I would love to have seen this as a "“War in North Africa” campaign rather than just Tunis - and Matilda’s could have ben part of it.
Same with Moscow actually being “Barbarossa to Moscow”, Normandy being “Normandy to hte Rhine”, and Berlin being something appropriate - “Bagration to Berlin” perhaps.
I think the Enlisted progression system would really suit having different weapons coming at different chronological stages of a campaign, so you could progress a campaign chronologically as you move up the tech tree - and then if you wanted to limit the tech you were using you could go “back” and play earlier levels/times too.
It would also provide an organic level of matchmaking.
I am gonna focus on Italy as the British have tons of options especially if they go the M24 route like they did with Normandy (including active British tanks not in Tunisia).
First, I disagree with the Souma, just because it’s armor will be crazy good for a first tank. And it’s French. But it is legitimate in that Italy had some, although all of them were in Italy I believe.
Now let’s look at the Italian vehicles POSSIBLE
Medium Tanks: M11/39, M13/40, M14/41 (M15 and P40 were completed after May 1943)
Of all of these only the M14/41 was Present at Tunisia as far as I can tell. Thus for HISTORICAL purposes it would be the only one available. It should be in the game as an early tank as it isn’t great but would match up okay with Stuarts or Crusaders. And it was actually there. The M11/39 only saw limited production and they (excepting 4 prototypes in Italy) were destroyed by the time of the Tunisia campaign. It has a sponson mounted 37mm gun and a turret with two MG’s. Technically possible it is a pretty terrible tank and no need to stretch to add it. The M13/40 is basically a previous iteration of the M14/41. Not in the Tunisia campaign, but existing in the Italian Army, it is technically possible, but not really necessary. So, looks like the M14/41 is it. Still, it would work as a first/early tank depending on the competition.
Light Tanks: AB41 and L6/40. (AB42 and AB 43 were completed after Tunisia) The AB 41 is a four wheeled armored car. As it was deployed to Tunisia it is also quite historical It is a light armored care with an automatic 20mm. It would be a lot like the Pz IIC in the Moscow Campaign, but less armor and worse cross country mobility. The L6/40 is a very light tank (6 tons and a 2 man crew) with a 20mm autocannon like the AB 41. Very similar to the Pz IIC but smaller. This would work better than an AB 41 in that it has better armor and tracks. It was also deployed to Tunisia. Both could be found in the 15th ReCO in the 131 Centauro Armored Division.
For Semoventes there is only the Semovente 75/18 at the time of Tunisia. (Yes there were better Semoventes of this type but none were really completed till after Tunisia) It was also deployed there. We have it in the CBT and it’s problems are obvious. However, I think it could still be a vehicle if given HE rounds and potentially it’s HEAT rounds. This would be something for a Premium squad maybe? It’s not great but a big 75mm HE round could really mess some infantry up.
For the Top end Tank Squad. I am with the Original Post. Pz IV leading to Tiger or Panther or something along those lines. IT MUST be German. The Italians don’t really have any options. Unless they want top end British tanks to be artificially limited.
This was only with the Mussolini division That I’m not even sure had formed before May 1943. Italians did not use any German tanks in Tunisia. And the M division was disbanded while in training because of the Armistice in September.
they are just photos
italy used panzer 3 in tunisia and sicily given the uselessness of the m13 / 14 and the fact that after the fall of libya the italian forces were merged with rommel’s forces as you say they were not used directly but out of necessity and that is it does not mean that they did not use them, for example the Italians during the battle in libya used the French tanks captured here too it was a case dictated by the necessity however the idea of giving the panzer 3 N, to Italy is only a way to solve the gap of the Italian tanks against the English ones
I have seen no historical sources indicating Panzers were ever assigned to Italian divisions other than the M division. If Italians used Panzers they did so as part of german units.
