L3/35 lanciafiamme
So I've been rummaging through the Italian army list, looking for a way to deal with the Valentines. Aircraft help, and artillery can too, but they both have their issues. Aircraft can not strike within 16" of friendlies, and artillery are subject to deployment issues and pinning. There has to be another option. So I started combing through the lists.
What I stumbled upon were the L3/35 lanciafiamme. I've always ruled out L3/35 tankettes before, their armour is super thin, and even with the anti-tank rifle upgrade they can't do much. But add a flamethrower, we might be on to something! So I checked the flamethrower rules.
Turns out they are incredibly dangerous, but have severe drawbacks too. Their range is 4", they can't fire if the unit moved more than 6", and may only fire a single shot. Add the terrible L3/35 armor to that (zero), and it's easy to understand why I overlooked them.
But they have some positives too. To Hit is a skill test, which with my 8 Million Bayonet rule, is likely a 4+ as trained, with no cover modifiers. It is ROF 3, even on the move, and auto penetrates with a 5+ firepower to kill. The 5+ firepower isn't great, but with an auto penetrate, all I need is two hits to kill anyway. So a unit of 3 gets 9 dice, about 4-5 hits on average. So I'm probably looking at 1 killed outright, and if I'm lucky, it may be more.
But then I look at the downsides again. They are EXTREMELY short range, and super fragile. So while they may deliver the knockout punch, I'll need to be very careful with them if they are going to survive long enough to deliver it.
At least they are cheap - under 100 points for a unit of 3. Now all I need to do is get them on the field and see how they play.
Posted via m.livejournal.com.
What I stumbled upon were the L3/35 lanciafiamme. I've always ruled out L3/35 tankettes before, their armour is super thin, and even with the anti-tank rifle upgrade they can't do much. But add a flamethrower, we might be on to something! So I checked the flamethrower rules.
Turns out they are incredibly dangerous, but have severe drawbacks too. Their range is 4", they can't fire if the unit moved more than 6", and may only fire a single shot. Add the terrible L3/35 armor to that (zero), and it's easy to understand why I overlooked them.
But they have some positives too. To Hit is a skill test, which with my 8 Million Bayonet rule, is likely a 4+ as trained, with no cover modifiers. It is ROF 3, even on the move, and auto penetrates with a 5+ firepower to kill. The 5+ firepower isn't great, but with an auto penetrate, all I need is two hits to kill anyway. So a unit of 3 gets 9 dice, about 4-5 hits on average. So I'm probably looking at 1 killed outright, and if I'm lucky, it may be more.
But then I look at the downsides again. They are EXTREMELY short range, and super fragile. So while they may deliver the knockout punch, I'll need to be very careful with them if they are going to survive long enough to deliver it.
At least they are cheap - under 100 points for a unit of 3. Now all I need to do is get them on the field and see how they play.
Posted via m.livejournal.com.