Tankettes - How Useful in CS?

[John Given]

I have several platoons of tankettes in a scenario I am playing.

Besides spotters, I have been using them to block roads while moving loaded trucks. They are very fast and can be used as fodder to be followed by med. tanks.

Pat

That's how they are usually going to be used Pat.

But in a pinch, if the enemy has poor security or simply a lack of units to chase them (or simply does not feel threatened enough by them to care) they can act as a "poor mans armored car" by getting into rear areas and wreaking havoc on transports by way of overruns. They can also be used to spot for artillery of course.

In addition, the Italians have a tankette with a nice AT gun on it that can take out enemy light armor, + transports and anything defenseless it can catch. They're rare though.

I've also heard, once or twice, that Italy was working on an amphibious version of one of its tankettes, but abandoned the project (perhaps due to time constraints? Or the fact that, in the deserts of North Africa, there isn't much water to cross to begin with). Would have been really cool if they made it though, because the allies have their Dukw APC's, the Germans their schwimmwagens, and the Japanese their amphibious light tanks.