The three Operational scenarios, WESERÃœBUNG (the initial invasion), SICKLE (Allied counter-landings and evacuation), and JUNO (the final Allied evacuation), allow players to refight three key episodes in the Norway campaign that were hotly contested. To really appreciate the difficulties and decisions faced by the opposing sides, however, players can essay the Campaign Scenario.

Unlike the extended 1942 Campaign in PQ-17, the Norway Campaign lasts only five Fortnights, and can be completed in a weekend. Both sides must plan for the long haul with logistical support of their ground forces in Norway a vital factor.

Invasion Planning 

Very little is added to the Operation WESERÃœBUNG Scenario to kick off the campaign with the initial landings. Both sides may send their troops to whatever ports they choose, with the historical German ship and troop assignments provided. The biggest difference is that players must also plan for follow-on convoys to bring in reinforcements and to keep their troops in supply for the fighting that is sure to come.

Ground Campaign 

The only completely new component added to the game for the Campaign Scenario is the Campaign Display, shown here in draft form. This letter-sized card is an abstract representation of Norway on which players deploy, move, and fight with their Troop Points (TPs).

With most spaces roughly analogous to one 98nm hex on the PQ-17 map, 12-hour ground turns would be absurd as well as inappropriate in a game focused on naval operations. Instead, the campaign ground system incorporates vagaries of planning, weather, transportation, limited intelligence, and rest and resupply by allowing TPs to advance and fight only when dictated by Random Event. This occurs about every sixth turn for the Allies, and every fifth turn for the Axis, reflecting German initiative and their more aggressive posture. Due to the lack of roads and rail lines in northern Norway, the number of TPs that may advance between some spaces there is severely limited, making a push from Trondheim to Narvik an arduous undertaking.

Ground combat is a simple “bucket o’ dice” mechanism. Variables including troop quality, terrain, supply status, and supporting arms ensure that outcomes are far from certain.

Norwegian Mobilization 

Despite some advance warning from intelligence sources including the Swedish military, the Norwegian government declined to mobilize fully until it was too late. Once begun, mobilization proceeded fitfully, with several mobilization centers seized by the Germans before their equipment could be issued to Norwegian units. Surviving crews from sunken or scuttled Kriegsmarine warships can be formed into ad hoc TPs using such captured equipment, as historically happened at Narvik. The Random Event mechanic in the game nicely duplicates this inefficient Norwegian mobilization before and after the invasion, with some minimum level guaranteed.

Air Transport 

The Axis player has limited ability to transport TPs by air, both from Germany and Denmark into Norway, and within Norway itself. This capability is important for quickly reinforcing isolated enclaves, but is limited by weather and decreases over time as Luftwaffe aircraft transfer to support the attack on France and the Low Countries.

Logistics 

Besides landing army units in Norway, players must ensure they are adequately supplied in order to fight effectively. Both sides do so by reaching ports with generically Loaded MVs, one per TP every Fortnight. Once there, these supplies must be unloaded, but enemy Medium Bombers can interdict ports to temporarily prevent this. After unloading, MVs are in Ballast and may return to the UK or Germany to load for another trip.

Supply is traced along the relatively limited Norwegian rail lines, for the Germans only if sufficient TPs garrison each space. For simplicity, Norwegian TPs are always considered in supply, as are German TPs that can trace to occupied Oslo. Although British subs enjoyed early successes attacking Axis shipping en route to southern Norway, German occupation of bases on both sides of the Skagerrak in Denmark and Norway quickly put a stop to these depredations and secured their supply line to the Norwegian capital.

Unsupplied TPs have limited mobility, cannot attack, and suffer an adverse modifier when defending.

Naval Campaign

Because the Norway campaign was less episodic than the arctic convoys, the end of each Fortnight serves more to regulate repairs and reinforcements than to bring operations to a halt. Accordingly, naval forces may remain at sea from one Fortnight to the next, but submarine wolfpacks are now subject to endurance restrictions.

In the final installment of this series I’ll offer glimpses of some of the new units that will appear (and sometimes disappear) in Norway 1940.

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