section of engineers in labouring to blow the bridge before the Germans arrive. Recently arrived under Lt Trotter are a troop of MkVIB and a solitary A13, separated from 3 RTR. Two 2pdr AT guns of the RA were also provided without tows.

By contrast Hauptmann Anders Robschaft had under command two mixed panzer platoons (totalling 2 Pz II, 3 Pz III and 2 PzIV), led by Lt Gruber and two tired schutzen platoons with an MMG, mortar and an FOO with 2 105mm howitzers on call.

Neither side had light mortars (because there weren't any models) though the BEF did have Boys ATRs.

As we were using 10mm on a small 3' x 4' table we used 1.5cm = 1" which worked pretty well. The terrain was professional KJ Warren stuff which looked really good.

The Germans arrived from the NW edge by road - which ran off the the east next to a large wood and were faced by mainly open farmland with hedges and walls down to the river with its conspicuous stone bridge (left centre of the table as the Germans looked at it) and hedgerows and copses beyond. There was one large immature orchard on the German side but this did not reach the river bank. The German entry road had a junction at mid table where the road led over the bridge.

On the British side there was a stone house next to the bridge and some hedges etc between the river and a road running more or less parallel with the river.

Major Smyth quickly identified the existence of a ford on the left of his position and positioned one platoon on his left with an A13 and one of the 2 pdrs (which could also train on the bend in the road in front of the bridge). The other platoon was deployed in depth to the right of the house with the building having only the MMG, and AT rifle and the platoon leader. A 2pdr on the road to the rear provided protection.

The MkVIBs were left in reserve parked behind cover and the carriers parked on the road as emergency transport (not being armed). The sappers were under the bridge. As all troops were in cover no blinds were used. The sappers had an Event chip - on the third they would test as to how well they had blown the bridge.

The Germans steamed forward when they came on, although good British spotting from the top floors of the house detected a panzer platoon and infantry platoon early. In the event one German panzer platoon elected to go down the road to the bridge, the other to try the right flank with an infantry platoon and the other infantry platoon to advance through the orchard between the two tank units. The German left (British right) was not threatened.

It was noticeable that the Germans were disinclined to spot and the British left quite a lot 'on blinds'. The German onrush was spectacular and bloody - the RA served 2 pdrs plus the A13 (deployed on a tea break because the Germans had not spotted it) hammered the German armour with pretty ineffective replies (read poor saving rolls). By the end of the action two panzers had withdrawn for repairs, two were immobilised with other damage and the other three were burning hulks. Total BEF losses in the AT exchange was an A13 immobilised and one lost artillery crewman.

Insult was added to injury by the initial 3in mortar shot landing plumb in the middle of the orchard hitting two sections. Not to be outdone the left flank British platoon deployed to hammer the enemy infantry and soon Germans - even in OK cover at medium and long range - were dropping like flies. The German right hand platoon leader and the FOO were killed.

The Germans managed to kill a single BEF infantryman before deciding to fall back with 11-12 dead.

Entertaining moments:

- the panzer crewman from a Pz III with damaged main gun sent to check the damage on the bridge: BEF response was a full burst from the previously unspotted (but deployed) Vickers doing 4P to a single crewman ...

- the 2pdr shot against Lt Grubers Pz III which scored 5 hits on 6 strike dice and which resulted in one save - BOOM

- the Boys ATR which actually caused Lt Gruber to retire at extreme range

- the fact that the BEF rifle platoon commander seemed to activate virtually every turn

- the fact that the second BEF rifle platoon and the MkVIB troop did not fire a round

It should not have been that one sided but that's the way it ended up.

Edward Sturges

 
 
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Time for another blast from the past: here’s an After Action Report from a game played five years ago. It was the first game played with what is currently my American army.

The table was very random, since it was pulled together from the collections of several people who were not actually going to play the game.

The American deployment was in hidden: with lots of widely scattered units spread amongst what little cover was available.

The German deployment, also in hidden, was less dispersed.

In this game I learned that you need to spread your troops out far enough apart so that they can move forward in a coordinated way without tripping over each other’s feet and blocking each other’s line of sight.

The Germans, although concentrated in one place, knew what they had come to do.

To win!

And therefore caught the Americans in total disorder.

American units were being destroyed one by one like clockwork!

As already mentioned, this game taught me not to deploy so many units so close together, as initially they hinder each other’s movement, especially if those initially deployed furthest forward are the slowest, and, if destroyed, then get in the way of the advance and the line of sight of those following.

Burt Minorrot

 
 
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We had a bash at Rob Avery’s ‘Defence of Calais’ scenario 5 today: The Carriers at Cocquelles, 24 May 1940. Another great game and scheduled for a re-run.

For now here are a few pictures. Hope you like.

Tim Whitworth

 
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It's 1630 on 5 July 1943 in western Russia, where the I Battalion, Panzer Grenadier Regiment 101, 292nd Infanterie Division is carrying out an assault on Soviet defensive positions in the "Bunkerwald," held by elements of the 1st Battalion, 676th Rifle Regiment, 15th Rifle Division. This is part of the German offensive to eliminate the Kursk salient, specifically on the northern shoulder of the bulge, as German forces push towards Ponyri.

I am playing this game because I have the good fortune of being buddies with Steve of the "Sound Officer's Call" blog , and he is running a "Firestorm Ponyri" campaign. He is playing some games with his local buddies, but was unable to play all of the games himself; rather than simply 'dice off' for results of campaign fights they were unable to play on the table top, Steve asked if anyone in the blogosphere wanted to help, so here I am.

It's been a little bit of an issue that I literally just sold off a bunch of German late war gear, so I'm a bit understrength, but Steve is working with me to make sure the fights I get match up with the forces I have. This is the first fight I've played, and I hope it wasn't too much a pain for him, I certainly want to keep going! First, I love to play games; second, it's been way too long since I've played any Eastern Front games (maybe eight years or so?); and lastly, I'm a solo gamer that still craves some camaraderie, so whenever I can help another wargamer out, I'm always quick to jump at it.

A rather unassuming swath of land in western Russia, part of the Kursk salient. At top center is a forest known by the Germans as "Schwarzwald," while at center is "Bunkerwald," and there is an unnamed patch of wood at far left. There are three dirt tracks in a generally north-south direction, mostly towards the three human structures: the State Farm (bottom left), the District Seat (bottom center), and Alexei's House (center right). The rest is untended grassland pocked with cultivated fields; there are some wooden fences on the southern half of the table, as well as scrub around a lot of the fields, that neither blocks LOS or provides cover (just for looks), while there are some hedges strewn throughout the table that don't provide cover or block LOS, but do serve to 'disrupt' LOS a bit (making shots through a bit more difficult).

The Orders of Battle

Germans

  • Battalion Commander

  • 1st Company (three rifle platoons of three rifle squads)

  • 2nd Company (three rifle platoons of three rifle squads)

  • 3rd Company (three rifle platoons of three rifle squads)

  • Schwere Company (MG platoon of four MG-42s, mortar platoon of four 8.0cm tubes, infantry gun platoon of two 7.5cm guns, and an anti-tank platoon of two PaK-38 5.0cm guns)

  • Assault Gun Platoon (reduced, only two vehicles)

  • Battery of 10.5cm Artillery (off table)

  • Battery of Nebelwerfers (off table)

Soviet

  • Company Commander

  • Rifle Company (three rifle platoons of three rifle squads)

  • Anti-Tank Rifle Platoon (3 x PTRS-41s)

  • Anti-Tank Platoon (3 x 45mm ATGs)

  • Infantry Gun Platoon (2 x 76mm guns)

  • MG Platoon (3 x Maxim .30-cal MGs)

  • Mortar Platoon (3 x 82mm mortars)

  • Combat Engineer Platoon (three flamethrower squads)

  • Assault Gun Platoon (3 x Su-76s)

I'm playing in 10mm (figures, vehicles, and gear a mix of Pendraken and Minifigs UK) based at one stand=one squad, weapon, or vehicle. I'm playing this game using Too Fat Lardies' "I Ain't Been Shot Mum" rules, simplified a bit in terms of combat, morale, and movement.

And here we go, with troops added. The objective for the game is possession of "Bunkerwald" (the path of forest at center bottom); the Germans want it and the Soviets currently have it. The fight will go until one side breaks, winner determined by ownership of the objective. The German baseline is in the north (top) and the Soviets at bottom (south).

Scheme of Manoeuvre

German

The Germans have infiltrated the bulk of their Schwere Company into the Schwartzwald (patch of woods at top center), where they have emplaced their machine gun, mortar, and Infantry Gun (IG) Platoons. Because of the pace of operations they have not had the opportunity to conduct a thorough reconnaissance, so they are proceeding with a generic 'double envelopment' assault. To that end, 1st Company is crossing the line of departure in the northeast (top right), with a lot of open ground to cover, while 2nd Company is using a shallow gully in the north-northwest (top center left) that runs north to south to infiltrate as close to the objective as possible.

The Germans are aware of enemy forces in Bunkerwald and in a stand of trees in the southeast (bottom right), so supporting fires will be used to reduce/suppress those positions. The Germans are holding 3rd Company and their ATG Platoon in reserve (off table).

Soviet

The Soviets are manning static defenses with a mobile reserve to counterattack any German breakthroughs. To that end, the Soviets are manning three fortified and (semi-) mutually supporting positions: Strongpoint Irina (in woods at far left), Strongpoint Anna (Bunkerwald), and Strongpoint Ilsa (in the southeast/bottom right). To that end, the Soviet commander has task organized his rifle company, MG platoon, ATR platoon, and ATG platoon into combined arms forces at each defensive 'hedgehog.' So each strongpoint consists of three rifle squads, one .30-cal MG, one ATR, and one 45mm ATG.

The infantry gun platoon is emplaced in the southwest (bottom left), while the mortar platoon is emplaced behind the State Farm, with its platoon commander acting as forward observer on the second floor of the State Farm building. The Soviets have their assault gun and combat engineer platoons in reserve (off table, with the engineers planning to ride into battle on the Su-76s).

 

German Initial Deployment

 

I suppose here I will make a comment on the rules and my setup: I'm not sure why, but I really sold the Germans short during this fight by only giving them Platoon Commanders (PCs), but not Company Commanders (of which they could have had three for the rifle companies). When I was setting up I just kinda blew it off as, 'well, they've got plenty of troops, plenty of supporting weapons, plenty of leaders, they don't need'em.' Well, in the attack, across open ground in particular, you can never have enough leaders...

 

Soviet Initial Deployment

 
 

Off-Table Assets and Reinforcements

 

It’s Time to Fight

The battle begins with German artillery pounding the objective, Strongpoint Anna! 150mm HE shells, some quick fuse, some airburst, and some delayed fuse (to take care of bunkers) detonate, causing all sorts of headaches for the Russkies, but no real casualties, just pinning the PC and his MG team (below, left). While in the southeast, the Nebelwerfers slam into the earth occupied by Strongpoint Ilsa. This barrage causes significantly more damage, owing to the open topped positions: the ATR team suffers casualties and is 'men down,' two rifle squads are suppressed, and the PC and MG team are pinned (below, right).

 
 

Interlude

The Germans call up their reserves (3rd Company and the PaK platoon), and designate Alexei's House as the TRP for all supporting fires. The Germans are pretty beat up, but still looking pretty grim for the Soviets; no one is occupying the objective. If the Soviet CO's card will come up, I'm going to have him fall back and turn his mortar platoon into an ad-hoc rifle platoon in order to go occupy Strongpoint Anna. If they can get in there, and get the Engineer Platoon in there as well, holding the objective, with their Su-76s prowling around, it may very well be that the Germans don't have the firepower and bodies necessary to dig them out again.

Off We Go Again…

 
 

IABSM is always a treat, the friction it throws in the game can have you going mad, but I certainly enjoy it, especially for solo games, it makes the fight completely unpredictable. I'm sure it's not everyone's cup of tea; it can be so deliciously frustrating to have (for example) a PC and a squad sitting there, mere inches from a whole string of 'man down' and suppressed enemy forces, knowing that if you could just get them activated you'd surely charge, then knock out a whole string of troops. IF you could just get them to activate ;)

Regarding deployment, being omnipotent, I'm certain neither the plan of attack nor the plan for defense was the best, but I felt like they both gave the best opportunity for a great solo game. The 'hedgehog' approach to defense made a lot more sense than anything else I could come up with; it's historically relevant, and there was no way I was going to load everything up into Strongpoint Anna, knowing the German off-table arty assets in the fight. Conversely, knowing the Soviets were going with three strongpoints and didn't have any off-table arty, I could have just loaded up in the center and pushed the grunts forward, ignoring the flanks and daring the Reds to come out of their trenches and bunkers, but that hardly seemed sporting. Overall, I'm very happy with how the fight was planned and carried out, I thought the plans worked very well.

Man, what a fight! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. It's been a long time since I had that many troops on the table, felt good, though I can't say it want to do it all the time, so I'm looking at scaling at least some of my future fights in this campaign back to company-level. I can't wait to play some more next weekend. Awaiting my orders!

Just Jack

 
 
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Lardy Day at the South London Warlords yesterday. IABSM game put on by Ian Spence, involved a US mixed force of tanks, reece and infantry pushing German defenders out of a village and driving off table.

A bloody affair which ended up with most German units eliminated, except the crucial platoon that held the village itself. We used the Oh What a Total Bummer dice driven variant of the rules, the first time that Lardy Rich had seen them being used.

Nice little game that had my US forces not doing what I wanted to do as often as I wished. As with all TFL rules, friction reared its’ ugly head and managed to stifle my infantry attack, but I was able to get my armour and reece to do the damage.

Hopefully we will do another Lardy Day next year and we get more people along to play games.

Desmondo Darkin

 
 
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The stage is now set for tonight’s game using TFL rules ‘I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum’. the last stand of the Searchlights at Les Attaques, Calais 24 May 1940.

A scenario from the Defence of Calais scenario pack which supports the rules. It is set on the 23rd of May 1940 as the BEF retreats back to the coastal ports, fighting a rearguard action all of the way.

This is the advance of the forward units of 1st Panzer Division and their encounter with a scratch force of C troop, 1st Searchlight Regiment troops at the village of Les Attaques on the Canal de Calais.

David versus Goliath?

Well, goodness, what a game. Germans very cautious indeed. The myths of Blitzkrieg, eh?

Three German tanks disabled, two more abandoned and just one on its way to Calais!
The British fought every inch of the way.

Excellent scenario though and made a great storyboard to an actual historical event.

The first photo of the game (below) is very reminiscent of those pictures of the time full of damaged and abandoned vehicles.

Here are some more shots of the terrain:

Games 2 & 3

This scenario is additive!

Returned to play it twice more. Dale and Barry this time, with a swop over at half time. Some excellent gaming and some brilliant results using IABSM rules from TFL.

Getting ready to run it again tonight with two more teams.

Here are a few more action pics from games two and three:

Games 4 & 5

More pictures of the Les Attaques 1940 game. This time the 4th and 5th plays at it with different players. Certainly getting value for money with this scenario!

A few additional ideas built in this time to curb a few ideas at short cuts etc.

Tim Whitworth

 
 
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Inspired by issue 184 of After the Battle magazine, I decided to do a late war game based on actions in one of the Oder Bridgeheads in February 1945. It allowed me to try some loaded-for-bear SS foot units, and was a change of pace from the Normandy kick I was on.

The Soviet 49th Guards Tank Brigade (with T34/85s) drove the SS Fallschirmjaegers out of Grabow on Feb 5. But then the Kampfgruppe Schwedt defenders received reinforcements: two batteries of Sturmgeschutz-Brigade 210 and Fallschirm-PanzerJaeger-Bataillion 54. So, along with units already in the bridgehead (SS Jagdverband Mitte, SS Fallschirmjaeger Btn 600 and the snipers of SS Scharfschutzen-Zug) the Germans counterattacked on Feb 7

Final German casualties are two dead StuGs, and nine of the Fallschirmjaeger Panzerjagd down. Sheridan lost seven of his Jagdverband men and one MMG team.

I lost one M4 and forty-five men, two MMG teams, two platoon leaders and the Company CO. No point in the tanks hanging out here anymore. The war is going to be over soon.

Mark Luther

 
 
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By the end of the first week of September 1939, the German 4th Panzer Division had advanced as far as Warsaw. Thinking the Poles would be knocked off balance by the speed of their advance, German commanders issued orders for the city to be stormed via the Ochota district on the western flak of Warsaw.

The Poles, however, had heavily reinforced the area, with units from the 40th “Children of Lwow” Regiment barricading streets and manning gun emplacements along all the approaches.

The Poles let the Germans drive into the city, and then opened fire with everything they had. Worse, many streets had been covered in turpentine, which was then lit on fire, destroying several German tanks and catching German infantry in the inferno that followed.

This then was the background for scenario #47 (Taking Ochota by Storm) of the second September war scenario pack. The game would begin as the Poles (played by Dave) open their attack on the advancing Germans (played by John). The Germans’ objective was just to get as many of their units as possible back off the table; the Poles’ objective was to destroy as many German units as possible.

The Battlefield

Two thirds of the table was taken up by the outskirts of Warsaw: a loose grid of streets with a goodly number of houses and factories. The other third was fairly empty rough ground.

A main road ran down the centre of the long axis. The Germans would start the game along this road spread out from the half way point deep into Ochota: the open ground behind them at the other end of the table being their way out.

The view down the main road into Warsaw

The Poles would start the game in a loose horseshoe shape surrounding the hapless Germans, initially separated by a bit of a gap. Their troops were dug in and, because of the seating arrangements in my wargaming room, mostly concentrated on one side of where the Germans were: Dave showing a marked reluctance to stand up and lean over the table!

The Germans

The Germans had a strong, well-balanced force: a slightly reduced company of Schutzen infantry supported by a couple of platoons of tanks.

Force commander was Hauptmann Siggi Schnitzel on a motorcycle combination. Directly under him were three platoons of Schutzen motorised infantry, each with a Big Man and two squads of eight men each. Each squad had lost their transport, but did have two LMGs, meaning that they would fire with an extra dice. In support was a platoon of four MMG teams in Kfz70 trucks.

Attached were Hauptmann Kurt Kirschwasser’s tanks: a company HQ of a Panzer Befelswagon and a Panzer II; then two platoons each of a Big Man, two Panzer IIs and a Panzer I.

The Poles

The Ploes were commanded by Kapitan Bazyli Barszcz: a man with far too many zeds in his name!

Their infantry contingent consisted of three line infantry platoons each of two 12-man squads. The 1st and 2nd Platoons also had an anti-tank rifle team, using the excellent wz.25 anti-tank rifle. In support were three MMG-carrying taczankas (to use the Polish spelling).

Also in support was Big Man Porucznik Burt Bigos with two 75mm field guns that would operate as an improvised anti-tank gun platoon i.e. each weapon would fire on a separate Anti-Tank card.

Finally, Porucznik Kori Kurczaka commanded a platoon of five 7TP jw (1939) tanks: the best armour the Polish army had available.

The Battle Begins

Both sides deployed under Blinds, with each side putting down one Blind at a time. As per the scenario, the Germans were clustered around the main road; the Poles had a blocking force on the road out of Warsaw, but were otherwise mostly to the south of the main road.

Both sides spent their first Activations in Spotting. The Poles spotted the German Panzers on the main road; the Germans spotted the Polish blocking force. The Poles also decided to deploy their tank platoon in order to get them into the action as soon as possible.

Things happened very quickly after that. The German Panzers scattered off the road, seeking to avoid the attentions of Burt Bigos’ guns. The tanks headed north, but left the Befelswagon behind: it was hit by several shots of 75mm HE and would spend the rest of the game trying to get moving again.

Without the German tanks to shoot at, the Polish field guns then turned their attentions to a German infantry platoon sheltering in a house near the road. The German infantry had already begun a firefight with the Polish taczanka platoon, and were somewhat perturbed when the house they were in was not only hit by the Polish guns but also set on fire: the Schutzen would have to vacate the premises on their next action.

Another Schutzen platoon, from its start point in the house opposite the burning building, also headed north, looking to carry out a combined attack on the single Polish unit north of the road: an infantry platoon that had just started to pepper the advancing Panzers with anti-tank rifle fire.

Unfortunately, the German infantry ran straight into the single Polish turpentine trap and were engulfed in an exploding fireball: the equivalent of being hit by a flamethrower. The German infantry platoon effectively ceased to exist, with only flame markers remaining in its place.

This was a bitter blow to the Germans and, I think it fair to say, sapped their morale. All the remaining Panzers now decided just to individually sprint for safety: all semblance of a coordinated plan not out of the window.

This left the two remaining German infantry platoons somewhat in the lurch: especially the platoon at the deepest-into-Warsaw end of the road. This attempted to make its way north of the road in order to loop around and away from the main Polish force, and would spend the rest of the battle dodging from house to house in an attempt to follow the Panzers, all the while gradually losing men to Polish fire.

The Death of Barszcz

Meanwhile the German platoon that had been forced to abandon the house set alight by Polish artillery had moved west, hoping to make a quick dash off the table.

Their progress, however, was stymied by the Polish tanks: the AFVs were moving north looking to get into firing positions on the flank of the fleeing Panzers. Kapitan Barszcz had, on his snow white charger, moved forward from the original Polish artillery blocking position, and was currently sat under the leas of a badly shelled house.

Unfortunately, that house was now occupied by the German platoon, above, members of which leaned out of the window and dropped grenades and improvised petrol bombs onto both the Kapitan and the nearest Polish tank.

Suffice to say that the tank survived but Barszcz did not!

Ed.’s Note: no horses were harmed in the making of this AAR. Please assume that Ogier dodged the petrol that so afflicted his master and was last seen cantering happily off into the distance.

Note the Germans on the top floor of the nearest house

The End

Barszcz’s death was really the last German success of the battle, and John conceded shortly after.

One or maybe two Panzers might have got off the table, but no more than that. It had been a crushing defeat for the Germans, a glorious (and historically accurate) victory for the Poles.

Post-match analysis revealed that John, the German commander, had gone into the game without a specific plan. His aim had been to spend a bit of time working out where the Poles were, then make something up “on the hoof”. No thoughts of dividing his troops into those aiming to flee and those aiming to hold off the attackers whilst they did so; no attempt to force a Kesselschlacht that would draw the Poles into a fight in one place whilst most of his troops punched through with a Schwerepunkt elsewhere.

IABSM, like most uncertain-activation games, requires a plan as the basis for what you are doing. You might not get the cards you need in the right order you need them, but a plan allows you to make the best of what you do get: okay, so I can’t do this bit of the plan now, which is annoying, but the card that’s appeared means that I can do this bit of the plan instead etc

Dave, the Polish commander, was happy. He acknowledged that things would have gone even better had he initially spread his units out a bit more, but German Unschlüssigkeit had meant that he could actually use his deployment to powerfully sweep across the table…and he hadn’t had to stand up much either!

For those interested, the game lasted about 2½ hours.

Robert Avery

Polish taczanka

Polish 7TP jw (1939) tanks

 
 
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Clotted Lard is the Devon Wargames Group’s annual Lard Day. A full report of the 2019 event can be found on the DWG blog, but here’s an extract describing the game of IABSM that took place as part of the festivities.

Hill 203

Put on by club members Ian and DWG. Ian has been working hard in recent months to build up his collection of 15mm WWII Normandy figures and then decided he needed some bocage to go with them. I get the feeling he is not up for building any more of the stuff, but his efforts bore fruit with his hedgerow-hell game seen at Clotted Lard…

And a few more shots of the game taken from the IABSM Facebook page:

Carojon

 
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Had a small learning game tonight building towards the demo game at Salute. Some of the kit is currently incorrect but will be made so in time for the event!

Michael Curtis

 
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This scenario is in the Welsh Guards supplement pack and represents their action defending the slopes of Mont Lambert between the village of the same name and St Martin Boulogne following their rapid deployment in under 24 hours from the south-east of England by troopship to the strickened port, where they intended to offer a rearguard action to French and British troops who were retreating back to the coastal ports of Boulogne and Dunkirk.

Upon arrival the Welsh Guards deployed with their colleagues the Irish Guards and some troops from the ACPE units in a semicircle around the port of Boulogne. The Welsh Guards took up the eastern part of the perimeter with the 3rd Coy taking up positions on the St. Martin road.

Extract from 2 Bttn Welsh Guards diary

Date: 0730hrs 23 May 1940

Whilst the Commanding Officer was making a detailed tour of the line enemy tanks attacked No. 3 Coy at MONT LAMBERT, setting fire to the rd block which was being inspected by a patrol under 2/Lieut. A. MacN. PERRINS, most of which suffered casualties. The tanks fired at the A/T guns sited near 3 Coy HQ. These guns either put the tanks out of action or at any rate made them withdraw after heavy fighting. Lateral enemy Arty bombardment began and lasted without pause until midday, registering at first on the quay and the town of BOULOGNE and later lifting backwards (SOUTH) until it registered accurately on the railway running through the Bn position, the SAMER road, and particularly on 2 Coy.

At about 0900hrs under cover of this close Arty bombardment and Mortar fire, a strong enemy attack with Tanks and A.F.V.s was launched against our right (2 Coy) and centre (3 Coy). The front was held intact until 11a.m., a slight readjustment to 2 Coy’s position having been made, one Pl and Coy HQ being withdrawn slightly to the left and rear. The Arty registration on the railway had made it untenable and one Pl suffered heavy casualties from shell fire. Meanwhile 3 Coy was heavily engaged and suffered casualties. Capt. W.H. CARTER being mortally wounded at about 1030hrs.

The Scenario

The scenario sees the Welsh Guards having arrived at their positions and attempted to dig in to the hard ground. They succeeded only in digging scrapes for cover but were supported by brigade anti-tank units armed with Hotchkiss 25 mm anti-tank guns known as 'one pounders'. In the scenario the guards have 3 of these for their assistance. They are under attack from advance elements of the 1st Panzer Division in the form of platoons of Mark II and Mark III panzers.

These are French Hotchkiss 25mm Anti tank guns. Bought by the British army and affectionately known as ‘One pounders’ these little guns packed a punch against Blitzkreig German Tanks.

These are 1/72 scale metal castings from Keiven at Lancer Miniatures. Painted in Tamiya and Vallejo paints, flock based on MDF and festooned in tufts from The Warpainter.

These 1/72 scale kits by S Models, Pz Kpfw II Ausf B, are excellent wargaming models. Painted in Tamiya and Vallejo paints, on a Warbases MDF base and textured using Jarvis cork pieces and sand, dry brushed and decorated with tufts from The Warpainter (via EBay)

The Game

We initially played this game on the Friday night but experienced a series of very strange extremes with both the order the cards were dealt and the dice scores being rolled by players. This resulted in a magnanimous British victory with all of the German tanks being destroyed by the 25 mm anti-tank guns. In addition the Germans lost all of their support medium machine gun teams, including actual MMGs being destroyed by roles of '17' from small arms fire from the British infantry platoon in the sand quarry.

Three of us decided to play this game again a couple of days afterwards having had time for us to do some further research and swot up on as many AARs and accounts of the actual battle as possible.

In this game Ralph play the Germans and Martin played the British, whilst Yours Truly was umpire and tea masher.

In the second game the cards were a little more generous in the order in which they were drawn but again the opportunity for the German player to identify Welsh Guards positions as a result of their previous evening's poor fire discipline provided Ralph with significant intelligence about the Guard's deployment and Martin had to uncover half the Blinds he had placed on the table.

This can be a particularly difficult scenario ruling if an extreme is obtained, however on both games we managed to get about 50% of the Blinds exposed and in fairness that was reasonable.

The disclosure showed an anti-tank gun outside the crossroads and a British platoon, 9 platoon, 'C' Coy, Welsh Guards taking up additional cover behind the low cliff of the sand quarry close to the crossroads. That platoon was accompanied by a Boys anti-tank rifle, but not the usual 2 inch mortar.

The crossroads showing the first anti-tank gun to be exposed and the platoon in the sand quarry adjacent to the monument

Ralph proceeded to bring on his Germans on Blinds and was initially a little reluctant to engage the targets already exposed, choosing instead to rush for the Boulogne end of the table. His objective was to secure the crossroads and get 5 tanks of far edge.

His machine gun company was quickly observed, along with another Panzer II platoon and the former quickly became the target of concentrated small arms fire from the British infantry platoon within the quarry. The Panzers were immediately also under fire from the one pounder anti-tank gun at the crossroads along with another one nearby, which exposed itself coming off its Blind. The Panzer platoon suffered several hits and a series of minor damages in the form of engine mobility problems and losses of actions for the following activation but importantly only one tank was knocked out.

The Germans are allowed a forward observation officer for their offboard mortars in the form of a Storsch light aircraft and Ralph was quick to have it over the table and searching for targets. That it did in finding the anti-tank gun at the side of the crossroads, whereupon it called in support from the offboard mortar battery.

Ralph brought on more reserves in the form of a second Panzer II platoon and it soon started to make headway down the slopes of Mont Lambert, veering somewhat northwards away from the activity in the sand quarry and the crossroads but very quickly came under fire from a third anti-tank gun back in the isolated farmhouses on the St Martin Road.

The third anti-tank gun along with its accompanying Big Man attempting to create havoc to the advancing panzers

More minor hits were achieved but nothing dramatic and the Panzers continue to roll on. The mortars now zeroed in on the anti-tank gun and casualties were suffered. Martin continued to pour fire into the advancing Panzers as a third platoon, this time of Mark III tanks entered the fray.

More mortar fire ensued with the motorman reducing their distance from the target each turn. A rifleman in the quarry notched up successes against the German machine-gun positions on the hill and drove one off quickly. The Germans were in danger of losing whatever support they had for the tanks and it looked like another British victory may be on the cards. However they look changed dramatically and the German Panzers started to take advantage of the pinning potential of the autocannons on their Mk II tanks, quickly switching targets and eventually pinning all three of their tormentors.

The airborne spotter turned to richer targets and assisted the mortars in zeroing in on the Welsh Guards in the sand quarry where casualties quickly started to build.

The German advance continued with more and more firepower quickly pinning the anti-tank guns early on after each tea break card respite. The anti-tank gun close to the crossroads despite being aided by a Big Man removing Shock regularly eventually succumbed and German concentration of fire move to the one next to the quarry and that was quickly dealt with. The gunners abandoned the gun despite the efforts of another Big Man and were mown down as they ran away towards farm buildings. That left just the third remaining 25 mm gun sat back in the farm buildings on the St Martin Road as a single main deterrent to the German advance.

The guards start to withdraw from sand quarry area as all appears to be lost

The second Guards platoon was activated but only offered elements of firepower in the final destruction of the remaining German machine guns. But by then it was getting too late with the Panzers rapidly advancing down upon the crossroads.

The Welsh Guards in the sand quarry succeeded in shooting down the airborne observer but found it necessary to withdraw from the quarry as mortar fire continue to zero in on them. They also desperately tried to get their anti-tank rifle across to the road and hiding the hedge is close to the crossroads, but as they did so they too were mown down by successive rounds of auto cannon fire and high explosive shells from the Panzer Mark III tanks.

The Germans were now effectively free to bypass the crossroads, with the British defence all but eliminated. The remaining Welsh Guards electing to withdraw back to Boulogne and make a stand in a similar manner to that of their historic predecessors.

Panzers on the advance

All in all it was a better game than on the Friday evening and went very much the way of the real thing. We now need to move on to play part two of the game which is the defence of the station on the dockside in Boulogne itself.

Tim Whitworth

Pictures of Key Terrain Features

The Crossroads

 
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Played our IABSM dice-driven variant tonight, pitching 1943/44 Soviets vs Germans.

Both sides fielded a company of infantry and then chose from support lists up to a points value shamelessly copied from CoC. The Soviets picked two units of tank troops (BT-7s and T-34s) and a medium mortar battery; while the Germans picked a Panzer IV troop, an FOO; a Stummel infantry support vehicle, and loaded up on the panzerfausts.

We tried out a new rule that limited the number of times a unit could be activated. It was partially successful, but the jury is still out.

It was good to get back into gaming after the Summer break, and the cold beers helped the evening roll along nicely.

The game ended after some bloody exchanges, and both sides lost significant numbers of infantry, the Germans though knocked out all the BT7s, but still had to engage the T34’s.

Cheers to Iain Fuller, BartMan and Philip Andrews.

Desmondo Darkin

 
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Had a lot of fun running this little scenario at Broadsword 9 over the weekend, so I thought I'd share it here! We played the Battle for Honkaniemi (Feb. 26, 1940), also known as the only (and therefore "largest"!) tank battle of the Winter War.

As you may know, while the Soviets had thousands of tanks at their command, the Finns had very few indeed. They threw them into a desperate attack late in the war that they hoped would throw back the Soviet forces that were closing on Viipuri (only 15km away at this point in the conflict) and spearhead a larger Finnish offensive operation.

Well, it turned out to be a terrible day for the Finns, from losing more than half of their thirteen operational tanks to mechanical trouble, to friendly artillery falling on the heads of the supporting infantry, to a complete lack of reconnaissance that could have revealed the Soviets were planning their own attack operation at the very same place and the very same time!

While a conventional victory was probably out of the question, we decided to judge the results of this scenario against what the plucky and hopeless Finnish tankers achieved historically. And for all that, the Finns did very well during the game! Have a look and see what you think…

Introduction

Here is an historical map of the scenario. The village of Honkaniemi is shown north of Lake Näykkijärvi. The Soviets were deployed to the southwest and the Finns would attack from the northeast. The railway in the middle of the map runs from Leningrad to Viipuri (some 15km northeast).

The Karelian Isthmus front in February, 1940. Lake Näykkijärvi can be seen at the point of the advancing Soviet 50th Corps (50th RC), some 15km southeast of Viipuri (Vyborg). Image courtesy of Talvisota.fi.

The Game

Dave Lister

 
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Been trying out I Aint Been Shot Been Shot Mum by Too Fat Lardies today. Had a great game with Phil Turner and Jenny Owens. For our first game it went really well. Looking forwards to playing these rules a lot more.

Michael Curtis

 
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This battle is an updated version of the original which was written for an earlier version of IABSM. The ‘Big Man’ levels have been updated from the ‘D6’ method to ‘Levels’ and additional Big Men have been added in line with the more recent scenario format.

The game got off to a troubled start when I realised that I had constructed my hills the wrong way round so had to put them on the table on a different corner to the map and adjust the terrain accordingly, but the game played well despite my ‘faux pas’.

The British were commanded by Steve and Steve, and the Germans by Steve and Steve, so no problem with names and Steve got to go on every turn of the cards!

The British deployed on Blinds with five real and two dummies, whilst the 12th SS had the benefit of hidden troops so could deploy either marked on the map or by using their Blinds. Their allocation was five real and five Blinds, with the number of real Blinds able to deploy reduced for each hidden unit.

The 12th SS hidden deployment had their FOO in Belle Vue farm on top of the hill, with a good view across the terrain; one Zug across the two buildings of Ferme Vallé; their three MMGs in the orchard behind Ferme Vallé; the second Zug behind the east side of the hedge where the road turns south towards the pond. Finally, their anti-tank team was in the corner of the field across the road from Belle Vue. The Germans then placed their remaining Blinds.

Before the game commenced the British had three ‘stonks’. They placed one of these over a dummy Blind near the pond and the other two stacked on Belle Vue. The single ‘stonk’ was ineffective whereas the double barrage on Belle Vue caused six Shock on the lonely FOO who decided it was time to scarper. With the barrage over, when his card turned the German Big Man rushed from the orchard to Belle Vue in order that he could direct the four off-table 105s; fortunately for him the FOO left his radio behind in his frantic attempt to get out of the way of the ‘stonks’.

start of the game favoured the British who had two Blinds moves before the Germans could react.

As there were Germans hidden in Ferme Vallé looking straight down the road any British units entering on the road had to be placed on the table as automatically spotted. They decided to lead with their armour troop followed by 3rd platoon carried on the universal carriers. They had 1st platoon coming on a Blind to the west of the road and 2nd platoon and the support weapons coming on between the east of the road and the hedgerow running towards the orchard.

Their first two moves with the armour showed no finesse with the tanks tearing down the road with three dice plus road bonus each time. This took the two leading tanks around the first major bend with the third waiting to turn the bend.


Unfortunately for them the next card turned was the Germans Blind and they saw a great opportunity for an ambush. In an instant a Panzerfaust round hurtled into the rear tank which promptly exploded killing all the crew and Captain Roughshaft who was hitching a lift. There was collateral damage to the section in the carrier behind with two being killed and the Germans in the building also lost one man.

Whilst the Germans had been waiting for the British to come in to a firing position the Cheshires’ infantry had deployed off Blinds, thus giving them more cards in the deck. They managed to get a section within 4” of the building facing north on the bend. This initiated a close assault (the first of five such engagements in this very bloody game) with one British section fighting two Germans who also had the benefit of heavy cover, ensconced as they were in this thick stone farmhouse. The result was slaughter to both sides each losing a whole section. Meanwhile the Germans were desperately trying to call in their 105s. They were successful on the fourth attempt, which probably reflects the loss of their dedicated FOO. After all this effort their barrage was ineffective.

A Panzerfaust round then hit the second Sherman in the rear, the fire coming from the other Ferme Vallé building. This Sherman also erupted causing some collateral damage to friend and foe alike. In the meantime, a British infantry platoon managed to move through the orchard west of the road and close assault the western-most building of Ferme Valle. Although the German section in this building had the benefit of cover, they had suffered casualties and were carrying a lot of Shock. Following another bloody hand-to-hand combat the result was another 12th SS section eliminated.

Having lost the buildings, the Germans deployed their machine gun teams to fire on the farm buildings. This made the British realise that they should have used their 2” mortars to lay smoke which they promptly did. Following a further close assault by the remaining platoon of Cheshires on the second German Zug further casualties were inflicted on both sides and the 12th SS decided to disengage and withdraw.

A British victory, if somewhat a Pyrrhic one considering the high casualties.

Thank you to Steve, Steve, Steve and Steve for a very entertaining and friendly game.

Carojon

 
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Pictures from Scenario #05 from the IABSM scenario book Where the Hell have you been, Boys? played by members of the Vermont Historical Gamers Group.

 
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Wonderful news from The Other Partizan show at Newark today. Our WW2 Pacific Theatre public participation game of Peleliu 1944 played using TFL ruleset “I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum”was awarded the prize for Best Participation Game.

Well to to all the chaps in the team for the splendid effort in making this project come off the drawing board and turn into a reality.

Thanks to Barry Foster and Richard Hudson for enduring the role of hard-pressed yet sneaky Japanese defenders; to Dave Wilso, Michael Togwell, Chris Breley and Andy Sharpe for being exceptional ambassadors meeting and greeting prospective players and to Ralph Gibson and Dale Askew for guiding the more junior participants through the course of the game in their roles as Marine commanders.

We received lots of praise for our work, caught up with old friends and made some new ones. All around us were Lard based participation games and it was great to see the Group absorbed into the wider Lard community.

Better still was to receive great feedback from author Richard Clarke and IABSM scenarios scribe Rob Avery. Thanks chaps it means a lot to us.

Here a few photos of the game. The first taken by Steve Vickers.

And here are some more shots of the game taken either on the day or at another warm-up session at “The War Office”:

Tim Whitworth

 
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Mike Whitaker and crew brought their superb Omaha game to The Other Partisan 2019:

Spent most of the day (barring a couple of brief diversions) umpiring Bloody Omaha. An excellent day - one young gentlemen stayed pretty much all day and handled the bulk of the American attack.

We never got to wave 3, but by turn 8 the Americans had several breaches in the wire, having come under some pretty serious hammer early on - 2/3 of wave 1 was late, so the Germans had opportunity to concentrate their fire early on. The German artillery wasn't as effective as it could have been - partly Carl and I were swapping umpiring/running the Germans, and there was perhaps a lack of continuity for such things as 'are we walking the fire up the beach?'.

General Cota made it on in wave 2 (yes, I know he should be several beach sectors over, on Dog White, but Robert Mitchum in the rôle is a very iconic image and I couldn't resist :D) He led an advance up the western edge of the beach, almost directly at WN64 which was slow but being quite successful,..

Herewith a gallery with comments (largely me nitpicking, because the camera is unforgiving and it's my game and I can!):

All set up and ready to play. Newly watered marshes front and centre, as well as All The Beach Obstacles and some copious use of Woodland Scenics mid-green lichen. A no-prize if you can tell me what I forget to pack... (There are in fact two things.)

This is probably the one thing that really bugs me about the game that isn't fixable - the board joins. Sadly because of wear and tear and in some cases slightly out of tolerance boards, they can be very visible, even though we hide them with lichen and barbed wire, That said, the original plan was always a modular board (and we do reuse some of the hills in other games), so the square tiles and 'stepped' look are a deliberate design choice. Also, I need to glue the wire on to the barbed wire bases so it sits flatter on the ground.

Flames of War LCV(P) with passengers. I should retouch a couple of helmets but on the whole they've pretty evocative: I would very much like if Battlefront redid the castings when they announce the Higgins boat for the new late war range, as they are a bit scuzzy and a swine to get a brush in the gaps, even more so when you can't easily spot what's what on the casting!

Need to retouch the bases on the mine stakes to match the shallows rather than the deeper water. Usefully it's AP Army Green, I think, so easy to match...

An LCV(P) gets hit on its way in... Rob suggested a few floating body markers (and I thought I was obsessive!) :D It's a good job I have two packs of those explosion markers as as far as I can tell neither of the folks I bought them from still make them!

I love this shot - taken low over the hills at the back of the table, it almost hides the stepped contours of the board.

A new addition for this game (in case you missed me rabbiting on about it) was photographer Robert Capa., who appears on wave 1 on one Higgins boat and must leave with one of the empty wave 3 boats. He's very much being portrayed here as the legend, rather than what might be the truth...figure customised from a PSC heavy weapons team guy...

He has a card in the deck. On an activation, he has three actions with which he can move 1d6 each, or use one or two to take a photograph (much like AFV fire in IABSM, a second action means he takes time to compose his shot...) We then roll 1d6, + 3 if aimed, plus 1-3 at the umpire's discretion for choice of subject (the player gets to say what he wants to photograph). Still tuning the numbers, but a total score of 50+ means he gets to keep his job, 100+ means he becomes a legend. -50 for missing the boat back to England (and thus his press deadline).

And just for giggles, we get an iPhone down to board level and 'take' the photo (and crop it and turn it B&W). So, here's Capa's portfolio for the Magnum agency for Life magazine from The Other Partizan...

We have the Capa version of this iconic shot on our banner for the game. Part of me is really tempted to have a Higgins boat modelled with its ramp down expressly for Capa...

This is Capa's original... I also find myself wondering if I can find a small HD spy cam that would fit IN or on a 15mm Higgins boat :D And whether a backdrop behind the boards would look effective...

A BAR team from the Big Red One taking cover in the shallows. The team medic can be seen slightly out of focus right of centre.

Big Red One rifle sections shelter under a ramp obstacle.

German artillery plasters the beach - observe the elements of both the Big Red One and the 29th sheltering on the shingle below the sea wall while Capa himself takes cover behind a log ramp.

A mortar section of E company 16th RCT of the Big Red One takes cover behind a 'Czech hedgehog'. Ahead, engineer elements of E company are attempting to breach the wire protecting the exit from the beach.

So there you go. Thank you to everyone who played, came and said hi, or said nice things, to Carl, Rod and Rob for helping run the game, AndyM (as ever) for scenery, Rich Clarke for the original scenario, and thank you to the Other Partizan folks for inviting us!

Mike Whitaker