Getting back into the game

To those of you that have followed this blog, I want to apologize for the lack of content in two years. The last two years have been full of new adventures in gaming, but also personal tragedies and blessings in my life that took much of my time and energy away from this blog.

In November 2018, I began dealing with my mother being diagnosed with lung cancer, which took her from me on September 2, 2019. I began 2020 with hope and using the hobby to help me with my grief of losing my mom, but as we all know, the pandemic descended on our world. Now, while I couldn’t hang with my gaming buddies as much, I did become productive in painting and building minis and terrain. I completed a lovely Belgian army for Bolt Action and several minis and buildings for Dead Man’s Hand. My collection was amazing.

Part of my Belgian army I lost.

Another tragedy hit on August 10, 2020, while I was away attending our local American Legion Post meeting, my apartment building caught fire, which swept through the attic area. My unit was in the top floor and by the time I arrived, I knew it was a total loss. My entire collection of minis, terrain, and all but a couple board games that were in my vehicle were destroyed. Fortunately, I survived and some irreplaceable items were recovered, and gaming collections can be replaced. I am in a new place that is awesome and much closer to my work.

This is where the blessings really started. My gaming friends spread the word and the community stepped up in amazing ways to help me out. A Facebook friend, Palladin Sixx sent me a Wargaming Company LLC static grass game mat, MDF terrain, and beautifully painted 28mm World War II German and British minis, and other minis. Joerg Bender of Things from the Basement sent me some awesome factory building kits and scatter terrain. My friend Daymon gave me his Dutch East Indian army for Bolt Action, and my other friends in my gaming group also gifted me minis for Sharp Practice and Infamy, Infamy.

A Christmas present from my gaming friends in Bismarck.

Minis gifted by my friends.

Friends have gifted me countless minis and resources. Companies have also stepped up as well. Battlefront and GMT contributed to a package that my good friend Steve, who owns Little Big Wars in Fargo, sent me, that included donations from countless others in the community. Too Fat Lardies sent me replacement copies of the books and tokens I lost. The overwhelming love and support of the gaming community and my friends has been amazing and I appreciate it, as I can get back into the hobby quicker.

Package sent by my friend Steve at Little Big Wars.

In addition, I have embarked on a new hobbying journey, as I purchased an airbrush finally and am learning it.

So, with all of this, what does this mean for this blog? I want to get back into talking about games, reviewing products, and sharing more of my hobbying adventures, as I work with completing all these wonderful blessings I have received, and sharing my using of my new collection. I want to post more frequently, as hopefully life won’t take anymore crazy turns. I want to try exploring putting together audio and video content. I want to talk about new and exciting rules I get to try and help grow the hobby.

Again, my apologies for no content in just over two years. I hope you will come along for this new journey and please help suggest ideas for content too. Thank you for sticking with this post and blog. Have a great rest of your week and until next time, may your paint be moist, your dice hot, and your minis painted.

Magua, one of my first minis painted after the fire, with priming done on my airbrush.

Some thoughts on I Ain’t Been Shot Mum by Too Fat Lardies

First, I want to express my apologies for the lack of content over the last year and change. In May 2017, I moved to Mandan, North Dakota to take a job as an archivist with the State Archives that is under the State Historical Society of North Dakota. Further, complications related to surgeries to repair a retinal detachment in my right eye have caused me to lose much of the sight in that eye, so my desire to post decreased, as reading and working with computers is a bit more difficult when seeing from only one eye. That said, I am hoping to get back into the swing of posting, as I have found a great group of fellow historical gamers in my new community, so I have some motivations to add content now.

The group usually gets together roughly twice a week on Wednesday and either Saturday or Sunday. Over the months we have played Bolt Action, the new second edition of SAGA, and I was able to get a few games of Flames of War in as well. Recently, we have been playing the World War II company-level miniature game I Ain’t Been Shot Mum (IABSM) by Too Fat Lardies. So far, we are enjoying our matches.

The game is more scenario-based than points-based. It is a company-based game, but its mechanics is vastly different from games like Flames of War. We do use our miniatures that we have for Flames for playing IABSM, as while the book has minis usually individually based for infantry, we find it’s just as easy to use our Flames-based infantry stands to play.

Where Flames involves an I go, you go format of play, IABSM employs a random activation of units, similar to Bolt Action. We use poker chips with each platoon and command team (referred to as “big men”) denoted on them in differing colors for the to opposing armies. In addition, several other chips appropriate to the scenario and forces are employed.

In addition to the activation, the fog of war is quite prominent in the game, as at the beginning of the games we have played, our scenarios employed blinds, including potential dummy blinds. Further, some scenarios allow for hidden blinds, which can greatly impact a deployment plan. That said, I do love the blinds, as you can move your blinds up rapidly and potentially throw off your opponent, but also must be cautious too, as their blinds can come back to bite you. I learned this the hard way in a recent game, when I crested a hill with four Panzer III’s trying to get close to an objective, only to face a surprise hidden Soviet blind that deployed as a section of four anti-tank guns. Needless to say, my Panzers were soon destroyed.

Unlike Flames, where an entire platoon works as one, in IABSM, each section or squad has its own activation options and can act independently. For instance, an infantry platoon has three sections of eight men, each group of eight men has (depending on skill level) a set number of actions based on how many men are in the section, with casualties reducing the number of actions, including move, shoot, spot (more on this in a moment), or charging into assault to name a few.

As blinds and units deploy on to the table, they also attempt to spot enemy units or blinds in order to be able to engage them. Spotting is one of the actions a section, or “big man,” can do and the roll needed on two D6’s is determined by distance, intervening terrain, and how many actions the section wants to use. Once spotted, a unit is able to be shot at. When dealing with blinds or units, you are spotting just that unit or blind, but if dealing with a scenario that involves hidden troops, spotting then is along a nine inch section of the terrain area you are trying to spot in, so you can potentially uncover multiple blinds within that nine inch zone.

When combat commences, you roll on a firing chart based on your actions and any modifiers and the total rolled then gives you the damage, including if you pin, or suppress a unit, and how many D6 you roll to kill and inflict shock on that unit. Shocked units are then at a disadvantage on their die rolls, and, units with reduced numbers from kills also face fewer actions, with greatly reduced units not having any actions. Usually, sections reduced to three or fewer have no actions available. Multiple points of shock can also cause a section to “lose its bottle” if the shock is above the number of men in the section, thus forcing the unit to fall back X number of inches for X number of shock over the number of men. While not like the morale test in Flames, where a failed roll can cause an entire platoon to flee the board, units can be broken in IABSM.

What I do like is that the scenarios are quite clever with forces including equipment and vehicles that one would not necessarily see in Flames. It is not as tank heavy as Flames and has a much greater diversity in force structure. Further, the scenarios provide a complexity and thought that is enjoyable. We are currently in the midst of an early war Eastern Front campaign and the broader campaign scenario takes the results of the various battle scenarios into consideration, so in our campaign, a German victory leads to one subsequent battle, while a Soviet one would lead to a potentially vastly different one.

My one slight criticism of the game is that I am not aware as of yet of a points system. Now, while the scenarios are likely balanced in terms of the forces used, I would love to see how the various units are valued in terms of points. While I have played several games, I will concede that I do not have a personal copy of the rules yet, but it is on my wish list, but I would like to know if you can play a static game on a non-specific tabletop with opposing forces built of your own choosing. If I am able to determine that this is currently possible, I will withdraw my criticism.

Overall, I definitely like the game, despite the occasional frustrations that my dice rolling can sometimes cause. It is certainly a very intellectually driven wargame that places a high priority on the fog of war and small-unit tactics while being a company-level game. The best thing I love is that my Flames of War miniatures get use, as the group here is not as interested in that game and the transition to Version 4 has caused discord within the Flames of War player community, if the Facebook chatter is any indication.

If you are looking for a challenging, but good historical miniature wargame for your group, give I Ain’t Been Shot Mum a try. Also check out some of the other titles on Too Fat Lardies website, especially What a Tanker (more on that in a future post). With that I will leave you with some pictures from our IABSM games. Until next time, keep your brushes clean and your dice rolling sixes.

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