Italians on the defense

Given the wonderful weather this weekend getting out and gaming was what I wanted to do on Sunday but since conditions still hadn’t improved Ian and I got in a game Sunday evening.

We played 80pts MW both of us using experimental lists in anticipation of the 80MW tournament at Dreamers Vault in Minneapolis on April 29th. Ian went for something out of Iron Fist, Churchills of course included. I went with Italians wondering if I could have something viable knowing the feature creep going on in the game with higher quality armor.

Ian chose attack and I choose defense for our battle plans which then resulted in Bridgehead.

For this list I decided to go with an Italian Bersaglieri formation, infantry heavy but should be good at generally holding. I went with a large and small platoon of infantry (9 and 5 stands respectively), 3 81mm Mortars, a HMG platoon, 4 100mm guns with AB41 observer, 3 88s, 3 Lancia 90mm, a platoon of 5 L6s and a platoon of 3 L6s.

For my 60% I kept off the Lancia trucks, the 81mm, and all the L6s. With the box that I was bound in, managed to comfortably setup to defend one of the objectives an the other, I’d have to cover with dug in infantry in the open but on overwatch. I kept my 88s in Ambush cause well, Churchills.

As I put my minefields over in that little Oasis, Ian decided to avoid that side of the map and instead concentrate his infantry generally in the middle and his armor and guns on my left. 6lbers with no HE … not that scary. 40mm Bofors, getting scary, 3 Churchills, well we’ll see.

Early on in the first couple of turns Ian moved his infantry front and center to focus his push through the trees. Luckily I had a line with my artillery to bring down shells on their approach. As a result I was able, through the course of two turns, score enough hits one of his platoons was essentially combat ineffective.

On turn 3 I popped my ambush as over there off in the distance behind the sand dune 3 Churchills were being very shy. I managed to take out his platoon of recon carriers so they couldn’t just come up and machine gun my infantry at will, which they had done, nearly taking out my HMG platoon. He likewise was starting to creep up his bofors with the same idea so I’d very quickly have to decide how I wanted to use my artillery assets. The HMGs would flee into the woods and then be taken out by the advancing infantry.

I didn’t get any reinforcements turn 1 nor turn 2. Turn 3 I pulled in my L6s and was lucky to have them arrive on my left flank. First up they were on the flank and behind a platoon of 2 6lbers. I was able to successfully take them out tho I had to assault with the L6s which is pretty difficult. The 5 counter assault and high skill number (5) makes it hard. Somewhat surprising for light tanks tho not exactly how tanks like this want to be employed.

With the 6lbers gone, this put pressure on Ian. Would he ignore the L6s or stop his offensive for another turn or two?

So Churchill love is the best love … but thankfully this diversion bought me time. Time enough for the remainder of my reinforcements to arrive. The Lancias came in on my right flank setting up around and close to the 88s. So when the Churchill attack would come that should take care of them.

This was also at the point where I realized that the Lancia don’t have a tactical move. It kind of makes sense as after all the guns need time to setup, so being able to move and fire a shell would be pretty nice but a bit much.

My my other platoon of 3 L6s I brought them up the middle road to support the middle. With Ian not moving his infantry forward I figured that the quickest path to victory to me was drive them down the road and attack the infantry that were behind the woods. More of a diversion probably but anything to keep the enemy out of range of the objectives as turn 6 wasn’t far.

My 81s also came in and I positioned them on my right flank in such a way they could cover the middle approach should Ian bring up his infantry.

Turn 5-6 the Churchills crested the hill, where I was able to take one out, then pressed forward to attack. My poor Italians couldn’t really do again against mega tanks like that. Without something there was little to do but hope the 88s and Lancias would do their work.

Ian shifted his attack to mask off two of the 88s with terrain. The Lancia’s missed their shots but then the one 88 at less than 16″ hits both Churchills, one blows up and the other ends up running away.

All in all an interesting game. Italians in a world of mega tanks can be viable using the same tactics they did historically. Long range guns that can knock out armor and then artillery to go over attacking infantry.

Battleplans I think also figure large into making the force viable. With battle plans, I’m able to select ‘defense’ which is where this kind of force shines. It’s just not an attacking force. Without Battleplans I could get stuck in a mission where I’d have to maneuver or go running around the table which isn’t something that 88s or Lancia’s are going to do.

I did pick up some Falcos and while I’m not super big on aircraft in Flames, especially with v4, the Falcos are pretty cheep point wise, 5 for 2 planes. As a comparison 5 L6s which are basically just machine guns on tracks are also 5 points. Future experiment for sure!