On 5 October 2023 I played a game of Bolt Action against the local Finnish player.
A New Approach
Inspired by some of my experiences with Operation Cobra, I wanted to try a somewhat different approach to my Italian list building and used this game as an opportunity. In this list, I decided to focus heavily on Veterancy, taking vet troops whenever practical within the 1,000 point budget while not dropping too low in overall order dice. As this is an experimental list and I'm trying to head off cluttering my EasyArmy page, I will summarize:
2-man Reg 2LT, 2x Rifle-paras with Panzerfausts, 2x SMG Paras, 1x Vet Guastatori with two flamethrowers, Vet Flamethrower team, Inex Medium Mortar, Reg Light Howitzer (no spotter), M15/42 Tank, Fiat 508 Car. That's 11 order dice and exactly 1,000 points.
I'll be tweaking from here, trying to settle in on a list where the vets take up most of it.
My opponent brought a list I wasn't directly familiar with, proxying several vehicles he hasn't yet come to own - the larger tank proxies a T-28 light tank, the smaller without a turret proxies a Komsolet transport, and the armored car without a turret represents one with an LMG (can't remember the type).
Terrain was supplied by our local Soviet champion.
My opponent and I decided on a classic game of No Man's Land, sans the pre-bombardment.
Pre-game and Deployment
We both chose to keep some Reserves - for my opponent, that transport carrying some flamethrowers and a Panzershrek team, while for me it was my M15 and the car with the LT and Flamethrower team - the car and riders even being in Outflank.
We otherwise set up with the traditional die draw - one forward deployer with my opponent's sniper - and the game began.
Turn 1
Not a whole lot of action - the first turn is limited to 24" sight range and thus basically nobody was doing any shooting, so we just did our preliminary maneuvers. I played somewhat cautiously, though I got bold with my Guastatori and probably moved them up somewhere far too exposed in a bid to discourage tanks and infantry from coming into my right flank (as you can see I am concentrated on the left).
Turn 2
I got off to a great success here, as right out of the gate my mortar dropped a shell into a group of his Veteran "Sisi" infantry, killing a fair number of them and handing out a lot of pins. My opponent gets a touch of vengence though - in a turn otherwise characterized by low-risk play on Ambush and going Down, his sniper picks off one of my flamethrowers and the squad, which had advanced on his approaching tank, failed to hit it with the other - this left my very expensive team here in a bad way!
Unfortunately for me, my tank failed to find its way to the field, blunting hopes to use it to cover my paratrooper's advance - unfortunately my opponent's reserves had no such problem and ambled on unopposed.
Turn 3
Not being one to waste a mortar shot, I lob another shell into those Sisi and knock the squad down to just two men - maybe I have been too bearish on indirect weapons...
Such success was followed by another success - my Guastatori absolutely roasts his T-28, sending it driving off the field in panic! Unfortunately the flamethrower runs out of fuel and the man quits the field, basically leaving this squad without purpose (because who uses demolition charges...).
Some rifle-fire is exchanged between our units, and I make my first silly mistake of the game - my opponent deployed a panzershrek team to the other side of the enclosure from my Paratroopers. Instead of doing the smart thing of either A) Assaulting around the walls or B) putting the team on Ambush, I chose to advance forward and dump fire into them...achieving nothing, whatever the odds of that was (an action not helped by the fact that I triggered an Ambush and took a pin). This was silly because the very next die had him deploy his flamethrower team - the one I'd forgotten about - from the transport right into the midst of those very paras. This cost me three guys and four more pins! Fortunately they were tough enough to stay on the field I guess.
But Italy was not about to take it on the chin here - my tank grinds onto the field and starts laying pin markers out on the infantry directly in front of it - this forces them to go Down, paving the way for my next trick - the outflankers!
Slipping onto the field successfully, the Fiat lets off the vet FT team...which proceeds to miss at point blank. Fortunately my opponent is otherwise all played out on that side so they don't immediately die, and I felt comfortable enough to bring my 2LT on to the field and at least put a casualty and a pin marker on that lucky Finnish squad.
Some other skirmishing between units gets pins and casualties sprinkled, including the rifle-paras on my right flank as we'll see next turn...
Turn 4
Suspense rises for the first die...which is mine! Naturally this goes right to the FT team, which absolutely roasts its target squad. I follow this up by advancing my other SMG para squad and putting a deluge of fire into the Finnish FT team ahead of them - dropping only one man, unfortunately.
Finland gets vengeance though - the Shrek puts a right right into my tank, and it goes up in flames - probably should have parked that thing in the woods...
My LT gets payback though - running into an Assault, the LT squad gets in on the Shreks and kills them - consolidating around to threaten the remaining flamethrower man, too! Said flamerman tried to save himself but failed to activate and went Down.
The para-rifles on my left, holding along the road, slip forward to start engaging my opponent's riflemen but also slip a Panzerfaust shot over towards the Finnish transport, obliterating it in what's probably first successful Panzerfaust shot ever.
This run of success comes up short with my other paratrooper rifle squad, though - they FUBAR and slink back into the woods...unlike the battered Guastatori, who successfully pass an order test to Run on snake eyes and book it to the rear!
Turn 5
I am in Avanti Savoia...positively! I'm now getting +2 on Morale across the board.
My right-flank paratroopers, eager to redeem themselves, hustle up the the edge of the woods and put some fire out - including another successful Panzerfaust shot!
My opponent, though, can't let me have two unchecked and hustles a squad into melee with my left-most para-rifles squad - winning handily and wiping the squad out entirely!
In revenge I take out those two stragglers that survived multiple mortar strikes in turns prior with my Flamethrower team, to which his LT responds by charging...to his death.
And that was game, as we were short on time and needed to get packing.
Scoring
7-2 Italy!
Retrospectives
The list performed pretty well - these tougher units hold on and often turn incoming fire into just a pin marker rather than a pin marker and a casualty. Plenty of silly decisions were made - and unfortunate rolls had - but I don't think the base bones of this list is all that bad. My howitzer greatly underperformed, though.
I'm still sort of iffy on the Guastatori - they're expensive, especially at veteran (16 points per man!), and lack any backup close quarters support beyond that flamethrower option, but it's really the only way I can get flamethrowers in an infantry slot. I may keep running these but pair them down and use the savings on a transport, though I find I am pretty bad at keeping transports alive and getting them to go where they need to go.
Order dice are low, but that's all but inevitable with tough unit lists. I may need a way to bump that up to about 12 however. A subsequent review of this list may see that be the primary focus - trimming what can be trimmed to get another die or two in. Again my general philosophy is that since the flat 3 dice trail doesn't change based on anything in my army, then clearly my dice should be as tough as possible. With that in mind, though, it makes that soft car, small LT team, and little flamethrower team a bit...out of place.
I think overall the clearest weakness in this list - or just about any Italian list I've fielded outside of the tournaments - is the lack of good anti-tank. My one somewhat viable medium tank (the 75/34) is too expensive for this list, and flamethrowers (or Panzerfaust) only get you so far. Frankly I find howitzers too swingly to rely on for the whole "pin them out" approach, so maybe it's time to learn how to simply ignore tanks like people have told me. A light AT gun only gets me so far in my local meta...
Closing
Well this was a fun list, and I think most of my victory was luck. That said I think I have a solid base to build from, so future Italian expansions are probably going to be along these lines - Bersaglieri will probably turn up on the bench after I'm done with all this terrain, in spite of suggestions for Army #3. They lack Stubbron and Panzerfausts, but they're just a touch cheaper than the Paratroopers and that might add up in certain list configurations. We'll see how things work out going forward!
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