Today is the 78th anniversary of the invasion of Norway in 1940.
I just finished uploading another AAM map & scenario that is part of my Strike North - Norway 1940 series of scenarios. So now the following battles are available for download: Gratangen, Lapphaugen, Tretten and Kvam. Each has a mix of forces that are, more or less, historical. I have a fifth map, Kjorem, already done but with no scenario for it just yet. It will be posted in a week or so.
The Kvam map was slightly changed from its' original layout of terrain. Two forest hexes were removed from the central north area of the map and two new forest hexes were added to the center of the map. This was done because the northern forest hexes made it much too easy for German forces to approach the first town hexes at the beginning of play. The forest hexes added in the middle are there because it was too easy for German forces to bombard any UK units sitting in the town hexes from a great distance without fear of getting hit in return. This map maybe adjusted again after some playtesting, but for now this is what will be used to depict the Kvam area.
Maps that are finished have a compass rose in the lower corner along with the name of the map.
I was recently on vacation for a few days, so not much has been done with Strike North lately. Now that I'm back my goal is to complete a new map every 1 to 2 weeks.
Several things have conspired against my design efforts, but I'm going to try and get back on track. Just posted a new Norwegian unit card for the Norwegian Royal Guards. I used a Sharpe card design as my starting point and altered it to my own uses. They played a key role in the battle of Midtskogen / Spiller's Raid which I hope to make into a scenario and game map.
Finished up an AAM map for the battle of Midtskogen / Spiller's Raid yesterday. Once the Norwegian Royal Guards unit is finalized I can produce & post that. Perhaps in a week or so I will have a first draft for the scenario of this battle and it will get play tested. Currently working on a map for the battle / siege of Fortress Hegra which ran from April 15th to May 5th in 1940. The challenge is always to figure out how much of the surrounding area to include / exclude from the map. Historically, there were two German assaults on the fortress which failed. After that they decided to simply siege it and wait them out since taking the fortress by assault was deemed to be too costly in lives. I'm leaning towards including about 2-3 kilometers of nearby land so that the Axis player has several options for attacking the fortress. The most likely approach routes are from the north or west side of the fortress which involves traveling up some valleys. The east side exposes an attacker to all of the fortress' main guns which were designed to repel an attack from the direction of Sweden. The southern approach is very rugged, mountainous and wooded. Historically the Germans assaulted the fortress from the north side using Gebirgsjaegers.
Haven't received any feedback on my design for the Royal Guards unit card yet. Went ahead and produced the card anyway. I can always go back and change things at a later date if needed. Finished work on the Fortress Hegra map. Still working on the scenario that will go along with it. I hope to play test it sometime in the near future.
My next map design will be the German airborne assault on Dombas which lasted from April 14th to 17th, 1940. This was an attempt by German forces to cut a key rail line junction which was being used to supply allied forces further south of Dombas. Historically it was unsuccessful, but could have had a major impact on the larger campaign if the German paratroopers had been better prepared and held out longer. Unknown to the Germans at the time, they nearly captured the Norwegian King and Crown Prince who were only 30 minutes away from where they landed. The attack also accelerated plans to evacuate the Norwegian Gold Reserves which were being held in a vault at Lillehammer. This scenario will feature elements such as random initial placement, hidden units and hidden objectives.
Had a chance to play test my latest scenario design entitled Action at Midtskogen. This battle includes the use of the Norwegian Royal Guards. My friend George and I managed to play out a complete game in roughly 1 1/2 hours. The result was a German victory, but both sides have a good chance of winning this battle. I was very happy with the flow of the game and the results. The scenario rules and game map have been posted on the SgtFury AAM website.
Next to be designed and play tested will be Fortress Hegra and then after that: Dombas. The game map for Hegra is done. The Dombas map is still being developed. I have come up with a unique double blind set up procedure for the initial deployment of forces for Dombas. I hope players will like it. More later.
The Fortress Hegra scenario & map were play tested this past Wednesday. Overall it when smoothly, but a few issues did come up.
1. Even though the point break down was 120 germans verses 80 Norwegians, the scenario obviously takes longer than 1 1/2 hours to play out to 7 turns. This is probably because both side's units end up moving through a lot of cover terrain and survive longer. So unless I change the point mix, I have to assume this takes 2 hours to play out.
2. The special ability "Ski Capable" brought up a lot of questions on its' use. Right now, any unit with this SA can move a second hex during the movement phase if both hexes are snow covered. The question came up about hexes that have town, forest or road terrain on them. Would these count? Initially I said yes to town, forest hex would require a movement roll and a road through a forest hex going in the correct direction would allow a second move with no movement roll. I'm thinking I should just simplify all of this and say as long as the first hex is snow covered, you can attempt to move into a second hex with a movement roll. All second hex moves would require a movement roll. Every terrain type except mountain or water would be eligible for a second hex move. Doing this would make it easier to explain this special ability to players. Any thoughts? Comments?
3. The Fortress Hegra map has a lot of forest, snowy hill and mountain terrain on it. Several times there were questions about line of sight involving those terrain features and elevation. I realize now that I need to create an elevation reference map with examples on it explaining LOS over elevation & terrain. I can see future players mulling over what can be seen and not seen on some of my Norway maps.
4. Historically a Norwegian telegraph operator in the village of Hegra acted as a spotter for the guns of Fortress Hegra by calling them up and giving artillery correction info. For our play test I included a rule that said if any german units are within four hexes of the village of Hegra you can be spotted for indirect artillery fire. In the play test game the German player simply avoided moving close to the village of Hegra and didn't suffer any artillery fire there. I'm thinking I should just change this to an optional rule for now. It's a nice piece of history, but doesn't really add any value to the scenario.
After I have made some corrections / additions / substractions to the Fortress Hegra scenario rule I will post it on my SgtFury website for others to take a look at it.
Regarding the "Ski capable" SA I wonder if a movement roll is needed at all. When I played a Finnish vs Soviet game on snow maps I simply allowed the extra hex in the movement phase for ski troops. This somewhat replicates "Tally-Ho" Perhaps do not allow for hill terrain or require a movement roll.
Regarding the "Ski capable" SA I wonder if a movement roll is needed at all. When I played a Finnish vs Soviet game on snow maps I simply allowed the extra hex in the movement phase for ski troops. This somewhat replicates "Tally-Ho" Perhaps do not allow for hill terrain or require a movement roll.
My thoughts
Thank you for your input Firehouse. I value your opinion. At the moment I'm short on time to give a more detailed response but I will do so later tonight.
This is incredible work! Do you want me to post any of the individual scenarios on the Master List or wait until they've been playtested?
Thanks for the compliment. I would ask that you wait until they are finalized. My intention is to have the entire series of scenarios done in early September. Until then, I'm hoping players will download them, play them and give feedback.
Regarding the "Ski capable" SA I wonder if a movement roll is needed at all. When I played a Finnish vs Soviet game on snow maps I simply allowed the extra hex in the movement phase for ski troops. This somewhat replicates "Tally-Ho" Perhaps do not allow for hill terrain or require a movement roll.
My thoughts
Now a more detailed reply.....
After reading several books on the history of the 1940 German invasion of Norway I came away with a few important thoughts concerning the amount of snow on the ground during that time period and how the allies and axis forces dealt with it.
The winter of 1939-40 was a very cold and snowy season for Norway. In the southern areas there were several inches on the ground. In the northern areas around Narvik there were several FEET of snow! So to varying degrees, snow was a factor throughout the months of April & May in Norway. The British forces were the least prepared for the conditions they encountered. History books describe UK forces as being nearly road bound where they operated in Central Norway. In the northern parts around Narvik the Brits opted to take on a mostly supporting role providing naval forces and logistical support. In agreement with their French, Polish and Norwegian allies, they relied on them to do the bulk of the ground fighting. In central Norway, UK forces relied on Norwegian ski troops to provide flank protection and scouting. Norwegian forces did the bulk of the fighting north of Narvik, French mountain & legionaire forces fought in support with them and Polish mountain troops landed south of Narvik and pushed on from there. The German Wehrmacht sent a lot of Gebirgsjaegers to the fighting in central and northern Norway. These troops were better prepared than UK forces, but a lot of their equipment was lost due to allied subs sinking their supply ships. They made up for the loss by seizing Norwegian equipment from the various depots that they captured.
Now lets talk about the terrain....
Norway is a very hilly / mountainous country. So far the general terrain for my game maps is depicted as either river valleys with mountains / hills on either side or valleys with hills / frozen lakes / frozen rivers. Most of the fighting occurred in these valleys along either a roadway, railroad line or along side a river running through the valley. Some of my later game maps will depict battles that occurred on mountain tops or very high hills. So to get around without the benefit of a road or rail line is difficult if you don't have the ability to put skis on your troops feet. But without ski training, UK troops just couldn't do what Norwegian ski troops, French mountain troops and German gebirgsjaegers could do.
So how to simulate all of this so that I can be somewhat true to the history of the campaign....
Most AAM scenarios / games do not deal with mountains very much, but WotC did come up with a terrain tile for it. Basically, Vehicles and Soldiers have to make a successful movement roll to enter it. Even with skis, rugged mountains would be difficult to transverse, so no extra movement will be allowed using a Ski Capable SA.
Hills - Unlike what we usually deal with on an AAM game board, all of the hills for my Norway maps will be assumed to have snow on them. For Vehicles, it's the same as mountains. You have to make a successful movement roll. For soldiers, it's a bit different. Without the ability to wear skis, ground troops' movement is severely hampered. My way of handling "Snowy Hill" terrain for soldiers is to say they can't enter it during the movement phase, but they can enter it during the assault phase. I think this extra effort reflects the difficulty that was faced by non-skiing troops. So how do Ski Capable troops handle hills? They can move normally onto Snowy Hills during the movement phase. This reflects their ability to move over the snow rather than having to fight through it like ski-less troops.
But how good should this Ski Capable special ability be?.....
Up to this point I said they get a free second move as long as they move over two hexes of snow. (Clear with snow, forest with snow, hill with snow, etc.) But a question came up during playtesting concerning the second move going into a snowy forest, snowy town or snowy road hex. How did this help or hinder the soldier? I started to make a list of exceptions and conditions, but then I realized this was getting to be too much. I don't want players constantly checking the rules to see if they can or can't make the second hex move. I think the wording of the Ski Capable SA needs to be rethought / redone. Right now the SA is worded this way:
Ski Capable - In snow this unit has speed 2 in the movement phase.
I'm thinking to reword it this way:
Ski Capable - With a successful movement roll, this unit gets +1 movement in the movement phase if the first hex it enters is a snow hex.
A snow hex would be defined as a snow covered clear, forest, town or hill hex. You would not get this bonus move if you entered a mountain, frozen lake, river or marsh hex or cross a stream or bluffs hexside terrain. Road and railroad terrain would not effect this SA. It would go by the base terrain in the hex.
Using the special abilities Mountaineering (+1 to movement roll), Command SA Sweat saves blood! (+1 to movement roll) and Command SA Alpine (movement rolls may be rerolled) you can increase your chances for a successful movement roll.
So the effect of all this is to create ground forces that could move much better over snowy terrain and act as a flanking force verses the enemy.
What do you think of the reworded Ski Capable special ability? Is its' meaning clear? Should it be worded differently?
Just got done posting two more Norway 1940 scenarios: Fortress Hegra and Airborne Assault at Dombas. Both have been play tested and some adjustments were made to their rules. Including the previous scenario, Action at Midtskogen, these scenarios have nearly complete scenario rule formatting. Eventually I will get back to the previous four scenarios and streamline the rules to follow the same form. Right now it's more important to get new maps & scenarios done. I need to finish five more scenarios. My self imposed deadline for this to happen is end of July. After that I hope to have a group of players come over for an AAM play test day to make sure every new scenario gets at least one play test.
Just yesterday my friend George and I play tested the Dombas scenario. A few things came up that I felt needed some tweaking. The Nordic Officer's Alpine SA needs to be reworded slightly because the +1 to movement rolls only mentions streams as an exception, but not rivers. Previously I mentioned that the Ski Capable SA will be reworded so that the second move will now require a movement roll. We played with the new SA wording in the Dombas game and it seemed to work well. The Nordic Officer helped two Ski Troop units to reroll failed movement rolls, so they moved a bit faster than if they were on their own. Norwegian Cavalry showed up for the first time in a scenario and worked very well. One Cavalry unit charged into a forest hex containing a Fallschirmjager after it was disrupted during defensive fire. It wasn't able to kill the german unit, but showed what could be done with cavalry if properly used. Playing as the Germans, I managed to rally enough of a force in the center of the map to destroy two RR line hexes and then try to run out the clock by holding off the advancing Norwegian force. By turn five all of the Norwegians were activated and going after my paratroopers. We didn't finish the scenario, but it probably would have been close. As the Norwegians, George had to either destroy my entire force or repair all of the RR lines before the end of the seventh turn. I don't think he could have repaired all the destroyed lines, but there was a good chance he could have killed every german unit. The King/Crown Prince unit popped up in the southern part of the map. I didn't have enough force to realistically try to capture them. As it was George simply loaded them onto a truck and drove them off the map to safety. How well either side will do in this scenario greatly depends on the luck of the deployment and how quickly you can activate the Norwegian force. Once the mortars are in play and an officer is nearby, it becomes very difficult for the Germans to move or do anything. Their best tactic, in my opinion, is to wreak some RR lines early on and then retreat to a safe place (if you can find one) and hold on until the end of turn seven.
Fortress Hegra was play tested about two weeks ago. The German side had a clear cut win. Afterwards George, playing the Norwegians, realized he had not deployed his barbed wire very well. I was able to use the forest hexes to the north of the fortress to get close. I made some mistakes, such as losing my disciplined spotter, but despite that I still was able to approach the fortress hexes with my Gebirgsjagers and get inside for the win.
My next scenario will be entitled Orneset Beach which occurred on May 28, 1940. It involved French Legionnaires with H-39 tanks, Norwegian forces and British naval support verses German forces holding the high ground. Orneset Beach was located just east of the key port / town of Narvik. Due to a lack of landing craft, the invading force had to be ferried over to the invasion beach in three waves. The action seesawed back and forth as Allied forces attacked and German forces counterattacked. In the end, the Allied force won the day and marched into the town of Narvik forcing the Germans to abandon their positions nearby. This will be the capstone battle for the entire series of scenarios.
Another scenario entitled Ankenes occurring May 27/28, 1940 will involve Polish forces supported by French H-39 tanks and British artillery verses German forces trying to hold the peninsula just south of Narvik. If these Allied forces are fast enough to win their battle, they could cut off the retreating Germans leaving from the Orneset Beach / Narvik battle. Historically they did manage to link up with the advancing French force to the north, but not in time to cut off the retreating Germans.
A precursor battle which has a working title of Kuberg Plateau occurred over two weeks starting from May 12, 1940. This involved Artic Norwegian forces steadily driving back German Gebirgsjagers from a series of hills and mountain tops towards the ultimate goal of Bjornfjell which was the last RR stop before the Swedish border. Without this connection the German force at Narvik would have no place to retreat and could have forced the entire German Narvik force to surrender. Historically they were able to forec back the Germans but fell short of taking Bjornfjell and the RR line.
That is at least three scenarios to be designed and produced. I'm still deciding on what to do for numbers four and five. Perhaps one of these will be a battle in central Norway (Vist-Steinkjer) and the last one in southern Norway (Bagn). I actually have an eighth map already done for the battle of Kjorem which occurred the day after the Kvam battle on April 23, 1940. I haven't worked on the scenario for it just yet mostly because I feel it is kind of a repeat of the Kvam battle. Rather than create another battle in a Norwegian valley, I wanted to make something different first.
What ultimately gets done.....To be determined......