Most games on the market, in general, pre-suppose that you will be playing with reasonable people with whom you are at least quasi-friendly. IABSM takes this supposition and advances it even further. These are NOT tournament type games rules because frankly they rely on players being more concerned about having fun than winning a trophy.
One weakness of the game is that it includes no army lists. The publisher makes a variety (almost excessive in coverage of smaller, more obscure WW2 forces) of supplements that cover various areas of operation. I bought the Pacific version because I was interested in playing Japanese versus USMC. The rules could have included a couple of popular forces as a sampler of how lists are set up.
There are no specific miniatures tied in with this game. There is a fairly large and growing variety of 15mm and other scale WW2 miniatures available to choose from. Pick and choose to your heart's content. Of course, you'll need an army list supplement to play and these can be helpful when you're buying miniatures---in case you're not an expert on WW2 fighting force organizations.
IABSM is card driven. The cards represent various events, units and heroes in the game. Again though, the players are required to make and print their own unit cards. This allows you more adaptability but then so does a blank notebook. Cards examples are provided in the rules, so you get an idea of what kind of events (e.g., ammunition shortage) would be neat to include.
One important aspect of the cards is the 'tea break'---I didn't mention this is a UK-based publisher until now. At any rate, when the tea break card is drawn, the turn is over. If your army didn't get to do much that turn, it's assumed they weren't fast enough, their commanders didn't lead well enough, etc. It's been done before but it does add a nice bit of randomness and need for players to plan for the unexpected.
Fog of War is simulated in the game using large markers they publishers have dubbed 'blinds'. Blinds are about the size of a music CD (or so)in 15mm scale games. They represent actual units OR suspected enemy activity before they can be identified by the opposing player.
You have to be close enough to an enemy blind to attempt to spot it before it's revealed. Too far out and you only have a slim chance to figure out what's moving in the trees. Too close and units are auto-revealed (but it may be too late for you by then). It may be nothing but a two-man scout team that skedaddles as soon as they're shot at OR it could be a full platoon of infantry lugging machine guns through the woodline. This is definitely a strength of the game. Army lists indicate how many blinds a unit might have---sneaky types appear to have a larger number :)
Units (squads of infantry or vehicles) are categorized by initiative dice. These dice are used to move, to try to spot what's in an enemy 'blind', to shoot, etc. Better trained, equipped and staffed units have more dice---initially. The army lists spell this sort of thing out with elite units like USMC having 4 or 5 dice to start with while militia might be lucky to have 2 dice in a squad.
Shooting is affected by the initiative dice available for the shooting unit, whether they are taking fire themselves, the range to target as well as other factors. You can make this as complicated or as simple as you choose and here's an example of the reasonable opponent factor. You have to choose whether a shooting attack has an 'okay', 'good' or 'poor' chance of hitting. While this is based on the factors mentioned above, it's still a judgment call that both players have to agree to.
As a unit suffers casualties, men are lost to immobilizing wounds and death. As these losses accrue, initiative dice are lost, making the unit slower, less able to concentrate on ID'ing enemy units through spotting, and less able to effectively suppress or kill enemy units through shooting.
Heroes are represented in the game as 'Big Men'. Big Men are the larger than life guys who can motivate units to move better, shoot better and generally do better than the average guys in the trenches. They are officers and NCOs who can add their dice and cards to units to which they are attached. This increases the likelihood that a unit will be able to act before the 'tea break' card is drawn, ending the turn. Big men can also be used to rally units and to reduce the number of wounds ('buck up little camper or some such').
The game has mechanics for vehicles, artillery, machine guns, anti-aircraft and just about anything else you would want to play in WW2. You can scale the detail with optional rules that can let you determine specific turret types on tanks or that add minefields or even sewer movement if you're playing in a city environment like Stalingrad.
IABSM addresses most of the important rules that players are looking for (movement, firing, casualty effects and an optional morale system (rarely needed as the initiative dice pretty much rule how well a unit is going to do)) but there are going to be a lot of instances where players will need to agree to agree and move on with the game.
The rules also include a few pages of general guidelines on making the game more standardized including shooting factors and other mechanics. The role of umpires are discussed but they are not required and the game can be played well solo as well.
If this review sounds vague, well it kind of is intentionally. I have read opinions about IABSM that say that it's like an 80% finished game and having read through the rules a few times I can see where that interpretation originates. There are simply a lot of factors in this and any other wargame that require the players to be good sports. The open nature of these rules require players to be a little more understanding and 'gentlemenly', if you will.
If you want to play WW2 miniatures with someone who is as interested in seeing how a battle will turn out as they are about winning, then you should be fine with these rules. If your opponent is just as likely to point out that his sniper can't return fire because he's being bombarded with artillery fire, then this is a good rule set for you. If he or she is likely to quibble over a centimeter difference in units getting into hand to hand, there are plenty of tournament-focused games out there.
