Thoughts behind the Italians

 I thought that I would go through my Italian list that in posted up last week and tell you what my thoughts are.

Starting with the base Rifle Platoon, forming the core of the army, as it should. There is a Lt with attendant, to help keep the Lt alive a bit longer plus two 5 man Paracadutisti squads each with SMG's and a couple of Panzerfausts. These are for closing down the enemy plus helping to deal with any armour, as the Italians don't have much in the way for good anti-armour. These units are backed up by a full squad of Infantry and a 5 man squad of Bersaglieri with two LMG's for some anti-infantry fire support.

To support these units there will be a sniper, and AT rifle and a Light Mortar, thanks to the Bolt Action infantry support box. 

Out of this platoon, the main elements that may well change are the support units. The Sniper team will probably remain as I can build one of these from the base infantry box, but the light mortar and AT rifle will need to be sourced from elsewhere and I might just ditch these and spend the points on something else. The sniper seems like a good unit and gives me the option to take down enemy officers with some degree of certainty. The rest don't seem as good or necessary.

The Heavy Weapons Platoon consists of the required Lt, although he will be played as an inexperienced Lt to save a few points. There will be two MMG's as these come in the Wargames Atlantic box. It's a bit weird though, as they are MMG's in game at the moment, but when you look in to the weapon, the Breda 37, it's listed variously as a MG and also a HMG. It's even listed on the box as a HMG. (You can also build up to two Breda 37 heavy machine guns with crew.) I would love to be able to run them as HMG's, as that would make pinning vehicles significantly easier. Additionally I think adding a Mortar would be useful, partly for the spotter, who can, as far as I know, spot for the Artillery as well.

Talking a vehicles, the Armoured Platoon. This will change, as I am going to upgrade the "light" Semovente 90/53 to a "heavy" Semovente 105/25. This is a lot more points but should give better survivability, (loosing vulnerable and open topped for armour 9+), for closing with enemy vehicles. The Medium Tank, the P26/40, will remain and also become the Command Vehicle.

The Artillery Platoon will remain, with an inexperienced Lt (for points) and a Howitzer with spotter for some indirect fire goodness.

Basically, the aim is for the para's to go forward with the P26/40 while the rest of the infantry hold objectives. The Artillery lurks in the back with the MMG's and Semovente to take down any targets that present themselves. All of this is of course based off absolutely no experience or information at all, it's just a list I though sounded cool. Hopefully one day I will be able to play a full game and see how badly it actually does!