"Actions in I "Ain't Been Shot Mum?"" Topic

I bought IABSM and looking forward to trying it out but I'm pretty confused about how actions work. Specifically how many actions a unit gets. I see that a unit receives a certain number of actions based on how many men it has, but I also see it said that units get 3 actions each and may split then among firing moving etc. can anyone help clarify for me? Thanks!

The number of dice that your unit has (for example, 3 dice per squad) is how many actions it has. Most normal units have 3 dice until they start taking casualties. Some units can have 4 dice/actions, but those tend to be elite types like paratroopers.
BWW

Ahhh, i see. Thanks. So when a unit's card is drawn, each section in that unit (probably 3) gets usually 3 actions (3 dice). Correct?

Also, is there any insinuative to keep sections of a platoon together? I'm again having trouble understanding how the rules are implemented.

Yes, that's correct. Or, if their leader's card comes out before theirs, the leader can activate them IF they are in his command range and they get those action dice just as if their card had been drawn. However, if activated on the leader's card and their card comes up, they cannot activate again. There can be some exceptions to this, like reserving action dice for later in the turn, but yes you have the basic concept.

You want to keep a platoon together so that their leader has some control over them. Once the shooting starts, and units start taking shock, the leader's job is mostly removing that shock so as to keep the unit fighting. Squads/sections off on their on are very vulnerable to being overwhelmed by shock and forced off the table.

ah, ok. Thanks!

The game doesn't really set a rule about keeping sections together. There is no set distance. There IS a set distance on BIG MEN influence range. Squad cohesion is left to the players and or GM to simply use common sense.

This really isn't a game for people who like to play just at the edges of the rules.

I must admit to being confused by these rules as well.

Landorl is right; there is no rule saying that squads have to stay together. If, however, you scatter squads individually all over the board then you run the risk of being defeated in detail as your opponent crushes them one by one.

The rules do have a bit of a learning curve to them, and the current, 3rd edition is better than the previous one that I started with. They are, though, the best set of company level WWII rules out there in my opinion.
BWW

There is a command radius within which leader can control units. If their subordinate units are outside that range then they cannot be commanded. There's no need for an arbitrary distance determining how close sections or squads need to be together, your commanders simply lose control of units if they move too far away.

Rich

Besides, its nice to be able to string out a squad defending a building or a forested area.

Back to the OP. The number of actions a squad gets is set in the scenario, usually 3. This reduces as the squad takes casualties, as set in the briefing. You can take each action separately, though fire actions you usually put together. Theoretically you can spot for one, fire at the spotted unit with one, then retire a move- 1d6 inches.

You can spread out, but not only is it harder to activate, but also of units are all over the place removing shock o's harder because the big man has to run all over the place.

Best Company sized rules out there. Great fun and great support.

Would anyone be willing to explain some examples of how opportunity fire work?

I really dislike that the Lardies went with "actions" as their term. More properly, a squad receives "action dice" which they use to complete actions (like firing, spotting and moving). You could spend all of your dice on a single action (like one move), which makes it confusing when you say the squad receives three actions. Rather, they received three dice and spent all of them on a single action to move 3d6 inches. They also could have spent 2d6 to spot and 1d6 to fire—they spent their three dice on two separate actions.

Opportunity fire is called either Overwatch or Ambush fire in IABSM. The rules for overwatch simply allow an activated unit to reserve some or all of its action dice to fire (or spot) at any point later in the turn. For example, a veteran German infantry squad with eight soldiers activates and gets 4 action dice. It uses one die to move into a new position and saves the remaining three dice for overwatch. Later in the turn, an enemy American squad activates. The German player decides to be cunning and wait and see what the Americans will do before reacting. The Americans use their first few dice to advance to short range of the Germans. The German player waits. The American player then announces that he is going to make an attack and the German player springs into action, announcing that he is using his overwatch. He may now attack with some or all of the reserved dice. Nothing in the rules says that you have to spend all of the dice, or wait for the opponent to resolve their actions first, but I suppose you could make this a house rule if you wanted to.

Ambush fire is a little different. That is when you use the Blinds card to make a hidden unit fire on an enemy at close range, causing double shock. Interestingly, in the rules as written, this does not automatically reveal the hidden unit, so you could repeatedly ambush on multiple turns.