I've said in some of my other threads that I felt like creating an Italian faction would be a poor decision on Relic's part....however, while I still feel there's some truth to that, it doesn't stop me from posting ideas of what it would look like if they did do this:

First off, a big thank you to LordRommel's enormous thread, as that definitely gave me some inspiration when creating this faction. However, unlike in that thread, which focuses on a faction based on the RSI, I've opted to go down the route of the Regio Esercito. I will comment on what my thoughts on an Italian faction are at the end but first, let's discuss this design.

The design is basically a triple split opening, allowing you to go either T1 or T2 or T3. To facilitate this kind of flexibility, T0 has your engineer unit, your mainline infantry and your main suppression platform out of the box. The aim is to have a strong Italian early and mid game, with the faction being relatively weak in the lategame. Another unit in T0 is your early harassment vehicle, in the form of the Carro Veloce L3/35, it requires any other tier to be constructed however. It would start with double machine guns and probably constitute one of the most beefy early game harassment vehicles in the game, think upgraded Universal carrier from Coh2. Like the Universal Carrier in Coh2, it has a flamethrower upgrade, but also an AT Rifle upgrade, both of which require further teching. 

In accordance with my suggestion for substitutable units, you can swap out the Carro Veloce L3/35 with the Camionetta SPA-Viberti AS42, the main difference being that the former is more heavily armoured and slower, the latter is faster and less tanky. The upgrades would also be different, as the AS42 would have an AA gun upgrade and a AT Rifle upgrade, so the substitution has meaning and what you will prefer will depend a lot on your strategy. 

Then we come to the elusive triple tier start. T1 has a light mortar, which serves as your early game stationary indirect fire platform. T2 has the Autocannone da 75/27 Su FIAT-SPA T.L.37, which is best compared to a lightly armoured Stummel, it would be primarily used for dealing with MGs, should have smoke, an auto attack range of 40 and a barrage range of 50. Units like Humbers and Quads would naturally shred it and would probably be the best early game counters. Then finally in T3 we have the Fiat Autoprotetto S37 Troop Carrier, which should be exactly like the M3 Scout car or the 250 in that it serves as the open top clown car utility, which we don't have as much of in this game. It would also have a light AT gun upgrade. One of the nice quirks of this design is that each tier grants the Fucilieri, the main line infantry, a different squad upgrade, which factors into your decision making when picking a tier and encourages horizontal teching. 

However, another aspect of the design that encourages horizontal teching is the 2 shared tiers, which I have labelled Tier Alpha and Tier Beta. Both of these tiers unlock units in multiple Tier structures, encouraging back teching and enabling more varied build paths. Within Tier 1 and Tier Alpha, we have the Breda 20/65 mod.35 AA Gun, which is a wheeled gun team not unlike the Flak 30. We also have the Lancia 3Ro, which is the primary tow vehicle of the faction. It can be upgraded in a variety of directions including ambulance, mobile howitzer and mobile AA/AT platform, depending on the tech purchased. The Lancia can also be substituted for the Fiat SPA 38R, which comes with its own plethora of upgrades. 

Within Tier 2, Tier Alpha, we have the shock light vehicle tier, with the Autoblinda armoured car, the 8-Rad of the Italians, and the Semovente L40 da 47/32, which is a light Marder type unit best used for dealing with Humbers, Greyhounds and other light vehicles. Finally, in Tier 3, Tier Alpha, we have the Cannone da 75/32, which is the primary AT Gun for the faction, and the Obice 75/18 Modello 34, which is your primary indirect fire solution, more akin to the Pak Howitzer and ISG. 

Once Tier Alpha is unlocked you have several options, obviously to can tech horizontally to any tier you haven't built, which will grant you access to a plethora of units on the cheap given that the cost of the tech structures is low, but you can also tech to T4 or tech to Tier Beta. In Tier 1, Tier Beta, you have the Bersaglieri, which fill the role of late game advanced infantry. In Tier 2, Tier Beta, you get access to the Cannone da 149/40 M.35, which is your towed heavy indirect fire unit, akin to the Bishop in function. In Tier 3, Tier Beta, we have the Carro Armato M11/39, which in this faction serves the role of being a light tank, primarily used against infantry but should also be able to tango with Stuarts etc. 

Then we reach T4, which is your late game line up. This includes the Carro Armato M15/42, which is the improved version of the Carro Armato for DAK, acting as your medium tank, probably closer to the P3 on that spectrum. Then there's the Semovente M43 da 105/25 Assault Gun, which serves as your lategame anti-infantry tank, between a Brumbar and Stug D in power. Finally we have the Semovente M41M da 90/53, your lategame tank destroyer. 

The 12.7mm Breda-SAFAT would be a HMG team of a power not unlike the Dskh from Coh2. What I'm thinking with the Macchi c.205 would be a loiter where the sole purpose of the planes is to shoot down other loiters and planes. Given the preponderance of aircraft in Coh3, I could see this being popular, especially as you could use it both defensively and offensively, as well as being counterable. With the Paradrop reinforce squad, my thinking here is that this should be something you select on a squad outside of combat which reinforces the squad or team weapon to full with Paracadutisti. For the SM.79 Sparviero Flexible Bomb Load Carpet Bombing, how this works is that you can decide on the fly just how long that carpet bombing will extend to, with a minimum of say 15 to a maximum of 35 range. To illustrate:

Let's say X is your first click and Y is your second, which marks the end and direction of the run, the default bombing run is diagram A, but you can drag the cursor of point Y as far as you want, with a maximum of either 35 range or when you don't have enough munitions banked up for the strike. This gives you the flexibility of deciding how much you want to spend and where it will land. 

For the Breda Ba. 88 Lince 20mm Joint Strafes, you could take the flexible length strafe idea from above and apply it here, alternatively, you could have a flexible number of strafes:

So let's say point X is your first click, if you drag point Y right, this adds strafes, the cost of which would be shown on your cursor and is limited by your munitions bank. Then your final click you can decide the direction. This gives you a highly flexible off map which you can use to perform area denial or target individual squads. 

The Cannone da 75/50 would be between the Pak 40 and Flak 88 in power, towed and a 360 degree traverse. Ascari would be Ostruppenesque. My thinking with the Breda Ba. 65 Dual Dive Bomb is that this should be 2 separate dive bombs that you click in 2 different places, within a fixed distance of each other.

Now, for the Cannone da 149/40 Shell Surplus Barrage, my thinking is that this is a barrage with a flexible munitions cost, but works differently from Coh2 scavenge arty. To illustrate: 

Say diagram A denotes what a standard barrage is. Your first click is point X and your second click is point Y, which controls the radius of the circle. Let's say that costs 150 munitions for a barrage with a diameter of 20. However, let's say you want that off map to cover a broader area, then on your second click you can drag the area of the circle out further and as you drag it, not only does the area of the barrage increase but also the cost of the barrage ticks at 5 meter intervals and say an extra 10 munitions. The maximum diameter of the barrage would be 45 or whatever your munitions count can afford, whichever is the most limiting. The cursor should show you how much it will cost in munitions as you drag point Y across, with the maximum cost being 200. The number of shells per area should be exponential, so a bigger area should add a disproportionate number of shells (kind of like a bulk but discount), thus encouraging larger barrages. This off map is useful because you can tailor it to the needs of the moment.

False Flag operation would be an ability that is the opposite of Radio Silence, so instead of hiding all your unit icons on your opponents maps, it should instead add a bunch of fake ones. Arditi would be Stormtrooper like. 

Mark Team Weapons would be an ability where once activated, opponent team weapons are visible in the FOW. Esploratori would be similar to US scouts, their Mark Strategic Point ability would be targetable on points and would make it easier to cap for other squads. I could see the Cannone da 65/17 M.13 having 2 fire modes, one for direct fire and another for indirect. Top Up Weapon would be an ability that you would use on vehicles/ATGs/AA Guns/Indirect which would increase the targets ROF for a given number of shots. This isn't duration based, but shots based, so let's say its a 20 round ROF buff, although it would vary by unit, it would fire the 20 rounds at the accelerated rate and then once expended, the unit returns back to normal ROF. You would then need to mirco the munitions vehicle again to get the bonus. 

The Legionari's 'Field Bolster' ability is similar to merge, however where merge is used to reinforce a squad back to full model count, Field Bolster can only be used on squads which are already at full models but adds a maximum of an extra 1/2 models to whatever squad it is targeted on, depending on the squad type. For example, the Fucilieri are 5 model squads, if the Legionari Field Bolster it, it goes up to 7 models. The Breda M.37 is 4 models, but after being Field Bolstered, it becomes 5. However, the hitch is that once that squad loses the extra 1/2 models and is then reinforced, it will return back to the original model count, requiring you as the player to Field Bolster it again to get the increased model count. Think of it like a temporary, micro dependent increased squad sizes, or another way of thinking of it is like the Overshield in Halo. 

The Moto Guzzi Alce would be one of the fastest, if not the fastest, vehicle in the game. It should only be able to fire when stationary. Whenever it captures a resource territory, it would grant an immediate bonus, for example, capturing a +16 immediately adds +7 to your munitions count. This would encourage active use of the unit into the lategame. 

Fortify Strategic Point would be an ability which infantry can target on points, which takes about 5-10 seconds to complete, but slows down the capping of that point by about 20 seconds. So like booby traps, it slows down your opponent when they try to cap territory.  The Propaganda Emplacement I see working somewhat like the 'Voice of Kane' in Kane's wrath, where the emplacement emits an aura which augments nearby units. You could also have it apply a debuff to your opponent's units within range. Mark Target Overwatch Artillery would be an off map which you target on a specific unit and that unit will get shelled so long as line of sight is maintained. 

The L3/38 would have fundamentally better MG performance over the regular Carro Veloce. The Carrello Portamunizioni  requires some explanation. My thinking with this is that its a brand new unit type, which loosely can be defined as a support weapon. How it works is that infantry squads can crew it, push it around, vehicles can tow it, etc. When in a position, it provides an aura which in this case reduces costs of abilities and increases ROF. However, the unit shouldn't require pop cap and moreover, you can actually manually decrew it and it will still provide you the benefits. So for example, let's say it spawns in your base and you want to get faster frontline repairs, you can crew it with a squad, wheel it over to a house near the frontline and then decrew it. Units within its vicinity would still be benefiting from the aura. When you want to move it, recrew it again, or tow it, to a new location. The beauty of this dynamic is that your opponents can steal these units from you like an ATG, so while they don't take up popcap and would be relatively cheap (say 50 to 100 manpower), you're still incentivised to protect them. You can also attack move them with AT guns etc. I think it would make for an interesting dynamic, but would need to be coded from scratch. It also indirectly makes tow yet more useful. 

In terms of global upgrades, my thinking is that the Italians should be focused on mobility and flanking, especially as the precedent with Bersaglieri in DAK has already been established. Therefore, their upgrade tier (Field Communications Centre) would provide different mobility related upgrades to augment the faction.

This design is made to have a plethora of different tech paths which are viable, which should allow for diverse and unpredictable strategies, making them fun to play with and against. In terms of what the flaws of doing an Italian faction would be, I think its fair to say that it would cannibalise the battlegroup possibilities for DAK and Wehr. The issue is, its not entirely clear who the opposing allied faction would be. Overall I still prefer the Ostheer + Soviet and Pacific alternatives, but I wouldn't be unhappy to see something like this!. 

My Other Designs:

- DAK Redesign.

- Brit Redesign.

- US Suggestions.

- Wehr Suggestions.

- Soviet Proposal.

- Ostheer Proposal.

- Japanese Proposal.

- USMC Proposal

- Commonwealth Burma Proposal.

- Free French Proposal.

- Hungarian Proposal.

- Luftwaffe Field Division

My General Feedback

- Feature Request and Bug Fixes

Just a short note: I made an Royal Italian Army Essay (click) too ;)

For the stuff here:
From a "pure weapon based" point of view I would have a number of questions:

1st: 47/32 and 65/17: What is the differeance between both in your concept? In the italian armed forces both guns performed in the same role: infantry direct heavy fire support against soft and hard targets. As far as I have seen both guns were in the same role with the same units. The 65/17 was "prefered" when the soldiers were in need of a heavier HEAT round. When u are looking for a heavy indirect weapon here why no 75mm version Italian was using? 

2nd: Why Bassotto and 90/53?

Not sure whats the purpose here? The Bassotto had the better HE round but like the 90/53 it was a potent tank killer plus the fact that the Bassotto was smaller and more armored aka better protected compared to the 90/53. So I guess the Bassotto is your "soft counter" and the 90/53 is the "hard counter" here?

For the rest: 

I hadnt all the time to read everything but its interesting that you took the same "core idea" for an italian faction with an T1-2-3 opening. 

My biggest problem with your concepts (in general) is the vehicle heavy design and the "absent" of infantry varity in the base tiers. The italian army was a heavy infantry focused army with a lot of experts like the Bersaglieri, Gustatatori, Paracadutisti, Arditi, Alpini, fanteri Indigena (aka Ascari) and many more (Squadristi Camicie Nere, CC.NN, ect). So I think its a wasted opportunity to turn the italians into an "PE" faciton you are proposing. Furthermore I'm not sure that I can see any identity at all? 

I like the "base line" because its is close to my ideas and concepts so its seems to me that we had "hit" a sort of core theme (flexability to create pressure to compensate the lack of "super weapons) for a potential italian faction but I dont like the chosen units and the lack of infantry based units and/or heavy weapon. Furhtermore I would keep units like APC S.35 or a P.26/40 tank for a combined arms BG (Callin APC with upgrade options, nice infantry and an ability based P.26/40 could be a cool BG pick).

Keep up ypur work.

LordRommel wrote:

etc

That was quick.

I made some slight adjustments to the design based on the feedback. For the Bassotto vs 90/53, I see the difference here being of role, the former being more of anti infantry solution, soft countering vehicles and then the 90/53 is your hard vehicle counter, more vulnerable all round. 

Regarding the infantry, 2 points. First, if we take a step away from the historical perspective and take a step closer to the factions that actually get developed for the game;

US - 9 Infantry/Team Weapons - 9 Vehicles. 

Brits - 7 Infantry/Team Weapons - 8 Vehicles.

DAK - 8 Infantry/Team Weapons - 14 Vehicles.

Wehr - 11 Infantry/Team Weapons - 8 Vehicles.

Regio Esercito - 8 Infantry/Team Weapons - 10 Vehicles. 

This is an unremarkable ratio of infantry to vehicles, its only Wehr that is the outlier, and this doesn't even include upgraded vehicles which are often totally different models. Its kinda funny though, because this was the concern raised for my Japanese design as well, and that has a ratio of 12 infantry/support weapons to 6 vehicles, which was too many vehicles. Either way, I always put fun gameplay designs and strategic diversity first over historical accuracy, its the way it should be I feel. Having said that, the plan was to include a majority of the infantry mentioned above in the battlegroups, I haven't got around to that yet. Regarding the identity its the same story, I rarely put these designs up in a finished state but tinker with them as I get new ideas. The Japanese faction took several weeks before I was content with it. 

The feedback was good though, made me rethink some things.