All,
It's 1600 on 14 May 1940, and KG Klink, attached to the 7th Panzer Division, is on the move. Earlier this morning KG Klink attacked and destroyed a strongpoint manned by the French 5th Infantry Division. Having broken through 7th Panzer Division is on the road to Flavion. However, an hour ago, 7th Panzer reconnaissance elements on the march came under fire from the (fictional) French village of Riqueville. 7th Panzer continued west around the village, and KG Klink immediately received a Frag Order to stand detached to reduce yet another French strongpoint. Colonel Klink decided to lead the assault himself, composed of the better part of his Grenadier Company, two platoons of tanks, a portion of the Kampfgruppe's Reconnaissance Platoon, and a section of 80mm mortars. Aerial reconnaissance stated the French force as a couple platoons of infantry with perhaps a couple crew-served weapons, with maybe a single tank in support. Ordinarily a single tank in support wouldn't be something for Colonel Klink to be too concerned about, but when that tank is a Char B, with it's extraordinarily heavy armor…
Regarding rules, I'm messing around again… Years ago, when my father was still alive, he'd come over pretty much every weekend and we'd play wargames (sadly, this was before I created a blog to record all my wargaming efforts). In any case, we primarily played three games: Force on Force, Bag the Hun, and I Ain't Been Shot Mum (IABSM). So it's been awhile, but I've had a hankering for some larger, reinforced-company level games that are a bit grittier that what I normally play, so I decided to give IABSM another try. I did change some things up, vastly simplifying the shooting and morale mechanics, but I've kept the 'guts' of the game as written: platoon and 'Big Man' activation randomized by cards and further randomized by the 'Tea Break,' starting the game on 'blinds' and having to be spotted, and variable (diced-for) movement. I say guts; others may have differing opinions, but to me, those items are what set the IABSM rules apart from others.
Overview, north is DOWN, with the Germans entering the table at left (east) and the French defending the right (west) half of the table, including the village, at top right (southwest). The north is covered with crop fields and bushes which provide neither cover nor concealment, and while the bushes across the entirety of the table might look a bit bocage-ey, they're just bushes. At far left is The Chateau, which has The Orchard just above it. At center top left is The Farm (with a wood fence running around it and north *down* through the fields), and at center/center right is The Granary.
The opposing forces:
Ze Germans: at left is the Kampfgruppe Commander, Colonel Klink, proud owner of the Iron Cross 2nd Class for his actions in Poland. At top is the German infantry company: top center left is the company commander, Captain Freitag (Iron Cross 2nd Class). He has three of his four platoons, each with a platoon commander and three squads. There is a two-tube section of 80mm mortars, two Sdkfz 221s from the Recon Platoon, three Pz IIIs (37mm) from 2nd Pz Platoon, and two Pz IVs from 4th Pz Platoon.
The French: they are commanded by Major Renaut (left) and have two rifle platoons of three squads each, a weapons section of a single machine gun and a 25mm anti-tank gun, and a single Char B heavy tank.
The troops are 10mm, a mix of Pendraken and Minifigs. Basically it breaks out to most of the infantry are Minifigs and most of the vehicles are Pendraken.
The attack is not going well: a Pz IV and a Sdkfz 221 (center top right) push past a burning German armored car on their way into the village, separated from their infantry support, which is lying suppressed in the fields (bottom left and bottom right), being ravaged by French machine gun fire from the village (yellow building at top left). To see how the fight goes, please check the blog at:
link
Hope you had as much fun as we did!
If you're willing and able, please leave a comment on the blog!
shows an easy and quick technique for British tanks in North Africa.
