The Invasion of Norway, A VERY large scenario.

Task Force 57 · **Task Force 57**

A while ago I posted a mention of an old Game my group played ages ago on the "whats your biggest game" topic in WAS general...

It seems to have interested a number of members of the forum thus Im going to outline the scenario, map, fleets and general rule tweaking that you have to go through to make a historic scenario both playable and realistic.

In short its the 1940 invasion of Norway, but with a few "tweaks" to make it a fair and playable scenario. The two sides get 2000 pts each to spend, the fleets are based on availible vessels with some historic alterations (such as giving the Germans Bismarck and Tirpitz in order for them to stand a chance... as well as 3 pocket BB's and all the period cruisers incl those in refit at the time of the actual invasion... also they can deploy upto 30 destroyers incl Luca T's for smoke).

The Game is played over a HUGE map made up of 6 regular maps creating a super-map (A-X, 1-24). This map depicts the north of scotland and scapa in the lower left with Den./Norway going up the right hand side.
There are 4 land objectives and 4 sea objectives , the land objectives are:

Narvik on X2
Trondheim on X12
Bergen on V19
Oslo on W21

The sea objectives are placed in the general approaches to each of the above at a distance of 4-6 squares, the final placement can be randomised or by both players consent.

Victory for the Axis comes with the capture of all four land objectives and then to HOLD ALL OF THEM FOR 3 TURNS.

Victory for the Allies is more complex, they must foil the invasion (Hold one land objective, destroy 50% of the axis force and control 3 sea zones for three turns) or hold three land objectives in Norway for 3 turns without losing more then 50% of their surface fleet.

Sound like Fun?

Limits:

1. not more then 20 subs a side.
2. Axis - up to half of your points may be spent on Air but no Missiles for Condors! Allies- up to 600 points on air (Pby's are ok but NO OTHER USN types!). Both sides MUST NOT spend more then half their points on fighters!
3. allies- up to 10 BB's / Bc's and a max of 3 carriers.
4. axis - up to 4 BB's/ Bc's and 3 pocket battleships.
5. allies- up to 20 cruisers
6. axis - up to 10 cruisers
7. allies- up to 50 DD's or DE's
8. Axis- up to 30 DD's
9. Allies- up to 40 O'brians for transports (no guns, Just AA)
10. Axis - up to 20 Nordmarks/Maru's for Transports (no guns, Just AA)

Other Limits:

RN and french vessels ONLY apart from Obrians and USN DE's.

Germans may deploy Betty's, Luca T's and Maru's but no other Axis vessels apart from their own.

German S boats are ok but with a speed reduction to 2 and No Torpedo's(representing light escorts/patrol boats)... they thus do not get high speed evasion .

More to follow...
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(TF57... British Pacific Fleet 1944-45)

A swordfish is for life, not just for Bismarck, Littorio, Veneto... or any poor IJN carrier that runs out of Zero's.

Task Force 57 · **Task Force 57**

Ok, Next: A general overveiw on play.

The victory conditions are not based on points as such... the but then wars are not won on points! To claim land objectives requires getting transport ships to unload their cargo of troops into them, To do this you must destroy or capture the forts guarding each as well as getting three transports to dock in the objective itself! The Germans can use Paratroops once per game (see later) to take but not claim objectives but they can take forts. Forts require 1 transport to unload (ie be afloat at the end of the turn) to capture them.

This is why we have a LOT of maru/obrian/nordmrks , they are troop ships rather then cargo ships and ONLY have AA. Their weak hulls are going to be shot to pieces by a fort but knocking the forts out makes holding your objectives "TRICKY"...

Hey, who said this was going to be easy.

The Air Side of things:

There were a few tweaks to get this to work, for one thing having close to 200 aircraft stands a side could be a weeeeeee bit aukward, thus we made these rules:

Single engined types have a range of one map... that is they can deploy only in the map holding their base. THE ONE EXCEPTION... RN Barracuda may fly into an adjacent map from Scapa air field using bombs ONLY (playing the role of skua's).

Twin engined types can range over two maps or ferry themselves three maps to a new base (no bombs).

Land based air rearms over two turns, carrier air may only fly each turn if the target is in ITS half of the map its in, the rest of the time its one turn to rearm. This is tough I know, but RN air was LIMITED in Norway.

Allied and Axis home Air bases have unlimited air "storage" but a cap on the maximum number of aircraft that can launch each turn. The 3 Norway objectives (Bergen, Trondheim and Narvik )each have an air field with a maximum number of based aircraft and a cap on the max per turn that can launch.

Ok, the base levels .

Base Total. Operational per turn.

German/UK unlimited 25

Scapa 18 9

Oslo 20 10

Bergan 18 9

Trondheim 16 8

Narvik 8 4

We also have a German only secret weapon... On one turn the German player may choose to drop paratroops over ONE of the objectives. To do this he may deploy a force of 9 Twin Engine aircraft... 3 over the objective and 3 over each of its two coastal batteries . After the AA phase roll a D6 for each plane that gets through:

For Fortresses: a roll of 4/5/6 you may claim control of that fort (and use it to pound the other if you choose in your gunnery phase).

For objectives: you must roll a 5/6.

Note: this only denies the objective to the Allies... YOU STILL MUST DOCK #3 Transports to Claim it and keep it claimed by leaving a combatant vessel there or an air group.

more to follow.
_________________
(TF57... British Pacific Fleet 1944-45)

A swordfish is for life, not just for Bismarck, Littorio, Veneto... or any poor IJN carrier that runs out of Zero's.

drittal · **drittal**

I really don't want to see your WaS collection. I might cry. Lemme add up my entire German navy...805pts including 2 bismarcks and 2 Tirpitz, but not including Emden(koln conversion)

Italians: 591pts including 2 Littorio and 2 V.V.

Grand Total of: 1396pts

I'm going to need a few more boosters! Momma ain't gonna be happy.
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Campbjj · **Campbjj**

WOW
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Task Force 57 · **Task Force 57**

Next....

Stacking:

Sea limits.

Three Aux/Cruisers/Capital ships per hex plus 2 DD's (3 if close escort).

home Bases: unlimited

objectives: as sea hexes

Scapa : Any mix of ships to a max of 50 vessels But you may not put Aux vessels there during setup .

Air limits.... the stacking for air per hex is greater then standard, 6 attacking and 6 defending permitted.

The forts:

Each of the the Norway objectives is protected by two forts which lay in front of the objective to sea ward ... the rule forbidding ships entering a land/sea/coast square is waived as its the only way to reach your objective!

O objective

fort 0 0 fort

The Objective has no defense save its local AA (2 shots a phase at the AA value of its fort), and no hp's ... its always there.

The Forts can be destroyed in the normal way. Each pair of forts are identical, their stats (toughest 1st):

Oslo.

Arm 5 Vital 8 HP 7

mains : 6, 4, 2
2nds 3, 2,
Torps 1

AA 5

Bergen

Arm 5 vital 7 hp 5

mains 5, 3, 2
nds 3, 2

AA 4

Trondheim

Arm 5 vital 7 hp 5
mains 4, 3, 3
nds 3, 2

AA 4

Narvik

arm 4 vital 6 hp 4
mains 4,3,1

AA3

As you can see Narvik is a plumb candidate for assault by German para's.

Home bases:

The German home base is located at the base of Denmark and cannot be attacked by sea gunnery but can be bombed if the allied player wants to throw his bombers away in droves... or even worse take carriers in to give fighter cover....

Kiel/scapa:

AA 7 .... 4 shots a phase

+ the AA of any ship in harbor attacked... sounds a bit unfair but ships tied alongside other often had gun arcs obstructed plus they cannot maneuver .

Note: the stacking rules over home bases (Rosyth and Kiel) are :

10 attacking , 10 defending MAX.

Last points....

SET UP.

NOTE :German sets up 2nd ALWAYS... they have the advantage historically.

Allies:

Up to 50 ships in scapa, unlimited in Rosyth.

All Obrians apart from the one convoy(see later) must start in Rosyth.

Up To 3 cruisers per maps on western half of super map (Northern Patrol line).

Up to a max of 2 Capital ships, 4 cruisers and 6 destroyers in a max of TWO groups (hunting groups) in any of the 3 western maps.

Upto 4 subs in each of the 6 maps.

and .... ONE TROOP CONVOY AT MUST BE AT SEA, this convoy may be deployed anywhere in the lower (home base) map. This convoy must deploy in three adjacent hexes and must contain 5 o'brians, a cruiser, Battle Cruiser and destroyers up to the hex limits.

Axis:

Germany may deploys up to half of her surface fleet at sea in any sea hex's NOT Adjacent to the Norway coast (territorial waters) in the lower left (home base) map... rest is in Kiel.

Germany may deploy its 3 pocket battleships (separately) in ANY sea going hex outside territorial waters and beyond 5 hexes of a hostile base in ANY map (Raiders). Germany may not deploy more then 1 Pocket BB per map.

Germany may deploy up to 6 uboats in each of the 6 standard map area and may fire in the 1st turn.... sub hunter is in effect, deploy next to a base and those DD's can wind up on top of you at phase end. You may not fire INTO a base with torps, you must enter it to engage!

subs can enter a hostile naval base (Kiel, Scapa, Rosyth) on a roll of 6 on a d6, on a roll of 1,2,3 destroy sub.

And Thats it!

NOTE!!!!!

This game was fought using eight separate collections of mini's ( our whole group pitched in to bring together sufficient pieces!)
_________________
(TF57... British Pacific Fleet 1944-45)

A swordfish is for life, not just for Bismarck, Littorio, Veneto... or any poor IJN carrier that runs out of Zero's.