The Commander Series Forum

Hi everyone. Another issue for you.

Has anyone used allies in one of your games? This was asked by a friend who wants to use italians in north africa and wants to field some germans as allies.

We are playing with 6mm figures and between 2.000-4.500pts.

1) Should be used as a seperate battlegroup with his own CO and BP?

2) How do you limit how many points can be used for an ally?

3) There can't be any allies?

Any experience or oppinion would be appreciated.

I've played a couple of games with a mixed German/Italian force.
For a big game we used seperate battlegroups with their own COs and roughly 50/50 split. For a smaller game we had a single German command in an Italian battlegroup and did not allow the German HQ to order Italians and visa versa.

Graham

Greetings

There are a number of examples of mixed German-Italian battlegroups in North Africa at various levels.

One example is KG Latini (formed Feb 25, 1943) apparently with:
2 Kompanien/Fallschirmjäger- Pio-Btl.11 (i.e. 2 coys)
Pak- Zug, [from] 10. /Luftwaffen-Regiment Barenthin
4. / Artillerie- Regiment 90 (battery)
6. /Flak-Abteilung 53 (battery)
Bersaglieri-Regiment 10 (LXIII. Batl.)
Feld-Batl. Tunisien.4 (staff and 3 companies)

Here the CO would be Obstlt Latini.

Another is KG Mitte formed on 23 October 1942 with (according to Nafziger 943GMXA):
3/8th Panzer Regiment
Staff/,III/155th Panzer Grenadier Regiment
13th Co., 155th Panzer Grenadier Regiment
(2 150mm & 4 75mm Infantry Sturmgeschutz)
15th Co., 155th Panzer Grenadier Regiment (captured artillery)
III/33rd Artillery Regiment
1 Motorized Battery (4-100mm K18 guns & 2 LMGs)
2 Motorized Batteries (4-150mm sFH 18 howitzers & 2 LMGs)
Staff/, IV/133rd (Italian) Panzer Regiment
23rd Company (?), 12th Bersaglieri Regiment
29th Btry (?), 3rd Artillery Regiment
556th (Italian) Assault Gun Battalion

A web article gives the commander as Major Schemmel.

Also worthy of note is Witzig's KG in late 1942 which had a company of SP 47mm Semoventes - it's a nice little battlegroup with elite para engineers :0)

4th Co/, 190th Panzer Battalion
11th Parachute Pioneer Battalion (3 cos)
5th Btry/190th Artillery Regiment
1 Company, 47mm PAK-Sfl (i.e the Italian SPs)
1 20mm Flak Battery

Other German KGs are sometimes found with supporting Italian artillery.

In early 1941 Rommel's intiial operation against Tobruk saw at least two mixed German-Italian columns: Vorasuabteilung Schwerin (a reinforced Italian company from Ariete with a German AT company) and KG Olbrich (German but with the Italian VII Medium Tank battalion).

Note that all these are with German commanders - however that may be a function of the sources.

Regards

Edward

Ok, thanks for the tips. Will be interesting trying this line of the game.