Lard

While at York I had a quick chat with Michael Curtis at 1st Corps and he mentioned he was playing a lot of I Ain't Been Shot Mum (IABSM) by Too Fat Lardies, I thought it had disappeared due to the concentration on Chain of Command but seemingly not, it can still be found. I mentioned the rules while in conversation with club member Dan and he said he had played at one time and had 15mm forces and he would like to try it again, so we set a date.

Dan decided to umpire a game between Simon and myself, I was the British with two platoons and a couple of Shermans while Simon had one German platoon with two HMG's in support with the tempting promise of more to come. Simon defended while I attacked, IABSM uses blinds, which may or may not be an actual unit as they cross the battlefield, once spotted troops turn up or the blind is a dud and gets taken away. I sent one platoon and one tank out on my right while the other attacked from my left flank, the defenders were strung out quite thin. My left hand tank took some non penetrating hits from a couple of panzerfausts but they did leave the crew shaken and pinned and pretty useless for most of the turns. First platoon just tried to shoot the outnumbered enemy to their front but it was taking quite a long time, too long. On the right I made some aggressive moves against a small nearby house but again never seemed to have enough orders to get a good head of steam up and close with the again outnumbered enemy.

Simon played quite aggressively but began losing men and at one point a whole section went, although I did not lose any complete sections several were hurting quite badly. As the clock ticked down a Panzer IV turned up and loosed a shot at the Sherman on the right flank, some paint flecks spun into the air. at this late stage I don't think I got a shot back, I may be mistaken. Overall the game was decided as a draw.

There were several mechanisms which were almost identical to CoC while others were simply puzzling, we didn't spend as much time as we would in the rule book as many moons ago Dan had drawn up several yes/no flowcharts which helped. One game is not enough for me to really give an opinion, I also think quite a bit of work and knowledge is required to get the best out of it, I think Battlegroup would give it a run for its money at this level.

What else in this mad world, well I have painted up my Volksgrenadier fire team and shall base them tonight and tomorrow, really taken with these figures, so much so that I ordered up a couple of Panzerschrecks for them, it is the early version I am told which was not popular, but they look cool. I also added a few more men with rifles, who, added to the odd figures left should give me an extra support squad if needed. I am also finishing a Soviet medium mortar team which may or may not be used with Bolt Action.

Also in the post today was a box of linings for my WWII stuff to fit my Really Useful 11ltr boxes cut by mate Colin at Charlie Foxtrot. I have spent some time this afternoon sorting the boxes out and am very pleased. I had to take a knife to make them fit as the internal dimensions of the boxes seem to narrow near the base and the corners are not square but round, a few dodgy cuts with my trusty Stanley knife ....7, 8, 9 10, yep all there, and hey ho.

Some of the lads are putting on a large Waterloo game on Sunday, so that is the weekend sorted.