I've been working on an Italian faction mod for awhile now, limited to using existing models as stand-ins. I think I have something that's enjoyable to play and quite unique.
some blatant showing off
:
and a couple doctrinal units with fancy portraits:
Folgore Paracudutisti
Guastatori (Elite Combat Engineers)
Alpini Light Infantry
Blackshirt Militia
Plenty of scope for interesting units, especially infantry. Italian soldiers were (in)famous for suffering from poor leadership, morale, and substandard equipment, but there were plenty of cases of RIA men fighting as hard as the best in any combatant's army, especially the paratrooper brigades and light infantry units.To reflect that I've got a simple 'morale' system bodged in- non-elite units suffer from various debuffs when outside friendly territory or out of cover. Requisitioning officers removes the debuffs.
Naturally there's a problem implementing heavier vehicles, for the historical reason that none actually existed
For that reason the Italians play something like the allies- heavy on the infantry, but their vehicle tech tree peaks at the same level as the soviets and USF.
Now I just need playtesters...