<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(laiocfar @ Jun 25 2007, 02:03 AM) [snapback]296179[/snapback]</div>
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Why you sent Trondheim invasion force to Lillehammer instead of attacking Narvik?[/b]
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I agree that one assault group is enough to take Lillehammer but there was nothing better the Trondheim group had to do besides taking Dombas and coverging on Lillehammer to speed its conquest. Narvik is not an objective and too far away, there is no way any troops could make it there before I ended the battle and they would have been severely punished by the enemy fleet. Consider that I lost no units and I took all objectives well in time, in the days it took the paratroopers to: get to Stavanger in the first day; paradrop; take the city and airfield; get replacements if necessary; embark again; fly to Namsos; paradrop; and take the city. That's just around 10 days plus a possible short delay caused by unforeseen events, and the paratroopers are enough to take Namsos but not to hold it, and also because of the enemy ships over there, there's just no point in prolonging the battle. Narvik is definitely not worth it, it's preferable to take other easier and closer cities for the same prestige, even the ones across the Lagen (Hamar and Elverun) with the Oslo group while Lillehammer is taken by the Trondheim group which so gets out of the enemy fleet's gun range. All flags south of Namsos can be taken but the rest are just not worth the effort and they're not easy to get without losses or wasting prestige in auxiliary units. Of course you can play differently if you're just playing the scenario instead of a campaign where you'd have to save not only your core units but also as much prestige as possible for later, once you've purchased all the core units you're allowed. I spent some prestige in elite replacements for the artillery at Trondheim that had got pounded by ship fire when landing, and for the engineers who got bad luck and lost one initiative roll at the beginning.
I like to mix veteran and green units together when possible, that way the veteran ones can take care of the most difficult targets whereas the green ones gain experience with easier targets or finishing targets crippled by the veteran units. Consider that experience adds to initiative and this is very important. However although some of my tanks have greater experience that others --I divided my two most veteran tanks between north and south coast and alike for the other not so experienced two--, all have been with me since the first polish battle. The sooner you get crucial units the more experienced they'll be, the sooner.
I also had 4 fighter units for this battle and I would by no means recommend less. Ask any army officer and he'll tell you that air superiority decides battles. It's either you domineering the skies and dealing death from above with impunity, or the enemy doing it, that's a difference impossible to work against, not to mention that without air superiority you can't use paratroopers because they will get slaughtered airborne. In addition to 4 fighters I also had purchased 4 bombers with the prestige earned in Poland, the only land troops I've purchased so far are one tank and two artillery batteries, and you don't even need all that. The thing that pissed me off about the Norway scenario is that I planned to amend the unbalance at sea through tactical bombings of the enemy ships, but in this game bombers are ineffective against ships --I hope that'll change once they're experienced however. I don't understand why, everything I've read about warfare of the time and this precise battle says that tactical bombing changed sea warfare, the era of the battleships was over precisely at WWII, and fleets are led by carriers ever since while other ships' role is to escort the carriers, and even these ships are mostly devised for anti-air duties.
I've read something about this battle and apparently it was nothing like in the game, although here it was more challenging and fun. Historically there were six assault groups for Narvik, Trondheim, Bergen, Stavanger, Kristiansand and Oslo. They succeeded outright with very small numbers relying on utter surprise, all assault troops were airborne or hidden in merchant ships and even some Norwegian nazis lent support. So there wasn't as much strategic grandeur as here.
The game also tries to emulate the Allied counteroffensive some days later mixing both battles together. The British army high command wanted to land in Trondheim whereas the First Lord of the Admiralty (Winston Churchill at the time) preferred distant Narvik, and finally the massive Allied forces were divided to attack both points as a compromise. So some forces landed at Namsos and Andalsnes and tried to take Trondheim but failed and finally evacuated despite their huge numbers, under the recently gained German air superiority. The forces landed in Narvik finally conquered the city greatly outnumbering the Germans, but they were eventually evacuated after the French disaster. At sea both sides suffered significant and similar losses, but for the Allies it was easy to make up for them while the German losses hampered the possibilities of success later in England.
I SO should be doing other things. LOL