I Ain't Been Shot Mum! is truly different. While it is fairly simple in execution and easy to learn, it very nicely captures the friction and "fog of war" inherent in tactical level modern combat.
Drawing inspiration from the original Kriegspiel concepts, the chaps at Too Fat Lardies have crafted a game that deals with company level WW2 combat without getting lost in trivial detail that bogs down so many games.
Figures are 1 to 1, and there are supplements for different periods and theatres of war giving basic company and support organisations for each army.
The game uses a card driven system to determine who moves when. Cards are made up for each platoon and support element, and there are suggested cards for "national differences" such as the Out of Petrol card for the late war Germans. There is also a "Tea Break" card, which when drawn ends the turn. So it is possible some or all of your units may not get to move in a particular turn. Chalk it up to "friction", your guys didnt get the order etc.
Each unit has a pool of dice based on their experience rating that determines movement and shooting capability. For instance your platoon gets say 4 dice. It can use those dice to move, or shoot, or hold some back for opportunity fire. So if you really need to get to that hedge across the field you may want to roll all four dice, if you think the enemy is going to appear around that hill you may want to save a couple dice back for an opportunity fire attempt.
Movement starts on "blinds", a very nifty way to handle hidden movement.
Each side gets a number of blinds at the start, these can then represent an actual unit or be a dummy. Blinds can still spot other blinds, it is assumed that the dummy blinds represent small scout teams of one or two men who just melt away if spotted.
Combat is handled nicely by an easy to use table. Depending on the status of the target unit, a shot is either Great, OK, or Poor. Like most things in IABSM it is up to the players to agree on things in a gentlemanly fashion. Is the unit moving in the open? Then its usually a great shot. If the firing unit is taking fire it may become just an OK shot as they have other things to worry about. The designers have stated that they prefer to play with gentlemen and rules lawyers need not apply. Some find an umpire helpful, in my group we generally get along without one.
Once you've come under fire, you will start to accumulate "wounds" which act like a cohesion hit, the more wounds your unit has the worse it performs. This is where the Big Men come in, they are your heroic leader types. You will only have a couple Big Men, and how you use them is key. Big Men can remove wounds from units they are with, putting the unit back in fighting condition again.
We've played several games of IABSM at the local shop and the rules have been well recieved. Some folks used to playing games where you have TOTAL control of each and every figure have trouble getting used to the chaos of IABSM but those looking for a game that presents the sort of challenges a company commander would have faced find it great sport indeed.
Posted Thu Jan 26,2006 05:47 am
