Italian Bersaglieri Weapon Company – Tactical Suggestions

By Benny Christiansen

The Italian book introduced a new kind of formation for me. The Bergsalieri Weapons Company was a formation, that I found very interesting.

At first glance, I could not see myself fielding a whole formation, but having read a few pages, the potentially fun and efficient lists became apparent to me. I’m not the best of the best, but I win more games than I lose, and so these suggestions would be for players who are mediocre or similar

In general, I am a big fan of Italian infantry formations. I find it easy to keep them alive. They are hit on 4+ and capable of a 30 cm cross-country dash. Combined with the Follow Me, they are up and in the face of an enemy, within a turn. In missions where there is more than 40 cm between the lines, I recommend using the L6/40 or AB41 platoons to make sure the distance is only 40 cm.

The Weapon Platoon

The Weapon Platoons are flexible. They have a few units that are capable of assault and can count as “extra hits”, but basically they are a unit of guns. The Anti-Tank Rifle is quite capable of stopping assaulting tanks with its AT5, in particular units such as the Stuarts, that typically are hit on 2+. The HMG can be a serious deterrent for any assaulting allied infantry unit, in particular, the American units, that are hit on 3+. Another important thing to remember is when your opponent has No He on his tanks, such as the Crusaders. This makes it a +1 to hit infantry, and thus making it even harder to take your teams out at a distance.

The strength and the weakness of these platoons, along with the Elefantinos, is that they are infantry. It means they have an awesome save of 3+, and great speed with a tactical move of 20 cm, plus movement orders. It also means they are in Bad Spirits when the platoon commander is surrounded by less than 2 other teams from the platoon within command distance.

So how to use this formation at its best? As mentioned above I recommend it to be combined with Bersaglieri Rifle Company. This is among other things because where I play we either use Battle Plans, predetermined attackers, or similar to find the attacker and defender. If, where you play, the infantry does not get to attack very often, you may prefer to add the Weapons Company with another type of formation.

An example could be like this

I added the L6/40 platoon at the Weapons Company, but it may be wiser for you to put it under another formation.

In my lists, I prefer to play the infantry very aggressively. The Italians are extremely fast and capable of moving right up in the face of an enemy, putting pressure on from the start. This is not depending on the mission. If I have to defend I’ll still send platoons towards my enemy. With the V4 rules, a 9 man platoon needs to lose 7 men to make a test.

In case you have the points to have the units on the table, there are no reasons not to use them to put pressure on the opponent. If your opponent is the aggressor, he will be forced to deal with your units. You can deploy them on one side or at the center, as you see fit. It depends on the missions, but if you are defending, and it is unclear to you where he might attack, I suggest you put it in the center. You have the movement to be able to get past his forward force. In general, you can get 30 centimetres away from your own deployment zone in turn one.

After having moved away from your own deployment zone it can be quite effective to leave your HMG team behind, particularly, if you play vs inf/mech. Use the remainder of the weapons platoon to move up into the opponent’s deployment zone or move towards the back of a weak support unit. When you use your points on infantry and weapons instead of Tanks, you often get a large number of teams. This has the advantage, that you can take the casualties your opponent inflicts on you while you are making your maneuver.

From this point on it is difficult to predict the game and tactics you can use, but my suggestion is that you use the danger that your weapon platoons possess to make your opponent take away unit(s) from his primary assault when you are defending. Quite often the opponent will target your weapons platoons, and this is why I suggest you combine it with the Rifle Platoons. If the opponent stops the weapons platoons, you will have a very strong veteran infantry unit at your opponent’s deployment zone. It is a rare occasion where this causes no concern to him at all. Your price – in points – for this durable and dangerous pressure force is  15 points.

47mm Anti Tank gun platoons.

As mentioned above, the Elefantino platoon has an advantage to most other Anti Tank units. It is an infantry unit. This means that buildings are a valid “go to” zone for them. Be mindful of this, when you choose table quarters or deployment. As an infantry unit it moves faster than normal anti-tank units, and thus can be used differently and potentially much more aggressively than the other AT units. The downside is the low AT value of 6. The AT value means that it is very unlikely you will be shooting at your opponents medium tanks head-on. You will, however, find it quite capable of being a threat to units with Crusaders, Stuarts, Honey, Daimler and 1/2track transports, even at long range due to the HEAT special rule

For me, it leaves me with two options for the 47mm AT gun. I can leave it “at home” defending together with other infantry teams at an objective (remember, as it is an infantry team, it does not block LOS when shooting for instance in defensive fire). Or I can take it out and put pressure on the opponent, similar to the way I suggest for the Weapon Platoon above. Pay attention to the fact that your range is 24″/60cm and that you have the HEAT special rule.  The difference is, however, that while the Weapon Platoon has extra teams, that can provide the platoon with a chance to survive enemy fire without losing its “punch” the Elefantinos are alone. This means that as soon as the platoon is below 3 teams, it has to start taking tests.

This suggests that with it could be wise to build the platoons up according to your intention. In this case, it would mean an aggressive platoon, where you feel you are taking a risk, might be better only to invest in 2 teams, where a defensive platoon would have 4 teams in it. This way, if you lose it, you do not lose an expensive unit, while the 4 shots of range 24″/60cm with 4+ FP can be dangerous to infantry, gun teams and light armored vehicles all alike.

The other advantage in the combination of formations here is that we have a whopping four potential choices. If we continue with the formations made above, it could look like this:

Again, let us pretend we are fielding this. We have the L6/40 tanks to help us create a deployment zone big enough for several platoons if we are attacking and we are more than 40 cm away.

If we are defending in a Meeting Engagement we have one big rifle platoon and 2 47mm platoons to defend and the rest CAN be used to put pressure on, and attack our opponent either the units or the objectives. If we are attacking we have 39 teams with a 3+ save. All of them can be up front and in the optimal position during turn 1 or 2. In this instance, I have used Assault Mortars, but if you prefer, you can use normal mortars, to provide smoke for your assault.

Try also, if you have the money and soldiers to field it, to imagine a formation like this for 35 points:

It can be a flexible support formation for anything in the Italian Avanti book.

It is my hope that this has provided you with a few ideas as to how to use your Weapons Company and the platoons within it.