Italians in Tourneys?

[TacCovert4]

Greetings,

Mangus and I are working on a new CMAK tourney: Tripolitania to Tobruk, charting the sweeping advances by the DAK in 1941. Palantir had mentioned to me that the Italians were not the most popular sect amongst the tourney crowd, so I decided to poll for both interest in the tournament (with 1 exception the battles will be based around the depictions from my books on Rommel's campaigns, down to force mixxes where availible), and willingness to play with Italy. This is not to say that you're going to be fighting with all Italians. It's just that Rommel had a large Italian component to his forces, after all the DAK was only roughly 2.5 divisions, so there will be the occasional Italian Tank platoon or infantry company working with the Germans. I can promise that after the prologue battle, very little Italian hardware will be used, as I like the DAK better myself.

I am responsive to this poll in choosing battles and force mixxes for them.

[KGPanzerschrecK]

As long as they arent conscript or green the Italian troops arent that bad. Just ask KG's team #1 {Cloghaun, Jag & Myself} recent opponents in the CMAK Multiplayer tourney thats just been put on hold. We gave those limey's a sound thrashing with those poor Italian's, LOL.

Their armor, or lack there of, is their biggest downside to playing them. They have so-so MG's at best. They have decent guns, and one of the best ATR's in the game, a 20mm model. Their regular inf. is ok. The Black Shirt infantry is better and their Engineers better still although their Flame Teams suffer from a poor lack of range, 23 meters. They have effective Airplanes if you are inclined to purchase airpower and some powerful artillery but it is expensive.

The problem with the Italians as i see it is that it is either feast or famine, and when its time for the feast, it will cost you dearly in points at the purchase screen. :o


Lastly id like to thank Kerry for introducing me to the Italian forces in CMAK. Id never played them before this tourney. I stayed away from them like they were Typhoid Mary. I was glad to except the challenge and had a blast playing with them. Playing with troops and using tactics i never used before, fighting in a time period i never fought in before, made me a better player and for that i say thanks Kerry!

[Nemesis Lead]

Italian Airborne infantry, due to a bug in the game, are the BEST infantry in all of CM. Primarily SMG armed and with tons of ammo.

If the Italians use this infantry and the Brits don't have Matilda tanks....the Italians can hang.

[TacCovert4]

Thank you all for your responses, and keep them up. The TtT tournament scenarios will be affected by your opinions of the Italian forces.

[2054172]

If you have a tourney and allow people from the US in and canada, england etc why not Italians sure they didn't do so well in the war but they tried.:rolleyes: :smoke:

[mangus2000]

If you have a tourney and allow people from the US in and canada, england etc why not Italians sure they didn't do so well in the war but they tried.:rolleyes: :smoke:
:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

[KGPanzerschrecK]

Contrary to popular myth, the Italians fought very well at times in the desert. Rommel himself thought well of the average Italian footslogger. He didnt think much of their officers though. The Italians fought their best when lead by Rommel and other German officers and prefered to be lead by them. "On The Trail Of The Fox" is a great book that discusses this and many more of the unique phenomenoms of the desert war. :smoke:

[TacCovert4]

In particular the Ariete division made a good showing of itself when incorporated with the DAK.

And Italian armor is not as incompetent as you might think. Early war the real challenge was for the british armor.

[Colonel Talvela]

Italian Airborne infantry, due to a bug in the game, are the BEST infantry in all of CM. Primarily SMG armed and with tons of ammo.



What is the bug?

[KGPanzerschrecK]

In particular the Ariete division made a good showing of itself when incorporated with the DAK.

And Italian armor is not as incompetent as you might think. Early war the real challenge was for the british armor.

Yeah, early war Brit stuff was pathetic too, LOL. Thin armor and shot traps. I guess it comes down to crew quality and who gets off the first shot. But the Italians are saddled with all those turretless Tanks and Tanketts where the Brits at least have turrets. I guess its all in how you look at it.

[TacCovert4]

I have to say that tankettes, outside of the flamethrower versions, were worthless. Slow, turretless, and thin skinned. But the Carro Armato M42 was in some respects superior to the British Cruiser tanks. It's silohuette was similar in height, but much thinner head on, with a smaller turret, making it a bit harder to hit. It also had slightly superior speed, similar armor, and a gun equal to, or greater than the 40mm/50. Many a time I have come to regret passing off a couple of Italian tanks as worthless crap. Unless their fighting Matildas at long range or Crusaders at any range from the front, the Italian tanks are suprisingly comparable to their early war British counterparts. Especially since they were considered light tanks from the get go.