Super secret tech preview....

So my last few posts (all of them?) have revolved around painting but I thought, for a change, I might actually blog something game related in advance of a game of Flames of War at the club this Saturday.

One of my club-mates and I have both been talking about playing more Flames - we both have plenty of armies lying around - and we've decided to play 2000 points on an 8x6. For both of us, the game is more fun and looks cooler like this - it's also novel to have artillery that doesn't cover the table and where transport can rock around the place without getting shot off the board. 

So this (brief diversion into painting here) has got me to complete a few jobs that have been sitting on the painting table for way, way too long. Our last game got me to finish up my ground mounted 90mm AA guns to support my Compagnia Carri and, at the time of writing, I'm most of the way through the last 10 stands of Fucilieri and the pride of my company, my Semovente 90s - one of the less successful Italian automotive inventions - to take on an American Armoured Company. 

The Army List Part

So the list I'm going to break out this weekend is a Compagnia Fucilieri (Sicily):

HQ

2 Companies of Fucilieri with 17 Rifle Teams and 3 Brixia 45mm Mortars

Full Fucilieri HMGs

Full Fucileri Mortars

Full 65/17 Regimental Gun Platoon

Full 47/32 Anti-tank Gun Platoon

4 Semovente 47/32s

5 Renault R35s

4 Semovente 90/53s with Ammo Carriers

2 20/65 Breda Portee AA Guns

Full 75/27 Artillery Battery

Full 100/17 Artillery Battery

Sporadic Luftwaffe JU-87 Support 

The Super Secret Tech Part

This army is enormous (at 12 platoons) and is forced to defend in a Defensive Battle scenario so it's going to rely on it's guns to get some initial work done before it comes charging out of it's trenches to finish the job. Points for optimism right? 

With it's mostly Regular rating it's got good odds of mostly rolling up Reluctant for it's motivation and Trained for it's training on the 8 Million Bayonets table so I should be okay with the sitting still part. The charging out of the trenches bit, less so. The Fusilier platoons should be pretty hard to move once they're intermingled with the dug in 47mm Anti-tank Guns and the 65mm Regimental Guns and I'll be relying on getting some good 8 Million Bayonets rolls for the Artillery as they're probably going to be the workhorses here. 

The Semovente 47/32s and the Renault R35s are my mobile element and they should be able to give any of the lighter American vehicles a bit of worrying. If I get stuck in a gun battle with anything better armoured than an M3 halftrack then I'm going to be looking at all sorts of bad times. The Semovente 90/53s are the ace in the hole if, and it's a sizeable if, we roll up a defensive battle. If not, well, let's just say I'll be firing on the move and as they're Regular too, they're not going to stick around if they start getting shot back at.  

I'll make sure I get some photos on Saturday and let you all know how it goes.