''I Ain't Been Shot Mum!'' (abbreviated as ''IABSM'') is a

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

tabletop Tabletop may refer to: Mountains * Table Top Mountain in Rangeville, Queensland, Australia * Table Top Mountain (New York) * Table Mountain in Cape Town, South Africa * Tepui, flat top mountains in South America Places * Tabletop, New South Wale ...

skirmish Skirmishers are light infantry or light cavalry soldiers deployed as a vanguard, flank guard or rearguard to screen a tactical position or a larger body of friendly troops from enemy advances. They are usually deployed in a skirmish line, an i ...

miniatures wargame Miniature wargaming is a form of wargaming in which military units are represented by miniature physical models on a model battlefield. The use of physical models to represent military units is in contrast to other tabletop wargames that use ...

produced by '' Too Fat Lardies''. Designers Richard Clarke and Nick Skinner started work on a set of rules for the Vietnam war. Feeling that the existing rulesets allowed too much control over their forces they set out to design a set of rules that would force a player to think as a real-life commander rather than a gamer. As such, ''IABSM'' has been heavily influenced by the

Kriegsspiel ''Kriegsspiel'' is a genre of wargaming developed by the Prussian Army in the 19th century to teach battlefield tactics to officers. The word ''Kriegsspiel'' literally means "wargame" in German, but in the context of the English language it ref ...

approach, usually (but not always) utilizing an umpire to help decide points of issue that arise during the game such as modifiers for shooting, spotting enemies, etc. The rules are designed to force players to adopt realistic tactics, including scouting ahead for hidden enemies as the game system uses "blinds" to simulate the

fog of war The fog of war (german: links=no, Nebel des Krieges) is the uncertainty in situational awareness experienced by participants in military operations. The term seeks to capture the uncertainty regarding one's own capability, adversary capability, ...

. The main focus is not on military hardware but on the men using that hardware, and on

morale Morale, also known as esprit de corps (), is the capacity of a group's members to maintain belief in an institution or goal, particularly in the face of opposition or hardship. Morale is often referenced by authority figures as a generic value ...

and

command and control Command and control (abbr. C2) is a "set of organizational and technical attributes and processes ... hatemploys human, physical, and information resources to solve problems and accomplish missions" to achieve the goals of an organization or en ...

. Rather than giving the player total control over their forces every action, the system uses so-called "Big Men" to allow players to influence their forces behaviour. It also features a random, card-driven initiative system rather than the classic I-GO-U-GO system most

turn-based strategy A turn-based strategy (TBS) game is a strategy game (usually some type of wargame, especially a strategic-level wargame) where players take turns when playing. This is distinguished from real-time strategy (RTS), in which all players play si ...

games use. A typical company will have a card for each platoon and a card for each Big Man (officers and NCOs). The actions of squads/sections are keyed to the platoon and Big Man cards. This initiative system is designed to simulate the "friction" of war noted by

Carl von Clausewitz Carl Philipp Gottfried (or Gottlieb) von Clausewitz (; 1 June 1780 – 16 November 1831) was a Prussian general and military theorist who stressed the "moral", in modern terms meaning psychological, and political aspects of waging war. His mo ...

, plus units use a dice system for movement, observation, and fire that means you never know exactly how they will perform. The basic ''IABSM'' system provides a framework allowing players to tailor the game to specific situations or conflicts. Apart from its main focus on

, it has been adapted to the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, link ...

, the Falklands War and the

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

. The rules are designed for Company level games, i.e. where each side fields roughly a reinforced company of troops at 1 man to 1 figure scale, with infantry combat being at the heart of the rules, but also including a comprehensive mechanism for armour support, artillery, etc. The rules have been designed for 15 mm scale figures, but can be easily adopted for other scales such as 6 mm or 25 mm. The system does not use a point-based method for constructing opposing forces, so most games are designed to be scenario driven.

The
Kriegsspiel ''Kriegsspiel'' is a genre of wargaming developed by the Prussian Army in the 19th century to teach battlefield tactics to officers. The word ''Kriegsspiel'' literally means "wargame" in German, but in the context of the English language it ref ...
approach

One of the main characteristics of ''IABSM'' is that many common and somehow simple decisions are left to the players, effectively providing a "framework for play"Unknow
"Review: ''I Ain't Been Shot Mum!''"
''The Wargame Shed'', November 2006 rather than a checklist to represent real situations on the model battlefield. The challenges and possibilities of this approach are endless, since shooting at a target behind some cover would require both players (or the umpire) to agree on the shot being ''Great'', ''Ok'' or ''Poor''. But this freedom also allows for any non predictable action to take place, like heroic feats, based in the same common agreement.

Rules and Sourcebooks

The main rules of versions 1 and 2 did not contain any information about the armies involved. However version 3, published in Summer 2012 contains 'The Normandy Handbook', to cover the campaign in France following Operation Overlord, and contains basic lists for US, British and German forces, as well as four historically inspired scenarios, and six generic 'scenario generator' templates. The armies are described in more detail in various supplements. The following supplements were written for IABSM v1 and v2 (see further down for details of the v3 supplements): * ''Blitzkrieg'' :Covers the period between 1939 and 1943. :Army information for Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Holland, Hungary, Italy, Norway, Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union. * ''Götterdammerung'' :Covers the period between 1943 and 1945. :Army information for Brazil, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, Italy, Romania, the Soviet Union and the United States. * ''In the Footsteps of Legions'' :Covers the war in the Mediterranean and North Africa. :Army information for British Empire and Dominion forces, Free French, Vichy France, Germany, Greece, Iraq, Italy, United States and Yugoslavia. * ''In The Shadow of the Rising Sun'' :Covers the war in the Pacific. :Army information for Australia, China, Holland, Vichy France, Great Britain, Japan, Thailand and the United States.

Scenarios

As well as supplements detailing various armed forces, Too Fat Lardies also publishes scenario supplements for use with ''IABSM''. The supplements contain historical background, maps, mission briefings and participating forces. As the forces involved are described as real world equivalents rather than point values, conversion to different rulesets is relatively easy. Nearly all the scenario packs are available adapted or written for IABSM v3. Scenario/campaign packs published so far are: * Western Front :''The Defence of Calais'' (historical) :''The Campaign for Greece'' (historical) :''Operation Sea Lion'' (fictional) :''Anzio: Wildcat to Whale'' (historical) :''Where the Hell Have You Been Boys'' (historical - D-Day) :''Blenneville or Bust!'' (fictional - Normandy) * Eastern Front :''The September War, Part 1'' (historical - Poland 1939) :''The September War, Part 2'' (historical - Poland 1939) :''Vyazma or Bust'' (fictional) :''Bashnya or Bust'' (fictional - Operation Bagration) * Pacific/Far East :''Fall of the Lion Gate'' (historical - Fall of Malaya/Singapore) :''Bloody Burma'' (historical - Fall of Burma) *

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

:''Call this a Ruddy Picnic?'' (historical - East Africa) :''Operation Compass'' (historical) * Others :''Cymru am byth'' (historical - rather than detailing a specific operation or campaign, this supplement follows the actions of one regiment during the course of the war.) Also, some free scenarios has been published in the ''Scenario of the Month'' section of the Too Fat Lardies webpage.

3rd edition supplements

For the 3rd edition, the following specific supplements have been written: *''Blitzkrieg in the East #1: Poland'' :Covers the invasion of Poland in September 1939 :Army information on Polish, German and Soviet forces :Currently available as a free download from the Too Fat Lardies website *''Blitzkrieg in the West #1: France'' :Covers the French army of May 1940 *''Blitzkrieg in the West #2: The BEF'' :Covers the British Expeditionary Force of May 1940 *''Blitzkrieg in the West #3: The Low Countries'' :Covers the Dutch and Belgian armies of May 1940 *''Blitzkrieg in the West #4: Germany'' :Covers the German army in May 1940 *''Blitzkrieg in the Far East #1: Japan'' :Covers the Japanese army between December 1941 and July 1942 :Also includes substantial campaign information * ''Battle For Liberation'' :Covers the Western Front during the period 1943 to 1945 :Army information for British & Commonwealth ic United States, French, German and Italian forces. * ''Vpered Na Berlin'' :Covers the Eastern Front during the period 1943 to 1945 :Army information for German, Romanian, Hungarian, Finnish, Yugoslavian and Soviet forces

References

{{reflist

External links