Go Rams!
Figuring out how to portray the 132nd Ariete Armored Divisions takes some thought. Though the unit was one of the major combat units in the Axis forces in Africa, it's relatively difficult to find clear order of battle information for it.
It's universally agreed that the Division's two major front-line combat units were the 32nd Tank Regiment and the 8th Bersaglieri Regiment, but it's somewhat harder to discover what was the exact composition of these units at any given time. Did the 32nd have three battalions or four? As for the 8th Bersaglieri, it seems to have started the campaign with two motorized and one motorcycle battalions and then moved to two motorized and one weapons battalion. Some sources have the regiment at 3 motorized infantry battalions, however.
For our purposes, the Ariete will have the following company-sized units:
2 HQ
1 FOA
9 M13/40 companies
3 L3/38 companies
2 AB41 recon troops
1 Motorcycle recon company
6 Infantry companies
2 Machinegun companies
1 Mortar company
4 47mm Anti-Tank Gun batteries
3 75mm Artillery batteries
2 Engineer companies
It will also have 2 German 88mm ATG/AAA batteries attached. I wish O8 would release the Italian 90mm AAA guns, but for now, these will do.
Basing is underway as I right this.
Posts
You've said you play Blitzkrieg Commander with each base as a company.
ReplyDeleteI've just received my copy of these rules and (as far as I can see) they only talk about units representing a platoon or section/single vehicle.
What changes do you make for the scale you use?
I basically divide all distances by ten and call the resulting number an inch. This gives about 200 meters to the inch.
ReplyDeleteSeems to work well so far.
This is a great post, thanks
ReplyDelete