Genesis of an Army: The La Nueve’s Big Day Out By Mike Haught I went home to get back to work on the Spanish. I had a look at what was to be done which consisted of the partisans and the SPAA half-tracks. I stuck on a few decals to help make the army look a bit more finished, but the sad truth of it all is that I wasn’t able to get to the point where I felt the army was “table ready”. Not to worry, however, I still had plenty of stuff done and it was presentable despite the army being a little past 50% done! The partisans were my priority, as they are a critical component to the flavour of my army. After priming the models, I applied a light brown layer with my airbrush to establish the basecoat of the models. While I waited for them to dry, I hopped on the Internet and began researching again. I couldn’t believe I was typing “1940s fashion” into the search engine, but there I was, looking at clothes from the pre-war years. After I had some ideas on what partisans wore (turns out a large variety) I was at it painting jackets, berets and rifles!

The basing was going to be a problem. I wanted to use plasticard for cobble stone street bases, but time was not on my side. Instead, I opted for temporary spackfilla basing. I had every intention of cracking the spackle off at a later date and replacing it with cobble plasticard as soon as the tournament was over. In the meantime I painted the spackle grey and highlighted it up a little to give the illusion of concrete or urban bases. Simple, done now—and its only Friday at 1 AM! So, I went to sleep to build up the energy I would need to crush my foes with my mighty partisans and R.35 tanks.

The next day, as I packed up the army, I noticed that I hadn’t even touched my SPAA half-tracks. So with 20 minutes left on the clock before my ride arrived, I quickly airbrushed them and tossed them in the box. I hate not having any detail work done on it, but I hate grey resin & metal vehicles even more—I’m convinced they bring me bad luck!

The Tournament Before the event kicked into motion, the announcement was made that Battlefront staff members had a bounties placed on our heads. In the event we were defeated, we had to surrender a blister of models from our armies and mine was an Armoured Rifle Platoon. As you can imagine, the stakes were raised and my already questionable tactical prowess was called upon to step-it-up!

Game 1 – Encounter Versus Steve London (Nodnol) My first game was against the notorious Steve London (Nodnol). I was very impressed by the whitewash on his Tigers and Panzerwerfers (well done!). I’ve often wanted to give it a try and may soon do so once I’ve finished La Nueve completely. At anyrate, the game kicked into motion with Steve’s Tigers laying down the hurt on my R-35 tanks. Talk about a one-sided fight! Nonetheless, they charged head-long into the Tigers, hoping to draw some fire. My partisans managed to dig in straight away, whereas the Spaniards on the left flank failed for three turns!

Steve’s Tigers launched a two-pronged assault assaulting the partisans and the Spanish riflemen on both flanks. I managed to get some reserves in and swamped the three Tigers on the left flank, but the right flank was surely lost. However, I managed to get a steady amount of reserves to reinforce the right and buy me time to launch an attack of my own against Steve’s right flank guarded by some pioneers. The two Armored Rifle platoons crushed onto objective, winning the day, despite the CO getting shot! I had a great game against a great opponent. The partisans, however, had yet to prove themselves!

Game 2 – Fighting Withdrawl Versus Lance Knighton My second game was against Lance Knighton’s Panzerkompanie. It was a Fighting Withdrawl, mission with my Spaniards trying to get out.  Things were dicey as Lance lined up the brunt of his force against my left flank, but the timely arrival of my Shermans saved the day, holding the objective until it was withdrawn. Meanwhile my R.35 tanks went on something of a killing spree. Since the Panzers were tied up on the left, the R.35s had free reign on the right. Over the course of a few turns they made their way up the flank and around a forest and got into Lance’s rear area. They immediately began attacking the Hummel battery and managed to kill two and bailed the last. Lance reacted by sending in his Flakpanzer 38(t) to deal with the partisan platoon. Unfortunately the R.35’s armour of 3 all around, proved too sturdy for the Flakpanzers and the little liberated tanks weathered the fire before being withdrawn. The R.35 tanks bought enough time for the La Nueve to successfully withdraw. Who said the R.35 was useless?

Game 3 – Free-for-All Versus Andrew Agutters My last game on the first day was against Andrew Agutters and his Panzerkompanie. The table looked like a nightmare—4’x6’ of pure Bocage madness! In the end we had a great game. The Bocage posed a lot of very interesting tactical challenges. The Bocage allowed me to compartmentalise my attacks while also allowing me to defend reasonably. On the left, I sent up the R.35 tanks, knowing that the attack would likely fail due to their Conscript rating. Still, though I was happy to give it a shot, given their performance in the previous game!

On the right I had to dig in and hold tight as a Tiger was approaching with some infantry. Andrew sent his attack up the middle with Panthers and StuGs, which was difficult to stop considering the hedges, concealed his approach. Still, I sent the partisan platoon forward, hugging the Bocage for bulletproof cover. A Panther crashed into the open area next to the partisans and managed to bog itself on the way in. It was like Christmas for the partisans—they could bag a Panther! But alas, they failed their motivation to assault the tank and the opportunity was lost. By this time the R.35 managed to reach the German infantry near the objective and began to shell their positions, knocking out a few teams. The Partisan platoon had arrived, a little shaken from their Panther encounter, and managed to assault the German infantry. They got one team but they became increasingly hesitant as the assault continued, finally breaking in the end. Still, for the result, they did a good job! The game ended up timing out and we had to call it a draw. Neither of us could manage to push fast enough given the dense Bocage, but it was still a fantastic game!

Game 4 – Breakthrough Versus Tristan Corbett I met up with my second* arch nemesis, Tristan Corbett at Panzerschreck '08 last year where he savagely mauled my US 2nd Armoured Division! We had a good game then and we had a great game again here at the NZGT. It started off shaky, I couldn’t manage to save a single team until turn three where I finally dug in one of my platoons. The other, which had doubled onto the objectives on turn two, had yet to dig in. Still, my partisans were up to their usual shenanigans as they charged up a hill and shot at Tristan’s Nebelwerfers, destroying two of the three guns. Since they were on the crest of a hill without any cover, they were dead meat anyway, so I decided to assault the remainder of the platoon. Unfortunately, this drew in some armoured cars, which tore the partisans apart. Still, they did their job before retreating.

Tristan’s flank attack arrived on turn six, and my Armored Rifle platoon sitting on the objective had still failed to dig in—such is life without a supply truck! They got mauled pretty badly by three StuGs and a Panzerpionier platoon, but managed to hold off the assault. The following turn I called in every last resource I could to eliminate the threat. Artillery, bazookas and LMGs all poured into poor Tristan’s troops. The result was three pioneers left standing which fled once morale came into play. With the flank attack stymied, I dug in and waited for the next attack that never came. The Spaniards managed to hold out, barely, achieving revenge for last year’s game! *My primary arch nemesis being, of course, Glen Tarbet aka Liefer, who wantonly uses SdKfz 250 halftracks for his CO instead of a SdKfz 251… (The nerve!)

Game 5 – No Retreat Versus Daniel Linder (KingDan) It was now time to face of with the king… the king of the Hawaiian shirt: KingDan. Dan busted out his cool US paratroopers of Easy Company and set them up in a beautiful position to capitalize on the terrible bottleneck my troops were inevitably going to fall into thanks to the terrain. I placed two “taskforces” on either side of the large hill in the middle of my deployment area and then charged up the middle. On the left the Spaniards advanced with recon and tanks while the troops on the right had all of the Partisan support.

Dan revealed a sniper in no-man’s land which had fun shooting at the conscript partisans. Still, the partisans marched on into glory. They arrived at the base of a hill atop which sat a paratrooper observer. The partisans saw a fight they could win and charged the OP, clearing him off the hilltop. They consolidated and awaited their next move. Meanwhile the Spaniards, after having dealt with Dan’s ambush of a Sherman platoon, crashed into the paratrooper’s line, pushing it back and causing several casualties. The remaining paratroopers were reduced to only a few teams and a LMG and were pinned down. Again the partisans saw an opportunity and shot and assaulted the paratroopers. They managed to survive the defensive fire, and kill three teams in the assault. The paratroopers (and Dan, I would assume) were shocked and failed to counterattack, forcing the platoon which now only consisted of the 2iC even further back. The Partisans managed to open a hole in the defenses, through which Greyhounds, Shermans, Scotts and the R.35s exploited. They encountered more paratroopers and in the fight, the Shermans were destroyed and the rest bailed out, expect for the Greyhounds and a lone R.35 which hopped onto the objective. Dan spent his turn trying to blast my vehicles off the objective and eliminated all but the R.35 tank, which secured the objective and won the game! Woohoo for R.35s!

Game 6 – Free-for-All Versus Gavin Van Rossum The last game was another Free-for-All against yet another Panzerkompanie. No worries though, I felt confident after the preceding games…until I saw that I’d be facing three Panthers, three Tigers and some StuGs! This was going to prove a fight! As usual, I deployed the Spanish troops on both objectives with artillery and partisans in the center. I put them near a forest so they could be concealed as they tried to snake their way up the center of the map between the Panthers and Tigers, I sent my recon section with a bazooka to help them out a bit. They managed to bail a Panther and then fail to destroy it in first round of the ensuing assault. The other Panthers rallied and destroyed a partisan team forcing them to retreat into the woods where they were gunned down the following turn. The game quickly degenerated into a stalemate after Gavin lost two Tigers in an assault with the infantry of La Nueve. The French artillery managed to destroy the last Tiger, securing a 3-3 draw.

The Wrap-up I ended up placing 17th out of 42 players with four wins and two draws. Unlike the rest of the staff, I never surrendered a blister, so that was a moral victory for me! The partisans were the highlight of my weekend. Seeing them pull of, or fail to pull of as the case was more often, was exciting and riveting. In the end they accounted for quite a bit! R.35 Platoon 2x Hummel SP Artillery 3x German Infantry Teams 2x American Paratrooper Teams 1x Captured Objective Partisans 4x German Infantry teams 2x Nebelwerfer rocket launcher teams 1x US Paratrooper Observer team 3x US Paratrooper teams

Considering that the Partisan platoon cost 60 points and the R.35 tanks cost 30 points, I’d say they definitely paid for themselves! I thoroughly enjoyed my games, and my opponents were all great sports. The La Nueve served me well, and was (technically) undefeated. The games inspired me to continue the project and though this the end of my Genesis of an Army article, I’ll keep you all posted as I progess! Thank you for allowing me to share my progress with the army, and I hope it will continue to spread interest and enthusiasm for the Free French forces in Normandy.