I Ain't Been Shot Mum - First game trial

So I finally got some toys on the table this year for a solo game of I ain't been shot mum by the Too Fat Lardies.

The battlefield, British enter at the left (North) and Germans defending the crossroads at the right (South)

I've read through the rules fully once, and parts of it more, and set up to play the first "tutorial" scenario from the main rule book - North of Caen.

View from the British entry side

The forces are both infantry only with the Brits getting one more platoon and a pre-game stonk to aid their attack. The Germans had two Zugs and an HQ with two MG42 in a sustained fire role.

and from the German end

I won't go through the game as it was a bit slow and stuttery to start with as I wasn't confident at how to approach it and it took me a while to get in the flow with the rules. Once I did it became very fluid and intuitive, a great set of rules and excellent fun. I found the solo play a lot easier than I thought I would, I felt before hand I may favour one side or the other but I don't think I did.

British deploying down the road, spotted by Germans defending a building north of the crossroads

I did however learn a lot about how to play IABSM, because the distances represented are greater, compared to Chain of Command, as as defender you can afford to bring some units on table early without just opening them up to fire. It does give away your position somewhat but allows you to have more of an influence on the game. I was intending to hold the Germans off table until the Brits approached and then unleash some devastating fire. This resulted in a disjointed defence as the German Blinds card didn't come up so reduced their ability to get the second Zug onto the table.

However what happened was the British managed to approach unmolested and tackle each platoon in turn, bad defensive decision from me but good to learn from!

Germans entered with shock and casualties from the pre-game stonk. Wonky, un-based trees in background!

The next scenario is utilising american forces so I will probably just proxy the brits for them.

The British press their attack

I also want to get some better material for fields in 6mm. The mat is from Cigar box battle mats, a double sided one from their kickstarter which I really like. I need to knock up some more hedges and I think some orchards. The trees could all do with some better basing. Some are just stuck onto 2p coins as I realised I needed way more trees than I had prepared!

I think I will also look at basing the 6mm buildings into small clusters, just to add a bit of a footprint and some details around the houses to make them look more part of the terrain than lone buildings in a field!