Building a Compagnia Mitraglieri

Building a Compagnia Mitraglieri by Mike Haught One of the Special Forces included in Burning Empires is the Compagnia Mitraglieri. The Mitraglieri (translated as machine-gun), were the main stay of Italian defences in the Sahara. They had plenty of firepower to contend with enemy infantry and provided the more mobile truck and camel-mounted troops with a safe haven. When the Italian army reorganised itself using the new AS42 pattern, the Mitraglieri were transformed into Misto platoons, which included rifle, heavy machine-gun, anti-aircraft, and anti-tank squads. This small platoon had a tremendous amount of firepower available and also made it more durable against vehicle attacks. Learn more about Burning Empires here...

Early War Mitraglieri Building an Early War Mitraglieri force is really quite simple. At the very minimum, your force will have a Company Headquarters with two Command Rifle teams and an optional HMG. Your two mandatory combat platoons will have one command and up to eight Rifle teams as well as up to six Mod 37 HMG teams. Learn how to paint Italians Uniforms here...

Below: A Mitraglieri Platoon in a Desert Fort.

While this platoon is not available as its own product, you can construct your necessities using the following: Learn more about the Desert Fort here... Learn more about the Desert Fort Ruins here...

Number Required Product Code Name (click on the link to visit the spotlight) One IT701 Company HQ (Fucilieri) Two IT702 Fucilieri Platoon Two IT704 Machine-gun Platoon (Fucilieri)

Below: Company HQ (Fucilieri) (IT701).

Since the Mitraglieri were mostly Libyan troops, feel free to use the soon to be released Libyan Platoon (IT752) in place of (or in addition to) the Fucilieri Platoon above.

Below: Fucilieri Platoon (IT702).

In the end you will have a few extra small bases and one heavy machine-gun, but you will use all of the rest. The Mitraglieri were often deployed as two companies stationed relatively close enough to each other to send reinforcements if needed. You can use the extra pieces left over as well as another Fucilieri Platoon and Machine-gun Platoon to field a third Mitraglieri platoon as a support option if you would like.

Below: Machine-gun Platoon (Fucilieri) (IT704).

Mid War Mitraglieri Misto platoons are a bit more complicated. Each platoon has one command and two normal Rifle teams, one Mod 37 HMG team, one 47/32 gun team, and one 20/65 gun team. You will need the following to field four Misto Platoons and a Headquarters Platoon:

Number Required Product Code Name (click on the link to visit the spotlight) One IT701 Company HQ (Fucilieri) One IT702 Fucilieri Platoon One IT704 Machine-gun Platoon (Fucilieri) Two IT560 47/32 gun (x2) Four ISO501 20/65 gun

Below: 47/32 gun (x2) (IT560).

Once again, the Misto were mostly Libyan troops, feel free to use the Libyan Platoon (IT752) when it is released in place of (or in addition to) the Fucilieri Platoon above. Right: 20/65 gun (ISO501).

Mitraglieri Support Platoons For the most part support platoons are nothing unusual in terms of platoon organization. The only real exception to this is the Meharisti platoon. These were camel-mounted troops that patrolled the desert between Mitraglieri outposts. They never rode into battle mounted on camels, so the troops are modelled as infantry teams. These troops were Libyan, so use a couple of Libyan Fucileri Platoon packs for your Meharisti. The one notable difference from regular Libyan troops is that they only had one light machine-gun per squad of 23 men, but this is only a small detail. ~ Mike.