Wednesday, June 20, 2018

I Ain't Been Shot Mum again

Another go with these enjoyable yet frustratingly written rules.
We played another scenario from the Bleneville Or Bust supplement with Stephens using his Yanks against my Krauts.
I had 2 Stugs and 2 Tigers backing up a mixed Company of Fallschirmjager and Infantry against 10 Shermans and a full Armoured Infantry Company with some Recon assets.
We both had access to air power although USSAF had rocket armed Jabos whilst Luftwaffe had MG strafing only.
I did manage to brew 5 Shermans but lost one Tiger to laser guided munitions of the Jabo (and 2nd Tiger nearby was lucky to escape unscathed) whilst my 2 Stugs retired with guns knocked out.
My Infantry were badly handled by Yank tank fire and incessant 60mm Mortar attention (Yanks had 4 of these annoying weapons).
We failed to finish but I think it would have been hard for me to wrest control of the bridge objective from the Yanks.

Again we came up against some rules issues this time being unable to find any rules covering on-table mortar fire !! not covered directly (amazingly !) in the actual rules but is in the late war supplement War of Liberation.
Another was use of MGs on half-tracks, with rules covering their firing included but not how to crew them again I found an answer later in another supplement (a no-brainer as such but at least it spells out that you need to leave crew to drive a half-track and 2 additional crew to fire any onboard MG at full effect).
Such issues are very annoying with IABSM especially with such basic stuff, easily enough resolved but much time wasted trying to decide what rules say, or don't say and making a house rule.

Still an enjoyable game and we both like the scale of IABSM and its system overall but just wish the writing was a tad 'tighter' and less left to Kriegspiel approach.









Overview of the battlefield from Yank entry point with German high ground to left


















Yank tanks suffer










Yank Infantry Platoon and Recce defend southern approaches to bridge









Yanks in the church facing my Grenadiern














Stugs on my left flank












Soldaten on ridge line















More Shermans appear to the north















Tiger appear to replace the retiring Stugs













My FJ advance in centre











And uncover more Shermans











My left









My right



















Shermans suffering more as Tigers open up













Soldaten decimated by Tank HE













An M8 brewed a hard to spot little bugger in the bocage


  

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