Italian Army

[ChuckBerger]

Yep, even the Italians are too strong in DC3!

The 52nd and 9th Motorised divisions in DC3 are included as non-motorised units with 10000 infantry, 70 light AT guns and 40 light artillery. The infantry are rated as even less capable than Russian conscripts, though a bit more durable and certainly better trained. In practice they probably perform about the same as Russian regulars.

The trouble is that the Italian divisions were 2-regiment divisions, not 3-regiments as in German divisions. Both of these "semi-motorised" divisions had a blackshirt regiment attached, but these were troops of dubious value. At best, and incorporating some corps-level odds and sods, each of these divisions should start with 6000 or 7000 infantry, not 10000. Experience should be reduced to 30, probably.

Similarly, the figure of 70 AT guns is too generous by far. Each division had one intrinsic AT gun company, plus another attached for this campaign. Again taking into account some corps-level assets, each division should have 30-40 AT guns tops.

The third division is the 3rd Cavalry division. (The name is correct on the full unit info shown in game, but the counter shows it as "3Mot" - should say "3Cav"). This is a true cavalry division, complete with horses and all. It is shown in game as a regular infantry division, exactly the same as the other 2. Instead, it should be a cavalry division, with perhaps 7000 Cavalry, 30 AT guns, 40 light artillery. Experience should remain at 35, and Italian cavalry should be more highly rated than Italian infantry.

The effect of these changes would again be to soften the effectiveness of the Axis Allied troops, and generally make life harder for the German player in AGS, as the Italian units would be far less able to hold a hex on their own against a Russian counter-attack.

[governato]

what sources did you use?

I have fudn this book "Regio esercito: the italian royal army in mussolini's wars, 1935-1943" but I have not read it yet.