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Yesterday, H. dropped by and that gave me opportunity to have another go at ‘Charlie Don’t Surf’. This time around I’ve decided to give scenario generator a limited try, so a couple of words about how it works is probably suitable. In CDS, each side is provided with a selection of four different types of generic scenarios. When scenario generator is used in full, players are supposed to roll for the scenario type first, next for variables in scenario type assigned for their side and finally for the forces that will participate in the game (usually a company with some support). I’ve decided to simplify things a bit and, lazy as I am, I’ve reused the OOB-s from the previous game. Next I’ve assigned a ‘Sweep’ scenario for U.S. side and ‘Evade’ for VC.

Scenario

‘Sweep’ scenario type requires for the Allied side to make… well… a sweep, from point A to point B. While doing that, the troops are assigned up to three objectives. In this case, U.S. side had a search of the village as its primary goal, recon of the heights as secondary and interrogation of locals as tertiary.

In ‘Evasion’ scenario, the Viet Cong have to get out of Dodge. An exit edge is randomly decided before start of the game and the troops are then placed on the opposite side. The main goal is to get out with as many troops as possible. Picture below shows the scenario overview before start of the game.

A random card draw assigned VC side to yours truly. H. was kind enough to take upon himself the task of the U.S. commander.

My plan was rather simple. Since I had a bunch of local guys under my command, I didn’t want any extended shootouts with the enemy. Thanks to the same fact (control of local force units), I also had a whole bunch of dummy blinds at my disposal. They would come in handy as a massive decoy on one flank, while I sneaked of the board on the other.

H. decided to take care of business as quickly as possible and selected the edge closest to the village as his entry point. Two platoons immediately headed of toward the village, obviously with the goal of ransacking the huts and intimidating the villagers into giving up any info on Charlie they may have. One of the hills would be the initial destination of the remaining platoon and MG platoon.

The Game

Why abandon the winning concept? Let’s have a look at the pictures?

First phase of the game was a true sleeping pill. H. moved over open terrain and rapidly occupied the village and high ground on the opposite side of the road. I on the other hand had a much worse time getting my troops going. Not only did I manage to roll an amazing amount of ones and twos, but the jungle terrain sapped about half of whatever movement allotment I managed to scrap together.

A somewhat bizarre situation occurred during that phase of the game. Since none of my units/blinds could spot H.s blinds and they in turn had no targets to shoot at, H. could not deploy his troops. On the fly, we decided that his blind in the village could search two hootches per round, while the officer was allowed to interrogate one villager per round without having to deploy. My slow approach gave H. plenty of time to find the two rice stores hidden in the huts, thereby achieving his main objective. The force sent up the hill climbed it, found nothing and decided to take a rest.

When my dummy blinds finally reached the position occupied by H., another odd situation occurred. H. was apparently unwilling to abandon the high ground, while I wasn’t very interested in pushing on and disclosing my bluff. And so, for most of the game, we just sat there, starring at… nothing. In the end, H. broke the impasse by pushing his dummy blind into my ‘troop concentration’, revealing a lot of empty space.

On the other side, things finally heated up as my least lethargic platoon scrambled up the high ground. U.S. platoon in the village was still in the hoots, but the one supporting it was in the rice paddies, giving me a perfect opportunity to blast them. One of the Americans fell, critically wounded, the rest took cover wherever they could. However, a medivac helicopter arrived swiftly, fetching the wounded soldier to field hospital (no, no helicopters are painted yet, thus improvised marker).

A nasty little firefight followed. I brought up my second platoon to the edge of the jungle, hoping on suppressing Yanks in the village with their firepower. At the same time I intended on leap-frogging the platoon on the hill toward my exit edge. Ideally, my heavy weapons elements (recoiless gun and an MG) would be able to reach the low hill facing the flank of the village and keep the yanks pinned, allowing the rest to exit.

Plans are one thing, reality (or dice) allow for something very different. Fire from my platoon in the jungle was completely ineffectual, while the heavy weapons group continued to take its sweet time getting into position. This forced the platoon on the hill into an exchange of fire with H.s units around the village. My fire had some effect – one American soldier fell dead, while yet another was critically wounded. Another medivac was called and responded as quickly as its predecessor. The rest of Americans blasted into the jungle line, killing one of my soldiers and severely suppressing one of my squads.

H.’s MG platoon on the far hill also opened up, taking my rear platoon under fire. This caused me some concern. MG-s are effective at much longer range than normal infantry small arms, so the two ‘Pigs’ on that hill reached comfortably edge of the jungle on the opposite side of the road. Given time they would hurt me. It was time to get back into the jungle, after all my goal was to get out, not to engage the enemy.

It was at that time that H. announced that he would now be pulling back from the village area. After all, his primary action was accomplished and his casualties were a bit alarming. Also, by now we’ve been at it for four hours and were a bit tired. And so, we called it quits. Picture below shows an overview of the situation at the end of the game, as seen from the hill occupied by the Americans.

Musings after the Battle

Yesterday’s game was one of those slightly odd occasions where the scenario ‘starved’ the enthusiasm out of the players by couple of mistakes in its design. To begin with, my movement into contact took far too long. As it turns out, this was mainly caused by me forgetting the fact that units on blinds can ignore first –1 in movement penalties in difficult terrain – a valuable lesson for the future. This –1 may not sound as much, but it is applied on every dice, meaning a reduction of movement by 4’’ per turn if a blind uses all its dice for that purpose.

Another thing that I think would make improve this setup immensely would be by moving the village into the center of the table. This would force U.S. side into more aggressive movement, speeding up moment of contact. Funnily enough, a very similar scenario can be found in the Too Fat Lardies scenario book for ‘Charlie Don’t Surf’ – there, the village is placed smack in the middle of the table. I think I now know why that is.  [Smile]

And what about ‘Charlie Don’t Surf’ itself? Well, I still haven’t used rules for artillery, helicopters, air support and a whole bunch of other stuff, but in general terms it is what it is – ‘I Ain’t Been Shot, Mum’ with Vietnam flavour. If you like IABSM, you’ll like CDS. With two ‘Tea Break’ cards, chaos of the card driven game engine is manageable and I really do like the fact that Big Men have action points that can be used to activate either platoons or squads.

However, the Blinds mechanism in ‘out of the box’ format still seems to suffer from same issue that I’ve first observed in ‘They Couldn’t Hit an Elephant’. If deployment of troops is restricted to the two situations specified in the rules, which is either when unit wishes to fire or is spotted by enemy, then situations such as this which occurred at the start of our game are bound to happen! Naturally, most of them can be resolved by application of common sense and couple of ad hoc rules. At the same time, when they occur, they will at the very least put extra strain on game master or players. Furthermore, as we all know, supply of common sense can sometimes run out in heat of battle.  [Smile] Therefore I think that in the future games I will re-instate the rule I’ve already used in TCHAE games and allow players to voluntarily deploy their own troops from blinds at the end of each turn.

Marcus B

 
 
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ISABELSTADT (Reuters)- There are reports of renewed intense fighting along the frontier tonight from the small alpine country of Mantovia. The sound of heavy artillery can be heard in the nations capitol and there are reports of heavy columns of Tartarian tanks making deep penetrations....

Hauptman Johannes Wahl was shaken awake by his driver. "Sir! O Group at the CP!"

Wahl made the short walk from the back of the Landrover where he'd been trying to sleep to the collection of radio vans. Pushing under the camouflage netting he found the Brigade Command Post to be a buzz of carefully camouflaged activity with an edge of panic. The Brigade Commander was listening to a report from one of his Intelligence Officers, who was drawing on a map . Big angry red arrows were exploding across the Area of Operations.

The General looked at him. "Wahl, the Tartars have broken through the 2nd Dragoons at Grossklumpen and are pushing up the Duppleburg valley. The 1st Fusiliers have got a weak company strung between Kleindorf and Altendorf here." He indicated a pair of small villages on either side of a wooded valley with a big red arrow pointing directly to the fields between them. "I need you and your Centurions to reinforce them. Gruber will give you details on route and intelligence estimates. Get moving, now!"

They drove through the night towards the thunderstorm of Tartarian artillery that rumbled and flashed in the dark sky. When his Centurion growled into Altendorf, he found a worried and exhausted Fusiliers Hauptmann outside a gasthuas. "Thank God you're here! I've only just arrived myself. No time for mines or wire. I've got my landsers in the houses covering the intersections and some panzerjaeger and machine gun teams strung along the road connecting the two villages." Wahl conferred with his tank commanders and they deployed one platoon behind each village to create a cross fire in the fields. Wahl posted his command tank on a small wooded hill from where he could direct the battle and call in artillery fire.

1 Platoon Queen's Leibgard Battlegroup deploys behind Kleindorf

Comrade Platoon Commander Stepan Bosvic was in the hatch of his BTR watching the sunrise over the mountains while his Motor Rifle Platoon drove past an old factory. The afternoon before they had followed behind a devastating artillery barrage and driven past burning tanks and foxholes filled with bleeding shattered men. It had been a night of flames and chaos as onwards they rushed. His platoon was to secure the village he could see past the trees up ahead. They'd dismount just outside of the village and methodically clear the houses and then enjoy whatever food these Capitalists had hoarded in their kitchen larders. Just then he noticed the squat square outline of a tank emerge from behind a house. "Dismount!" he shouted, too late.

"Target front! BTR. One Five Zero meters. Fire!" The 20 pounder cannon roared, shattering the morning quiet.

1 Platoon opens the bowlING, firing on the Tea Break card.

"Everyone out!" screamed Comrade Platoon Commander Stepan Bosvic as he watched his lead section die in a fireball. His section dismounted to the right of the road, scrambling through the bushes. The other section dismounted to the left and began advancing towards a copse. Some light mortars found them still in the open. Before they could get among the pine trees and approach the village under cover, automatic rifle fire erupted from the windows of a yellow house. Comrade Platoon Commander Stepan Bosvic and half of the men with him went down, bleeding out into the tall grass. The remains of the section ran back down the road as a second BTR exploded behind them.

Hauptman Wahl watched as one of his Centurions put a couple of high explosive rounds into the red house captured by the Tartarians. Fusiliers covered by machinegun fire from an upper story then dashed across the street. The muffled bang of some grenades and brief chatter of rifle fire. After a few moments a couple of Fusiliers emerged with a bleeding prisoner.

Feldwebel Mueller walked over. "Looks like they've fucked off back down the road." He paused. "For now."

Wahl accepted the canteen cup of tea his driver handed him. "Ja. For now."

Aftermath

So ended a solo, highly indulgent, game of I Ain't Been Shot Mum. I used some stats for T54s and Centurions provided for me by a contact on Bluesky who plays Fate of a Nation, the Arab-Israeli War variant of Team Yankee. I will probably adjust these for future games, and lean more to the stats someone came up with for Korean War and Yom Kippur War IABSM.

It was just hedonistic fun getting the toys on the table and enjoying the look and feel of things. This was very much the sort of game I had in my imagination as a kid. Since I had primed the Mantovian infantry with olive green spray paint, I felt very much like I was 12 again, painting my Airfix figures. And to be honest, the paint jobs on the infantry are no great hell and probably what I would have achieved as a teenager to be honest. But they look the business at arm's length and do the job on the table.

I suppose for better scenario balance the Mantovians should get fewer Centurions (boo!) or the Tartarians need more T54s and infantry. Or I could reinforce the Tartarian armoured attack with some T34/85s too. They'd be weak, but they'd still be a threat to be dealt with. I did give the Tartarians artillery support and airstrikes, but the cards never came up for the artillery and the air support didn't make it's die roll.

James Mantos

 
 
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Charlie Don't Surf, the Great Rice Hunt.

An American company sweeps through the hamlet of Gok Wan searching for VC caches and enemy forces. They stumble on a depleted PAVN company withdrawing across the paddy fields.

Acting quickly the US forces cut off the escape north and south of the village. US firepower plays an important part in forcing the PAVN to think about their life choices.

Closing the bag sees the US capture a PAVN Officer and a Commissar! This will be front cover feature in Stars and Stripes!

Here a video of the game as well:

Alex Sotheran

#stormofsteelwargaming

 
 
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We had a great game today - a variant of the Air Cav scenario but with ANZACs and a mechanised platoon as reinforcements. Five players on a 15 x 5 ft table. Great fun and played in true gentlemanly spirit.

ANZACS failed to win a military victory but secured a strong political victory under the eyes of a TV crew. Napalm burnt off the top of the hill and heli smoke screen played havoc with NVA plans!

NVA hit three helicopters with RPG rounds but failed to shoot any down - driven off or damaged only.

NVA mortars caused chaos on the LZ. NVA caused two critical wounds - one guy dying whilst being moved.

Nick Bellamy

 
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Kevin G ran two Battle of Hue games at Kublacon in May 2024 using Charlie Don't Surf.

 
 
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A couple of weeks back Phil and I got together to push some 6mm tanks around the table using Charlie Don’t Surf. He expressed a desire to play with some Israeli "Super Shermans" so I painted up some Jordanians and devised a basic scenario loosely based around the Battle of Dothan Valley on the West Bank at the start of the June/Six Day War of 1967...

Historically the Israelis launched a pre-emptive strike on Egypt and then, following some artillery exchanges, Jordan. The IDF's 45th Armoured Brigade formed the vanguard of the Israeli attack pushing into northern Samaria. tasked with eliminating the Jordanian 155mm ‘Long Tom’ howitzers threatening Ramat David airbase across the border in Israel.

On the night of the 5/6th June the 45th took the town of Jenin after fierce fighting against the Jordanian 47th Tank Battalion, however the next day saw the Jordanians commit their armour reserves of the 40th Armoured Brigade to the battle, with its 2nd Battalion threatening to envelope the reconnaissance company of the IDF 45th Armoured Brigade.

The scenario was inspired by the Jordanian 40th's counter-attack and the IDF trying to stop them cutting off the recce unit.

Well that was a (very) bloody battle - and reflecting the historical result (at a couple of points the Jordanians ran low on ammo and fuel as happened in 1967). As the Jordanian commander I was probably a little too rash in closing with the Israelis and maybe a more conservative approach engaging the poorly armoured IDF tanks at long range would have served me better.

At some stage I need to get some infantry and support weapons on the table for my Arab-Israeli Charlie Don't Surf games, but as a set of rules for pure tank battles (not uncommon in 1967 and '73) it provides a fun and engaging game with lots of tanks going boom!

Steve Blease

 
 
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Steve Blease played his Valley of Tears Golan Heights game at Winter Wonderlard 2023 using Charlie Don’t Surf. Here are the pictures from the day:

Morning Session

In the first game the Syrians came close to a minor victory but just fell short of reaching the victory conditions...

Afternoon Session

Other Shots of the Game (from Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy Magazine)

 
 
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The second game of the Wyvern Lardy Day was a meeting engagement between a Soviet recce company of BMPs and T64s and a similarly-sized West German force of Marders and Leopards. The object of the game was to seize the crossroads near to the small village of Lardsburg.

A view of the table from the south with the Soviets entering from the right as the two sides read their briefings and concoct cunning plans:

The Soviets entered first but the West Germans sent a platoon to grab a vantage point on a small hill where they quickly deployed:

The Soviet direct thrust for the crossroads was spotted and the Germans poured fire into the BMPs and infantry. The Marders' cannons made quick work of the BMPs while small arms failed to inflict casualties but caused shock on the infantry:

A Soviet recce section had managed to infiltrate the village undetected and sprung a surprise on the Germans:

.... destroying a Marder with an RPG and inflicting casualties:

The Soviet platoon left its wrecked BMPs behind and moved through the village to engage its ambushers:

Making use of local knowledge, the Germans move through the wood to the south:

The Soviets engage the Germans in a firefight from the cover of the buildings:

The German outflanking move clears the wood but is concerned about the possibility of Soviet forces in the wood in front:

The effect of the Soviet fire is felt as 3 Marders are hit and the infantry take shock:

The main Soviet attack develops to the north of the village as the tanks platoon advances with the other motor rifle platoon:

The Soviet commander observes the action from a vantage point:

Deciding that there is nothing to worry about in the woods, the German tanks move towards the objective:

It's a game of cat and cat as the Soviet tanks move to engage:

...and inflict 2 kills:

Although a T64 is immobilised in return:

The Soviet infantry advances from the village:

.....as the Germans withdraw from the hill. To their right the other German mechanised platoon pours fire into the village, the 20mms inflicting major casualties and forcing a Soviet withdrawal from the buildings:

By the end the Soviet infantry had suffered crippling losses but they had 2 tanks fully operational, while the Germans had lost one of their mechanised platoons and their tanks. Control of the crossroads was disputed with both sides needing reinforcements to succeed in their missions. it was another hard fought action in the best spirit of the day. Thanks to Noddy and Elton for commanding the Soviets and to Nathan for leading the West Germans.

Maxim to Milan

 
 
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Last Saturday I was privileged to attend the Operation Market Larden games day hosted by the Wyvern Wargames Club in Bishampton near Evesham. There was a good selection of excellently presented games using TooFat Lardies rules - both released and under development - covering the Russo-Japanese War, WW2 (both company and platoon level), Arthurian Britain, the Napoleonic Wars, the Wild West and Diesel Punk air combat, in addition to my latest playtests of IABNM. There were about 30 attendees and a good time was had by all, so hopefully it will become a regular event. Thanks again to the Wyvern lads for a well-organised day, and some great cupcakes.

I ran 2 games, this first was the battle for a village appropriately named 'Lardsdorf' defended by a company of West German Panzergrenadiers who had dismounted from their M113s and swapped a platoon for a pair of Leopards. They could also call upon some helicopters lurking off-table.

The attacking force was a Soviet BTR Motor Rifle Company supported by a platoon of T64BVs.

The quiet before the storm. A view of the table from the south, the Soviets will enter from the east (right):

And from the north:

A close-up of Lardsdorf (In the rush to escape the approaching red horde someone forgot his Porsche):

The attack is preceded by an artillery bombardment and a smokescreen:

Soviet forces move on blinds to outflank Lardsdorf from the north:

West German forces stay hidden waiting for a glimpse of a target:

A Soviet platoon is spotted making thrust for the northern edge of the village:

West Germans prepare for to repel the attack:

As the smokescreen thins the Soviet platoon runs into an ambush.....

.....and quickly sustains casualties. All three BTRs are destroyed and the infantry are either killed or put to flight. The first Big Man casualty of the day is suffered:

The Soviet artillery observer sees the fighting at the edge of the town and calls for support:

A second platoon dismounts and attempts to roll up the defenders outside the village. Some good shooting wipes out one West German section quickly and the rest of the platoon falls back to the village:

A BO105P spots a BTR in the open and destroys it with a HOT:

The Soviet commander sends in his tanks:

Which is what the West German tank commander is waiting for:

Firing from hull down a T64 is hit and knocked out. The Leopards also account for the BTRs that survived the helicopter attack. A standoff develops as the remaining T64s dare not advance into the sights of the Leopards:

With the attack faltering in the north, the Soviets attempt a move to the south:

Spotting the danger, the Leopards move to deal with the threat:

One tank is a bit slow to move....

and the Soviet tanks see a chance.....

...that they take:

The Soviet tanks advance on the village pouring high explosive into the village as they go taking advantage of their stabilised guns to offset their movement:

The Soviet move to the south is recognised as the remaining 2 platoons:

The remaining Leopard drives through the village to provide some extra firepower:

The Soviet third and support platoons dismount using a wood for cover from the defenders in Lardsdorf....

....and advance through the wood:

The West Germans take up new positions along the south side of the village:

The T64s get to the village....

where one receives a nasty surprise.....

...from the Leopard:

The Leopard quickly turns round and heads back through Lardsdorf.

With a perfect display of driving and shooting it is thrown around 2 corners and claims a third T64:

The remaining T64 draws a bead on the Leopard's side along the street and takes it out:

The fighting is getting desperate as the result is in the balance and a West German section throws itself at the Soviet tank to no avail:

The West Germans need help and get it. A BO105P spots the T64.....

......and delivers a HOT into its side. The reactive armour saves the tank from being destroyed but it loses its main armament and shakes the crew:

At this point we called an end to the fighting. The Germans held the village although they'd lost their tanks and most of one infantry platoon. Thanks to Noddy and Elton for ably commanding the 2 sides and making it an exciting and hard-fought game.

Maxim to Milan

 
 
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Last week I went to Leighton Buzzard where Martin, a veteran of TooFatLardies’ rules, had agreed to be a guinea pig. It was the debut for some of my new 4Ground buildings, although neither my new trees or road arrived in time

The scenario was based (very) loosely on an action from the Vyazma or Bust! supplement for IABSM, with one change being that the Germans were defending against the Krasny Armii.

The West German force consisted of a weakened Jaeger company supported by a pair of Leopards, facing a Soviet recce company of 2 platoons of BMPs, a platoon of T62s an AOO who could call on higher level artillery.

A quick view of the table with the Soviet from the north:

The first Soviet blinds entered the table while the Germans sensibly stayed hidden:

One of the mechanised platoons advanced quickly along the road. Despite using a wood and building for cover it was spotted and placed on the table:

The leading vehicle was targeted by a Milan

and, despite making a desperate dash to put the wood between it and the launcher, was hit. The infantry successfully baled out taking 2 points of shock:

Meanwhile the company commander had moved to a position covered by a wood and dismount from his armoured car to walk through the trees:

The tank platoon deployed off blinds and went onto overwatch

to cover the advance of the other BMP platoon as they sought to envelope suspected enemy positions from the south:

In the centre the surviving 2 BMPs avoided further hits and unloaded their passengers

to clear the wood in order to secure the northern edge of the road. They came under fire from a defending German section but used their full platoon firepower to make headway.

To the south the Soviets met determined resistance and incredibly accurate fire! One tank was destroyed by a Milan (a double 6 on the damage result left no doubt as to the effect!):

A tactical error led to the remaining 2 tanks leaving overwatch to pour HE into the Jaegers defending the edge of a wood which gave the hitherto hidden Leopards their chance to move in and take them out with a pair of well-placed fin-stabilised rounds. With the attack faltering it was left only for the Soviet commander to fall back and book his place in the gulag.

Overall a decent try out for the rules with most of the after-match chat concerning tactical matters as opposed to rules issues. Of course there will be a few tweaks before the next game.

Maxim to Milan

 
 
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This was the first playtest using Version 0.2 of the rules which incorporated changes from my first playtest and one by Derk in the Netherlands. It was another attack by a Soviet force against a West German held position. The table is below and incorporates a hamlet astride a road bordered by three small woods. On one side of the table was a ridge while the other held corn fields.

The Bundeswehr force was a deployed on blinds and consisted of dismounted Panzergrenadiers:

  • Company HQ

    • Level 3 Big Man

    • Level 1 Big Man

    • Infantry section of 9 men, Carl Gustav SG550, Pzf44, Handflammpatrone

  • Platoon 1

    • Level 2 Big Man

    • 1 Infantry section of 9 men, Carl Gustav SG550, Pzf44, sniper, Handflammpatrone

    • 2 Infantry sections of 9 men, Milan, Pzf44, sniper, Handflammpatrone

  • Platoon 2

    • Level 2 Big Man

    • 1 Infantry section of 9 men, Carl Gustav SG550, Pzf44, sniper, Handflammpatrone

    • 2 Infantry sections of 9 men, Milan, Pzf44, sniper, Handflammpatrone

  • Panzer Platoon Detachment

    • Level 2 Big Man

    • 2 Leopard 1A4

  • Off-Table ATGM (BO105P)

Orders were to prevent any Warsaw Pact advance.

The Soviet force was a reinforced Motor Rifle company:

  • Company HQ

    • Level 3 Big Man

    • One BTR70

    • Infantry section of 7 men, RPG 18, sniper

  • Platoon 1

    • Level 2 Big Man

    • Three BTR70

    • Infantry section of 7 men, RPG 18, RPG 16

    • Infantry section of 7 men, RPG 18, RPG 16

    • Infantry section of 7 men, RPG 18, RPG 16, sniper

  • Platoon 2

    • Level 2 Big Man

    • Three BTR70

    • Infantry section of 7 men, RPG 18, RPG 16

    • Infantry section of 7 men, RPG 18, RPG 16

    • Infantry section of 7 men, RPG 18, RPG 16, sniper

  • Platoon 3

    • Level 2 Big Man

    • Three BTR70

    • Infantry section of 7 men, RPG 18, RPG 16

    • Infantry section of 7 men, RPG 18, RPG 16

    • Infantry section of 7 men, RPG 18, RPG 16, sniper

  • Machine-gun / Anti-tank Platoon

    • Level 1 Big Man

    • Two BTR70

    • One machine-gun section of 6 men

    • Three AT4B Spigot teams of 2 men

  • Tank Platoon

    • Level 2 Big Man

    • 4 T62MV

The Soviet commander was told that capitalist forces had been detected ahead of the advance and he was to attack their expected position so as to ensure unimpeded progress along the road. Two pre-planned stonks hit the German forces causing casualties and shock on the second platoon that was holding the wood in front of the hamlet and the German left. This softening up was accompanied by a smoke screen that blinded most of the defenders.

The Soviets entered and immediately came off blinds. The MR company was concentrated in the centre with the infantry dismounted and the BTRs following in a mixture of close and distant support. The tank platoon was kept intact instead of being broken up to add intimate support to the MR platoons and carried out a rapid advance on the right flank.

The Soviet advance was rapid making the most of the effects of the initial bombardment

Making use of bonus moves the tank platoon and an infantry platoon advanced rapidly around the German left flank losing one BTR to a lurking anti-tank helicopter that appeared in the right part of the table.

The 2 Leopards had been hidden behind a wood at the rear of the German right flank and moved to engage the Soviet flank attack.

The German 2nd platoon came off blinds and opened fire on the advancing communists. One Soviet section was pit out of the battle in the initial exchange. Concentrated Soviet fire from 2 platoons and their supporting BTRs destroyed one German section but not before the Soviet company HQ section was devestated, the Big Man being amogst the dead.

The Leopards engaged the T62s helped by a Milan from the 1st infantry platoon. One T62 took a hit from a tank and an ATGM losing its gun sight and being immobilsed whilst taking out one Leopard. The other Leopard finished off the T62 and destroyed another before making full use of its gun stabilisation to move away from possible retaliation.

The game ended with one German platoon smashed and sufficient Soviet forces remaining to make life difficult of the other. So a Soviet win was declared.

It was quite a quick game consisting mainly of one big firefight . Flaws in the German deployment meant that their forces struggled to support each other so a rapid Soviet attack carried the position. The Soviet player took a big risk as even a limited amount of German artillery (he was not aware that there was none available) could have casued carnage.

There were a few areas to review in the rules, a lesson in scenario design and I really need to get some better terrain done for the next game!

Maxim to Milan

 
 
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Last Thursday was my first chance to playtest IABNM. It was also the baptism of fire for my 15mm Cold War West Germans and Soviets.

A Soviet recce company of was scouting ahead for its parent Motor Rifle regiment

looking for trouble. It consisted of:

  • Company command - 2 BRDM2U with a Level 3 Big Man

  • 1 Light Recce Platoon - 2 BRDM2 with a Level 2 Big Man

  • 2 Mechanised Platoons - each 3 BMP1 carrying an infantry section and commanded

  • by a Level 2 Big Man

  • 1 FOO in an ACRV2 with Higher Level artillery available.

The Soviets deployed six blinds including one for being a recce force.

Facing this was a Heimatschutz Jaeger force of:

  • 1 Level 3 Big Man in command with an infantry section

  • 2 platoons - each of 3 sections (one with Milan) and a Level 2 Big Man

  • Off-table helicopter support (BO105Ps with HOT)

The West Germans player had played IABSM before. The Soviet player had not

played any Lardy game before but had been in the Royal Tank Regiment in BAOR in

the later 1980s.

The table is set. The terrain is improvised for the first game and will get better when I make some buildings and road.

The West Germans deploy their blinds, seemingly concerned about a Soviet thrust around their left.

After sending attempting to uncover German positions with some dummy blinds, a move that is quickly rumbled, the Soviets send a platoon of BRDM2s along the road. Poor convoy movement dice mean that these fail to make much headway and also fail to spot any German blinds.

The first 2 BRDMs are destroyed by well-aimed German Panzerfaust 44s. A HOT launched by an off-table helicopter soon acounts for the fourth armoured car. The Big Man directs his driver to shleter behind the nearest building.

A platoon of mechanised infantry arrives and deploys 2 of its sections who advance using thei vehicles for cover.

One of the BMPs is hit in the side by a MILAN and brews up inflicting shock on the infantry it was supporting. The infantry then come under small arms fire.

The other 2 BMPs are also hit forcing the Big Man to escape with his section.

The other mechanised infantry platoon attempts to outflank the German left flank. The first BMP is knocked out by an off-table helicopter and the infantry bail out. The other 2 BMPs continue to advance with infantry mounted.

The Soviet artillery observer arrives and takes up position in a building.

One Soviet section advances through a wood towwards the edge of the hamlet.

The Soviets storm one edge of the hamlet and, after a lengthy close combat, drives the defenders out.

One German platoon launches a counter-attack to retake the lost building.

At the end the Soviet attack had been held. It was a useful game, showing up a number of areas for attention in Version 0.1 of the rules, and the participants were keen to play again.

Maxim to Milan

 
 
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Some eye candy from our most recent game … had a blast!

Russell Smith