/
 
Picture1.png
 
 

The lockdown games with K, Daughter#1’s boyfriend, trapped with us for the duration, continue. My intention is to gradually walk the lad through WW2 theatre by theatre in a vaguely chronological order. We’ve had a go at Poland and France, now it was time for the Eastern Front with a few games from my Vyazma or Bust! scenario pack.

Background

The first battle of the campaign takes place in September 1941 as the Germans begin Operation Teifun (Typhoon), the assault on Moscow, with an attempt to take Izdeshkovo, a town sitting astride the main Smolensk-Vyazma highway. If they take Vyazma, then the road to Moscow is opened.

The German player is tasked with clearing a section of the road which his division will use to advance to their assault. The Soviet player commands a collection of battered troops withdrawn from the front line to rest and recuperate. The German attack is somewhat of a surprise!

View from the northern, Soviet, side of the table

View from the northern, Soviet, side of the table

The Battlefield

As can be seen from the picture, above, the battlefield was mostly covered in light woods. These were traversable by tracked vehicles and foot, but penalised movement. They also provided some cover from spotting and fire.

The Forces Involved

I played the Soviets: most of my force in scrapes facing south around the bridge and the village. This outpost consisted of three infantry squads, an MMG and a light mortar, supported by three 45mm anti-tank guns.

A KV-1 heavy tank, the mainstay of my defence, was near the point where the road has a junction with a track, supported by another anti-tank gun team and a squad of infantry. My three T-26 light tanks (a big gun on a cardboard vehicle!) were spaced out along the track.

My plan was to hold any advance along the road with the KV-1, forcing the Germans to assault the small village and bridge across open ground. My T-26 tanks would then swing round in a right hook manoeuvre hopefully hitting the advancing enemy in the flank.

The Germans had a platoon of motorised infantry, mostly in trucks; some MMGs and medium mortars; and a platoon of tanks: all Panzer IIIs, one “H” and three “F”s.

The Game Begins

The game began with the Germans advancing strongly onto the table.

First blood was to the Soviets as the German Company HQ was caught napping cruising along the road:. Out popped a Russian 45mm anti-tank gun and took their truck out, also killing half the infantry squad inside with the help of some remarkably accurate machine gun fire from the KV-1.

I then moved my T-26’s forward through the light woods, beginning my outflanking hook.

Meanwhile the Germans, recognising the threat, had sent their tanks towards what looked like developing into the schwerepunkt . This did, however, expose their armoured column to flank fire from my anti-tank guns positioned around the bridge.

By rights, I should have KO’d at least two of the Panzers, but despite vast numbers of 45mm shells winging their way towards them, only one was hit and destroyed.

No matter, I was pretty happy that the KV-1 could deal with the others as they came into view through the trees.

Unfortunately the dice Gods were against me. Shells from the monster tank just bounced off the leading Panzer III, and when it returned fire, it’s first shell scored four penetrations, blowing my game-winning asset into smithereens!

This was a disaster of serious proportions, made even more damaging when K used his Armoured Bonus Move card to bring his tanks forward.

Worse followed!

An unfortunate Tea Break card saw the Panzer III N take out the anti-tank gun right in front of it. Things were getting desperate.

So desperate, in fact, that I used an infantry squad to close assault the rear of the Panzer III N, leaving the cover of their scrapes to do so.

They did manage to do it some damage, but not enough to take it out of the game., and then my infantry squad got hit in the rear by the German motorised infantry platoon that lurked under the Blind you can see in the background of the photo, above.

I survived the initial round of combat, as the Germans rushed in, but was soon overwhelmed by sheer numbers, and thrown backwards, effectively Shocked out of action for the rest of the game.

Meanwhile, my poor dice rolling continued with my T-26s: all three were taken out by the two surviving Panzer III Hs, with only one Panzer III H losing its main gun in exchange.

I had a moment’s consolation as my single mortar managed to land a shell in the middle of the German motorised infantry, but otherwise it was effectively game over: especially as I’d lost another anti-tank gun to some more extraordinary machine gunning from the Panzer III N.

The Germans now had five infantry squads versus my two; two operational tanks versus my single anti-tank gun; and had got their 4-dice MMGs into a position where they could start to lay down some serious fire…and they hadn’t even called in their air support yet!

Aftermath

I suppose, being Soviet at this stage of the war, I should have fought on to the last man, but the writing was well and truly on the wall, and I ordered my men to retreat.

We’d have to leave the Commissar in a ditch somewhere to avoid a visit from the NKVD, but at least we had lived to fight another day!

A disaster for the Soviets, so it’s on to scenario #2B for our next encounter.

Robert Avery

 
 
 
 
/
 
 
 

Its been a while, so high time for a game of IABSM. Michelle chose the Soviets so I had the Germans.

The Germans are on the attack and need to get through the village occupied and defended by the Soviets.

It was good to play IABSM again and another game is called for. Michelle definitely doesn't need any lessons from me !

Norseygamer

 
 
 
 
/
 
image-asset.png
 
 

Still on lockdown, but it’s bank holiday Monday so it must be time for another game of I Ain’t Been Shot Mum against K, Daughter #1’s boyfriend, trapped with us for the duration, but rapidly becoming a regular wargamer with, now, eight games under his belt.

The premise for today’s game is simple: it’s France 1940, and Rommel’s Germans are advancing rapidly on Lille, aiming for the village of Lomme, whose capture will seal off the escape route of all English and French forces in the area. The Allies have realised what the Germans are up to, and have dispatched a small force to hold Lomme for as long as possible. The scene is set for an epic clash!

Lomme

The village of Lomme is shown in the photo, above. The Germans will enter from the south (the “top” of the picture) anywhere along the table’s edge. The French start anywhere they like on the table, and must prevent the Germans from exiting any troops to the north i.e. anywhere to the right hand side of the picture.

Please excuse the rather anachronistic clearly marked lines along the main road: Lomme is obviously a very progressive place!

The Germans

The Germans disposed two strong, truck-mounted platoons of infantry, each four squads strong, with each squad having 8 men. Their Company HQ contained three MMGs, an anti-tank rifle, and another squad of infantry. Accompanying them were two PaK 35 anti-tank guns towed by Kfz 70 trucks. Finally, four Big Men would command the German infantry: more than enough to make sure everything ran smoothly.

Panzer reinforcements were due to arrive after six appearances of the Turn card: a zug of four Panzer II and a zug of three Panzer IV. Each zug had its own Big Man.

The French

The French also had two platoons of infantry, but their platoons each had three squads, with ten men per squad. They had two MMGs, and had also been assigned two ageing soixante-quinze field guns.

Due to reading the listing incorrectly, the French had four Big Men to command the above: two more than they should have had. It did mean, however, that they had none to command their tanks.

The French briefing also contained the promise of two platoons of tanks: three R-35 and three Char B1 bis tanks. I couldn’t, however, find any mention of when they were due to arrive, and suspected, therefore, that they were a cruel jest on the part of Mr Clarke and destined never actually to grace the tabletop with their presence. As K is much less experienced a gamer than I am, I decided to give them to him anyway, and have them arrive at the same time as the German Panzers.

The Game Begins

The Germans advanced quickly onto the table. My Dummy Blinds scouted the first few houses, but were then Spotted after only clearing some of the open ground in front of the village.

I had some idea of getting into the nearest row of houses along the main road before the French really knew I was there, but this was a foolish notion, and I suffered for it when a squad of French infantry opened fire at Close Range on 2nd Platoon.

This picture, like my men, is slightly over-exposed!

Acknowledging my foolhardiness, 2nd Platoon’s commander was forced to order a retreat, but unfortunately a lack of command levels left half their number still under fire

“Vere has everyone else gone?”

At least I now knew where the French were, and the game settled down into a long range war of attrition, with my superior firepower (especially from the machine gun platoon) from behind hedges being countered by the larger French squads firing downwards from the upper floors of the houses.

Lovely models, but the tops don’t come off!

Lovely models, but the tops don’t come off!

Both K and I were, obviously, awaiting the arrival of our armour and, eventually, the Turn Card came around the right number of times, and on trundled two Blinds per side. I brought my Panzer IVs on my left which, although neither of us yet knew it, faced them off against the monster Char B1’s ; and my Panzer IIs on my right, which of course meant that they would come up against the R-35s. My anti-tank gun platoon had also been lurking at the back of the table, awaiting something decent to shoot at, so now sprung forward into action.

“Sommes-Nous en Stonne?”

Although the arrival of the Char B1’s was a bit of a shock to my men in the gardens of the houses by the crossroads, the next phase of the action actually began on my other flank, where one of my anti-tank guns rapidly unlimbered and, with a series of crackingly good shots, took out the rear-most Renault.

This allowed my Panzer IIs to arrive unmolested, with the lead tank even sneaking a quick round of 20mm cannon fire into the backside of French Tank 5.

One more round and French Tank 5’s crew bailed out, with Tank 4 speeding off down the road to avoid the same fate. My Panzer II’s were then free to swing round onto the French flank, with the lead tank moving up to a position where it could open fire on and Pin the crew of the soixante-quinze as they frantically prolonged their gun into a position from which they could resist this latest incursion.

Unfortunately, the French gun crew was made of stern stuff, and despite soon losing three of their number to more cannon fire, sent a round into the lead Panzer II that blew it to bits!

ouch!

Meanwhile, a foolish decision of mine to bring up one of the anti-tank guns “as fast as possible” lead to them speeding down the road and ending up right under the guns of one of the remaining French infantry squads. Bye-bye anti-tank gun crew and tow!

The smell of burning flesh mixed with lavender would haunt Sergeant Mahon for the rest of his life

The smell of burning flesh mixed with lavender would haunt Sergeant Mahon for the rest of his life

The other two Panzer II’s were chasing after the last Renault, and would eventually corner it with one facing it forward and the other on its flank. The tank was still fighting gamely on when the game ended.

Meanwhile, the Panzer IVs had engaged the Char B1’s, taking advantage of their four Actions and flank position to take out the two rear “mobile pillboxes”. It did take more than a few shots to force their crews to bail, but the French were unlucky in their activations and more unlucky in the dice they rolled for movement even considering the Slow Tank rules, so gave the Panzers plenty of time to shoot them up. Note that over several turns a rare German anti-tank rifle fired all its ammunition at one of the Chars and failed to penetrate its armour once!

peekaboo!

The final Char, however, had got itself into a good position on the corner by the crossroads, and blew the lead Panzer IV to bits with a couple of well-aimed shots.

Despite this success, the writing was now firmly on the wall for the French. They only had a couple of infantry squads left, and one of their 75’s had also been destroyed so, with many Gallic shrugs of the shoulders, they retreated. The day belonged to Major Lardich von Skinner!

Aftermath

That had been a brutal game with large casualties on either side. I paid dearly for my unusually impetuous advances, and would have had plenty of explaining to do once the butcher’s bill had become apparent.

The French were fairly passive, but then they were defending buildings and saw no reason to move. They were a bit unlucky with their tanks, but the one card per tank limitation stopped them properly co-ordinating their efforts.

All in all, another great game!

Robert Avery

 
 
 
 
/
 
 
 

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

This time we would be returning to Poland in 1939, using scenario #37 from the second September War scenario pack: Minsk-Mazowiecki. The action takes place on 13th September as Polish cavalry under General Wladyslaw Anders attempt to break through elements of the German 3rd Army as they march on Modlin.

The Set Up

K volunteered to play the defending Germans, which I appreciated as I had no wish to field a force of SS Verfungstruppe.

Two interesting thoughts crossed my mind at this point: firstly, am I a hypocrite as I’ll quite happily play Assyrians or Romans, but don’t like playing SS; and, secondly, interesting how the fact his troops were SS had literally no effect on K at all: he had no comprehension of what that represented. I can feel the words “generation gap” marching towards this conversation faster than the Rifles towards Corunna!

Musings on the quality of modern education aside, the Germans would field a couple of small infantry platoons defending a village, and be waiting for a platoon of Panzers to appear as reinforcements.

View from the Polish entry point. Figures are not technically on table yet, just set up ready to go.

The Poles would field three mounted and one dismounted two-squad platoons of cavalry backed up by two taczankas, a platoon of armoured cars, and a platoon of tankettes.

They needed to have taken and held either on of two objective points in the village by a certain number of appearances of the Turn Card.

An impressive sight…but a pitfall for the unwary!

Now I have played Polish cavalry before, and although they look magnificent (and take up an awful lot of room on the table) the one thing to remember is not to charge anyone under any circumstances. No ifs, no buts: just don’t do it, it always goes badly.

With that settled in my mind, I prepared to do battle and deployed.

Lots of Polish Blinds!

The Game

I knew that time was of the essence, so deployed as far forward as I could, and then advanced my Blinds forward quickly as well.

One of my mounted platoons was quickly spotted, and came under fire from a German platoon ocated in a large building on the left hand side of the field. Their first volley emptied four saddles: an inauspicious beginning.

Painful first encounter with the German defenders

I obviously needed to get some firepower down onto them as quickly as possible, so my armoured car platoon deployed and sped down the road, backed up by the tankettes. By using the central road, I could bring them to bear on either side of the battlefield as necessary.

Forward the armoured cars!

At the same time, I’d also spotted some Germans just in front of the church, so sent the taczankas and dismounted cavalry forward to deal with them: the plan being to then infiltrate the village from the rear right flank. A bit of pin and assault!

Dismounted cavalry under Blind, top right

Taczankas behind the trees

At that point, the German Panzers appeared at the back of the table. As I had no proper anti-tank capacity, this was about to get interesting!

At this stage of the war, Panzer IIs are pretty useful tanks!

Back on the left, my attempts to dislodge the German infantry in the building were proving not very successful and pretty painful in terms of cavalrymen lost. Oh for some mortars!

Go on: poke your lance through the window at them!

I Thought You Said…

Things were, however, about to get very interesting on the other side of the battlefield.

My dismounted platoon had crawled forward to the edge of the corn, and Pinned the nearest German squad in front of the church whilst they were distracted by the large numbers of mounted cavalry heading towards them.

Why is he on his ‘phone in all the pictures? Generation gap again!"

The chip out of the bag was the Polish bonus chip “Charge!”. Now I had promised myself that none of my cavalry would be doing any charging…but these chaps were dismounted, so that didn’t really count.

Out of the cornfield they poured, and the cowardly SS troops in front of them just fled.

Unimpressed!

The chips were really with me, and next turn my chaps got to move before the Germans. One squad chased the fleeing SS squad off the table, the other blew the other German squad away with a bit of close range fire.

One position was now cleared of enemy, although taking out his FOO, in the church tower, did cost me a bit of time and a couple of cavalrymen.

Meanwhile, on the road, the German Panzers had split their efforts. Two went to help the other German position, two engaged my armoured cars. As I said earlier, the Panzer II’s 20mm cannon is a powerful tool at this stage of the war, and the crew of one of my WZ34s was soon forced to bail: their vehicle having been turned into a colander!

Run away!

At the same time as this was happening, the German infantry in the building on the left had started to waver. One squad moved out of the back of the building onto the road where the Panzer I was trundling forward.

I wandered around the table to have a look at this…

Horse, check. Lance, check. Enemy in sight, check.

I knew I shouldn’t charge the Germans on the road,…but there were the same number of them as I had but they had seven points of Shock. And these are Polish cavalry for God’s sake!

Glorious!

It was glorious!

The enemy were mown down and evaporated from the table. Okay, so I lost a few men, including the cavalry platoon commander, but I had now wiped out all the enemy infantry.

Meanwhile, all the troops I’d had near the church on the other side of the battlefield, including an anti-tank rifle team, had been creeping round towards the flank and rear of the German tanks.

The German Company Commander was also in the area: he’d been with the FOO in the church tower but had avoided death or capture and was busy laying low, effectively surrounded by Polish troops.

At that moment, the German off-table artillery (a couple of 105mm guns) declared themselves ready for action and, without a moment’s hesitation, SS-Hauptsturmfuhrer Eins called their fire down onto just about his own position.

The deviation dice were called for and rolled: direct hit:

German Big Man is in front of the taczanka

Superb shelling!

This was a real pain, and did me lots of Great Shot damage. My troops were forced to abandon their advance, and flee from under the barrage.

Endgame

This was, however, merely a hiccup on the footpath to victory!

Although I had to be careful of his artillery, I had loads of tankettes and armoured cars and taczankas that I could deploy against his Panzers.

One by one they succumbed, and my men were eventually able to saunter over and capture the objectives.

Victory to the Poles!

Gone to Ground meaning Bailed: I couldn’t find my tank crew stands!

Riddled with bullets!

Aftermath

So that had been another cracking game of I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum.

Although the day was mine, I had lost about a platoon’s worth of cavalry or 25% of my force. I’d been a bit lucky, as well: the Germans in front of the church never really got a clean shot off at my advancing troops…and that could have been quite nasty.

More proof of the pudding that IABSM rewards aggression, certainly when attacking. I’d kept the pressure on throughout, and never really given any of the enemy time to get settled.

Postscript

I wasn’t going to mention it, but I did end up charging a German tank with the remains of the cavalry that cleared the German infantry off the road.

No damage to the tank, five dead cavalrymen.

Don’t charge with your cavalry!

 
 


 
/
 
Picture1.png
 
 

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

This time we would be returning to Poland in 1939, using scenario #37 from the second September War scenario pack: Minsk-Mazowiecki. The action takes place on 13th September as Polish cavalry under General Wladyslaw Anders attempt to break through elements of the German 3rd Army as they march on Modlin.

The Set Up

K volunteered to play the defending Germans, which I appreciated as I had no wish to field a force of SS Verfungstruppe.

Two interesting thoughts crossed my mind at this point: firstly, am I a hypocrite as I’ll quite happily play Assyrians or Romans, but don’t like playing SS; and, secondly, interesting how the fact his troops were SS had literally no effect on K at all: he had no comprehension of what that represented. I can feel the words “generation gap” marching towards this conversation faster than the Rifles towards Corunna!

Musings on the quality of modern education aside, the Germans would field a couple of small infantry platoons defending a village, and be waiting for a platoon of Panzers to appear as reinforcements.

View from the Polish entry point. Figures are not technically on table yet, just set up ready to go.

View from the Polish entry point. Figures are not technically on table yet, just set up ready to go.

The Poles would field three mounted and one dismounted two-squad platoons of cavalry backed up by two taczankas, a platoon of armoured cars, and a platoon of tankettes.

They needed to have taken and held either on of two objective points in the village by a certain number of appearances of the Turn Card.

An impressive sight…but a pitfall for the unwary!

Now I have played Polish cavalry before, and although they look magnificent (and take up an awful lot of room on the table) the one thing to remember is not to charge anyone under any circumstances. No ifs, no buts: just don’t do it, it always goes badly.

With that settled in my mind, I prepared to do battle and deployed.

Lots of Polish Blinds!

Lots of Polish Blinds!

The Game

I knew that time was of the essence, so deployed as far forward as I could, and then advanced my Blinds forward quickly as well.

One of my mounted platoons was quickly spotted, and came under fire from a German platoon ocated in a large building on the left hand side of the field. Their first volley emptied four saddles: an inauspicious beginning.

Painful first encounter with the German defenders

I obviously needed to get some firepower down onto them as quickly as possible, so my armoured car platoon deployed and sped down the road, backed up by the tankettes. By using the central road, I could bring them to bear on either side of the battlefield as necessary.

Forward the armoured cars!

At the same time, I’d also spotted some Germans just in front of the church, so sent the taczankas and dismounted cavalry forward to deal with them: the plan being to then infiltrate the village from the rear right flank. A bit of pin and assault!

Dismounted cavalry under Blind, top right

Taczankas behind the trees

At that point, the German Panzers appeared at the back of the table. As I had no proper anti-tank capacity, this was about to get interesting!

At this stage of the war, Panzer IIs are pretty useful tanks!

Back on the left, my attempts to dislodge the German infantry in the building were proving not very successful and pretty painful in terms of cavalrymen lost. Oh for some mortars!

Go on: poke your lance through the window at them!

I Thought You Said…

Things were, however, about to get very interesting on the other side of the battlefield.

My dismounted platoon had crawled forward to the edge of the corn, and Pinned the nearest German squad in front of the church whilst they were distracted by the large numbers of mounted cavalry heading towards them.

Why is he on his ‘phone in all the pictures? Generation gap again!"

The chip out of the bag was the Polish bonus chip “Charge!”. Now I had promised myself that none of my cavalry would be doing any charging…but these chaps were dismounted, so that didn’t really count.

Out of the cornfield they poured, and the cowardly SS troops in front of them just fled.

Unimpressed!

The chips were really with me, and next turn my chaps got to move before the Germans. One squad chased the fleeing SS squad off the table, the other blew the other German squad away with a bit of close range fire.

One position was now cleared of enemy, although taking out his FOO, in the church tower, did cost me a bit of time and a couple of cavalrymen.

Meanwhile, on the road, the German Panzers had split their efforts. Two went to help the other German position, two engaged my armoured cars. As I said earlier, the Panzer II’s 20mm cannon is a powerful tool at this stage of the war, and the crew of one of my WZ34s was soon forced to bail: their vehicle having been turned into a colander!

Run away!

At the same time as this was happening, the German infantry in the building on the left had started to waver. One squad moved out of the back of the building onto the road where the Panzer I was trundling forward.

I wandered around the table to have a look at this…

Horse, check. Lance, check. Enemy in sight, check.

I knew I shouldn’t charge the Germans on the road,…but there were the same number of them as I had but they had seven points of Shock. And these are Polish cavalry for God’s sake!

Glorious!

It was glorious!

The enemy were mown down and evaporated from the table. Okay, so I lost a few men, including the cavalry platoon commander, but I had now wiped out all the enemy infantry.

Meanwhile, all the troops I’d had near the church on the other side of the battlefield, including an anti-tank rifle team, had been creeping round towards the flank and rear of the German tanks.

The German Company Commander was also in the area: he’d been with the FOO in the church tower but had avoided death or capture and was busy laying low, effectively surrounded by Polish troops.

At that moment, the German off-table artillery (a couple of 105mm guns) declared themselves ready for action and, without a moment’s hesitation, SS-Hauptsturmfuhrer Eins called their fire down onto just about his own position.

The deviation dice were called for and rolled: direct hit:

German Big Man is in front of the taczanka

Superb shelling!

This was a real pain, and did me lots of Great Shot damage. My troops were forced to abandon their advance, and flee from under the barrage.

Endgame

This was, however, merely a hiccup on the footpath to victory!

Although I had to be careful of his artillery, I had loads of tankettes and armoured cars and taczankas that I could deploy against his Panzers.

One by one they succumbed, and my men were eventually able to saunter over and capture the objectives.

Victory to the Poles!

Gone to Ground meaning Bailed: I couldn’t find my tank crew stands!

Riddled with bullets!

Aftermath

So that had been another cracking game of I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum.

Although the day was mine, I had lost about a platoon’s worth of cavalry or 25% of my force. I’d been a bit lucky, as well: the Germans in front of the church never really got a clean shot off at my advancing troops…and that could have been quite nasty.

More proof of the pudding that IABSM rewards aggression, certainly when attacking. I’d kept the pressure on throughout, and never really given any of the enemy time to get settled.

Postscript

I wasn’t going to mention it, but I did end up charging a German tank with the remains of the cavalry that cleared the German infantry off the road.

No damage to the tank, five dead cavalrymen.

Don’t charge with your cavalry!

 
 


 
/
 
Picture1.png
 
 

A joint/ solo game of I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum with my son.

Rick Staple

 
 
 
 
/
 
Picture1.png
 
 

Lately I've been knocking about the idea of a post-WW2 version of my Medieval and 18th century (no, I haven't painted anything for them, or you would know) Imagine-Nation, Mantovia. Mainly, I think as an excuse to field Centurion tanks, without the depressing realities of either post-Colonial Africa or the Arab-Isreali Wars. This coincided with the desire for another solo bash of I Ain't Been Shot Mum! with loads of tanks, so Saturday night I set up the table and then played this out over Sunday and Monday (which I had previously booked off), finally finishing after dinner Monday night.

Brief history

Founded by Count Raymond the Good in the 11th cent. Mantovia was one of many small states in the Holy Roman Empire. Count Ludwig was elevated to King in 1746 as a reward for leading his regiment of grenadiers in the storming of a Prussian battery at the 3rd battle of Klumpenberg. Although some court wags noted that Ludwig's fervor was perhaps the hotter because he wanted to "get this damn battle over with" so he could return to his young and beautiful bride and play for her the new concerto he had just composed.

Even after the Prussian victories of 1866, Mantovia remained loyal to the House of Hapsburg, remaining a quiet, peaceful backwater of sheep and vineyards until it's sunny days were interrupted by the clomping of jackboots in 1938. As the country was absorbed into the Greater German Reich, the tiny Mantovian army was absorbed intto the Wehrmacht as the 816th Infantry Regiment. King Raymond IX knew better than to show open defiance, but quietly instructed his police kommisar to obstruct Nazi policy as much as they could with out attracting the attentions of the feared Heydrich. When war came, the royal palace became the nucleus for a quiet resistance program rescuing allied pilots and gathering intelligence. In early May of 1945, white bedsheets festooned the windows of Mantovia, and flowers greeted Combat Command A, 45th Armored Division. King Raymond met the cigar chewing, mud spattered, hard driving Col. Wilson in his courtyard, dressed in brown tweed. "Thank God you're here. Could you please not park your tanks in my wife's roses? I've been keeping Nazis out of them for the past seven years, be a shame to lose them now. Would your men like some refreshment?"

As the settling Cold War chilled the post-War sunshine, the Mantovian armed forces were rebuilt with British equipment paid for with American money as a buffer against the Soviet threat to the east. The Soviets meanwhile were busy rearming neighbouring Borduria, Mantovia's traditional enemy to the East. "A nation of bandits and blagards!" King Amadeues the III once declared. Mantovian fathers, when disapproving of a daughter's suitor, would declare the young man "Trouble from the east" and glower. Even when both small countries were part of the German Reich, Bordurian and Mantovian troops would always brawl if found near each other, helping the Allied war effort in their own way and causing headaches for German staff officers.

It is now 1949, tensions along the border have grown since a Bordurian Commissar, drunk on slivovitz, started a skirmish with Mantovian Border Police. Sporadic shelling was met with airstrikes. Reserves have been mobilized. Foreign embassies in both capitals have been on high alert. Kampfgruppe Wahl has moved to the frontier near Isabelstadt, quickly digging slit trenches and tank positions, stringing hasty barbed wire across the beet fields.

The Game

I set up the table, made my plan and then sent my friend Scott photos of the table prior to deployment, asking him where to place the Bordurian pregame barrages. He put them pretty much where I expected, along the line of hills, which is why I held my tanks back and dug in my infantry at the foot of the hills along the country road. So I only lost one MMG to the barrage, but had to scramble to get shock off two others before the Bordurian troops arrived.

Phase 2

Since I hadn't achieved my objective of playing with my old Minitanks Centurions, I decided there would be a Phase 2. After all a 2nd Wave would follow on to try and exploit through the bridgehead.

So Monday after lunch, I replaced all of the brewed up T34/85s with T34/76s (the wrecks would obstruct the Mantovian gunnery) and reformed the tanks and infantry on the river bank. I left the surviving platoon  and SU76 from the first wave in place in the woods east of the T-junction. I allowed a couple of turns of movement to redeploy existing forces.

Aftermath

The Butcher's Bill was terrible for Borduria; 12x T34/85s and 2x SU76s destroyed or abandoned and approx 150 men killed and captured. Mantovia lost 1 officer and 25 other ranks KIA, 1x Firefly destroyed and 1x damaged and 1x Centurion damaged.

Being dug in really saved the day plus liberal use of supporting fires ("Mortar" and "Machine Gun Bonus" cards turned up frequently) disrupted the Bordurian infantry so that their assaults could be easily repelled by Mantovian infantry.

Played solo over a couple of days using  I Ain't Been Shot Mum. I find the cards make leisurely solo play really easy. You can interrupt the game anytime for family, meals, sleep or even going into work for some overtime like I did, and not lose track of where you are.

The Centurion was designed to be on par with the Panther for armour but the 20 pdr gun with APDS was much better. So I gave them Armour 11 and AP 12. Of course every time I'd roll 5 or 6 successes, thinking I'd get a fireball, the target T34 would roll the same on it's 7 Armour dice. About half of the Bordurian tank casualties were mobility kills or just worn down with piled on shock until the crews bailed out.

So, bags of fun. Been toying with different scales, but I like the look of 15mm. 10mm isn't that much cheaper to be honest and would require all new terrain. In 6mm the infantry just disappear (I really like the look of British early Cold War soldiers in the MkIII helmet covered in hessian and the SLRs) and would also require all new terrain. Once Plastic Soldier Company release their 15mm Centurion kit I'll start building proper forces, with the Bordurians getting some PSC T55s to back up their T34/85s and SUs. Probably use QRF Models Modern British with SLRs for infantry too.

James Manto

 
 
 
 
/
 
Picture2.png
 
 

or That Didn't Go Very Well...

Scott was available to play on Saturday, a rare treat. We opted for WW2 to get the Russians I painted last summer on the table. I opted for mid-war to get my Marders out.

We played the Counterattack scenario from the back of the rule book. Scott had 2 rifle platoons holding the village and the wood to their left. His right was secured by the company HQ with their 2x Maxim guns and 2x 45mm AT guns hiding on a wooded hill. A platoon of T34s, another of SU76s and a third rifle platoon were coming on as reinforcements with the fifth turn of the 'special' card.

I was attacking with 3x platoons of infantry, the company HQ with 2x MG42s supported by 3x PzIVHs and 3x Marder IIIs.

The panzers and MMGs would shoot my infantry in while the Marders secured my left from whatever threat lurked on the wooded ridge.

2x platoons of infantry proceeded to get cut down in front if the village losing a Lieutennant in the first volley. The Russian AT guns hiding on the wooded ridge drew my Marders into a long range duel. The Marders getting the worst of it. One was a mobility kill and bailed out, the 2nd was damaged.

My 3rd rifle platoon did remember to go prone at the end of their advance saving them grief. The Panzer IVs started shelling the village, eventually setting half of it on fire. This was my high point.

More Russian fire killed the other platoon commander and the company commander who was trying to get my 2nd platoon moving. Both platoons were reduced to less than a section each now. The Special card had flipped 4 times now so Scott's reinforcements were close.

Time to accept defeat.

I should have shifted everything to my right so I could take those woods in isolation and then the village, eating him piecemeal. I also should have taken some mortars in my company HQ and replaced the 3rd platoon with a MMG platoon. I also shouldn't have committed a complete n00b error and used an action at the end of my move to get all my guys prone. Stupid of me, really.

But the flame markers Dan gave me last summer looked super cool.

So there's that.

James Mantos

 
 
 
 
/
 
 
 

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.

The tabletop at the start of the game: Brits enter from the windmill end

Ahead of them is a crossroads and, as they approach, the lead British tank (a MkVI) spots three Panzer IVs coming in down the road from the left, two Panzer IIs coming in down the road from the right, and some unconfirmed German troops under Blinds heading down the road straight in front of them.

Another view of the start position

You might have noticed that there are a couple of groups of people on the crossroads itself. These are civilian refugees about to get caught in the crossfire. They would cause both sides, but particularly the British, problems throughout the game: it being not the done thing to shoot or drive through non-combatants.

Refugees, apparently from Vietnam. Well, it is near Calais…

The Action Begins

The Germans were the first to react to the situation. Their Panzer IVs moved up to the hedgeline and opened fire on the British tanks advancing down the road. The lead British tank had already entered the sunken part of the road, so the Germans targeted the third Mark VI and, with a couple of solid hits, knocked it out.

 

The other two British light tanks scattered, heading towards where the Panzer IIs were coming in from the right. Meanwhile, #1 Troop moved to the hedgerow on their left, aiming to take up a flank position on the Panzer IVs. Up ahead, the British tankers could see a mass of trucks and lorries heading their way. So much for the “few rogue tanks”!

Two of the Panzer IVs were quickly destroyed for no loss, but one of the other Mark VIs was hit by a fluke shot from a Panzer II’s 20mm autocannon and exploded!

At this point, the British #2 troop arrived, and headed forward as fast as possible, seeking to get into a position where they could BESA the enemy infantry before the German foot could get properly positioned.

One German anti-tank gun had had a chance to get forward and set up in the edge of the woods by the crossroads, but neither side was, at this point, prepared to shoot through the refugees on the road.

The final Panzer IV succumbed to fire from a A13 Cruiser, but the delay in dealing with them had now given the Germans time to deploy a second and third anti-tank gun just behind the road cutting the battlefield in two.

The second gun, also near the crossroads, was crewed by sterner chaps than the initial piece: they opened fire on the British Cruisers on the road straight through the refugees who had been running backwards and forwards between the two sides.

This display of heartlessness inspired the crew of the first gun, helped by the company commander arriving to encourage them into action: they also opened fire down the road. The British tanks, still reluctant to shoot through the civilians, could only suffer and take casualties!

With German anti-tank guns now firmly in possession of the crossroads and no infantry available to winkle them out, the British had no choice but to retire back towards Calais. The day belonged to Jerry!

Aftermath

This was K’s second game of IABSM and his first win. He was very pleased with how he’d done: using his tanks to delay the superior numbers of British armour getting forward whilst his anti-tank guns got into position…at which point it was effectively “game over” for 3RTR!

I last played this scenario ten years ago: umpiring at a Lardy games day using curtains as a cloth as I’d left my mat at home. It has really stood the test of time: we played it out in about two hours, also making it ideal for a club night encounter.

What did strike me, as I re-read the background info I’d provided when I wrote the Defence of Calais pack, was how badly the British mis-managed the early part of the Calais campaign. Politics aside, it is one long tale of unpreparedness and confusion…making it all the more remarkable that this Friday we’re celebrating the 75th anniversary of VE Day.

Robert Avery

 
/
 
 
 

It was time for the first lockdown game of I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum!

The daughter’s boyfriend (trapped here for the duration) had tried and enjoyed To The Strongest, it was now time to introduce him to WW2 gaming, and what better place to start than with a game of IABSM set in Poland on 1st September 1939.

The Scenario

The scenario is taken from the first September War scenario pack, and involves the fighting around Chojnice, an important Polish communications hub where, during the first day of the invasion, the Poles fought a delaying action, only withdrawing in late afternoon.

The game itself centered around a railway bridge that the Poles must hold, rig with explosives, and then blow up before the Germans can take the bridge and defuse the charges.

Nice trees: it obviously does snow in september (obscure arnhem reference!)

 
 

As you can see in the picture, above, there are actually two bridges over the otherwise impassable river: the railway bridge itself in the centre of the table, and a smaller, road bridge over on the far side of the field. The Germans enter from the far end (you can see their Blinds), the Poles start the game dug in and defending anywhere on their side of the river.

The Forces Involved

As attacking is more difficult than defending, I would take the part of the invading Germans. My force was reconnaissance based: a company of kradschutzen motorcycle infantry (three platoons, each three squads) supported by a machine gun platoon of four guns and a platoon of four armoured cars: two SdKfz 221 and two SdKfz 222.

As I had no heavy weapons with which to whittle the Poles down, I knew that I had to get on top of them as fast as possible, and that getting across the river would be a vital part of anything I did. Moving up to the riverbank and trying to shift dug-in troops with a recon force’s firepower was not going to work!

K, my novice opponent, would therefore play the Poles. His force consisted of two platoons of line infantry, each with two large, 12-man squads of infantry, a light mortar team and an anti-tank rifle team; and a support platoon taken from the battalion’s HMG company and consisting of three taczanka MMG-carts and two 81mm mortar teams. The Poles also had access to an FOO and unlimited fire support from a couple of 75mm guns.

I let K choose where to place his troops, limiting my comments to mentioning the basics of mutual support, fields of fire, command distances etc.

The Game Begins

As above, I knew I had to force a passage across the river to have any chance of success.

Trying to immediately get across the railway bridge looked a bit suicidal, so I determined to attack down my left flank, crossing the water via the road bridge. That I tasked to 1st Platoon and the armoured cars, supported by the MG company who would occupy the factory. 2nd Platoon would threaten the bridge, making sure the Poles had to focus their attention there; with 3rd Platoon covering the bridge and effectively in reserve in the treeline on my right flank.

The action really started on my left flank, where the armoured cars and 1st Platoon got across the bridge and went after the Polish mortars at the back of the table behind the farmhouse. How did I know they were there? Well they kept dropping shells on the aforementioned armoured cars and 1st Platoon, K having quickly got the hang of things on the mortaring front!

It’s quite hard to see, but top left in the photo above (just behind the dome of the church) is where the infantry are pinned down by mortar fire. The armoured cars, meanwhile, have bumped into a squad of infantry in the farmhouse, and can’t get past them until they’ve been dealt with.

My machine gun platoon had by now got into the factory, and was laying down heavy but very ineffectual fire on the Polish troops guarding the bridge. The fact that the Poles were in trenches made them very hard to kill.

A hail of hand grenades and masonry forced the crew of the leading armoured car to bail out and run for it, but the 20mm cannon in the second punished the Poles in return. Unfortunately, K then revealed that he had two of his taczanka teams and an anti-tank rifle in the graveyard and, at this range, they soon caused a second armoured car crew, including the platoon commander, to bail as well. It’s a feature of this period of the war that most armoured vehicles are lost through bail-out rather than explosion!

I badly needed the kradschutzen to arrive and, finally, two squads of them got out from under the mortar fire and rushed forward to help the two remaining armoured cars out. One squad clambered through the windows into the church, the other made their way round the back of the church and climbed over the wall into the graveyard. Nothing like a bit of crossfire to ruin someone’s day!

The taczankas in the graveyard were soon running for it, and I also manged to effectively suppress the infantry squad in the farmhouse. This was good news, as Polish artillery had started to land on 2nd Platoon, by the bridge, with rather nasty effect. Unless I did something quickly, I was going to lose the battle by simple attrition.

Key to success was shifting the Polish platoon by the bridge, and to do that I needed to get some close range firepower onto them preferably from a direction that negated the cover they had from their trenches. I therefore moved my infantry into the graveyard and my one remaining armoured car forward so that it was hiding behind the corner of the cemetery.

K could see what was coming, so moved his reserve infantry forward to try and shift my men from the graveyard. This did not go well for him, as I won the race to the wall, and hammered his men advancing across open ground.

I then suffered a momentary distraction as the Polish company commander charged his horse into the graveyard in another attempt to turf me out, but he was sent flying - but not killed - for no loss to my troops. Forgive the “French” by the way: when I first got them, I made the mistake of labeling my poker chips with nationalities instead of just using the different colours to differentiate them: doh!

As the schwerepunkt was now obviously the Polish trenches by the bridge, it was time to get rid of the infantry squad preventing my men from defusing the explosives that threatened to render it into matchsticks. I therefore sent 2nd Platoon across the bridge, incidentally getting them out from under the Polish artillery fire, in order to get stuck in and soften the Poles up a bit.

This proved to be a little premature, as they took some nasty casualties from the Polish infantry in front of them. At the same time, the Poles responded to my capture of the graveyard by getting the final infantry squad into a position where they could gun down my men lining its walls. Learn quickly does K!

This turned out to be a devastatingly effective move, either killing or forcing all my infantry to flee.

To add insult to injury, the last Polish taczanka extricated itself from the farmhouse and, under the aegis of the Company Commander, started heading towards a position from which it would be able to turn my last armoured car into a colander!

Why won’t these Poles just give up!!!!

Fortunately it was by now too late for them to have an effect on the outcome of the battle.

My last armoured car had arrived at the edge of the trench and used its 20mm cannon to muller (pun intended) the Polish infantry therein.

At the same time, 3rd Platoon thundered over the bridge (largely over the bodies of 2nd Platoon!) and prepared to charge the now pinned Poles.

This they duly did and, with no Polish troops now within 4” of the bridge, the charges could be defused and the day was mine.

Aftermath

Well that was an exciting game and certainly no walkover.

Although I had at this point technically won the battle, you will easily see that I still had not properly secured the bridge and/or the battlefield in general.

A Polish counter-attack was imminent, and the fact that I had had to fully expose my troops in order to shift the Poles by the bridge meant that I was now very vulnerable. Okay, so the Poles didn’t now have anything with which to blow up the bridge, but soon there wouldn’t be many of me left to point that out to them, as the following mini-montage shows:

A narrow, technical victory…and K is eager to get his revenge next game! My new graveyard looked good as well: very pleased it turned out to be the focal point of most of the encounter.

Robert Avery

 
 
/
 
 
 

I ran my second IABSM game of the pandemic with players separated by around 500 miles.

This game is from Chris Stoesen's Campaign for Greece ‘41 book and based on his Glider Assault scenario (#13). It revolves around an Aussie attempt to keep a road open through Fallschirmjaeger infested territory.

From the book: “The Australian 2/6th came under assault from glider borne troops. It was the job of the 2/6th to keep the roads open for the retreating Dominion troops. The gliders landed close enough to the Australians that they watched them land. The landing was so rough, they at first believed that they had crashed until the Fallschirmjagers began to exit their gliders. While the forces are what were reported from the Australian and New Zealand sources, the map is entirely fictional drawn from the references that were in the sources.”

The Aussie player had two platoons while the FJ player only had five sections. I was only using a 4 x 4 space for this small game. There was a road running diagonally across from the NE to SW mostly through the higher ground. Five walled farms were connected to this road.

The German player (Martin)’s briefing:

Your Company has been tasked with a glider assault on the Bridge. Due to strong winds you have landed off course and your command’s gliders have been separated. Your command team is together. Gather what men you have and drive towards the bridge. While landing you observed several parachutes dropping near you. You will use whatever troops you find nearby.

He had two sections of FJ paratroops with one MMG team and a Level II Big Man. The glider troops had two sections of FJ glider troops; an HQ section with two 50mm mortars and two ATRs; and three Big Men, Levels IV, III and II.

William's Aussie briefing:

You are the commander of B Company of the 2/6th Australian Battalion. The road must remain open. High command has placed you here to prevent the Germans from completing a vertical envelopment of our retreat. If you can only keep the road open, your unit will be pulled out and you will be headed to Crete to rest and regroup.

He had two 4-section platoons, only one of which had the 2" mortar. A Level III Company CO commanded, and the platoon leaders were Level II and III.

The Game

I sent some pics of the board to the two players, Martin (in Florida) and William (a mere 13 miles from my table), along with briefings and units. They sent back some clear instructions on how they wanted to deploy and what they wanted their Blinds to attempt. The directions were sufficiently idiot proofed so that even I managed to send the Blinds out in the correct order.

It was a bloody game with the FJ losing a total of 32 out of 49 men, including 3 BM. The Aussies lost 9 in their 2nd platoon but 24 in the 1st platoon along with its ldr and the Company CO. 35 total casualties.

This was a much more manageable game than the previous one. 2 players, 4 maneuver units and a 4 X 4 table. A nice diversion and a way to connect during our social distancing period.

Mark Luther

 
 
/
 
 
 

For the last two days I have been playing a solo game of IABSM set in Stalingrad. The 6th Army are attempting to batter their way to the Volga but the Soviet defence line is proving tenacious. This may go on for a few days and I am filming it for an AAR, to be posted soon!

After three days, and despite a hearty defence by the Soviets, the Germans were able to break through the stop lines and pushed on to the Volga! A German victory.

Alex Sotheran

 
 
/
 
 
 

I ran this I Ain't Been Shot Mum game with the idea that several friends could have some involvement in a game during the Covid-19 pandemic. Loads of pics because I was texting the game out to six people.

I sent pregame info out to two groups of three. Team Komrade Kovid as the Russians and Team von Wujan for the Fallschirmjaegers. I sent the unit rosters out to the two teams and they decided who would 'run' what. German defenders on Team von Wujan could place wire and MG bunkers and decide where they wanted units based on the pics I texted. Russian attackers on Team Kovid divvied up their units and decided how they would enter the board.

At this point it would become more dependent on what I did since I was the card puller and dice roller. Piccies would be texted out, sometimes to specific teams and sometimes to all players informing them of developments and asking how they wanted to react. I then had to interpret that and combined with the normal friction of an IABSM game, their wishes would be less than desirable. Overall the idea was to connect with friends and have a diversion during these days of social distancing. It ain't perfect, but was something.

This scenario was to depict one of the numerous Russian attacks on the III/Rgt 3 in November 41 on their lines on the Neva River outside Leningrad.

Well, that was interesting.

It was a bloody game all right. The Russians did get into the Para trenches on one flank. But too many auto weapons would prevent them from advancing further there. The attack on the other flanked also stalled out but did not capture any ground.

Russian left hand company had 40 infantry casualties, Company Co and 2 platoon Co killed. 6 MMG crew casualties and the flamethrower team wiped out for a total of 54 casualties. The right side company had 68 casualties plus 3 platoon COs hit 1 of the 3 T34 returned to the lines.

The FJ had 14 casualties including a Platoon Co casualties on their left. The center plt had 3 casualties. Their right side plt also had 13 casualties plus their Plt CO 1 MMG team lost 3 A 20mm was crushed and lost 3 crew. The Pioneers lost 11 on the German left.

This was certainly a nice distraction from our social distancing schedule. We played it over 2 days with me getting the info out ahead of time.

Mark Luther

 
 
/
 
 
 

I was still in the mood for a Normandy game and wanted something with Churchills and ruins. So I set this up at my place based on Operation Express (July 22, 1944).

Time to call the game though. Slow movement on the part of the Brits allowed the German armour to get positioned and make it hard to maneuver what was left of the Churchills. Brits still have the mortars and vast majority of their infantry. None of Martin's grenadiers were hit.

German losses were 12 of Stephen's 54 grenadiers. 2 MMG teams eliminated. 1 Pak hit by the stonk. All 3 snipers out of action.

Wilts had 12 of 72 troopers casualties. 4 of 9 Churchills KO'ed. Time for the second wave to take over and some mortars to fall on the rubble.

Mark Luther

 
 
/
 
 
 

A game of IABSM from the Blenneville or Bust! scenario pack.

Introduction

Although US reconnaissance units failed to locate the bridge over the river Moire, other American troops managed to beat off a German counter-attack near Belle Maison, allowing American engineers to throw their own bridge across the Moire. This allowed the Americans to assault Pierrecourt from the flank but, despite this advantage, the attack failed. The Germans then successfully counter-attacked through Belle Maison and, as the campaign reaches its climax, threaten the rear of the Allied armies at Diot.

And so here it was, the final game in the campaign. The Germans were on a roll and seeking the maximum victory they could achieve.

Diot was an interesting table setup. A huge town square in the centre of the table surrounded by houses and shops on every side. Running the length of the table and close to the British edge ran a large and unfordable river, which could be crossed only by one of the two bridges still intact.

As we started the game everything looked eerily quiet. In this final game I once again play the Germans this time with the assistance of Ralph. The opposition, the British Alban Regiment along with it supports, were played by John and Barry. Martyn once again took the role of the umpire.

The Game Begins

Ralph and I decided that we would avoid town centre at all costs and aim for the two bridges using a pincer attack. on our centre-right we deployed a series of blinds, primarily to act as observers and to draw enemy units out of their cover in order that we could seek their positions successfully.

We used four blinds initially, two of them were false and two were real units; the reconnaissance platoon of three armoured cars including a very useful Puma and one of the three infantry platoons that we had at our disposal. The latter made its way along the leaside edge of a Boccage hedgeline which gave cover from the buildings of the town square.

With so few cards in the game deck the initial returns came thick and fast. The British had deployed everything on hidden blinds and so we had to commence a lengthy series of spotting activities during this early part of the game. We had mixed fortunes in that regard, but slowly and surely we scanned the majority of the hedgelines in front of us successfully. Nothing was lurking about.

However it was not too long before the British artillery bombardment started with ranging rounds pitching around our blinds in the centre to right-hand sector of our deployment area. The British ranged in pretty quickly and soon the blinds were taking casualties.

The British now started to use their forward units currently hidden under blinds to observe our blinds, rapidly discovering the infantry and one false blind. Taking a slow reconnaissance start to the game was one thing, but being under a targeted barrage was another and we decided to press on as fast as we could.

The reconnaissance platoon still under its blind made rapid advancement through the gap in the hedgerow and out to observe the enemy's left flank paid particular attention to a house and enclosure close to the bridge in that sector. This time our luck was out and we couldn't see very much at all, only successfully scanning one section of hedgerow where we found nothing.

The armoured cars made great use of a small copse to limit the lines of sight it was exposed to, whilst still being able to undertake observation missions itself. The infantry platoon took a different tack and split up into its various sections in order to avoid the worst of the bombardment which was now 'targeted in' and starting to cause casualties in some numbers.

Deploying into individual sections provided the Germans with the opportunity of undertaking even more observations and soon much of the board area between the German right flank and the centre of the table was observed to be clear.

The big question was where were the British and most importantly how many of them were there?

The British Reveal Themselves

The first question was soon answered as the armoured cars were spotted and the Churchill opened fire from within the enclosure near the bridge. Hits were received and the armoured car was severely damaged but not out of the game yet. Perhaps that was fortunate for the Germans who were able then to identify the threat and make considerations for the reserves to be brought on the table. In this scenario the Germans had recovered their heavy tank platoon and Ralph and I agreed that the two Tigers should be brought onto the table, in order to combat the threat posed by the Churchill next to the bridge.

That also set the scene for where we would deploy our Kampfgroup commander with his two Panthers and a second tank platoon of three Panthers. These we determined should make a sweeping thrust up the left flank, circumventing the village and round to the higher bridge where they could make a dash for it whilst providing their own covering fire. However before they were deployed a second infantry platoon undertook reconnaissance under blinds along that left flank, but was unable to determine if there were any enemy there or not.

Despite undertaking several observation attempts nothing could be seen (the troops continue to fail to spot as a result of extremely poor dice rolling). Fortune favoured them and they were able to take up positions within gardens and a house covering the road adjacent to where the left flank attack would take place and thereby enabling at least some covering fire to be laid, should it be required when the panther attack went in.

The British continued to make repeated observation attempts on the remaining German blinds with limited success. There were clearly troops within the village but we were unsure how many and where. They would have to be flushed out.

The Germans concluded that this would be objective for the second infantry platoon, whilst keeping a weather eye open on the panther assault. Reconnaissance usually brings dividends and in this case it flushed out British infantry units within the edge of the village. It also suggested the village was heavily defended and that our decision to avoided it been the correct one.

Over on the right flank a series of shots were exchanged between the reconnaissance armoured cars and the Churchill. The Puma being eventually destroyed and abandoned. Enter the Tiger platoon. With limited long-range fields of fire available to us we sought the best sweeps and made maximum use of the 88 mm guns;soon the Tigers were engaged. A glancing blow on the Churchill was enough to convince it to retire and it did so out of the enclosure and back along the roadway leading to the bridge, safe in the knowledge that we had now lost our line of sight and that in order to regain the advantage the Tigers would have to advance. Whilst very tempting, we felt that that was probably drawing it into a trap so elected to keep the area under surveillance with the pair of big cats.

On the left flank the Panthers deployed quite rapidly and the sight of five fast-moving and heavily armoured vehicles caused some dismay amongst British players. A discussion of table followed between myself and Ralph and we concluded that some more reconnaissance was the order of the day, particularly on the right flank where the reconnaissance team could now move out into safe territory with the Churchill gone. However, as usual, that identified a six pounder anti-tank gun sitting in a hedgerow adjacent to the bridge. Even for the Tigers that would be a difficult gig. But move out they did and immediately a torrent of fire opened upon them. Nine rounds of anti-tank fire came from what was not one Churchill but a full troop of three vehicles.

It was not the British players day and of the nine rounds only one hit was scored the remainder appearing to be useless against the heavily armoured beasts now prowling in the open terrain in a menacing manner and heading straight for the lower bridge. What followed was a game of cat and mouse, literally, with both sides conscious not to drive into obvious kill zones.

On the left the Panthers advanced towards another Boccage hedge but a successful draw of the armoured bonus move card allowed for one vehicle to breach the hedge row and create a gap for others to follow shortly.

Again favourable cards drawn allowed the Panthers to move into the next field, closing the distance to the bridge and the village. Almost inevitable came the howl of excitement from the British players when they interrupted our next card with fire from the second anti-tank gun next to the higher bridge. The round hit the flank of the nearest panther and wounded it severely. However whilst sustaining a loss of the next two actions, it was clearly not out of the game and this may have been the time at which the British could be said to have lost the game.

The Panthers reacted viciously with three breaking away from the area on a succession of bonus cards; motoring at full speed into the town square, while simultaneously, the second infantry platoon was engaged in a firefight with the British infantry in that area and therefore distracting them in their efforts to avert the armoured thrust.

The remaining panther took up a position to protect its colleague and continued to fire high explosive roundsinto the vacinity of the bridge, causing several casualties on the anti-tank crew. The temptation was too much and the fear too great and so the British players elected to blow the bridge and prevent the Panthers from achieving their objective.

Up it went with a massive explosion. The German effort was now focused on the lower bridge.

Fight for the Lower Bridge

The battle for the town ensued with casualties being exchanged on either side. The British wary of the counter-attack elected to move their bombardment into the vicinity of the panther attack. A risky business given the proximity of their infantry hiding in the town buildings around the square.

The Panthers went to work in retaliation. Round after round of high explosive slammed into the structures housing the British infantry and once again many were both set on fire and structurally damaged, forcing the infantry to evacuate to the next bolthole. A separate British platoon brought it's PIAT to the fore and launched a couple of rounds into a panther tank racing through the square. Miss! Hit and deflected!

The Germans had another stroke of luck. The Panthers would not be there long enough to endure more fire from that quarter.

Back on the right flank Ralph was losing casualties from his infantry platoon and so was forced to bring on the third motorised infantry platoon in their half tracks. Just in the nick of time too. Their additional firepower was brought to bear on the anti-tank gun in the bridge initially, but when it pulled back further into cover of the enclosure these new reserves raced off behind the Tigers to give close support.

The pack had had the scent and they were after that bridge. Would the cards fall right for the Germans?

On the left flank the remaining anti-tank gun was silenced by further high explosive fire from the Panthers whilst those Panthers in the square took advantage of every bonus card and raced towards the lower bridge.

Anti-tank fire criss-cross the table. The lead panther took a hull down position on the bridge. The Churchill which had suffered a retire earlier in the game now opened fire again but to no effect. A difficult shot against a poor target, hull down resulted in more misses. The panther was not so kind. It destroyed the Churchill with his first shot and then did the same to a second emerging Churchill. A third Churchill was engaged by the rapidly advancing Tigers and it to was dispatched without loss.

The Germans now sensed victory and raced every available half track onto and over the bridge support in the Panthers successful sweeping manoeuvre.

They had raced up the left flank, survived a flank attack but were disappointed that they had not captured their target. They went on, somewhat rashly, racing through the centre of the village towards a second bridge where they were eventually successful in securing a crossing.

Campaign’s End

All in all another exceptionally well executed attack and one which saw the campaign end in a major German victory.

Of the five game scenario campaign, the Germans had lost one game but won four. An excellent month's worth of gaming had been enjoyed by all.

All agreed that they had enjoyed the experience and looked forward to another campaign; the Normandy or Tunisia or even the German invasion of Russia perhaps. However none of that would take place until after we had endured the storm of the coronavirus; so entering a period of wargaming drought..

We hope to bring you more when normal service resumes.

We hope you have enjoyed these narratives and after action reports on our first foray into an IABSM campaign.

Tim Whitworth

 
 
/
 
 
 

A cracking game yesterday with some new players too. Surrounded British Paras awaited armour support while holding a bridge😃

A mixed Kampfgruppe attacked with four platoons of infantry and some Panzer IVs, StuGs and two Char B Flammepanzers. Both sides called on artillery and mortars.

More below the pics.

Julian Whippy

 
 
/
 
 
 

Club last night and nothing to take except some dice and a measuring tape, Dan had agreed to umpire another I Ain't Been Shot Mum WWII game, this time it would be larger than the last game and hopefully some things we now better understood.

This time I had drawn the Germans and stood on the defensive with two platoons supported by some MMG's, a PaK 38 and a StuG III, Simon had one full company with a Sherman troop and a Carrier troop to attack with, I was told there was another company in reserve but luckily this did not appear. My forces were to be forced from the table, so I split them all along my defense line, like my War and Conquest games on Sunday I could not give in to my normal tabletop aggressiveness.

The British tanks sped down the right hand road and flanked my position, I should have given them a nasty surprise as my StuG III was supposed to turn up on their flank, but I had misheard my instructions from Dan and it was on the other side of the battlefield, duh.

As sighting rolls were made and troops turned up my MMG's began to take casualties and I lost two of them, I had not wanted to show my hand with my two platoons so they took the brunt of the enemy fire from both tanks and infantry. Dan was unsure of how Overwatch worked so it had been dropped which was bad news for me the defender as I had to sit and take some punishment before reacting. I got some satisfaction from brewing a Sherman with my panzerschreck team but they died soon after from return fire.

Simon then moved his Firefly until it could shoot at the StuG and PaK, I got quite a few hits on the Firefly but nothing they could not brush off, no one did very well in that duel. I had also hit the two remaining tanks with mortar fire, but again they mainly ignored it apart from closing hatches.

While this was going on the British had now shown their hand and were managing to put some heavy casualties down on my platoons, my own men always felt on the back foot but despite this Dan declared a British win although I had not really been moved from my opening positions. I have my lawyers mounting an appeal.

This time the game did flow better and it went along quite well, but Overwatch is required for defenders, I also think we were getting to grips with the whole command and control mechanics, I have no problem playing the game and would like to try out some proper scenarios but I would not add it to my repertoire as I have enough to get on with at the moment.

George Anderson

 
 
/
 
 
 

Although US reconnaissance units failed to locate the bridge over the river Moire, other American troops managed to beat off a German counter-attack near Belle Maison, allowing American engineers to throw their own bridge across the Moire. This allowed the Americans to assault Pierrecourt from the flank but, despite this advantage, the attack failed. Now the Germans counterattack from south of Belle Maison.

So off we set again with the fourth game in the Normandy campaign. Again I played the Germans this time aided by Steve with the Allies being played by John and Barry; Ralph was sadly delayed by an unfortunate incident with a pothole and so missed the game!

As the Germans had halted the American attack at Pierrecourt they were back on the counter offensive again; oh how I hate attacking with Germans. This time with a combined force of 30th Panther and 30th Panzer Grenadier regiments.

Luckily this involved a considerable number of Panthers with a quite strong reconnaissance armoured car platoon which included one Puma and two SdKfz 231 or 232s. Plenty of armoured force there then.

Also available were three infantry platoons, one of which was mounted in half tracks and a small infantry headquarters team with a single SdKfz 251/9.

However the Germans possessed no offboard artillery or air support and when combined with a lack of mortars this job was going to be a difficult one.

The Germans started their offensive with the two dismounted Panzer Grenadier platoons advancing along the sides of two parallel Boccage hedgerows leading up to the southern side of the town of Belle Maison in the hope of flushing out some early American elements in that portion of the battlefield.

That it certainly did and they were very soon under fire from a house in the second row of terraces; in fact a couple of Armoured Infantry sections supported by a pair of LMG teams, however little damage was done except for the occasional shock marker being received.

The building with the grey tiled roof contains a couple of Armoured Infantry sections with additional LMG teams in the front yard.

Being Americans, of course they were blessed with considerable offboard artillery and air support so very quickly their Forward Observation Officer was on the phone to call in support from their offboard Priests.

The Germans decided to bring on several of their dummy blinds and push them forward as observation teams quickly conducting a series of tests to scan the hedgerows and closest buildings in the town.

Very rapidly they sought to determine there was little if anything in their way and so felt safe to bring on their armoured support in the form of a couple of understrength Panther troops. In the absence of any off-road artillery these were quickly brought into play as mobile artillery platforms, each training their weapons on any observed allied infantry in the town. They caused reasonable damage but their main effect was the regularity with which they set light buildings and although the occupants were relatively unscathed they were quickly distracted from their defensive actions by having to take to their heels and evacuate the buildings.

This worked extremely well for the Germans who were able to learn to continue their advance and occupy the spaces vacated by the American forward troops.

One area of hedgerow that had not been scanned was on the German extreme right-wing where the armoured headquarter section comprising of a further two Panthers encountered three Sherman tanks, one of whom was sporting a 76 mm gun. However these were quickly addressed with through a succession of beneficial German cards being turned up and all three Shermans were dealt with. It was a surprise to see the Allied armour so far forward but it was not to be a unique case as on the extreme left hand flank the German recce section was soon spotted by another Sherman platoon and a short firefight ensued.

The German Puma armoured car took a bit of a pasting but survived and its colleagues quickly opened up their auto cannons in response to the attack. The nearest pair of Panther tanks joined in the fray and soon the Americans were under a relentless torrent of anti-tank fire; quickly losing this armoured wing also.

One of the command group Panthers had suffered damage during its engagement on the right flank and so the advance on that part of the battlefield became a little delayed as result of its engine damage; but more so because of the fear of having sighted an American bazooka team working in a small copse.

The Germans on the right flank had taken some losses on their accompanying infantry platoon and needed to get the remnants forward to support their tanks before they could safely advance.

That switched the emphasis of the German attack back onto the left flank; the centre almost being avoided as a result of the fire storm that hit the village in that sector. Most of the buildings in the first row of terraces were now in flames.

The armoured cars buzzed about trying to suppress infantry in the remaining buildings whilst for Panthers scoured for new targets. Throwing caution to the wind one Panther drove through the sector where the second Sherman platoon had been, through the gap in the Boccage hedgerow and straight into the crosshairs of an American anti-tank gun. The 3 inch gun was a powerful weapon indeed but the initial salvo shots failed to penetrate the big cat and it returned fire killing one of the crew.

It was now down to the sequence of cards being drawn following the intermediate tea break and sure enough the Panther had its card drawn out first. It raced forward up the hill towards the church intent on turning the corner of another edge and overrunning the gun. However its movement dice fell slightly short of the intended tormentors and it was left without any further actions awaiting its fate. Strangely, this came from another quarter as a second 3 inch anti-tank gun opened up with a further salvo and eventually the force of arms overcame the beast.

Luckily, the Big Man commander within escaped unharmed and his card turned up subsequently.

This saw him belt across the open fields and commandeer the other tank in his platoon.

The fight continued in this area with American infantry being pursued back towards the church, but time was starting to tell and the Americans were losing resources at an unparalleled rate.

Martyn, our umpire, called a halt and after some pondering he awarded another victory to the German forces.

It had been another heck of a mentally demanding game and left the players feeling they'd actually be in the hedgerows all day.

Tim Whitworth

 
 
/
 
 
 

Time to break out the I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum again with a scenario taken from the second September War scenario book: #60 Szack.

Szack was a small village in what was south-eastern Poland (it’s now just inside Ukraine) that was the site of a backwards-and-forwards series of actions between the Poles and the Soviets in very late September 1939. The scenario covers the first Soviet attack:

Soviet troops consisting of the 112th Infantry Regiment, some 13,000 soldiers supported by fifteen T-26 tanks and fifteen guns, arrived at the village of Szack on September 28th.

The Polish force near the village numbered 4,000 men of the Border Protection Corp, including General Wilhelm Orlik-Rückermann, and sixteen anti-tank guns.

Having taken the village, the Soviets then charged the Polish positions with infantry supported by the T-26 tanks. The Poles waited until the Soviets were right on top of them before opening fire with their anti-tank guns, destroying eight tanks.

The table from the Soviet side. Deployment is anywhere along the nearest edge, but where are the Poles positioned…?

Downtown Szack, also showing the two objective markers: possession of either would give the Soviets victory.

The Poles

The defending Poles began the game under hidden Blinds. Under Kapitan Nalewki they had two strong platoons of KOP (Border Protection) infantry numbering fifty men in all, supported by three MMGs and three 37mm anti-tank guns. They also had access to off-table artillery.

One infantry platoon and Kapitan Nalewki (and his all-important link to the off-table atillery) would start the game off-table, only able to join the action when the Polish Blinds card and a dice roll allowed.

AT Gun positioned in the ‘old village’ on the right flank

Dave, playing the Poles, deployed one MMG team and one AT gun on either flank, and one of each in the centre, which was also where he placed his infantry platoon.

The Soviets

The attacking Soviets, under John, had at their disposal a company of Red Army infantry consisting of three platoons, each of thirty men and a light mortar team. They were supported by a small MMG platoon of two weapons and a reduced company of tanks: six T-26 obr. 33 light tanks (although the tank commander had a more modern obr. 39 steed).

The Soviet plan was to launch a diversionary attack from the right flank, but send their main force in from the left flank. This made sense given what John could actually see: the centre of the Polish position was filled with a big church that looked like a good place to put loads of defending troops. In reality, the church was empty and provided a perfect piece of dead ground for a Soviet advance: but then Captain Hindsight always has 20:20 vision!

The Soviet diversionary attack: two tanks and a platoon of infantry.

The Game Begins

The game began with the Soviets beginning their double-envelopment attack.

The Polish anti-tank gun team, however, was on fire, and rapidly knocked out or immobilised three of the four Soviet tanks coming their way. The Polish machine-gunners, from their position within the shack that the AT Gun was hiding behind, fired on the Soviet infantry, knocking a few of the matrasovs down, but were hampered by the fact that the shape of the hut gave them a limited field of fire.

This proved especially hampering when the leading Soviet infantry platoon worked their way up the side of the village and then charged on in: eliminating the machine gun team entirely and narrowly missing the AT gun as well: they limbered up and escaped at the last minute!

Meanwhile, the diversionary attack force was creeping closer to the other side of the village.

The Soviets’ main focus, however, was the building in the centre of the Polish position, behind which sat both objective markers. The surviving T-26 tank and third Soviet infantry platoon headed towards it. Inside, the Polish defenders (two infantry sections, an MMG, and an AT Gun team rapidly reduced down to one man as the Soviets concentrated their fire there) prepared to hold their position no matter what.

You might have noticed that there have so far been no mention on the second Polish infantry platoon. That’s because up to now it had resolutely remained off table. Now, however, they appeared on the Polish base line and immediately headed towards the key building in the centre of the village.

Two things now happened that would effectively decide the course of the battle despite appearing relatively unimportant at the time. Firstly, a Soviet infantry squad rolled appallingly for movement, therefore failing to charge the one man still manning the Polish AT gun in the central building.

Three ones for movement!

Secondly, the Polish Kapitan Nalewki appeared on the table and got just far enough forward to unpin and activate the MMG team in the key building. This fired and killed three members of the Soviet platoon heading for the building. Seems relatively unimportant, but read on…

The Climax

All the Soviets now needed to do was to take the central building before the Polish reserves could properly come into play. This might have allowed them the sudden-death win defined in the victory conditions as taking just one objective before a certain number of appearances of the Turn Card, although Dave (the Polish CinC) assured me (Umpire) that he had that covered with where his second platoon had already got to. Well, we were going to see about that!

As I was saying, all the Soviets needed to do was to take the central building, and this they now prepared to do with their two remaining platoons. John’s plan was to shoot with some of his sections and the last T-26, hopefully Pinning the opposition, then go in and take one section of the building at a time.

And then the Uraaaaaagh! Card appeared.

This gave the Soviets, doubtless inspired by political rhetoric, the chance to send both platoons charging forward towards the building in a desperate attempt to overwhelm the defenders all at once.

A huge melee broke out around the building, and this is where the significance of the last turn came into play.

When both sides had finished rolling their forty or so dice for combat (and each side rolled a disproportionate number of 5’s and 6’s) the Poles had won by the narrowest of margins, margins that would not have existed had they not managed to kill the half-handful of Soviets as they approached. As it was, the building was just about cleared of all its defenders, but the attacking Russians had also been hammered and, more importantly, bounced backwards by the equivalent of a hundred yards or so.

There was now effectively a giant hole in the middle of the battlefield, with the only troops available to fill it being the Polish reserve platoon: the Soviet diversionary platoon hadn’t yet made it past the Polish left flank defences.

Aftermath

The battle was effectively over. The Soviets could perhaps had rallied and had one more go, but the clock was ticking and more Polish reserves were about to arrive. The Russians had missed their chance.

A great game with a suitably climactic finish!

Robert Avery

 
 
/
 
 
 

Hosted by Vermont Historical Gamers Group. Walking in a Winter Wonderland from the 2005 Summer Special.

Dan Albrecht