""I Ain't Been Shot Mum" Question" Topic

Hello folks. I've been hearing lots of good things about IABSM, and am considering giving it a go.

I'm wondering how suitable 10mm models would be for the rules. Can I base my infantry like I have in the picture below, in four man teams on 50mm by 25mm bases?

Also do the rules lend themselves to mostly infantry matches, with just a few armored vehicles of one kind or another thrown in?

Thanks for your help – James

Yes, 10mm should work fine. While the rules don't mandate a specific basing convention; I have used both single bases and also FOW basing, at least some of the figures should be singly based.

You should join the IABSM yahoo group. The author, Richard, is a frequent poster and quite happy to answer questions.

I've played mostly Quadrant 13 ( the sci fi version ). As long as you are willing to use casualty indicators you should be fine.. You could use small blue dice to track "shock" on units and small red dice for "casualties".

Although it is supposed to be a company size game, where the army is about the size of a company, it is mostly like you said better suited for infantry engagements with maybe a couple of vehicles, so infantry company should be the core of the force.

I am not a fan of rules without a point system, even when I do scenarios I like to have the basics of a point system to help me think about force composition. However these rules are a lot of fun and I enjoy playing them even if they require some extra work to come up with good scenarios.

Those minis look really spectacular.. the depth of the paint job is fantastic, particularly for 10s and the base looks great…

This is just my point of view of course and other may well disagree :)

cheers
Francisco

I play IABSM in 10mm but with 2 figures on a 1"x1" stand. I see no reason why you can't play with the way you have them. However, if you have a 10 man squad you will need to account for them somehow.

My 15mm squads are mainly two 4-figure stands, with a tiny d6 to mark any casualties – works just fine, as should your much better looking 10mm stuff…. :-). A few forces use 10-man sections, so would need a 2-man stand to top them up, but late war Brits, Germans, Yanks and Russians would all be fine with 2 x 4-figure bases.

I'd also agree that an infantry company with a bit of armour support is probably the "ideal" IABSM force, although it handles more armour-heavy games too.

I ran a game this past weekend, we had ~200 infantry and ~30 vehicles (1/72), mostly tanks, and we got 16 "turns" in in three hours.

Basing is to the player's taste, it's how you account for casualties that matters.

"Points"? Egads. Get a IABSM supplement and put a historical force out there, whether the sides are balanced or not.

AAR is here:

link

i have mine based in three minis stands, so i painted a small pool of single and double minis stand to show removed casualties.
iabsm is mainly an infantry game. instead of the usually "destroyed, pinned or supressed" results, you could see how each squad suffer atrition by fire ( and, of course, supression and pinned status)

Thanks for the info guys, I think I'm ready to take the plunge!

I hear its a really fun game and a good system, with some really nice rules. Let us know how you get on with your games, batrep if possible? Enjoy!

I was just on the verge of buying these rules until I read the one or two tanks response. I want to have 10 – 20 AFV's on the table, or play armored companies. Seems like playing a just-infantry game cuts out one of the main reasons people play WWII. Did I read this wrong?

I'll repeat my earlier:

I'd also agree that an infantry company with a bit of armour support is probably the "ideal" IABSM force, although it handles more armour-heavy games too.

If you take a look at the battle reports on link you'll see there's a real mix. The Operation Compass games in particular are often predominantly tanks and still play well.

It's by no stretch of the imagination a "just infantry" game, but rather a combined arms game, rather than a tank game with infantry tacked on.

Thanks, Dom

No problem.

I played a tank heavy game set in the desert – Brits had a company of tanks.

My 10mm bases are 30mm square, we use two per section, and remove one once half the men are 'dead' (4 or 5 depending on army. We use a small die to show how many men left.

Sunjester was used to using to show casualties, but I pointed out easier to show remaining- though he gets confused sometimes and is surprised when I point out that casualty removes the base. At least that's what he says)

A half section is usually the point where Action Points are reduced to 1, so its a nice visual for 'battered'!

25mm x 50mm base is about scale 6ft x 13ft, so 2 would be a good footprint for a section. (1ft = 80yds, thus 1 inch 6'8"). 10mm means that your men are not 'close order' shoulder to shoulder- they have a footprint of about 7mm, – about 20 inches scaled to table.

There's some more IABSM AARs:

link

I was just on the verge of buying these rules until I read the one or two tanks response. I want to have 10 – 20 AFV's on the table, or play armored companies. Seems like playing a just-infantry game cuts out one of the main reasons people play WWII. Did I read this wrong?

The rules work best with a company (plus attachments) on a side. That company can be infantry or armor (or a mixed force).

I Just played several tank heavy games (3 in fact in the last three days :). All three battles featured nothing but tank platoons, except the last which had the germans with a Gren. platoon as well. All games were about 3-5 platoons in all.

All I can say is the games went very well… no problems at all. So yeah… the game handles such battles very well indeed.

Take note though… like most WW II rules, having a combined arms force works best, simply due to tactics and being balanced for whatever comes at you in a battle. But that doesn't mean you can't play an all tank attle with these rules. just your tactics will need to adjust y not having infantry.