Firestorm Norway: A Sneak Peek

Firestorm Norway: A Sneak Peek Firestorm Norway:
A Sneak Peek

with Jökull Gislason

"A muddy waddle, backwards and forwards."

~ Winston Churchill, on the Norwegian Campaign.


Next week will see the latest edition of my Firestorm campaigns become available, Firestorm Norway. With Early-war Norwegians now available as a PDF briefing, everything was in place to cover the Weserübung campaign or the battle for Norway and Denmark.

Learn more about fielding Norwegians in Early-war here...
Why Norway you might ask? That's a very good question. The battle for Norway is quite often overshadowed by other campaigns such as the fall of France but in the grand scheme of things it is very important. It is also the first-time that British and French forces fought the Wehrmacht on land. But more importantly, it was the first fully combined arms operation involving naval, air and land forces.
I only had a very basic level of knowledge of the campaign but thanks to the efforts of Dane Tkacs and Eirik Ulsund I was able to learn enough to start to design Firestorm Norway. Having done three previous Firestorm campaigns; Greece, Lorraine and Normandy and having been involved in the playtesting on Firestorm Market Garden I didn't think this would be too hard but I was wrong.

For Norway it is impossible to capture the essence of the campaign without involving the naval and aerial elements, at least in abstract form. So I went back to the drawing board and designed the naval and aerial aspects for Firestorm. It is very basic; and part of the General's Game which is simply played out on the board. The system is very simple and keeps to the KISS (Keep it simple and succeed) rule but it is sufficient enough to capture the flavour and can be expanded on for future Firestorm campaigns. My goal was to get you the players to understand how the naval battles played out. The Royal Navy will be hard pressed by the Luftwaffe at keeping Åndalsnes, Namsos and Narvik and at the same time the Kriegsmarine will be desperately trying to avoiding crippling losses.
 
Right: The initial deployment on the Strategic Map.

Firestorm Norway: A Sneak Peek
Below: HMS Warspite's sortie into Narvik.
Below: The Luftwaffe attacks the Royal Navy ships that are keeping Åndalsnes open.
Firestorm Norway: A Sneak Peek Firestorm Norway: A Sneak Peek
Players familiar with board games will very quickly understanding the new rules. Each turn starts with the naval and aerial actions and then continues with normal land-based Firestorm system. However, the Royal Navy must be in command of certain areas to bring reinforcements and supplies.
Below: Initial Deployment on the Narvik and South-Central Norway maps.
Firestorm Norway: A Sneak Peek
There are two more maps in the game and if you take a look at the Strategic Map you will understand why. Norway is a large and elongated country so I wanted to focus on major conflict areas. The Airfields and towns match the Strategic Maps so there is interaction between the two.

Wesertag was the starting day of Weserübung. On the morning of the 9 April 1940 the Germans invaded Denmark and Norway. Six Battlegroups sailed into the ports of Narvik, Trondheim, Bergen, Kristiansand, Egersund and Oslo. At the same time Fallschirmjägers took over the airfields at Fornebu, Oslo and Sola. Stavanger, Narvik, and Trondheim were captured without much resistance but the coastal defences of Bergen and Kristiansand offered more resistance, while the Oscarsborg Fortress (Commanded by Oberst Birger Eriksen) at Oslo sank the new Heavy Cruiser Blücher and damaged the cruiser Lützow. This caused a setback for the Germans and bought for the Norwegian government, Royal family and National Treasury time to flee the capital.

Despite the loss of the Blücher, the Germans executed their invasion plan to near perfection and begun the campaign in almost complete control of all major urban areas in south-central Norway. Therefore in Firestorm Norway, the Germans must act quickly to secure their gains while the Norwegians and their allies must do all they can to hold them back. Eventually, the events in France will overshadow the battles in Norway but each turn gives you Victory Conditions so both sides have a chance to win.

Firestorm Norway: A Sneak Peek Land battles are fought with Flames of War miniatures as normal. Even if you don't have Norwegians there were French, British and Germans present. Currently there are no Battlefront models for Neubaufahrzeug tanks so if you do not have any available then just use the Panzer I and Panzer II models for Panzer Abt. 40.

In addition to all this, you will find four Warriors to give flavour to the campaign. One for each of the national forces. They are Generalleutnant Eduard Dietl, Sekondløytnant Thor Olaf Hannevig, Lieutenant Colonel Raoul Charles Magrin – Vernerey and Major-General Carton de Wiart.

I am very proud of how Firestorm Norway has turned out and wish to thank all those who have given their time to bring it to you and I sincerely hope you will make time to try out this part of World War Two history in your games.

~ Jökull.

Left: The Wehrmacht press on to Lillehammer from Oslo, going against British Territorial and Norwegian forces.
“In the middle of one night there was a telephone message for me to report to the War Office. It dawned on me the reason might be Norway, as I had never been there and knew nothing about it.”

~ Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart.
Firestorm Norway: A Sneak Peek


Last Updated On Thursday, April 10, 2014 by Blake at Battlefront