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The first I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum! game was quite well received and the group was eager for another action.  One of the players requested more tanks, so I cast about a bit for another action and settled on the the French counterattack by SOMUA S-35s of the 3rd Light Mechanized Division against the panzers of the 3rd Panzer Division on the morning of May 13, 1940.  The Panzers had pushed the French Dragoons out of Orp in the morning and were reported to be moving to Jandrain when the French launched the attack by the 1st Cuirassiers.

Google Earth is one of my favourite tools for generating realistic looking battlefields when good period maps are not available, especially for Europe, where many of the features will remain as they have for generations: the towns and roads get bigger, but much of the rest seems to be pretty much the same.  For this game I zoomed in on the region between Orp and Jandrain and we used that as the basis for our table.  The terrain in this area is largely flat farm land, and  main feature of the terrain was the long line of woods surrounding a stream that ran to the east of the main north-south road between the towns.

The French forces consisted of 3 understrength platoons of SOMUA S-35 tanks and a platoon of motorcycle reconnaissance troops, led by the Company Captain, and two additional Big Men: a Lieutenant in one tank platoon, and a Sergeant in the motorcycle troops.  Two Blinds started deployed on the road, with the rest entering on the French Blinds card.

The German forces consisted of a Light Panzer platoon (mixed Pz IIs and Pz Is), a Panzer II platoon, a Panzer III platoon, and a Panzer IV platoon.  These were supported by a platoon of armoured cars and a platoon from the divisional anti-tank battalion with four PaK 36 anti-tank guns.   The Germans also had a forward observer in a radio car with contact to a battery of 10.5 cm howitzers.  Unbeknownst to the French, the Germans had been able to send some elements forward and establish positions.  The Germans started with two Blinds on the road and had two groups deployed hidden on table, one in the woods east of the road and another in the woods along the west table edge.  The German PzKw III and PzKw IV platoons had to be the last two Blinds onto the table and they unfortunately rolled the maximum for their number of dummy Blinds, providing them with more decoys than they needed and requiring them to fight longer with their light units against the superior French armour.

The game opened with each side sending Blinds forward to try and spot the enemy. With the flat terrain, sighting distances across the wide plain to the west of the road were quite long and the recon elements of both sides were revealed. The French motorcycles decided to bail off of the road before anything with guns started to light them up, and drove off toward the woods, where they forced the hidden unit there onto a Blind, but were unable to spot the units through the woods. The first unit of S-35s was soon revealed as well and opened fire on the lightly armoured SdKfz 222 armoured cars, brewing up one of them. The other promptly scooted away and began to try and move across the stream to provide sighting against any French movement up the east side of the battlefield.

The German units on the Blind discovered by the French reconnaissance platoon revealed themselves and opened up on the dismounted French motorcyclists.  The hidden elements consisted of two PaK 36s with an attached Big Man and three PzKw IICs, and their combined fire pretty well crippled the recon troops.  The squads began taking a lot of wounds, which in IABSM provide a negative penalty to movement and shooting.  Since the troops were also in the woods, they suffered additional movement penalties, with the net effect that they could not move away from the withering fire and could only stand there and rack up wounds.  Eventually I made a GM ruling that any section with more wounds than effectives was routed and dispersed/surrendered and pulled them from the table.

In the meantime, the French armour began to fire on the German ambushers, shooting off a well aimed shot each turn and advancing slowly forward.  The PaKs and Pz IIs engaged the French armour but their shots just bounced off of the thick armour of the SOMUA tanks.  Most units in IABSM have one card per platoon, allowing coordination of the platoon's sections, but the French armour has a card for each tank to reflect the poor communications and overworked commanders of their vehicles.  However, if not under fire themselves, the French officer Big Men could activate their entire platoon.  The German fire was concentrated on the lead French units, allowing the French Captain to coordinate the actions of the following platoon.  The advancing French slowly got the better of the German ambush, destroying one of the guns and three Panzer IIs, but not before one of the French vehicles wandered within close range of the remaining PaK 36 and was immobilized and eventually abandoned.

The French advance had been focused up the main road, allowing the Germans to steadily bring Blinds onto the table and use terrain to prevent them from being spotted by the French armour.  These began working their way across the stream to move up the east side of the table and counter the French Blinds advancing there.  The Germans sprang their other ambush of another two PaK 36s and three more Pz IICs.  The PaKs began long range fire against the SOMUAs, which was predictably mostly useless, while the PzIIs began moving down the west table edge hoping to get in behind the SOMUAs.

Late in the game the French had a run of bad luck, twice drawing the Petrol Shortage card and then rolling the '6' required to immobilize a tank.  As the night was winding to a close, the German heavy armour finally arrived, with the Pz IVD platoon leading the way.  The first exchange went badly for the Germans as one of the Pz IVs was brewed up by the S-35s, but subsequent fire from the German tanks led to another immobilized S-35 and the loss of the main gun from another.

At this point our game time was running out and we called it a night.  The French counterattack had stalled, with four SOMUAs immobilized and another combat ineffective with a busted main gun.  The remaining three French tanks remained on their Blind, slowly slogging through the woods and stream on the east edge.  The Germans for their part had lost three Panzer IIs, two PaK 36s, one Panzer IVD, and an armoured car, but were in a position to overwhelm the remaining operational SOMUAs and to possibly exit the south edge with some armour.  In addition, much of the French armour was within the beaten zone for the German artillery in the unlikely event that the golden card sequence needed to call in artillery in these rules happened to come up.  Lucky rolls for French crews to continue manning the immobilized tanks could definitely have added an additional toll to the Germans, but it seemed likely they would hold the field on this day.  A perfectly historical result that closely mimicked the actual French counterattack of May 13, 1940.

Unfortunately, I got caught up keeping the game running at the end and didn’t get any pictures of the end game or the clash between the S-35s and Panzer IVs.

The group once again really enjoyed the game, which is a great result since these guys are all primarily board game players.  The table looked quite nice, although I really need to work on getting some fields of crops and such.  The scenario seemed to offer a good challenge to each side, and although there are definitely a couple of tweaks I might make, it seemed to provide a decently balanced game.  The French armour was very tough and significantly outgunned the Germans, especially the Pz IIs available at the outset of the battle, but the command and control issues built into the rules, along with the Germans' ambush positions built into the scenario, seemed to compensate. Another game is planned for next month.

Brian Cantwell

 
 
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Since moving to Virginia, I've been meeting a number of different groups of gamers around the area. One such group meets at the FLGS (Your Hobby Place in Martinsburg) and usually plays various historical board games. However, Jim was interested in playing I Ain't Been Shot, Mum! from Too Fat Lardies. I'd had the rules for a while and had been wanting to try it out, so I was happy to set up a game.

I wrote a scenario based on the encounters between the French 3rd DLM and German 4th Panzer near Hannut in May 1940. With a first game, the smart play is to start small… but I am not always smart . I wanted to get a good taste of how the rules handled things, so threw in a little bit of everything. The French had a couple of infantry platoons, some MMGs, and a pair of 25mm ATGs. A platoon of SOMUA S-35s were in reserve along with a couple of 47mm ATGs. The Germans had a company of infantry to start the game, backed up by some MMGs with the company HQ platoon, a platoon of off-table 75mm infantry guns, and a patrol of a couple of light armoured cars. Coming up behind the forward German elements were three tank platoons:  a light panzer platoon of PzKw Is and IIs; a section of PzKw IVD; and a platoon of PzKw IIIs. The German mission was to push armour off the other side of the table.

IABSM incorporates all of the standard Two Fat Lardies staples (or rather, TFL games mostly incorporate IABSM mechanisms, since that game came first): card based activation, deployment of troops on 'Blinds', and the role of Big Men on the battlefield. The French had a number of Blinds on table (which could be units or dummies and in addition, each terrain feature was considered a Blind, so the French could be anywhere. The Germans deployed the infantry on four Blinds with a section of MMGs and the FO for the 75mm guns tasked to support two platoons on the left moving against the town. The HQ kept two MMGs and was to support one platoon and the recon armoured cars moving against the farmhouses on the right.

The first turn saw the French Blinds card come up first, so they were able to reserve their dice in case Germans later came into view. The Germans then moved forward and began trying to spot the various French Blinds. A successful spotting check verified the farmhouses were empty, but the HQ platoon foolishly tried to sprint across some open ground in front of the orchard. Suddenly French small arms fire erupted from the low stone wall enclosing the orchard. An entire platoon of French infantry was packed into the space! The HQ platoon was decimated, with many casualties and wounds (a colourful term in the game for negative cohesion), and would play only a minimal role in the rest of the game.

The Recon armoured cars rolled forward up the road on the right and paused to machine gun the French infantry in the orchard while trying (unsuccessfully) to spot some of the Blinds. The German infantry on the left moved up cautiously through the woods and revealed a couple of French dummy Blinds. The first German tank reinforcements arrived in the form of a platoon of Panzer Is and IIs, and were committed to supporting the infantry against the town on the left. As some Frenchmen were discovered on the edge of town, the tanks rolled out to hose them repeatedly with 20mm and MG fire.

Back on the right, the third German Shutzen platoon was attempting to move forward to seize the farmhouse and outflank the orchard. However, apparently the hedge at the end of the field was covered in razor sharp thorns as my troops had great difficulty getting over it, leaving them caught out in the open to be fired on by the French in the orchard and some MMGs further back. One section was badly mauled, but one reached a marginally safe position.

With time getting on, the armoured cars began to press up the road looking to ID more French Blinds. They succeeded in locating the French 25mm ATGs: the hard way! However, the thin-skinned armoured cars survived the onslaught with only some engine damage to one car. The tank fire against the town was followed by an infantry assault. Despite a substantial advantage due to defending the buildings, the French were driven from the front of the town and German troops moved up to take the first row of buildings. In the last turn, the SOMUA platoon deployed off of their Blind and fired off a barrage of shots against the light panzers, but succeeded in only damaging a couple of engines.

At this point we ran out of time and called off the game, but it was clear that the French enjoyed a substantial advantage. The unit holding the orchard was a little beaten up, but so was the German platoon near them. A couple of Panzer IVDs had arrived to help, but were very slow in deploying forward. The Germans had seized the front of the town on the left and inflicted a lot of damage on a couple of French sections, but still had a number of French in the town that would have to be overcome in close street fighting. They would get little help from the light panzers, as the thinly armoured and lightly armed tanks would be no match for the advancing SOMUA S-35s.

I knew that I had put together a game too large to likely finish with the first try of a new set of rules, but as stated above the real purpose was to try out the rules and see how things worked. The game was fun and I'll happily play it again… but probably only until Fireball Forward gets finished! I generally like games with a little chaos in them, as it seems to better reflect first person accounts from the war. Not knowing exactly when things will move or whether your infantry can make it over the hedge adds interest and forces you to make really sound judgments, or to take risks. However, the rules are very British, meaning that they are written in a manner that is long on flavour and short on specifics. For instance, when firing, rather than have a list of modifiers, each shot is simply classified as Great, Okay, or Poor. In and of itself this is not a bad thing, but in a game without an umpire, it does add to the resolution of each shot as you have to stop and make sure that you have an agreement with the opponent as to what each shot is rated.

Like a lot of other British game rules I've played, it also tends to have a separate mechanism for each type of action, which definitely adds to the learning curve and makes a reference sheet essential. I also have a love-hate relationship with card-based activation: I like the randomness and the ease it brings to inserting special events, but dislike the waiting around while each individual unit takes its turn. However, most of those issues are either acceptable parts of the game's charm or just things that I can get better at with increased play. However, the firing chart is unfortunately central to the game and a real drag on it. Having to total up several dice and cross reference the results on a full-page table to find the results of each shot is just a pain. Other gamers may not be put off by it as much as myself I guess. We definitely need to give it another go (or two) to give the mechanics a fair shake.

Brian Cantwell

 
 
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Michael Broadbent an I tried out the IABSM rules with the Rising Sun supplement by the Lardies on a small game to test out the mechanics of the rules. Of course we had a few teething problems which I'll be addressing with the group forum, but overall we were very happy with the outcomes.

My own painted force of Japanese of two squads (one with lmg the other with knee mortar [sniper included in one of the sections]) and one Hollywood Japanese Big Man pitted against two Elite Aussie squads (sniper, 2in mortar included) with two Big Men, one HMG and a platoon of medium mortars in support. The latter was not on board.

I split my two sections up the protect the bunker with the lmg inside the bunker and a small screen of flankers and forward outpost. A reserve of Japanese was situated behind the bunker on another feature.

Michael's forces advance up the centre with a flanking force and destroyed the outpost and sniper. The lmg open up an inflicted a number of casualties. I decided a Banzai charge was on offer and so charged his flanking force only to take more kills including the big man then Michael. We called it there, but it was only to test out the rule system and we will be gaming more of this period in a few weeks when Michael paints up more Aussies an I finish painting a further section of Japanese with some support weapons.

Here are some photos of the game using Michael's terrain. The figures are all from Company B/Brigade Games. The Type 95 is from the same company and was thrown in for some eye candy. This was my first attempt at painting an AFV. Oh, and I've worked out a better way in painting my Japanese, in particular their faces etc.

Please enjoy an I do recommend the rule system to anyone who has been chasing the grail for a long time.

Helen

 
 
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1st Platoon plus HQ, 4th Kompanie, 2nd Fallschirmjaegers ran from one end of the table to the other whilst inflicting thirty-two casualties and nailing two Shermans from 2nd Platoon plus HQ of B Company, 2 Para, and only losing one squad to excess losses. 

Nick is a wizard with the Lardie dice: way too many beers and pies show up when he's rollin!

johnanddave45

 
 
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The 1st Platoon and HQ section of 4th Kompanie, 2nd Fallschirmjaegers and three STuG IIIGs completely whacked 1st Platoon and HQ section B Company, 2 Para plus three Shermans in eight appearances of the Tea Break Card, not counting the Tea Break Card turned as the first card in the game. MG42s and -34s are not to be trifled with! The whole thing took an hour and forty-five minutes.

Due to a combination of poor tactics, a scenario design flaw and awesome die rolling on one side and horrid on the other, the Brits finished the game with a Sherman on the table and eight routed figures off table...out of forty-six!

johnanddave45

 
 
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My turn to host a game of I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum, so I chose a scenario from the first September War scenario pack that would allow me to field some of my new motorised infantry vehicles: #24 Ambush in the Beskides.

The game would feature a German attack on a prepared Polish position. The Germans would have the numbers, but had a time limit, and those Poles were very well dug in!

View from the German side of the table

To defend the two villages shown on the far side of the picture above, the Poles had a small company of motorised infantry: three two-section platoons, two two-gun MMG teams, three AT guns and a couple of 81mm mortars. Starting the game off table were a platoon of reconnaissance tankettes and a platoon of Vickers tanks.

To take either of the two villages and achieve victory, the Germans had a full company of schutzen and a full light panzer company consisting of 22 tanks, all Panzer Is and IIs.

The Action

The game began with the Germans sweeping forward under Blinds. In fact, there were so many Blinds needed that I had to ship in some Italian imposters to make up the numbers.

The Germans arrive

The Poles chose to remain under cover and spot, and pretty soon there was a line of German tanks on table and ready for action.

So many tanks! I had to use all my Panzer I and II models plus ship in some Panzer 38 (t) as proxies.

Both sides opened fire with their long range weapons: the Poles with their mortars and the Germans with their infantry guns, but neither had much effect. The Poles couldn’t see any infantry yet and their mortars didn’t do much against tanks; the Germans were firing at well dug-in infantry.

Things only began to get interesting when the Germans got close enough to spot the Polish infantry positions in front of the two villages, and the Poles revealed their anti-tank guns, all emplaced on the central hill (so able to fire over the villages at the advancing enemy). The Poles also received their first re-inforcements: a platoon of tankettes.

The German tanks began raking the Polish trenches in front of each village with their machine guns and 20mm cannon. Casualties were steady rather than gross, but it did keep the Polish infantry well pinned down.

In return, the Polish anti-tank guns began inflicting significant casualties on the German armour. At one stage it seemed as if each time a Polish gun fired a German tank went up in flames! John, running the Poles, was rolling very well, and when the Polish anti-rifles added their fire, things began to look a little grim for the Germans.

Now was the time for them to send in their infantry. Unfortunately it was all still under Blinds, and with the chip bag bursting at the seams with so many Polish and German platoons/weapon teams already on the table, the German Blinds chip was doing a very good impression of the Scarlet Pimpernel!

The German Panzers kept plugging away at the Polish trenches, losing a steady trickle of tanks to Polish AT fire, but gradually the Polish infantry were being whittled down.

On the Polish right flank,where the German attack had been concentrated, the remnants of 1st Polish platoon had to retreat out of their trenches, with the situation only partially recovered by the arrival of the Polish tanks. Here are some shots from the middle phase of the game:

Endgame

Unfortunately for the Germans, the day was getting on, with the battle due to end with the arrival of nightfall and the promise of more Polish reinforcements arriving. Their infantry had begun to de-cloak from their Blinds, but it was really too late to make a significant difference. With their Panzers still under fire from the central hill, the German commander ordered a retreat.

So the Germans had failed to take either of their objectives (one in each village) but really only because they had run out of time. Both John (the Poles) and Dave agreed that the Germans would eventually have overrun the villages…in fact, it was probably only a turn or two away…but that’s the way the cookie crumbles: their time was up.

Counting up the casualties, we were all surprised to see that only eight out of twenty-four German tanks had been KO’d: it certainly seemed like more. That was really the extent of the German casualties, apart from a few newly-decloaked infantrymen getting hit and killed by mortar fire. The Poles, on the other hand, had lost three of their six infantry sections and half their tankettes: they would certainly have been at a serious disadvantage in numbers had the Germans been left to press home their attack.

The key to the game, really, were the three Polish anti-tank guns dug-in on the central hill. Without them, the Germans would have literally driven over the Poles in the first few turns.

All in all, an excellent game, with both sides leaving the house chatting through what they could have done differently. Captain Hindsight, as they say, really does have 20:20 vision!

Robert Avery

 
 
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Sunday saw myself and Philip pitch up at Des’ shed o’war to play the second game in his set of linked battles of a (fictitious) British attack on German positions north of Caen in 1944. I had played the first game against Des a few weeks ago but I stupidly forgot to charge my phone so couldn’t take any pictures hence the lack of report on it! Figures and models are all 15mm from Des’ stunning and impressive collection and all the lovely terrain is his as well. Rules used are our dice activated version of IABSM -I Aint Been CoC’d Mum, as seen in the 2019 Lardies Annual.

‘O’ Group, Btln. HQ, 14 Essex Regt, just North of Plessy:

“Right then chaps, listen in. Yesterday ‘A’ Company tried to break through and suffered a bloody nose from some very determined defenders from Kampfgruppe Darchin. However they did manage to write down the Jerry forces (we expect the defenders to be short at least one platoon and definitely 2 Panzer IV’s) and secure a good start line for todays attack running through the two orchards and the village. 1 Platoon from A Company has remained in the north part of the village and will be under command for today’s action, you will also be supported by battalion 3″ mortars and a troop of Churchills from Brigade’s attached Squadron, I have ordered up a stonk from the Gunners too which will be your cue to get the ball rolling. Your task is to take the remainder of the village and breach any further defences to open the road to Caen. I’ll leave you to co-ordinate with mortars and tanks. Good luck.”

‘O’ Group, C Coy. 14 Essex:

“Alright then everyone it’s our turn now. When the artillery starts to land on the orchard behind the village I want 9 Pltn to push forward a small patrol from their position in the right hand orchard through to the end of the orchard across the road to try and spot if the Jerries have anything in the Farm complex or along the hedges between there and the orchard that is getting stonked, once patrols are back then to advance through orchard, take any enemy under fire and develop attack either on the farm or into the central orchard beyond the village. 7 Pltn is to move through the orchard it is located in on the left to the end nearest enemy and then locate any enemy in the wood to the front. Once located enemy is to be engaged with fire then assaulted if feasible. 8 Pltn is to deploy behind 7 Pltn and pass through on my order to carry on the attack on the left flank which will be the main effort. Once they are moved through then 7 Pltn will act as Coy reserve. 1 Pltn, A Coy is to clear the rest of the village and then will be deployed to either support the attack on the woods or to the right flank. Troop of Churchills to be deployed as I see fit to either shoot infantry into positions held by enemy or tackle any armour. Once the line of the wood to the farm has been secured then await further orders. All clear? Good. Questions?”

And so we began…

There was a German blind in the village immediately to my front which I quickly scouted out to find it was nothing more than a few stay behinds making noise as cover for the enemy to withdraw. With that knowledge I started moving 1 Pltn forward all the time trying to spot any nasty surprises in the wood to the left. At the same time I moved my own patrols forward on the right (dummy blinds) to try and spot any Germans in the farm or in the vicinity of the central orchard. As both dummy blinds spotted nothing I then moved 9 Pltn forward until they reached the end of the orchard where they finally were fired upon by the survivors of the enemy section that had withstood the pre-game stonk of the orchard. They also drew the attention of a Panzer IV lurking next to the farm! 1 Pltn had also spotted a Panzer IV lurking in the wood and both platoons swiftly got their 2″ Mortars busy smoking the enemy tanks to block their view. 1 Pltn quickly dashed for cover in the houses and gardens to avoid the incoming HE fire from the tank but also sent their PIAT team forward in a dash to the garage building at the end of the village. This building looked like it could be used to get a tricky shot away on the tank in the woods and 216 Jenkins on the PIAT quickly made his way up stairs and to the window. Having a spring action bomb thrower came into its own as he managed to get a couple of shots away (try doing that indoors with a Bazooka or Panzerschreck!) which didn’t do any damage but this attention and the smoke blocking its view caused the tank to withdraw. Meanwhile 9 Pltn was quickly winning the firefight with the Germans in the central orchard whittling the defenders down quickly.

Next up 7 Pltn advanced through the orchard and spotted an enemy AT gun and immediately took it under fire from 2 sections and the platoon 2″ mortar, pinning the crew and causing casualties. About this time too the Company CO along with the 3″ Mortar FOO moved into the rear of the village and immediately got on the blower to bring down fire on the German section in the central orchard to help nullify the threat there and to help the attack progress. The mortars came in quickly and bang on target (a feature of the day happily for me!) and with the combined efforts of the fire from 9 Pltn and the stonking pretty soon the defenders were all killed with only their NCO seen legging it for safety. Now that this position was cleared 1 Pltn was ordered up out of the village to move towards the vacated enemy position. I also called the Churchills forward to advance between the village and 9 Pltn on the right as I now knew the location of the enemy tanks and thought this position would be a good one to hold them in before committing them further.

Over on the right 9 Pltn pushed a section along the hedges towards the farm to check it out which was countered by the Germans moving their Panzer IV across behind the farm on our right flank and firing on them, which was quickly countered by a smoke round from the 2″ completely blocking it’s view causing it to withdraw and allowing 9 Pltn to move the PIAT team forward under its cover. With that threat dealt with 9 Pltn then advanced the remaining 2 sections out of the cover of the orchard aiming for the hedges to the left of the farm which unfortunately wasn’t as empty as I thought and erupted with the terrifying sound of a MG42! The resulting fire decimated one section and caused casualties in the other one supressing them both. However fire from the third section lining the hedge, the platoon mortar and supporting fire from the tanks and 1 Pltn quickly eliminated this new threat and the lone survivor was seen abandoning the MMG and making for the rear.

Meanwhile, over on the left flank, 7 Pltn had slipped a section out of the orchard tasked with working around the flank of the enemy AT gun which was still being shot up by the rest of the platoon to assault what remained. Unfortunately they instead were taken under brutal close range small arms fire from an enemy infantry section located just inside the treeline. Although the section suffered terribly the enemy also suffered from a withering fusillade from the remainder of the platoon which quickly either killed or routed the ambushers. With the threat of the enemy infantry gone and the AT gun also neutralised 8 Pltn pushed quickly through 7 Pltn’s position and deployed ready to push through the woods with 7 Pltn now moving into reserve as per plan. 8 Pltn were soon in action as their left hand section made contact with the retreating crew of the AT gun and much to everyone’s surprise came off worse in the ensuing close combat! Then the tank that had been in the wood earlier appeared at the rear of the wood and started lobbing very inaccurate HE shells about (poor Philip had terrible luck doing this all day much to my amusement). 8 Pltn quickly pulled their men back and the shout went up “Bring up the PIAT”, and with that the plucky team dashed forward through the trees but couldn’t quite get into a position to get a shot off. Luckily for them though the German tanker ordered his vehicle to reverse and the driver gave it a bit too mush and the metal beast presented itself side on, the first shot from the PIAT missed but the team worked quickly and got another off which slammed into the tank and caused it to brew up immediately! With the enemy seemingly cleared from the wood 8 Pltn then sorted itself out into formation to await further orders.

And then the tank battle started. After being thwarted in its attempt to chew up 9 Pltn by judicious use of smoke the Panzer IV on our right moved round to the left of the farm again and started to engage the Churchills and a tank duel quickly started which seemed to take over the battle for a good while, and resulted in one Churchill being knocked out but the Panzer IV suffering slightly from non-penetrating hits that caused it to briefly pull back out of line of sight of the remaining two British tanks. This was also when a third Panzer IV revealed itself and lurched forwards making for the right of the wood and looking to insert itself between 8 & 1 Platoons whilst using the orchard to cover itself from my tanks. Once again the shout went up for the PIAT and the ever ready Jenkins from 1 Pltn rushed forward into the road through the orchard and with his last 2 rounds dispatched the advancing Panzer. With the death of this tank the Churchill troop commander ordered his other surviving tank to sweep round the orchard along the main road to try and take the remaining Pz IV in the flank either dispatching it themselves or in concert with his tank. Sadly this wasn’t to be as the Germans had a Jenkins of their own and it was ambushed by a hidden Panzerschreck team as it neared the burning wreck of the recently brewed up panzer.

Taking stock of the situation I knew that I had wiped out one enemy section, one was reorganising and badly shot up in the cornfield on the left past the woods, one MMG and an AT gun were also kaput and 2 tanks were knocked out but I knew the enemy must still have some troops left so I decided to soften up some possible locations before renewing the attack. I had already been mortaring the wood to the rear of the battlefield as I figured that is where I’d place an AT gun if I was defending but now decided to switch fire to the two buildings either side of the road just past the wood. After I had stonked this position for a bit I was going to push 8 Pltn through the wood to take the buildings and hence secure the exits from the village. 7 Pltn were to get ready to advance through 8 Pltn once this was completed whilst over on the right 9 Pltn, whose two sections still stuck in the open were now taking harassing fire from the remaining panzer, would try to go for the PIAT hat-trick whilst the remaining Churchill moved up to help. 1 Pltn was to wait for the last Pz IV to be taken care of before moving into the central orchard and setting up a base of fire to help 7 & 9 Pltns to advance further.

Unfortunately for me my mortars, which had been spot on all day, now decided to go way off target and the stonk on the two houses landed way off over on the left flank landing on the shot up enemy section in the cornfield. More misfortune followed as the two sections from 8 Pltn that I was moving up under cover of the barrage stepped out a bit too lively and just broke cover from the woods triggering an ambush by an enemy section lurking in the flowerbeds, the devastating close range fire saw the PBI take casualties and they fell back to the edge of the wood. Luckily the mortars were dragged nearly back onto the original target and the ambushing German section now found themselves under the fire of the battalion mortars. However this didn’t mean the end of the suffering of 8 Pltn as a MMG configured MG42 now opened up from the edge of the cornfield further piling on casualties and causing the 2 sections to break back through the woods. While this sanguinary scene was playing out over on the right 9 Pltns PIAT team had worked its way along the edge of the farm through the pigsty and was ready to fire a shot off on the last panzer. Philip was now fully suffering from PIAT terror and switched the tanks full attention on the plucky team killing one of them and causing the survivor to fall back into the pigsty (insert own jokes here!). What this did do, however, was to allow my Churchill to move up into a position to take the German tank under fire again which it did, and whilst hitting the target didn’t cause it to brew up it did convince the already rattled crew to bail out and head for the rear.

With this action we decided to call it a day. Philip’s lads had put up a very spirited defence causing a lot of casualties to my lads with both 8 & 9 Platoons suffering a section+ losses each and my supporting Churchills down to 1 tank too. However with my mortars now on target and causing casualties to the Germans in the flower beds and the largely intact 1 & 7 platoons ready to move forwards once the mortars had finished their work we said that the Germans would have withdrawn and the Brits would have consolidated on the line they held from the far edge of the wood, the central orchard and along to the farm. So the scene is set for the next battle when B or D Company take over but will probably be facing a fresh German unit.

Many thanks again to Des for putting the game on and for Philip for being a cracking opponent as usual, it was a tense but fun affair with a grate narrative and some fantastic bits of action. Also I do have to say again what a joy it is playing on such a terrific table, top work Des!

Iain Fuller

 
 
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Breakout from Le Plessy fought today with Philip Andrews and Iain Fuller. I umpired the second game in the series with the Brits trying to push through the German second line.

In the first game the British had cleared part of the village and surrounding orchards and they would now have to push on and clear the woods and surrounding farmland. The British had a fresh company and took mortar support, a Churchill troop and an extra infantry platoon. The Germans were a weakened Kompanie with three Panzer IV’s and took extra MMG and Pak support.

This was an intense game with the dice ebbing and flowing, with lots of double moves. In the end the Germans had held but were in a poor state, the British commander also decided that the last push would be too bloody and decided to stop the assault. Good ground had been taken and the Germans were in a bad way.

Great to watch this unfold and see how both players plans unfolded.

Roll on game 3

Des Darkin

 
 
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A game played at Gigabites Cafe in Marietta, GA back in December and it gave me a chance to get my Commandos on the table for the first time.

This scenario came from the Forgotten Battles from France to Germany, January to April 1945 scenario book from Anschluss Publ. The gist of the game is that the defending Germans are expecting the British to come from the west and have placed their defenses accordingly. However the Commandos have worked all the way round to the east and are launching their attack from that edge.

This means that not only does the German player have to not know this but there has to have enough table to the west to make that attack look plausible.

It was a bloody game for some units.

The SS Training unit lost 23 men form just 2 platoons. 1 platoon was still unbloodied. 1 MMG was wiped out and the AA guns had all displaced.

Jon's 1 Troop had 27 casualties (of 48). 2 Troop of Sean and Beca had 25 casualties and lost 1 Section Co-leader.

The tanks were still off board and 3 Troop and the weapons Troop just moving into town.

The Germans didn't really have a good chance to 'win' this one, but they did cause a lot of hurt on the Commandos.

Mark Luther

 
 
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Something of a lost battle report here from last Autumn (a couple went AWOL), with Phil and Jenny running a 15mm I Ain't Been Shot Mum (IABSM) game down Bristol Independent Gamers (BIG) with Andy joining Jenny to defend Stonne and me donning my coal scuttle helmet with Phil to storm across Northern France Blitzkrieg style!

IABSM is a company level TFL game that has been around some time now but this was the first time I'd had a chance to play it.

That however was the end of the game, and although badly mauled the French were still holding part of the village and the Germans had failed in their orders to secure Stonne!

Steve

 
 
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Another excellent Winter Wonder Lard at Bristol Independent Gamers (BIG). Thanks very much to David Hunter and Andy Crow for organising the day, Ellen Colling and Jim for allowing us to use BIG and to Michael Curtis and Jenny Turner for all their help in running the games. Also a big thankyou to Joe, Paul,Scott, Paul, Kevin and Ben for making the games such good fun !!

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

On That day a patrol sent out from the Calais defences reported German tanks on the road between Calais and Dunkirk and fighting towards St.Omer.

Staff Officers at Calais disputed this, stating that there were no substantial German forces within 30 miles of St. Omer and this could only be a stray reconnaissance patrol.

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

Phil Turner

From a Wargames Soldiers & Strategy Magazine Facebook post:

From Phil Turner’s post on the IABSM Facebook Group:

 
 
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It’s over to Dave’s for a late war, eastern front game of I Ain’t Been Shot Mum.

I was playing the Soviets, leading a column from 57th Guards Brigade towards the river Oder. My orders were to clear a way through to an undemolished bridge across the river. At my disposal I had two platoons of T-34/85s plus tank riders, a recon platoon, a couple of MMG teams and a tank destroyer platoon of two SU-100s. In reserve, or coming up from behind, was a heavy tank platoon of IS-III’s and a motor rifle platoon in trucks.

Mark, playing the Germans, had orders to stop me. He had a large platoon of infantry with a couple of panzerfausts per squad, a couple of MMGs, two Pak-40 AT guns, a Panther and a StuG.

Both sides were told that they had access to off-table mortars, and I also has air support on call.

The battlefield was long rather than wide. My troops would enter from one end, along either of the two roads, being able to place two Blinds on table each time my Blinds chip emerged from the bag.

I began by bringing on my Scouts and a Dummy Blind. The scouts were in M4 scout cars, but I was concerned about bumping into enemy armour and losing an entire squad at the time, so dismounted them and had them advancing towards the left hand woods in front of their transport.

As you will see in the photo below, the Dummy Blind (sent straight towards the right hand woods) has bumped into some enemy Blinds concealed in the woods.

The first line of German defence was now revealed: a platoon of infantry and an MMG team in the two patches of woods.

The scouts had done their job, and I now needed to get them out of there and bring up enough troops to push through the enemy line.

Unfortunately the Germans weren’t going to let my scouts off that easily, and I quickly started taking heavy casualties.

In fact so heavy were my casualties after a couple of rounds of enemy fire that my Scouts were all either killed or fled the table! That left Lt.Komarov, their commander and a Big Man, on his own on the battlefield, facing potential disgrace for the loss of all his men.

There was nothing for it but a suicidal charge towards the German machine gun nest in the woods. Komarov did get actually get there, and did kill one gunner, before being shot down…but at least his family was safe from possible retribution!

As per my plan, I now brought on my main force aiming to suppress the German infantry with HE fire from the tanks and then charging home with my SMG-armed tank riders: text book stuff.

Unfortunately the enemy infantry had teeth: panzerfaust teeth to be exact, and with a skillful bit of shooting, knocked out two of my T-34/85s in fairly short order.

Such was the enemy’s positioning as well, that although I could sneak an SMG platoon up the left hand side of the field, outside of the arc of fire of most of the Germans in the woods to their front-right, I couldn’t yet do the same on my right: I needed to weaken the infantry in front of me considerably more than that before an advance there made sense.

You’ll notice in the photo above that there are three T-34/85s on fire and I said that the ‘fausts hit two of them. That’s because the German supporting armour and anti-tank guns had also now opened fire, albeit at long range.

My T-34/85s were now needed to fight the enemy armour, so it would be up to the Soviet infantry to clear the tree line themselves.

On my left, this wasn’t a problem: the platoon got into position still outside of the German arc of fire and then charged home, SMGs blazing. One half of the enemy front line removed from play!

This was all taking too long: I badly needed to get my tanks back to fighting his infantry in order to push forward and achieve my objective before nightfall, enemy reinforcements or anything else Dave could throw my way.

I brought on my SU-100 tank destroyers and, in quick succession, knocked out the StuG and Panther with a combination of fire from the tank destroyers and T-34/85s.

Not an easy process, however: I was now down to just three T-34/85s i.e. I had lost four our of the seven with which I had started the game!

Whilst the tank destroyers kept the enemy AT guns pinned with some HE fire of their own, my tanks went back to shelling the Germans in the right hand woods. Soon they were worn down enough and Pinned for long enough for me to get the other SMG platoon into them: the front line was now clear

Time was ticking on: I knew this from the fact my reserves had arrived. If I didn’t move quickly, I was facing a draw from winning the position but not fast enough or, even worse, a loss due to my losses and not breaking through fast enough.

The gap between the woods looked a bit suspicious to me, and I had a squad of engineers, but no time: so I slammed the Blind containing the IS-IIIs through the gap.

Sure enough, with a loud Boom! the first IS-III disappeared in a shower of burning metal!

That was it, however: not a proper minefield just something designed to slow me down again, and the referee was looking at his watch!

Desperate times call for desperate measures. My lead T-34/85’s chip came out, rapidly followed by the Armour Bonus Move card.

That was it: pedal to the metal and the driver floored it down the road. You want me up the battlefield, I’ll go up the battlefield. Two decent rolls, a bonus for being a Fast Tank and I was over the crossing and level with the farm houses.

One anti-tank gun was Pinned, so no bother there, but the other…

I was a sitting duck, but only if the gun’s chip came out of the bag before the final Tea Break chip of the game (we were now in extra time!).

Naturally the next chip out was indeed the German AT Bonus Fire chip: surely I was now stuffed!

The gun fired, and hit! And it was flank shot: nine dice needing 4-6 to penetrate. Gulp!

Mark picked up his dice and let them fly…a torrent of 1’s and 2’s appeared: not a single penetration!

The next chip out was Tea Break and Dave declared the game ended…but who had won?

I had just about cleared the enemy from the field (all Mark had left was two AT guns, a sniper and, I think, a squad of infantry versus my five tanks and three platoons of infantry) but had I done enough to get forward?

Dave pondered for a second, then awarded the Soviets the win!

Apparently, the crossing on which the lead T-34/85 was now sitting was the point which he had decided was where I needed to reach. Although I didn’t know it at the time, it was also so point at which the final German squad’s ‘fausts just came into range, so I had been doubly lucky in the way the chips had fallen.

A great game that came down to the wire. Instant promotion to the commander of the T-34/85 that had reached the crossing: he could replace Lt. Yegarov who had gone up with his tank almost as soon as deploying from his Blind.

My thanks to Dave for umpiring, John for pulling the chips, and to Mark for his valiant, if doomed, opposition!

Robert Avery

 
 
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Had a nice game of I Ain't Been Shot, Mum last week at a St. Albans, Vermont mini-con recreating defense of St. Lambert-sur-Dives on August 20, 1944 by Canadians against escaping 2nd Panzer Division.

Canadians: Two Shermans plus 2 and 1/2 platoons versus German force of 2 Panzer IVs, 1 Stug, 1 Sdkfz 7/1 Flak and 3 1/2 platoons

Scenario OOB and map from the excellent Skirmish Campaigns book, Falaise Firestorm which easily adapts to IABSM or Chain of Command.

See photos for AAR.

Dan Albrecht

 
 
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Des Darkin and Iain Fuller had a great game of IABCYM, the dice driven version of I Ain’t Been Shot Mum. Here’s the various materials published on the IABSM Facebook Group collected together in one place:

Setup a table for a 15mm game set in Normandy late June 44. Not a real place, just putting out my terrain that I have built and painted over the last 6 months. Some nice buildings painted by Standbo as well on show. Will be a British operation to capture or clear the village of Le Plessy. We will be using the dice driven variant of the IABSM rules - IABCYM.

Welsh Guards survey the scene.... “where is the bloody infantry? “

Game kicking off today and the Essex Yeomanry are smoking the Germans out in more than one way! Iain Fuller leading the brave Brits. Using the dice activation today and working well as usual. Flank attacking at present and bloody fighting in the orchards. We are using support points as well in the game.

And here’s the video report:

Des Darkin

 
 
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This is an AAR of a solo I Ain't Been Shot Mum game I played recently in 6mm. I put the AAR together in Microsoft publisher.

The scenario is a cut down version of the "Home Run at Osmanville" scenario from the "29 Lets go Large" article in the TFL 2014 Xmas Special. I only have room for a 4'x4' table at the moment so I made the table smaller and cut down the forces accordingly.

Scott Miquelon

 
 
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Finally! I've only owned the rules for I Ain't Been Shot Mum since Christmas, but due to far too many other things going on at the club, and far too much stuff to paint, I haven't had chance to grab someone for a game. Fortunately, Gavin and friends game on a Wednesday, and we agreed to meet up for a game last week.

BRITISH BLINDS AFTER THEIR FIRST MOVE - IGNORE THE FIGURES, THEY'RE JUST UNDEPLOYED BLINDS AS YET! 

We went with one of the scenarios from the rulebook - "Action At Galmanche" - basically a company of British infantry and two troops of tanks attempting to clear out a village held by a German company plus anti-tank support. Pete took the Hun, I took the British, and Gavin took the card deck and the rulebook.

Gav and Pete have played a couple of times before - the preceding two scenarios, IIRC - but this was my first time, so things were a little slow, with a fair bit of checking the rules etc. My opening artillery stonk turned out to be a bit of a dud, largely because I'd completely forgotten Pete's inherent level of caution. So I plastered the area I'd have littered with Panzerfausts, MGs and a Pak40, namely the front edge of the woods, and hit... precisely nothing, because there was precisely nothing to hit bar the FOO for his off-table mortars.

Nothing much happened until the two blue blinds (a tank troop and platoon 2) got within sight of the easternmost village, at which point a German section opened fire from one of the buildings. And something entirely realistic happened - the British section took about 6 shock, got pinned and stayed right where they were. Closely followed by my tank troop coming off blinds and having a pretty good go at pounding the building into rubble with HE - obviously in a scenario like this, the tanks are HE-and-MGs-on-tracks.

By then, Pete's FOO had made contact - I love the system IABSM uses for this. Once he asks for support, the "Support" card goes into the activation deck. Next time it turns up, he can roll to see if the fire arrives. Of course, there's friction here, since there's no guarantee the card will show up before the "Tea Break" card, simulating the battery being busy, lines being down, etc.

"INCOMING!!!!" SEVERAL BRITISH UNITS SCATTER FROM UNHEALTHY QUANTITIES OF INCOMING HIGH EXPLOSIVE. 

I'm guilty of misreading the table here, and Pete missed out on a roll first time he should have made, so when he finally got contact, he got some 105mm artillery for one round, rather than 81mm mortars.

Man, do they hurt.

Another entirely convincing result, too - the three British sections caught in it (plus two blinds) copped several shock, and pinned results (oh, and the mortar and crew were wiped out). I was very very glad that the card for that platoon came up before the Support card next turn, as all three surviving sections hightailed it for any available cover.

We managed a couple more turns after that, in which I pretty conclusively established that the woods were empty, but it was getting on for 11pm, so we called it a night.

Reaction? Love the system as much as I thought I would, and will be introducing it to the club ASAP. Huge thanks to Gav for hosting and umpiring.

Mike Whitaker

 
 
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Saturday's game of I Ain't Been Shot, Mum! featured John and Dave playing a scenario that I wrote for the Xmas 2005 TwoFatLardies Christmas Special: Moiste Cabbage and a Quick Cognac.

The scenario is set in France in May 1940 amongst the cabbage patches that border the Moiste river. A German probe has discovered a previously unknown ford across the river is unguarded, and has dug-in to protect the crossing whilst reinforcements are summoned. The French have spotted what is going on, and dispatch Captain Cognac and his men to re-capture the ford as soon as possible.

The picture to the right (excuse the horse!) shows the battlefield. The Germans would begin the game dug-in around the ford in between the two houses in the centre of the table. They consisted of a platoon of infantry support by a squad of engineers with a flamethrower; two anti-tank guns; and a single medium machine gun. They could also expect two lots of reinforcements to arrive at some point in the game: the first, a zug of two Panzer IV tanks; the second, another platoon of infantry, this time in half-tracks, supported by a couple of medium mortars.

The Germans had deployed their infantry platoon within the house nearest the giant horse; their engineers immediately behind the hedge in front of the barn (the other building near the ford); their MMG in the barn itself; and an anti-tank gun way out on either flank.

The French, who would start the game around the farm in the bottom left hand corner of the picture, had at their disposal two large platoons of infantry, each of three squads; a couple of medium machine guns; a single soixante-quinze 75mm field gun; a Panhard armoured car and a couple of Somua tanks. They could also expect two lots of reinforcements: the first, a single Char B-1 bis tank; the second, another platoon of infantry.

The French (played by John) opened the proceedings by advancing strongly forward with their armour and one platoon of infantry.

The infantry hopped over a couple of hedges and took up positions amongst the small copse of trees by the road junction. From there, they dispatched one squad forward to scout forward towards the barn. This proved to be a costly mistake, as the German engineers, infantry and MMG opened up at Close range and did horrendous damage to the hapless polis.

The few survivors quickly scattered back the way that they had come.

The French now knew where the German positions were, but were a bit nervous about bringing their armour forward until they had sussed whether their enemy had any anti-tank capacity. The Panhard armoured car therefore drove down the road towards the ford, desperately on the alert for anti-tank guns.

Well, they found some. Or rather one, as the Germans realised that the gun that they had deployed on their right, in a small patch of trees, was only able to shoot at targets in the field right in front of them: all other parts of the battlefield were blocked by hedges, other trees etc. The gun on their left, however, dug-in amongst still more trees could see the Panhard and promptly opened fire, knocking bits off the armoured car and ruining its tracking!

The Panhard retreated a bit, and started a duel with the anti-tank gun crew which would last most of the game. The French found their autocannon was jolly good at Pinning the anti-tank gun crew, but not very good at actually killing them. 

Meanwhile, the French brought up the first of their Somuas. It was sufficiently armoured not to have to worry about the anti-tank gun too much, especially if they were pinned, so it trundled down the road towards the ford determined to blow the Bosche out of their positions.

This was a bad mistake, as the German engineer flamethrower, who sneakily hadn't fired at the infantry, moved slightly forward and took the Somua out with one squirt. It was such a good squirt, in fact, that it emptied the flamethrower's tanks of fuel, but it had done its job, and half the French armour was now a burning wreck. The other Somua moved up and engaged the anti-tank gun crew: their fire was as effective as the Panhard's autocanon!

The engineers now felt the wrath of the French:  the other two squads of infantry along with the field gun poured fire onto the single squad of German pioneer types, very quickly rendering them ineffective. 

With the engineers taken out, the only obstacle to a general French advance was the anti-tank gun of the German left: still gamely firing despite the huge amount of ordnance that had landed on its head!

The other French platoon moved forward, along with their HQ squad, intending to overrun the gun. A German infantry squad moved to block them, but was sent scurrying back after it carelessly ended up on the wrong side of a hedge right underneath the French infantry's guns.

At the same time as the above, the first French platoon resumed its advance: the French being determined to just overwhelm the Germans through sheer weight of numbers.

Things looked a bit grim for the Germans, but this was the time that their first set of reinforcements showed up: two Panzer IVs arrived at the ford and immediately engaged the remaining Somua. Both the lead Panzer IV and the Somua knocked bits off each other until the German tank took a critical hit and was destroyed. The remaining Panzer and the Somua couldn't actually see each other at this point (there was a lot of debris around, including two burning tanks) and as neither was prepared to move out of 'cover' first, an uneasy stalemate prevailed.

At the same time as the above, the French field gun switched its attentions to the house holding the German infantry, setting it alight with its very first shot. The Germans were forced to leave the burning building and take what cover they could. Meanwhile, the German anti-tank gun on their left had finally been silenced (overrun by French infantry); the remains of the first French platoon had reached the remains of the engineers and were locked into close combat; the German MMG had been forced to join the engineers when the barn was also set alight by the French field gun (that was obviously firing incendiaries!); and the first French reinforcements, the Char B-1 tank, showed up. There was a lot happening!

Unbelievably, the German engineers managed to repel the French infantry's assault, even though they were outnumbered about 2:1. There weren't very many engineers left afterwards...but the French infantry platoon had been reduced to just six men and had no intention of going back into the attack.

Encouraged by this success, the remaining German Panzer IV accelerated forward, determined to take the fight to the two remaining French tanks. At this point, more German reinforcements were spotted (the infantry platoon in half-tracks) and the French commander ruefully ordered a retreat.

Yes, he had another platoon on the way, but that would mean that one and a half French infantry platoons supported by a single tank and a single field gun needed to assault almost two platoons of German infantry, one of them in half-tracks, with a Panzer IV and an anti-tank gun in support. It just wasn't going to happen!

All in all a great game of IABSM. The scenario worked very well, and the smallish size of the game was a pleasant change from the vast two-company-a-side games that we usually play. I shall be continuing to mine the specials for future scenarios!

Robert Avery

 
 
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After a couple of 6mm Franco-Prussian War games, it was back to IABSM for our regular Saturday night battle. To make a change, I wanted to play a scenario that I hadn't written, so it was off to the library of TooFatLardies Summer and Christmas Specials to see what I could find.

Back in 2006, Chris Stoesen (author of the Call This a Ruddy Picnic? and In The Name of Roma! scenario packs) wrote a series of scenarios for a Saar 1939 campaign i.e. the short and highly unsuccessful attempt by the French to invade Germany right at the start of the war. The Christmas 2006 TFL Special contained the Tanks Forward scenario from the campaign that seemed to suit perfectly, so that's what we would play.

The Germans are defending a small town in the Saar region. At their disposal, they have a Company HQ consisting of two squads of infantry, two machine gun (MMG) teams and an anti-tank rifle (ATR); two platoons of infantry, each two squads of ten strong; and two PaK 35 'door-knocker' anti-tank guns (ATG). The Germans also have four Big Men and access to off-table mortars via an FOO. As it is early in the war, and this is not the main theatre, the German infantry squads start on three Actions, but drop to two Actions after two casualties.

The French have orders to clear the Germans from the village and get most if not all their tanks off the opposite edge of the table. Under the command of two Big Men (one with the infantry, one with the tanks) the French have a Company HQ of a squad of infantry and a 60mm mortar; two platoons of infantry, each three squads of ten strong; and a company of five light infantry Renault R-35 tanks.  An impressive force on paper, but the infantry are not very good (starting on three Actions but dropping to two Actions with just one casualty); and the tanks are armed with 37mm pop-guns that whilst able to deal with most early-war armoured vehicles are not ideal for winkling infantry out of a village!

I played the Germans. Not sure where the French would attack from, I needed to keep my options open. I placed the Company HQ at the back of the village behind the house at the T-junction. This would be my reserve: to be deployed as and when the main axis of the French attack became clear.

On the left and forward, I occupied the houses with a platoon of infantry (2nd Platoon), backing them up with an anti-tank gun nestled in one house's garden. I was hoping for a quick shot at a tank before retreating into cover. On the centre-right and slightly forward, I placed the other platoon of infantry (1st Platoon). This left me a bit light on the right flank, so that's where my other AT gun went...although it was hung back behind a hedge.

The French advanced quickly onto the table, with a whole platoon of infantry backed by the Company HQ occupying the edge of the wood about 150 yards in front of 2nd Platoon's position. They quickly spotted the AT gun in the garden, and let rip with fire that killed one crew member and forced the others to drag the gun back behind the house. So much for getting a quick shot off at a tank!

My infantry returned the favour and, for the rest of the battle, 2nd Platoon and the French platoon in the woods would be locked in an inconclusive firefight. I think, on balance, my 2nd Platoon took slightly more casualties (four men dead) but they certainly weren't in any danger of being moved and, just as the game was ending, my FOO had successfully called in the off-table mortars and was just getting their range!

My infantry on the right were confronted with five French tanks coming up the hill towards them. Not much point in shooting at the tanks with rifles from this range, so the left hand squad revealed its position by shooting at the French infantry in the woods. One tank fired at this squad, but the round literally bounced off the house doing no damage except to Pin the infantry down until Tea Break. Neil had made the classic mistake of splitting his armour and infantry: his tanks could Pin my troops in the houses with HE, but he had no infantry to charge my troops once they were Pinned.

Whatever the figures on the table thought, the sight of five French tanks coming up the hill towards me was doing my morale no good at all, and I started to rush both AT guns and the ATR team over to that side of the village to help stop the French attack. 

The tanks were coming up the hill fast (we had both forgotten that R-35s are 'Slow' tanks): so fast, in fact, that the command tank broke down just as it came level with the village. The Big Man on board refused to abandon his vehicle, and spent the rest of the game acting as a mobile pillbox.

Two R-35s reached the village, one on a track leading up to the main road where my three AT assets lay in wait for them. I revealed AT gun number one and fired. Boooiiing! All shots bounced off the Renault's armour. Up came the AT Rifle team: same thing. Finally, the other AT gun: yet again, the same thing. One thing about the early war tanks: they might be slow and have pop guns, but they don't half have pretty decent armour when facing only PaK 35s and an ATR.

Meanwhile, another French Blind was working its way up behind my left flank. I needed to devote some resource to dealing with it, so needed to get these tanks under control fast. Two of the tanks were now in the village so, incredibly bravely, one of my Big Men led a squad from 1st Platoon out of the house they were sheltering in and into close assault on the two French tanks.

As the tanks were so close, I could easily get behind them. An attack on each, with me rolling two dice and needing 3's versus the tanks' armour of 5 needing 5's or 6's. These R-35s are made of stern stuff: the only effect on them was one point of Shock. Next turn, of course, the tanks swiveled their turrets, other tanks took aim, and my infantry died in a hail of machine gun bullets. Poop!

Worse, the French commander's tank then switched its fire to one of my AT guns and wiped out all but one of the crew. Things were looking a little grim!

The only consolation was that that French Blind on my left was a bit stuck doing nothing, as the French Blinds card seemed determinedly unavailable, and it was too far forward for the French Big Man to intervene. This meant that I had time to get my HQ MMGs over to the left, led by a Big Man, set up shop, spot the Blind, and open fire. The tightly packed French column (three squads deploying from a Blind) got mullered!

My AT assets opened up again, this time with more success. Although the fire from one gun and the AT rifle bounced again, the other gun scored a lucky shot that immobilised one of the R-35s and forced its crew to abandon ship.

At this point Neil called the game. My 2nd Platoon had his infantry in the woods pinned in place just waiting for the mortars to fall onto their heads. His other platoon was stuck out in the open under fire from two MMGs and, now, one of my reserve squads. He was also now down to only three tanks, and I still had three AT assets and two squads of infantry to deal with them. It was, he felt, un peu trop!

The French pulled back, satisfied that they had probed in depth (!), leaving the victorious Germans still in possession of the village.

From my point of view, it had been a good game, where I certainly felt under pressure all the way through. I did agree with Neil that the Germans seemed to have too many troops to make it a completely fair game...but as I hadn't for once written the scenario, I could perform my traditional victory dance without guilt!

Robert Avery

 
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"Vacqueville '44" is a historical scenario from the 2014 TFL Summer Special, courtesy of the the man himself, Nick Skinner. I suspect it may have been sitting in his files a while, as it's clearly an IABSM 2 scenario, so a bit of tweaking was called for :D

Short summary:  the US on their way inland from Omaha Beach have to deal with a German strongpoint in the hamlet of Vacqueville (just south of Vierville-sur-Mer). The Summer Special has a nice map, but I provided Carl and Tom (the Americans) with a reconnaissance photo from NCAP with some suitable annotations from which to form a plan.

AndyB took the Germans, who are very limited in terms of command, and rigged a fairly spirited defence, helped greatly by channeling the Americans around a minefield placed SE of the main farm complex to the SW of the farm track just before it pierces the hedge. He had a tripod MG42 and a PAK 38 firing from the south-westernmost buildings to discourage the Americans from end-around-ing in that direction, which pretty much meant the American attack was through the orchard to the NE of the farm.

One American platoon wound up pinned against the SW/NE hedge, while one came up the bocage-lined road and the other worked its way through the orchard from the SE. Their main problem proved to be a couple of infantry sections, one in the whitewashed house, one against the bocage. While the later was relatively swiftly reduced to zero actions, it did give the approaching platoon something of a bloody nose.

ACHTUNG! MINEN! (MINEFIELD FROM A BRILLIANT IDEA COURTESY OF JOHN BOND)

FARM BUILDINGS NEAR THE CAMERA ARE 4GROUND, THE FAR TWO ARE 3D PRINTED.

By the time that first German section had retreated in disorder, the one in the whitewashed cottage had started to give a very good account of itself, causing most of that approaching American platoon to be very keen to keep its head down.

About then the turn card finally put in its sixth appearance, and the telltale rumble of armour could be heard. Sadly, not German. To add insult to injury, the American FOO finally managed to get some sense out of the battery of 105s on the other end of his radio, and (fortunately fairly inaccurate) shelling began.

THE AMERICANS HAVE THE ORCHARD, BUT THE GERMANS IN THE WHITEWASHED COTTAGE AND THE CARRIAGE BARN DO HAVE A PRETTY GOOD FIELD OF FIRE...

Sadly that's about where we had to leave it - we're definitely getting quicker with IABSM, and the practice definitely improves matters, though I will be switching from the official QRS (which misses a whole load of small special case rules that happen a lot) to the one from the Sgt Perry's Heroes blog.

Not sure who'd have won this:  if the Panzershrek team made it to a suitable vantage point in time, I think the Germans might have been in with a shout, if nothing else because there'd have been a blazing Sherman or two blocking the road. Andy B did a great job holding off the Americans as well as he did.

Mike Whitaker