User blog comment:LB&SCR/Unknown Tales of the Paramilitary: Brownshirts vs. Blackshirts/@comment-5795750-20150904002302

BG1's "Fascist!...Hag!" Edges:

Rifles: Between the two, the Kar98k has the higher muzzle velocity and the slightly larger round while the Carcano has the better range (whether or not you need telescopic sights to reach that 1km range for the Carcano is beyond me) and one more round in the chamber... you know what? I'm gonna give this to the Carcano for that - I mean less the Kar98k is deadlier but unless you got range to back up that high-powered round, then its not the better rifle to use

EDGE: Blackshirts

SMGs: There is a very good reason why the Beretta Model 38 was adopted by not just the Italians but also the Nazis during the early days of WWII - the weapon was just that good to use. And in comparison to the MP35, the MAB38 has the superior rate of fire, muzzle velocity and range. The only reason why the gun wasn't used often was that it was just too damn expensive to make (quite the opposite of the AK-47 if you think about it).

EDGE: Blackshirts

Machine Gun: There is a very good reason why the Breda Model 30 was NOT widely used throughout the war - sure it may have been easy to access and was the backbone of the Italian military arsenal but it is fair to say that the gun had a terrible track record given its low magazine size and questionable reliability. The MG34 on the other hand wasn't called the most advanced machine gun ever seen at the time of its deployment for nothing - it was versatile as a general purpose machine gun, and it was certainly deadly with its high rate of fire, high muzzle velocity, high range and bigger magazine

EDGE: Brownshirts

Pistol: The M1935 is underpowered as a pistol in comparison to the Walther owing to its smaller bullet and thus lower muzzle velocity. Also, reloading of the M1935 was slow.

EDGE: Brownshirts

X-Factors: Average of 68.75 for Brownshirts; Average of 71.5 for Blackshirts

EDGE: Blackshirts

Overall Winner: As most votes here say, this is basically a paramilitary group vs a professional army and while the Blackshirts did not stay for the full war they did at least fight in the bloody conflict in a lot more areas than the Brownshirts, who only fought in Germany and was backstabbed by their own leader/founder Adolf Hitler himself. For this reason, coupled with their superior training as a professional army, I give my vote to the Blackshirts.