In Command, Part One – British Command Cards for Italy
As I said in the overview, I wanted to do a more in-depth article on the British Command cards for Italy as there is a lot of them. I’m going to split these into a few categories such as “Transport” then look at the cards related to specific divisions, then a last section to catch any that have been missed such as general equipment cards like Jalopies. We’ll then look at an example force making use of these cards in a part 2, next week.
Transports
3-Ton Lorry Transports – your typical death trap softskin Transport for guns and infantry. Can carry up to five infantry or a gun to die the instant you fail a 5+ save! Generally something you will only want for playing on large tables and kept far away from any threat.
M5 Halftracks – “Armoured” Transport for a Motor company HQ, Motor Platoon, or towed 17pdr. Certainly useful for the latter.
C15TA Armoured Truck – Basically used by the Canadians in place of the M5. Faster road dash but slower in the other speed bands but quintessentially Canadian. Good proxy for White Scout Cars for the Motor platoons in the recce units too.
Carrier Transport – Armoured transport for mortars and 6pdr. Worth it for the 6pdr but the mortar carriers are more situational.
Kangaroo Transport – the “defrocked Priest”. Sherman like mobility and a .50 and enough armor to protect the infantry from shell splinters and small arms fire but anything bigger than a 20mm is going to be a threat. Still, it gets the infantry across open ground and the enemy needs to put some effort into dealing with them.
Sherman Kangaroo – first used by the NZ and then adopted elsewhere. What do you do with worn out Sherman II or III?
Take off the turret, put some benches where the ammo racks were and add a pintle .50. Its basically like the Ram Kangaroo in Berlin British but with .50, less side arnour, and no Close Assault rule. All for double the points of adding Rams to a Black Bull Rifle platoon!
Still, even with that going against it, I still think it’s worth having a rifle platoon in the force mounted in these to close the distance. The enemy needs to commit a dedicated anti-tank asset to deal with them.
But it really should have got the “Close Assault” rule.
Buffalo Transport – Ideal for a river crossing mission given its amphibious! Decent MG armament and enough armour to be considered bullet proof makes it better than a Lorry but less useful than a Kangaroo, but the points do somewhat reflect that.
4th and 8th Indian Divisions
Gurkhas – Upgrades a rifle company’s HQ and Rifle platoons. Confident goes to Fearless and “Deadly” goes to “really f***ing deadly”. No. Wait. “Khukuri”. My bad. 2+ in assault is the same thing though. They also get “Mountaineers” and “Warcry” so any enemy that didn’t lose its head is more likely to lose its nerve. It’s pricey but arguably worth it. The cost is also mitigated as the support elements in the platoon, where it would be somewhat wasted, don’t need upgrading.
Indian – This upgrades the HQ and Rifle Platoons of a Rifle Company to Fearless and grants the “Warcry” rule. Its a point cheaper per rifle platoon so handy if you can’t spare the investment Gurkha needs. They still have assault 3+ after all!
Gurkhas and Indian can be used together so if you have a two formation force then you get the best and second best assault formations in the British! But likely little else!
2nd NZ Division
2nd NZ Division has two cards that either share the “2nd NZ Division” Title or have a text to allow its use. They also have two Formation cards so I’ll cover them here
Desert Veterans – This is a title card for Motor and Rifle companies and a straightforward one it is too; units in the formation gain a 3+ Rally to join the 3+ Counter Attack. It’s applied to all units bar Carriers and is relatively cheap, though it can quickly build up in large formations. Still, its definitely a good one to consider.
Māori – The Māori brigade formed part of 2nd NZ and were known for being fierce assault troops. This card upgrades the HQ and Rifle Platoons in a Rifle Company to Fearless and they gain the legally distinct from Warcry “Haka” ability. This forces the enemy to reroll the first successful counter-attack against an infantry unit in this formation, much like Warcry. It’s pricier than Desert Veterans but only applies to three-four platoons in the division and gives the NZ a solid assault formation.
New Zealand Sherman Armoured Squadron – 4th NZ Armoured Brigade gave 2nd NZ its own armoured support. This formation and Title card gives all the tanks “remount 3+”, even the non-Fireflies, for a flat cost for the Formation. Presumably this represents the Kiwi’s hoarding as many Diesel Mk IIIs as they could get! It also removes the Sherman 76mm option, limits the troops to three-strong troops (either three Sherman 75 or two-plus-Firefly) and states that the fourth box can only use the Firefly troop if you haven’t taken any Fireflies in the other three troops. Small troops are always a little nervy to use, but the remount helps keep them in the fight. I like the idea of concentrating the Fireflies. It lets each type of Sherman concentrate on its own job! Pair this up with a Māori formation and you have a very punchy force.
Divisional Cavalry Squadron – This Formation reflects the NZ own scout units. The NZ Divisional Cavalry were equipped with American Staghounds and Canadian Lynx (basically a Dingo with a Ford engine as used in the CMP trucks). They would eventually be dissolved to become infantry in October 1944, but they led the NZ division in its drives before then. You get a HQ with two-three Staghounds and an optional Dingo, two to five Staghound troops per the Support portion of the book (and strictly they should have the CS version in each troop), plus an optional unique unit, the Divisional Cavalry Troop with three Dingos. If you like Kiwis and you like Staghounds then its worth the look.
As you can see, the 2nd NZ Division is a very flexible Title that potentially combines enhanced infantry, armour and recce formations into one force!
1st Canadian Corps
There are a couple cards that have the “Canadian Division” title to represent 1st Canadian Corps, plus an untitled card that reflects their recce regiment.
Determination represents the Corps 5th Canadian Armoured Brigade. It can be applied to an Italy Sherman Armoured Squadron to make all units in the formation Remount 3+ for a flat cost for the formation.
Relentless represents the Corps 1st Canadian Division, as well as the Motor battalion component of 5th Armoured Brigade. It can be applied to a Rifle or Motor Company to gain Rally 3+ for its HQ and Rifle or Motor platoons for a cost per platoon.
Staghound Armoured Car Squadron – Not strictly a Canadian Division but the card is title-less, so can be used in a force alongside the Canadian titled units, and does represent the Royal Canadian Dragoons, as the Canadian Corp recce units, as much as it represents the British 17th Lancers.
This card formation allows you to take a Staghound HQ of 2-4 Staghounds, 2-5 Staghound Troops from the support section of the book, an optional Italy Motor Platoon and an optional Heavy Armoured Car Troop, another command card. This card represents the Autocar 75mm gun halftrack used to provide fire support and smoke screens and so it quite useful for a recce unit.
Additionally, you can use the “Staghound CS” card to better reflect the Canadian Dragoons by making up to two of the HQ Staghounds Staghound CS (3-inch) versions.
Recce Squadron represents the 1st Divisions own 4th Reconnaissance Regiment (4th Princess Lousie Dragoon Guards). It has 2-3 Fox Recce Patrols (itself a command card), each with three Fox (a Canadian armoured car that looks like a Humber but with a .50 in place of the BESA15 and a Ford truck engine) and two Otter LRC, 3-6 Universal Carriers, then optional Lotor Platoon, 6pdr platoon, 3” mortar platoon and a Heavy Armoured Car Troop. Heavy Armoured Car Troop. Quite a well-rounded recce unit!
Much like the NZ Division, It’s possible to combine three unique types of formation into one force thanks to the shared title (or lack of one).
6th South African Armoured Division
Having entered North Africa as an infantry division, the South Africans had been expanded and re-equipped to become an Armoured one, with Sherman tanks equipping the 11sth Armoured Brigade and joining the 12 Motorised Infantry Brigade. In May 1944 this was further reinforced by the addition of 24th Guards Brigade, a British formation.
“South African” is a Title card for an Italy Sherman Armoured Squadron. On the face of it the card doesn’t seem to do much other than say that a Force using this Title card can also make use of command cards with “1st & 24th Guards Brigades” in the same force. No stat changes. Nothing. “Okay, well. I could have done that just by not taking a title for the Sherman formation”, I here you say. Well, the other reason for taking this is that it allows you to use “Sherman (105mm) Armoured Troop”.
The “Sherman (105mm) Armoured Troop” Title card allows you to replace one Sherman Armoured Troop in the squadron with a troop made up of three 105mm Shermans, giving the formation a concentrated artillery unit but preventing it from having two in the HQ troop. Honestly, I’d certainly support three tanks in their own troop! It makes the bombardment better (no re-rolling hits!) and also saves the HQ troop having an identity crisis by combing 75m,m gun tanks with a 105mm artillery tank in the same troop.The “1st and 24th Guards Brigades” grants the infantry in a Rifle Company a 3+ Last Stand. Honestly, that’s fine. But once infantry are down to two stands and making Last Stands then they are pretty combat ineffective. I guess it potentially deprives the enemy victory points and can keep a formation in the fight but it feels very situational as an upgrade, plus the cost is per platoons so it starts small but quickly snowballs.
British Divisions
Of course, the British made up the majority of man-power in the Italian theatre’s British Empire forces!
We’ve already covered the Staghound Armoured Car Squadron and 1st & 24th Guards Brigades elsewhere. But there are others.
“Bagpipes” represents the various Scottish Highland regiments scattered through the army. Any Infantry or Gun unit from the Rifle Formation gets a 3+ rally if within 6” of the CO. You don’t need line of sight; the music clearly carries!
“Fighting Irish” represents the 38th (Irish) Brigade of the 78th Infantry Division. It grants a 3+ rally to a Rifle Formations HQ and Rifle platoons for a small cost per unit. I feel this “3+ rally for CO and Rifle platoons” is coming up a lot…
“Recce Squadron” is much like Candian Divisions version but reflects the more Recce regiments in the other Infantry Divisions. The structure is much the same as the Canadian card but the HQ Otter is replaced by the similart Humber LRC and the Fox Recce Patrol card is replaced by the Humber Recce Patrol card; 3 Humber IV with 37mm main guns and 2 Humber LRC. Again, this is very versatile recce formation.
It’s worth noting that the XXXXX Recce Patrol cards can also be used to upgrade the “Daimler Armoured Car Troop” from the force diagram so you can have a couple patrols in your army without needing a whole formation!
56th Reconnaissance Regiment “Recce Squadron” is a further twist on the format by substituting the Humber IV for M8 Greyhounds! Its slightly more expensive per patrol than the Humber IV/Humber LRC combo but the M8 Greyhound sports more armour (2/1/0 vs 1/0/0) and mobility (10” tactical vs 8” and faster dashes) and whilst its 37mm suffers from overworked (and I think the Humber should be as well and may have just been missed off the card) it does sport a .50 pintle gun!
Free Nations
Okay, so we have had Humber IV, Greyhounds and Fox Recce patrols. Next up must be II Polish Corps and their Staghound/Fox combo for their infantry division recce regiments? No, sadly.
The Poles have gone from having a whole section of the v3 book with their own Infantry company, Recce Squadron and Armoured Squadron, backed up by their own support to having… one card.
“Fate of the Nation” (not to be confused with “Fate of “a” Nation”) grants Fearless on a per unit cost to Sherman Armoured Squadrons and Rifle Companies. That’s it. No Fearless support. No cool Recce Squadron with a mix of Staghounds and Fox Armoured Cars. The Poles got Yalta’d in this edition.
Joining the Poles in the “Free Nation’s not called France” camp is Greece. 3rd Greek Mountain Brigade gets “Mountain Fighters”. This grants them Fearless and also “Mountaineers” and applies to all units in a Rifle Company formation. Its quite pricey though, with a significant per unit cost that is doubled for Rifle platoons!
Equipment, Personnel and Odds and Sods.
That’s the formation and titles done. Let’s look at everything else.
4.2 Inch Mortars, Sherman Mineflails and AVRE Assault Bridge are, again, much like the D-Day cards. All three have some merit depending on your playstyle.
Assault Pioneer Platoon is an additional unit for Rifle Company formations. It gives the formation an additional rifle platoon of which one Rifle/MG team must be converted to a Flame Thrower, plus the platoon gets to safely cross minefields and dig in, both on a 3+. Quite tasty for an offensive minded Infantry force, especially with Night Attack and one of the Title cards like Gurkhas but does require an extra infantry platoon beyond the two compulsory platoons so points investment needs to be considered.
Maiella Partisan Platoon means you can take a CIL Partisan Platoon in your British Force! Basically, the Italy’s book equivalent of Resistance forces from D-Day or Bulge. Handy for a cheap line-holder though they aren’t the stickiest of troops.
Lucky – Is it? Duncan disgarees.
Jalopies – Basically the same as in Bulge British. I’m still not convinced swapping the 37mm and Top 1 for .50, Top 0 and Cross 2+ is a zero cost downgrade but it does make the scout tanks scoutier and they do look cool!
Improvised Artillery – When the terrain can’t let your tanks, tank, turn them into artillery! Allied Troops adopted a number of improvised ramps to let tanks guns get sufficient elevation to be semi-useful artillery in the terrain of Italy. So long as you don’t move from your starting spot, you can fire 75mm and 76mm Shermans, as well as 3″ M10 as relatively short ranged FP4 artillery and gain Concealed. You can discard the card to move normally but lose the artillery shot. Relatively cheap (cost per 2 tanks) and handy for a defensive focused force.
Italy Armoured Recce Troop – Replaces a Stuart Recce Troop with a pair of Stuart Jalopies and a pair of 75mm Shermans. Presumably only the Stuarts get Scout and Spearhead?
Mentioned in Dispatches
Finally for the card review, let’s look at warriors. Most of these are for Rifle Companies.
Sepoy Kamal Ram of the 8th Punjab Regiment gives a Rifle Platoon’s unit leader a 2+ Assault and the whole platoon effectively get Scout. Quite a spendy card; you could get a couple stands of formation support assets for it, but handy for a platoon to cover ground to the target and then do something when it gets there!
Lt.Col. Sandy Thomas of the NZ Division requires a decent chunk of your points (think MG platoon and you aren’t too far off) but gives a Rifle Company a re-roll on one reserve dice a turn and lets you redeploy a deployed unit after the enemy has deployed: very useful for a defence orientated force.
Private Smokey Smith of the Seaforth Highlanders upgrades a rifle platoon unit leader to be able to fire as a Bren, Sten or PIAT team in each shooting or assault step. Additionally, the unit leader can also reroll a fair to hit roll when firing as a PIAT. Like Kamal, you’ll need to give up a couple stands elsewhere but this is a very versatile a card and gives a platoon two PIAT shots to try and stop a tank assault. One for the Canadians to think about. It is a shame that the card doesn’t allow you to take the Seaforth Highlanders tank hunter platoon from v3 that had Smokey Smith as one team, then joined by a few more PIAT! The Germans get tank hunter platoons after all!
Captain Paul Triquet is another Canadian. He ensures any unit with its leader within 6” and LoS of the CO passes *all* motivation checks on a 3+ and Blitz on a 3+. If you already have Relentless to Rally on 3+ then the former bit is handy, but the Blitz is the real differentiator, though I find Blitz is a lot more useful for Armour than Infantry but does have its uses. Cost wise he’s on par with Smokey Smith so a mid-level investment.
Sergeant Bill Nolan is another Canadian. He’s a very cheap card that gives a Rifle Platoon’s HQ a 2+ assault.
CSM George Ponsford is another Canadian, and a rare gun team Warrior! He gives a 6pdr unit cross 4+.
Hey, guess what? Another Canadian! RSM Angus Duffy lets units with their leader within 8” and LoS of the CO reroll failed motivation checks. He’s cheaper than Cpt Paul Triquet, trading the improved blitz of the Captain for a larger command “bubble”. Honestly, unless you are keen on having a better Blitz I’d say Duffy is better.
Next up is neither Canadian, nor even a human; its Wojtek The Soldier Bear! Basically, he’s a “Discard to use” card that allows one troop of 25pdr to count as having twice the guns it has. Make a 4-gun battery count as an 8 gun one or help an understrength one keep up its fire. The cost isn’t a big one, especially if considered as a % of a 25pdr battery!
Next up we get some more Kiwis
Major Anthony Maurice Everist of the NZ 19th Armoured Regiment can issue “Cross Here” orders to units from the formation who have their unit leader with 8” and LOS. If he does so, the unit can still shoot and assault but can only move tactical albeit with the improved “cross”. He’s mid-tier pricey but, if you’re lpaying on proper Italian tables, could be very handy.
Lt Col Robert Leslie McGaffin, also of the 19th Armoured Regiment is a cheaper Warrior option and grants unit with a leader within 8” and LoS a Tactics 3+. Blitz and Shoot and Scoots abound! I think I prefer him of the two options.
Major Henry William Northdroft of the 28th (Maori) Battalion is one of the pricier cards but lets units from the formation with a leader in 6” and LoS cross minefields on a 3+ *and* blitz on a 2+. Tricky one this as you can’t assault if you blitz so not playing to the strengths of the Maori. But getting across minefields is certainly worth consideration. It wouldn’t be first choice of card though.
Captain John Henry Cound Brunt of the 6th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment not only fills the title box up of the card but can-do Smokey Smith’s trick of firing as a SMG, Bren or PIAT, albeit only in the shooting step. Additionally, units with a leader in 6” and LOS can pass rally on a 3+. That’s a solid card! Not quite as flexible as Smokey Smith but being able to shoot as a PIAT in the shooting phase can be handy and the Rally bonus certainly helps British units.
Lt Alfred Johnstone Bowker of the 2nd Coldstream Guards allows a rifle platoon to use Scout and pass rally on a 3+. Relatively cheap, but the Rally is redundant if you already take the Guards “Unflappable” card (which if he is Coldstream Guards you really should be doing, but appreciate the warriors aren’t directly linked like that…). Scout is handy for getting the infantry to close up without being shot up. It’s a useful card, especially if you are using the Warrior in a non-Guards unit (sigh).
Major David Walter Blois is a rare beast. Totes OP one might say. He upgrades a Universal Carrier OP or Dismounted OP to have skill 3+ when ranging in and to always use that rating even if the artillery has a lower skill. This is a weird card, and not only because the “Dismounted OP” doesn’t even appear in the book. Sure, it improves a Universal Carrier OP to a 3+ ranging. But a Sherman OP already has that, being Veteran, and has armour and is the exact same cost as a UC OP, even before the not inconsiderable cost of this card! 25pdr, the SP artillery and the infantry mortars are all Veteran so he doesn’t help range those in (other than by eliminating the UC being Trained for ranging) so the only thing his ability helps with is… ranging in CS tanks? I feel like I’m missing something with this card because I really can’t see why you would take it.
So, there we have my thoughts on the British Command Cards. There are some things that I find odd omissions (.50 AA MG for Shermans and Carriers, most of the Polish corps but certainly their recce, 2pdr AT Guns) and it does feel like lots of the formation title cards are just “make the Rifles fearless” or “add Rally 3+” but the cards generally add a lot of flavour options to the game.
Phew! That’s a lot of cards. Next article I will take a look at using some of these cards to create some thematic British lists.
Post Comment