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Hi Mike,
I've played quite a few WW2 rules and IABSM has yet to falter as
we come across new table situations where we all look up and
say, "we'll be posting Richard on that one!
I'm envious of your upcomung trip to 'Gamesday', when we first
started playtesting we realised that alot of the questions we had
could easily be answered by watching Richard and his lads playing a
game. So take notes for the rest of us! :P
Also I'm interested in what scale and time period/theatre are
your WW2 games? Just curious to see what others are playing. I have a
painting service and the Afrika Korps has been the rage in all scales
this year. Happy gaming- Steve


- In Toofatlardies@..., "mikenorton1ny"
<mikenorton1ny@y...> wrote:

Hi

It is good to hear the views of other people who are using the
rules. We also found that the rules were very easy to pick up,

which

surprised me, as when I read them I thought they would be
complicated. I think that because some of the mechanics were new

to

me that I presumed they would be more difficult than they actually
were.

We played with only one gamer per side, and me as umpire, so

keeping

people interested was not a problem, but Steves comments are
encouraging for future larger games.

Mike

Another question that was brought up during the game was when
sections fired their panzerfausts. In the big armor game each German
section was given 2 panzerfausts each. At one point Mike's Panzer
Grenadiers were being charged by Shermans, the panzer grenadier card
was pulled and Mike decided to unleash his Panzerfausts. There were 3
sections firing, and plenty of misses befor one struck home. The
question Mike brought up was whether firing the Panzerfaust just took
one initiative and whether the section could fire their infantry
weapons with any dice left over? I ruled that the sections were
deciding to fire their "ranged AT ' weapons,[instead of their
infantry weapons ],which would use up their dice in much the way a
panzerschrecke team would using the 'to hit' table.Any extra dice fom
the sections that fired I would allow to go for movement,spotting.
Does that seem reasonable? -Steve

Hi Lardies!
Well as mentioned in the previous post we had the US Squad with
2d6, [AT], face off against the Panther with 10d6 armour dice. To
Recap: In "I Ain't Been Shot Mum' the squad needed a '5-6' to Hit and
the Panther needed '5-6' to nullify any hits.

I had left the gameroom and returned to see Lance grinning and
proudly pointing out that the Panther was under close assault! Now
even though this tactic may seem extreme to others, our gaming group
has always played rules that allow Infantry to close assault tanks,
especially one's lacking Infantry support, or as Lance put it," I
wanted to see what would happen."

Another explaination to be made is that Lance is Keen on "The
Japs", and one of his favorite units to run are the "guys with the
bamboo pole-charges and bombs strapped to their chests." If you think
German Tank Killer teams are nasty wait till you sail into the
Pacific!

So this US squad was run up to the Panther. The dice were rolled,
No joy for the Squad, but[!],no joy for the Panther, and as the rules
say "if the scores are equal [including no hits, no saves] roll a
d6." Mike, the Panther commander rolled a '6', "act as desired".
It could have been 'retire' on his next initiative or stay in fight.
The Panther card came up before the next US Infantry Plt. card,so
Mike, noticing the lack of Infantry support, used his 3 initiative
dice to pull back beyond their ability to close assault and waited
for his next card to blast them. But fate favors the foolish and the
US Inf. Plt. card was pulled and the Squad rolled well and pulled
back behind a nice sturdy 'Boccage' hedge, away from those nasty guns
on that nasty Panther!

So both sides had tales to tell their Grandkids about the day they
faced the tank!

-Steve

Hi again

By the way, I forgot to mention that I would be interested in the
game day in St Albans. I'm in north London so could do that quite
easily.

Mike

Hi

It is good to hear the views of other people who are using the
rules. We also found that the rules were very easy to pick up, which
surprised me, as when I read them I thought they would be
complicated. I think that because some of the mechanics were new to
me that I presumed they would be more difficult than they actually
were.

We played with only one gamer per side, and me as umpire, so keeping
people interested was not a problem, but Steves comments are
encouraging for future larger games.

Mike



--- In Toofatlardies@..., "combatcolours"
<combatcolours@h...> wrote:

Hi, just this last Sunday we had a large armor battle to see how
well the 'I Ain't Been Shot,Mum!'rules could be stretched with

number

of players/units;Americans love to stretch and twist rules to the
breaking point!:P. We had six players and myself as
umpire/ringmaster. This was our third playtest on a 6'x8' table

with

3 US Sherman platoons,of 4 tanks each,[2 of the plt.'s had a '76mm
each], and 1 US Infantry platoon with heavy MG and Bazooka support.
The US also had 2 Big Men, a captain and a sargeant. The Germans

had

a understrength 'garrison' platoon in a farm village,2 sections and

2

HMG's, a Panzer GRenadier platoon in 251 halftracks and the elite

[4

initiative dice]rating as a reserve spoiler, a panther, and sorted

ad-

hoc group of armor under 1 card,[ a Stug IV,2 Pz Iv's]. The

Germans

had 3 Big Men, a Captain who joined the Panzer Grenadiers, a Lt.

who

stayed with the garrison and the third, a Sgt., who commanded the
Panther, shades of Barkmann?
The terrain was a varied mixture of field,woods, hedges, Boccage,
buildings, rock outcroppings etc., to get the players familiar with
the different terrain/penalties in the rules, plus to give the

Yanks

some cover as they advanced!
We used spotting rules but didn't use the 'blinds', just common
sense to say when someone should be able to spot. My main concern

was

to get some of the players who were just at the first playtest up

to

speed with those who played both the first and second games.
There were no special cards, just the big men, platoons,

panther,

german armor, Bazooka, US HMG's, German HMG's, and everyone's
favorite- 'tea break'.Once again this was to keep everything simple.
There were no problems with moving the larger forces and the

game

moved very smoothly. We started at 1pm and finished at 6pm with

some

wanting to continue, and everybody suprised that it was that late!
One of the strengths I've noticed about IABSM is that with the card
activation system a player can be moving figs at any moment at the
draw of a card. So he remains interested in the game unlike other
systems where you can literally not do anything for hours. We had 2
new players, Blake and Ryan, both teens and pushing WW2/historical
troops for the first time. Both got the hang of it easily and

Blake,

who commanded the garrison,[usually the 'kiss of death' for a

player

wanting to 'play'in other rules..'No,just sit there, hold the

town],

really got into waiting for his card to 'spot' the enemy, and
adjusting his forces as the battle developed towards him.
The really cool bit about watching people play is that with the
initiative dice system players can pick up the mechanics in a turn

or

two and then start thinking tactically about how to use their
dice.It's very refreshing in a WW2 game to be able to move your
troops,reconsider,redeploy and have fun doing it.
Of course it's up to the cards as to whether you get to do stuff
when you want to. As the cards were being pulled from the deck you
could often hear chanting..'German Armor,German Armor!' and cries
of "it's about time!' as the 2nd US ARmor Plt. card is

pulled...sort

of like wargaming in Vegas!
The Tank shooting went well, everyone has pretty much mastered
the 'to hit' procedure. In this game we finnally had several of the
tanks with damage instead of massive destruction on the first

hit,as

in reality Shermans burn. Ryan had some problems with one of his
Shermans that recieved immobilization hits, turret jam hits and yet
he would make all his required rolls, the tankers refusing to

abandon

their tank![ No negative waves here :P].
My one favorite incident in the game was when Ryan's Shermans
tried to do an end run at the village by using a field ,situated
along the edge of the table. Ryan burned all his lead tank's
initiative dice to get to the field's edge, the village in front of
him. The Stug which was conveniently parked alongside a barn to
support Blake's garrison, had been patiently waiting several turns
for a Sherman to poke it's nose out of the field. The chant
began..'German armor, German Armor!, the card was pulled and the
German players smiled. The Stug fired it's first'aimed shot',
bounce,then 2 snap fires,bounce-bounce, in American baseball
parlance -3 strikes,your out! But then Blakes 'garrison' card was
pulled, he looked up...'what can I do?' Well, your guys have
Panzerfausts! 'But I'm out of range.'..'Well you can move out of

the

trench into range and fire.'...and so the 'duel began.
Blake rolled his first 2 initiative dice : a '1' and a '2', 3
inches! 2 inches short from effective panzerfaust range! ..'So I
guess I can't use my third dice to fire?''Can I use it to get them
back', and with a roll of '4' they were safe back in the trench.
I'm sure this was played out for real on many a

battlefield...'Hey

Karl, I bet I can knock out that tank!...Hans,Hans! get back here

you

fool! You'll be killed!..Yea, maybe your right Karl.But remember,
years from now we're going to tell our grandkids that we blew it
up!'. :P
All in all a great game, the rules are a treat to play! and now

for

the questions:
1. Lance moved up a US Infantry squad into 'close assault' with
the Panther,base to base contact. Since there's no mention of Tanks
in the close assault section I opted for the Infantry AT option:
Infantry section AT [2d6] vs the Panther's armour dice. Correct?
2. Panzer Grenadiers and Halftracks: Mike skillfully used his

dice

to move his formation into a good position, his troops dismounted.
The question came up as to what to do with the 251 halftracks. Some
rulesets just leave them behind, which historically was often the
case since they were quite rare and would not be wasted needlessly.
Other rules are more aggressive allowing the halftracks to continue
to fight after the troops have dismounted. I opted for this: since
Mike wanted to use their forward mounted MG's as a base of fire as
the panzer Grenadiers deployed that would be ok. But I would not
allow them to assault empty,[a bogus gaming tactic], and if they
wanted to move: to either fall back or adjust the position, they
would have to burn initiative dice from their 'parent' section.

Sound

reasonable?
Thanks again to Richard and all the Too Fat Lardies Rules boys!
-Steve

...So the card 'acted' as a extra movement card? Allowing the unit
to move on their card and then on the pipers in the same turn? The
size of the unit dictated by the rank of the Big Man, very effective.

- In Toofatlardies@..., "Richard Clarke"
<richardclarkerli@y...> wrote:

Steve

We are still working on "Skirl of the Pipes" - I allowed the pipes

to

be used to move up to a Company sized force, as long as it was in a
continuous formation and doing the same thing. When the "Skirl.."
card comes out that force may move en masse. In practice, only one
Platoon had the pipes with them, and this lost its Big Man early on
in the attack to German mortar fire. However that Platoon then

had,

effectively, two cards in the pack, their own and the pipes. As

such

they advanced the furthest during the game, and succeeded in

turning

the German left flank. We never got to push of pike, but had we

then

I'd have given the Scots a +something (quite what I don't know,

maybe

four extra dice). We may find out this evening, if so I'll let you
know!

Rich

--- In Toofatlardies@..., "combatcolours"
<combatcolours@h...> wrote:

Hi gang,
In the latest scenario one of the British cards was 'Skirl of

the

Pipes'. I've searched the past posts and noticed alot of give and
take over the pipers use. Does the last post by Richard stand for
what the Pipers do? -Big Man can move entire platoon led by a

piper,

pluses in melee and negatives to the axis? -Steve

Steve

Sounds like a fun days gaming, I have an alarming image of you chaps
rolling the dice in true Las Vegas style!

I am glad that the new boys grasped the rules, we wanted to make them
simple to use without loosing accuracy. Took several years of system
design and tweaking, but I am hopeful that we've got it as right as
we can.

Certainly the Panzerfaust action illustrates what I like about the
variable movement aspect, you know what you want that bloke to do,
but can never be sure he'll live up to your expectations!

Interestingly, in view of your new chap's name, Sid suggested we
called the Western Front supplement "Saving Ryan's Privates", it was
fortunate that we checked before doing that, as there is a gay porn
film of that name. Which probably says more about Sid than the
rules.

As to your questions. Close assaulting a panther! Blimey, was Audie
Murphy on the scene. If someone was insane enough to do that then
you would indeed use the infantry AT strike of 2D6. This would
represent them trying to blow the track of with grenades, or other
such lunatic activity. What happened to the squad?

Halftracks. I have to say I have no fixed views on some of this but
here goes. I'd let them be used in a fire-support role, and would
probably let them have their own dice to act with. However I'd
probably make you leave a couple of men behind from the section to
operate the MG. As to assaulting with the half track, I would say no
way. The closest I'd get to that is have the halftrack drive up (one
dice) the men jump out immediately next to the half track(second
dice) and then move into assault with their third dice. Of course if
a unit had four dice it could move further in the halftrack or in
their assault move.

Thanks for your feedback Steve, it is good for everyone on the list
to be able to see how others are getting on. I get quite a few
people giving me feedback, or asking questions, off list. This is
fine, but if that could be done on the list it would benefit others
who had that same question. One of the chief reasons for having this
discussion group is to provide support for players around the world,
so the more postings on here the merrier!

Cheers

Richard



--- In Toofatlardies@..., "combatcolours"
<combatcolours@h...> wrote:

Hi, just this last Sunday we had a large armor battle to see how
well the 'I Ain't Been Shot,Mum!'rules could be stretched with

number

of players/units;Americans love to stretch and twist rules to the
breaking point!:P. We had six players and myself as
umpire/ringmaster. This was our third playtest on a 6'x8' table

with

3 US Sherman platoons,of 4 tanks each,[2 of the plt.'s had a '76mm
each], and 1 US Infantry platoon with heavy MG and Bazooka support.
The US also had 2 Big Men, a captain and a sargeant. The Germans

had

a understrength 'garrison' platoon in a farm village,2 sections and

2

HMG's, a Panzer GRenadier platoon in 251 halftracks and the elite

[4

initiative dice]rating as a reserve spoiler, a panther, and sorted

ad-

hoc group of armor under 1 card,[ a Stug IV,2 Pz Iv's]. The

Germans

had 3 Big Men, a Captain who joined the Panzer Grenadiers, a Lt.

who

stayed with the garrison and the third, a Sgt., who commanded the
Panther, shades of Barkmann?
The terrain was a varied mixture of field,woods, hedges, Boccage,
buildings, rock outcroppings etc., to get the players familiar with
the different terrain/penalties in the rules, plus to give the

Yanks

some cover as they advanced!
We used spotting rules but didn't use the 'blinds', just common
sense to say when someone should be able to spot. My main concern

was

to get some of the players who were just at the first playtest up

to

speed with those who played both the first and second games.
There were no special cards, just the big men, platoons,

panther,

german armor, Bazooka, US HMG's, German HMG's, and everyone's
favorite- 'tea break'.Once again this was to keep everything simple.
There were no problems with moving the larger forces and the

game

moved very smoothly. We started at 1pm and finished at 6pm with

some

wanting to continue, and everybody suprised that it was that late!
One of the strengths I've noticed about IABSM is that with the card
activation system a player can be moving figs at any moment at the
draw of a card. So he remains interested in the game unlike other
systems where you can literally not do anything for hours. We had 2
new players, Blake and Ryan, both teens and pushing WW2/historical
troops for the first time. Both got the hang of it easily and

Blake,

who commanded the garrison,[usually the 'kiss of death' for a

player

wanting to 'play'in other rules..'No,just sit there, hold the

town],

really got into waiting for his card to 'spot' the enemy, and
adjusting his forces as the battle developed towards him.
The really cool bit about watching people play is that with the
initiative dice system players can pick up the mechanics in a turn

or

two and then start thinking tactically about how to use their
dice.It's very refreshing in a WW2 game to be able to move your
troops,reconsider,redeploy and have fun doing it.
Of course it's up to the cards as to whether you get to do stuff
when you want to. As the cards were being pulled from the deck you
could often hear chanting..'German Armor,German Armor!' and cries
of "it's about time!' as the 2nd US ARmor Plt. card is

pulled...sort

of like wargaming in Vegas!
The Tank shooting went well, everyone has pretty much mastered
the 'to hit' procedure. In this game we finnally had several of the
tanks with damage instead of massive destruction on the first

hit,as

in reality Shermans burn. Ryan had some problems with one of his
Shermans that recieved immobilization hits, turret jam hits and yet
he would make all his required rolls, the tankers refusing to

abandon

their tank![ No negative waves here :P].
My one favorite incident in the game was when Ryan's Shermans
tried to do an end run at the village by using a field ,situated
along the edge of the table. Ryan burned all his lead tank's
initiative dice to get to the field's edge, the village in front of
him. The Stug which was conveniently parked alongside a barn to
support Blake's garrison, had been patiently waiting several turns
for a Sherman to poke it's nose out of the field. The chant
began..'German armor, German Armor!, the card was pulled and the
German players smiled. The Stug fired it's first'aimed shot',
bounce,then 2 snap fires,bounce-bounce, in American baseball
parlance -3 strikes,your out! But then Blakes 'garrison' card was
pulled, he looked up...'what can I do?' Well, your guys have
Panzerfausts! 'But I'm out of range.'..'Well you can move out of

the

trench into range and fire.'...and so the 'duel began.
Blake rolled his first 2 initiative dice : a '1' and a '2', 3
inches! 2 inches short from effective panzerfaust range! ..'So I
guess I can't use my third dice to fire?''Can I use it to get them
back', and with a roll of '4' they were safe back in the trench.
I'm sure this was played out for real on many a

battlefield...'Hey

Karl, I bet I can knock out that tank!...Hans,Hans! get back here

you

fool! You'll be killed!..Yea, maybe your right Karl.But remember,
years from now we're going to tell our grandkids that we blew it
up!'. :P
All in all a great game, the rules are a treat to play! and now

for

the questions:
1. Lance moved up a US Infantry squad into 'close assault' with
the Panther,base to base contact. Since there's no mention of Tanks
in the close assault section I opted for the Infantry AT option:
Infantry section AT [2d6] vs the Panther's armour dice. Correct?
2. Panzer Grenadiers and Halftracks: Mike skillfully used his

dice

to move his formation into a good position, his troops dismounted.
The question came up as to what to do with the 251 halftracks. Some
rulesets just leave them behind, which historically was often the
case since they were quite rare and would not be wasted needlessly.
Other rules are more aggressive allowing the halftracks to continue
to fight after the troops have dismounted. I opted for this: since
Mike wanted to use their forward mounted MG's as a base of fire as
the panzer Grenadiers deployed that would be ok. But I would not
allow them to assault empty,[a bogus gaming tactic], and if they
wanted to move: to either fall back or adjust the position, they
would have to burn initiative dice from their 'parent' section.

Sound

reasonable?
Thanks again to Richard and all the Too Fat Lardies Rules boys!
-Steve

Steve

We are still working on "Skirl of the Pipes" - I allowed the pipes to
be used to move up to a Company sized force, as long as it was in a
continuous formation and doing the same thing. When the "Skirl.."
card comes out that force may move en masse. In practice, only one
Platoon had the pipes with them, and this lost its Big Man early on
in the attack to German mortar fire. However that Platoon then had,
effectively, two cards in the pack, their own and the pipes. As such
they advanced the furthest during the game, and succeeded in turning
the German left flank. We never got to push of pike, but had we then
I'd have given the Scots a +something (quite what I don't know, maybe
four extra dice). We may find out this evening, if so I'll let you
know!

Rich

--- In Toofatlardies@..., "combatcolours"
<combatcolours@h...> wrote:

Hi gang,
In the latest scenario one of the British cards was 'Skirl of

the

Pipes'. I've searched the past posts and noticed alot of give and
take over the pipers use. Does the last post by Richard stand for
what the Pipers do? -Big Man can move entire platoon led by a

piper,

pluses in melee and negatives to the axis? -Steve

Hi, just this last Sunday we had a large armor battle to see how
well the 'I Ain't Been Shot,Mum!'rules could be stretched with number
of players/units;Americans love to stretch and twist rules to the
breaking point!:P. We had six players and myself as
umpire/ringmaster. This was our third playtest on a 6'x8' table with
3 US Sherman platoons,of 4 tanks each,[2 of the plt.'s had a '76mm
each], and 1 US Infantry platoon with heavy MG and Bazooka support.
The US also had 2 Big Men, a captain and a sargeant. The Germans had
a understrength 'garrison' platoon in a farm village,2 sections and 2
HMG's, a Panzer GRenadier platoon in 251 halftracks and the elite [4
initiative dice]rating as a reserve spoiler, a panther, and sorted ad-
hoc group of armor under 1 card,[ a Stug IV,2 Pz Iv's]. The Germans
had 3 Big Men, a Captain who joined the Panzer Grenadiers, a Lt. who
stayed with the garrison and the third, a Sgt., who commanded the
Panther, shades of Barkmann?
The terrain was a varied mixture of field,woods, hedges, Boccage,
buildings, rock outcroppings etc., to get the players familiar with
the different terrain/penalties in the rules, plus to give the Yanks
some cover as they advanced!
We used spotting rules but didn't use the 'blinds', just common
sense to say when someone should be able to spot. My main concern was
to get some of the players who were just at the first playtest up to
speed with those who played both the first and second games.
There were no special cards, just the big men, platoons, panther,
german armor, Bazooka, US HMG's, German HMG's, and everyone's
favorite- 'tea break'.Once again this was to keep everything simple.
There were no problems with moving the larger forces and the game
moved very smoothly. We started at 1pm and finished at 6pm with some
wanting to continue, and everybody suprised that it was that late!
One of the strengths I've noticed about IABSM is that with the card
activation system a player can be moving figs at any moment at the
draw of a card. So he remains interested in the game unlike other
systems where you can literally not do anything for hours. We had 2
new players, Blake and Ryan, both teens and pushing WW2/historical
troops for the first time. Both got the hang of it easily and Blake,
who commanded the garrison,[usually the 'kiss of death' for a player
wanting to 'play'in other rules..'No,just sit there, hold the town],
really got into waiting for his card to 'spot' the enemy, and
adjusting his forces as the battle developed towards him.
The really cool bit about watching people play is that with the
initiative dice system players can pick up the mechanics in a turn or
two and then start thinking tactically about how to use their
dice.It's very refreshing in a WW2 game to be able to move your
troops,reconsider,redeploy and have fun doing it.
Of course it's up to the cards as to whether you get to do stuff
when you want to. As the cards were being pulled from the deck you
could often hear chanting..'German Armor,German Armor!' and cries
of "it's about time!' as the 2nd US ARmor Plt. card is pulled...sort
of like wargaming in Vegas!
The Tank shooting went well, everyone has pretty much mastered
the 'to hit' procedure. In this game we finnally had several of the
tanks with damage instead of massive destruction on the first hit,as
in reality Shermans burn. Ryan had some problems with one of his
Shermans that recieved immobilization hits, turret jam hits and yet
he would make all his required rolls, the tankers refusing to abandon
their tank![ No negative waves here :P].
My one favorite incident in the game was when Ryan's Shermans
tried to do an end run at the village by using a field ,situated
along the edge of the table. Ryan burned all his lead tank's
initiative dice to get to the field's edge, the village in front of
him. The Stug which was conveniently parked alongside a barn to
support Blake's garrison, had been patiently waiting several turns
for a Sherman to poke it's nose out of the field. The chant
began..'German armor, German Armor!, the card was pulled and the
German players smiled. The Stug fired it's first'aimed shot',
bounce,then 2 snap fires,bounce-bounce, in American baseball
parlance -3 strikes,your out! But then Blakes 'garrison' card was
pulled, he looked up...'what can I do?' Well, your guys have
Panzerfausts! 'But I'm out of range.'..'Well you can move out of the
trench into range and fire.'...and so the 'duel began.
Blake rolled his first 2 initiative dice : a '1' and a '2', 3
inches! 2 inches short from effective panzerfaust range! ..'So I
guess I can't use my third dice to fire?''Can I use it to get them
back', and with a roll of '4' they were safe back in the trench.
I'm sure this was played out for real on many a battlefield...'Hey
Karl, I bet I can knock out that tank!...Hans,Hans! get back here you
fool! You'll be killed!..Yea, maybe your right Karl.But remember,
years from now we're going to tell our grandkids that we blew it
up!'. :P
All in all a great game, the rules are a treat to play! and now for
the questions:
1. Lance moved up a US Infantry squad into 'close assault' with
the Panther,base to base contact. Since there's no mention of Tanks
in the close assault section I opted for the Infantry AT option:
Infantry section AT [2d6] vs the Panther's armour dice. Correct?
2. Panzer Grenadiers and Halftracks: Mike skillfully used his dice
to move his formation into a good position, his troops dismounted.
The question came up as to what to do with the 251 halftracks. Some
rulesets just leave them behind, which historically was often the
case since they were quite rare and would not be wasted needlessly.
Other rules are more aggressive allowing the halftracks to continue
to fight after the troops have dismounted. I opted for this: since
Mike wanted to use their forward mounted MG's as a base of fire as
the panzer Grenadiers deployed that would be ok. But I would not
allow them to assault empty,[a bogus gaming tactic], and if they
wanted to move: to either fall back or adjust the position, they
would have to burn initiative dice from their 'parent' section. Sound
reasonable?
Thanks again to Richard and all the Too Fat Lardies Rules boys!
-Steve

Hi gang,
In the latest scenario one of the British cards was 'Skirl of the
Pipes'. I've searched the past posts and noticed alot of give and
take over the pipers use. Does the last post by Richard stand for
what the Pipers do? -Big Man can move entire platoon led by a piper,
pluses in melee and negatives to the axis? -Steve

Those of you who have seen our scenario of the month this month,
Epsom Day One, may be interested to know that we are about to do the
second game in this mini-campaign series which will focus on the
Royal Scots Fusiliers attempting to push home their attack on St
Mauvieu against the Panzer Grenadiers of Hitler Jugend.

I shall not be posting that as the next scenario of the month, as I
thought we'd do something a bit different. However, if anyone wants
the briefings and map we are using then email me here (or off line,
which still is the overwhelmingly most popular method, for some
reason. Have no fear discression is our watchword in the TFL
confessional)and I'll email you a copy.

The reason I was so keen on a set of Company level rules is because I
firmly believe that in most cases battles REALLY happen at that
level. A Battalion attack is ususally a Company or two going in,
with the rest in reserve to exploit success. The Epsom Two scenario
will show you how we deal with this. Hopefully I'll post some snaps
on the web site, I've ordered the extra logs for my camera, so we
should be able to get enough head of steam to click a few.

Rich

A couple of people have asked me if we will be doing any
demonstration days, and the answer is "yes, if you want it". We do
plan to go to a show or three to run participation games, but I
haven't done much about that yet, trying to get some more supplements
complete.

If we did something on a smaller scale in St Albans at our club venue
would anybody be interested in coming along. We'd tailor the games
to what people wanted, maybe something for absolute beginners, and
something for those more practised in the Lard Arts.

Let me know here or off list if you prefer.

Rich

Gents

I've just answered a query off list which I thought I should post
here. I was asked about firing at tanks and AT guns. I should
stress that when the rules say

"It can always be assumed that that calculation starts with "not bad"
for tanks, and "very hard" for AT guns" that is the starting point
for firing at tanks or firing at AT guns, rather than with them. In
other words an AT guns firing at a tank would start his calcs at "not
bad". A tank firing at an AT gun would start at "very hard". This
is because the AT gun is smaller than the tank, and we assume that it
is able to better take advantage of the ground to provide some
cover.

Rich

Yet more from the House of Lard - our Napoleonic rules are now
available, and jolly good they are too. I haven't got around to
costing them yet, but rather than deny you any longer I've stuck them
on the web site at ?6, which is damnably cheap for a set of rules!

Here's what their author, evil scientist Dr Darren "Dazza" Green had
to say about them from his castle laboratory.

"At last, a set of Napoleonic rules that feel right, are playable,
and don't cost a fortune! After years of trying to enjoy other
commercial rules, we gave up and wrote our own. La Feu Sacre places
command and control above musket calibre and march rates. The rules
will delight people who are widely read, but will banish pedants and
bean counters from the table.
La Feu Sacre is aimed at gamers who wish to experience a large scale
battle at the battalion level. Players command Corps and Divisions,
and manoeuvre by brigade, regiment or battalion. Command and control
are the essential elements, and whilst players do not have total
control over the minutiae of battle, historically correct tactics and
grand tactics are strongly encouraged by the system. Continuing with
that theme, you will not find a points system or army lists to
fiddle, just historical orders of battle for 8 example Corps d'Armee.
The rules use the familiar TooFatLardies card driven system. The
Lardies' emphasis on battlefield "friction" allows the better,
bolder generals to take the initiative, and recover from unexpected
reverses, whilst less competent, cautious commanders need to stick to
predictable battle plans, or risk coming unstuck. We present to you a
set of rules where Austrian troops can be the equal of the French,
but the Empire can still repeat history! "Vive l'Empereur!""

Well, we're always up for a bit of pedant banishing here at Lard Land!
I do have to say here that I always refused to play Napoleonic games
(dull as ditch-water, and damnably complicated!) however having
played with this set Daz can confirm that I even discussed with him
buying a Napoleonic Army! Praise indeed from me.

Richard

Gentlemen

Juts to inform you that I have updated the web site. Two new items,
the photos of the Epsom game are on there, however they are ones that
I knocked up at home with my trusty Box Brownie. Many (and I mean
many) hours of frustration were spent trying to get Nod and Sid's
digital pictures posted but with no success whatsoever. Shame as the
detail they can get is FAR superior to my old rubbish - I shall
continue to try to get them sorted but can make no promises.

On the subject of photos, the web site has details of the
TooFatLardies Golden Kebab Award. Originally commissioned as the
Nick Skinner Memorial Trophy, Nick surprised us all by not dropping
down dead, so the legacy of six shillings and eleven pence had to be
returned to his wife and family. However the net result is a
beautiful trophy that we will be "awarding" (in an hologramic sense)
each month for the best photos of a game in progress using any set of
TooFatLardies rules. Extra prizes will be awarded for amusing
captions, especially those that upset old gits with a nautical
penchant.

Winners of the award will be able to display it proudly on their web
sites in perpetuity.

Richard

Steve

I think the Big Man issue is a judgement call, as long as it seems
realistic then fine, especially if he is "with" two units. My only
caveat here is to say that a Big Man removing wounds will only EVER
do that from one section/squad at a time.

Regarding the melee, the answer is 12 dice. This would reflect the
MG and the Big Man. Some people have said to me "Six dice for a Big
Man, that's alot" (or words to that effect), but with a 6 needed it
will on average equate to one kill on the attacker. H/MMGs are not,
when all is considered that powerful in close combat, and should
really avoid being isolated in that situation, but even then they can
have a rather effective swan song!

Good luck bext week.

As an aside to everyone the photos of our Epsom game should be posted
this morning, and the Fire & Ice supplement will be ready this week.
Free email copies to everyone on the list that wants one, as
promised. I shall let you all know when that arrives.

Richard

--- In Toofatlardies@..., "combatcolours"
<combatcolours@h...> wrote:

Hi Richard and the other Lardies!
Just finished a second playtest of the game. Pretty much the

same

scenario as the first with the terrrain features rearranged so we
could try out Richard's clarification's and suggestions. We had a
new player again and he caught on pretty quickly. The Panther

wasn't

as potent this time with the cards definitely turning against it,

yet

it still managed to survive the game with a damaged gun and smoking
engine; even against 7 Shermans the Germans have tough and nasty

cats!

The "de-uberization" of the Big Men worked well although at one
point a Big Man moved a HMG team using 2 dice and the player

really,

really wanted to use the 3rd dice to do something else with the Big
Man :P. Actually both sides kept using their Big Men to reposition
the HMG's and to great effect. One US HMG took a 'pot shot' at the
Panther, successfully rolled to hit, and with his 2d6 scored

one '5'

with the Panther's 10 d6 barely nullifying with two '5-6's.
Our one big question was when a squad[8 figs] moved into close
combat with a MMG team that had a Big Man attached. The mechanics

for

the
Close Combat worked fine but there was confusion over what the MMG
with the Big Man should be rolling? The rules say "Defenders
MMG...+6 per
weapon" does this mean plus 6 pips to the Big Man's roll[d6=6d6] or
is it 6d6 per weapon? We decided on the latter since the rest of

the

factors were either # of d6 or a percentage of the total. Also we
rationalized that a squad charging the front of a MMG got what it
deserved with 12d6 being rolled at them.
Once again a great game, we did some limited spotting which

worked

well.
Next Sunday will be a pretty large game with quite a bit of

armor,

players and table room. Everyone is interested in seeing how 'tank
heavy' games turn out; shades of North Africa? :P.
Thanks, Steve

Hi Richard and the other Lardies!
Just finished a second playtest of the game. Pretty much the same
scenario as the first with the terrrain features rearranged so we
could try out Richard's clarification's and suggestions. We had a
new player again and he caught on pretty quickly. The Panther wasn't
as potent this time with the cards definitely turning against it, yet
it still managed to survive the game with a damaged gun and smoking
engine; even against 7 Shermans the Germans have tough and nasty cats!
The "de-uberization" of the Big Men worked well although at one
point a Big Man moved a HMG team using 2 dice and the player really,
really wanted to use the 3rd dice to do something else with the Big
Man :P. Actually both sides kept using their Big Men to reposition
the HMG's and to great effect. One US HMG took a 'pot shot' at the
Panther, successfully rolled to hit, and with his 2d6 scored one '5'
with the Panther's 10 d6 barely nullifying with two '5-6's.
Our one big question was when a squad[8 figs] moved into close
combat with a MMG team that had a Big Man attached. The mechanics for
the
Close Combat worked fine but there was confusion over what the MMG
with the Big Man should be rolling? The rules say "Defenders
MMG...+6 per
weapon" does this mean plus 6 pips to the Big Man's roll[d6=6d6] or
is it 6d6 per weapon? We decided on the latter since the rest of the
factors were either # of d6 or a percentage of the total. Also we
rationalized that a squad charging the front of a MMG got what it
deserved with 12d6 being rolled at them.
Once again a great game, we did some limited spotting which worked
well.
Next Sunday will be a pretty large game with quite a bit of armor,
players and table room. Everyone is interested in seeing how 'tank
heavy' games turn out; shades of North Africa? :P.
Thanks, Steve

In the last week I contacted a few web meisters whose links pages
looked good, and asked them to post a link to the TooFatLardies web
page. A chap from one naval wargaming site has mailed me back and
told me, in no uncertain terms, that they won't be listing our site
because of my "disrespectful" comments about Fellatio Lawnmower and
Hugh Jarce, who he believes are quite obviously Horatio Hornblower
and Jack Aubrey (of Patrick O'Brien fame) respectively.

Nice to see people taking their gaming seriously?!

Rich

Mike

Glad you liked them. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, at
the core of these rules is "friction", the fact that a plan lasts in
its perfect state only until you try to implement it, then all sorts
of things will get in your way.

The very seed of these rules was the fact that a Vietnam set we used
to play would allow two sections moving spereately along jungle
trails to arrive exactly as planned and simultaneously launch their
attacks in perfect choreography. Did we beleive this was realistic,
no. However we as a club did loose one player because he couldn't
understand why he couldn't be omnipresent with his troops and get
them to do exactly what he wanted at all times. Remember what I said
about these rules won't suit everyone!

Glad you had fun.

Richard


--- In Toofatlardies@..., "mikenorton1ny"
<mikenorton1ny@y...> wrote:

Hi

We played two games today, the first a small infantry affair, which
got us into understanding the basic initiative dice. We picked

that

up very fast, and liked it alot.

The second game we introduced some armour and artillery and really
got stuck into the game rather than worrying about the mechanics,
which is always a good sign. It came as a bit of a shock to one of
the guys that he couldn't move every time, but I think we got past
that initial shock as it was part of the learning curve.

Very pleased with the way the rules allow the game to flow well and
yet deal with fairly complex detail.

Very pleased indeed, more painting to be done now to get my forces
assembled properly.

Mike

Hi

We played two games today, the first a small infantry affair, which
got us into understanding the basic initiative dice. We picked that
up very fast, and liked it alot.

The second game we introduced some armour and artillery and really
got stuck into the game rather than worrying about the mechanics,
which is always a good sign. It came as a bit of a shock to one of
the guys that he couldn't move every time, but I think we got past
that initial shock as it was part of the learning curve.

Very pleased with the way the rules allow the game to flow well and
yet deal with fairly complex detail.

Very pleased indeed, more painting to be done now to get my forces
assembled properly.

Mike