The Italians have a handful of units to pick from, most having some fairly significant drawbacks. Their units are sufficient at killing enemy infantry, but only the Carro provides any significant AT support.

First and foremost is the Carro Armato M13/40, which will provide the backbone of your army. It has fairly good infantry dice, especially for an Axis tank, and has Overlapping Fire; providing some discouragement for enemy infantry to attempt to move in and close assault. It’s not too fast, and has only a moderate 4/3 defence. Against medium tanks it’s only effective at medium ranges, and against heavy tanks it will have to engage them at close range. Highly Flammable is a significant drawback, but is sometimes an advantage as your enemy may concentrate his fire on a single tank to try and immolate it, instead of wounding multiple tanks.

The Stalwart Lieutenant is a pretty inferior piece, but at least has a command ability that could be useful in certain circumstances. The defencive fire bonus can be useful in holding the objective if you capture it. Otherwise I’d consider taking a Blackshirt over the Lieutenant. Blackshirts will form your infantry base. Good solid units that don’t suffer from a loss of Bravado, Ruthless is an added bonus. Try and use the Blackshirts to finish off any units attacked by your Carros or Mortars, but mainly keep pushing them towards the objective. Your army is not a fast one, and will have problems dislodging the enemy.

The Brixia M35 45mm Mortar provides some moderate fire support to your infantry. Unfortunately it doesn’t have long range, but with Rapid Fire they can at least engage multiple targets while your Blackshirts finish them off. The lowly Fucile Modello 1891 is still worth using one of. While his stats average out to a Mausers, until he loses Bravado he’s slightly better than one. Keep him near the frontlines where you can get the most use out of him, and hopefully have him be among the first to die.

The Italians will have a difficult time against later war units, like the Tiger or Pershing, but be fairly strong against infantry. Most of their units have a decent AT capability, so can support your tanks. The Carros will have to attempt to get close to the more heavily armoured units. Use the mortars to try to disrupt infantry, followed up by attacks from the Blackshirts of Fucile. It will be a challenge, but shouldn’t prove to be impossible. In casual games against similar year units (around 1940) it should prove to be an interesting game. Unfortunately, like the Chinese this army requires multiples of a rare so may be difficult for some players to field. The Commander may help defending key areas, but I think I may replace him later.

  • Carro Armato M13/40 x5
  • Blackshirt x5
  • Brixia M34 Mortar x2
  • Fucile Modello 1891 x2
  • Vigilant Lieutenant x1

If you lack a sufficient number of Carros then Panzer III Fs make decent substitutes.