AAR 1944 France: A Proper Try Out by Sergeant Steiner

A day off !!!! So managed to get a game in with Stephen playing IABSM with the scenario I had set up on my table (seems to have been there for ages). I took German defenders and re-jigged my defensive set up slightly (and mistakenly as it turned out). Stephen took the British attackers. 

Good game with a good try out of the various game mechanisms and systems. We struggled a bit understanding some of the concepts around use of Blinds and Big Men but once we got it into our tiny brains it all flowed fine. Neither of us having had time to fully read the rules not the most helpful situation of course ! 

Couple of minor rules issues need resolved such as whether units under Indirect HE fire count the Dense Target factor if applicable (ie units within 2" of each other) or whether this only applies to Direct Fire (which rules seem to imply). Also biggest mistake was in how we made defenders deploy in relation to Blinds. I read rules that a Platoon (of 3 x 8 man sections/squads) can only deploy on Blind and up to 2" from it which basically meant with 3 sections they had to be a maximum of 2 wide with third as 'second rank'. This was fine for deploying the attackers but a major crimp on defenders. Using this for defence also meant a Spot revealed all three sections even those out of line of sight to rear. We now believe that as defenders in terrain are actually 'Hidden Units' rather than strictly blinds they can be deployed separately if desired (I drew positions on a map anyhow). This would have made defence much more flexible and provided less targets for the roaming British Armour. 

IABSM is one of those sets that one really needs to play a few times to get to grips with but one I like as it has that chaos factor via the card play that I enjoy. If you don't like the possible frustrations of having a unit not activate every turn or a key card fail to turn up before turn ending 'Tea Break' card appears then not a set for you but I like this as it builds a nice 'narrative' style of play to games.

Sergeant Steiner