With the Duel in the Sun theatre book recently released I thought it would be cool if people would post their North African forces and force ideas for recreating various points in the conflict.
Posted Feb 2, 2016, 1:42 PM UTC
I'm aiming for a mock Italian / African-campaign Fallchirmjager platoon (1000points)
Early war type without AR's
1x HQ Team 4x Squads of Eight men (Vet) 1x Squad of Kradschutzen bikes and sidecars (Reg) 1x Airborne 105 Howitzer (Reg) 1x MMG (Reg) 1x Medium Mortar and Spotter (Reg) 1x StuH42 (Reg)
I might swap out a troop squad for Stug Riders but this wasn't a typical Italian/African activity
What's this based on?
A reinforced platoon based on a 'Defence of Italy' list.
The DAK escape from North Africa to Italy in April/May 43, taking some armour and lightweight equipment with them
A number of mixed units were briefly cobbled together - hence the Kradschutzen
Nice, especially as the 15th Panzer division was evacuated from North Africa to Sicilly, where they were amalgamated into the 15th Panzergrenadier division. Also fighting there were the Herman Goering division and a little later the 1st Fallschirmjagers so it all ties in nicely.
Aught to be fun to play - but even more fun to model!
I'm a huge fan of the game but find the normal reinforced platoons a little blunt
Hopefully V2 might expand the platoon structure besides Theatre Selectors
so i have just finished the first 1k (925) 1st platoon of my DAK consisting of 1 vet 1st lt 2x 10 man veterans smg/lmg medic vet light mortar vet at rifle regular 222 regular stug 3 ausf f regular 251/1
2nd platoon is as follows.
3x 10 man vets
regular FAO
8 vet pioneers 5 smgs and flamethrower At grenades
Vet MMG
Reg 231 Rad 8 reg panzer 3 n vet kubelwagon with mmg
bang on 2k points
Operation Compass Italian Force: (1000pts)
Special Rules:
Avanti Savoia.
Defensive Strategy.
8 Million Bayonets.
No taste for the Bayonet.
HQ
2nd Lieutenant.
Forward Artillery Observer.
Infantry
x2 8man Bersaglieri Infantry Sections. Rifles.
10 Man Regular Infantry Section inc. LMG.
9 Man Regular Infantry Section.
x2 Free inexperienced Infantry Sections SMG/LMG/Green
Infantry Support
inexperienced Medium Mortar + Spotter
Artillery
Breda 20mm regular
Armoured Cars/Recce
Autblinda 41 Regular
Tanks
M11/39 medium tank - regular
Transport
x2 Regular trucks.
So with this list the strategy has to be to pray to be defender then do what you can to stop the enemy getting into assault. Falling back to secondary defensive positions if need be.
8 million Bayonets when refighting Operation compass is nice as for every regular or inexperienced squad you buy for your force you can take an inexperienced section for free.
The "No taste for the bayonet" rule is incredibly brutal though and ensures that Italians completely collapse when assaulted.
With many of Operation Compass' battles being dawn assaults I don't see them going particularly well for the Italians.