dfoehammer
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Joined: 9/30/2011
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So, since I am the first one to play it, I guess I will post the first AAR report haha 
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SPOILER ALERT!
You might not want to read through this until AFTER you have played the scenario a few times, because my report is going to reveal some tactics that might be better discovered on your own after some play throughs. I don't want to spoil the fun for anybody. So my suggestion is FIRST, play it through a few times on your own, THEN read my AAR if your having trouble, or want to see how I did it :) you CAN win a major victory for either side (German or British). But I wont say it is easy...definietly NOT easy for the British side.(I don't think it was anyways)
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German Reich: Finding myself at the helm of the new German Kreigsmarine was invigorating. With the addition of the Graf Zepplin and the Peter Strasser to the Reich's naval armada, she suddenly posed a much more significant threat to the British Sea Power in the region. Especially since the British had a worldwide empire which to protect, and the Kreigsmarine at the outset of war had a much more concentrated naval force in the European Theater to begin with.
In operation Norway, I have built the scenario around the historical presence in the region at the time, with the addition of The Graf Zepplin and Peter Strasser aircraft carriers to the German side, and historically the British had the carrier Glorious involved, but I also added the Furious in a combat role as well (The furious, unless I am mistaken, was used only as a transport ship during the operation to ferry British fighter aircraft over to Norway). Which reminds me, I am planning to add another varient that includes an additional British Carrier as well, but for now, that is it.
Playing the German side, I was able to bring my invasion forces up along the coast of Norway with little trouble overall. There was some British land based bombing groups that posed threat upon occasion (especially if I got to much off the Norwegian coast and out into the North Sea to far, where their long range land based bombers could become a more serious threat to my naval operations). I did get my graf zepplin sunk the first time around by roaming to far west into the North Sea. Subsequently I kept closer to the Norwegian coast, and while I did get threatened a few times by long range british bombers, I managed to come through unscathed. The British carriers can also be a serious threat if they get within striking range, and they must be dealt with as quickly as possible to ensure the success of the vital invasion fleets and their capital ship escorts. In the end I was able to overcome the British forces, and enabled all of my invasion and bombardment forces to complete successfully, although they suffered varying degrees of degradation and damage enroute.
The British:
Playing as the British in this scenario is far more difficult and challenging. The Germans have you overpowered in pretty much every aspect, but with a bit of luck, some keen plannign and execution, you CAN pull off a major victory. In the North you have a Task Force consisting of the Battlecruiser Renown
heavy cruiser Penelope, and several destroyers. Historically it faced off against a German Task Group consisting of the Battlecruisers Gneisenau and Scharnhorst, and the german task force ended up withdrawing from the engagement. I can tell you with no uncertainty, if you engaged them with your British Task Force, they are going to whoop your arse. So I had to play cat and mouse and avoid them. Actually I was bringing my task group down to assist my troops inbound to Narvik by escorting them, when on the way, one of my subs luckily sent the scharnhorst down to the btotom of the sea. So I quickly redirected my Task force back up towards Narvik to seek out the german Task Force, which now only consisted of the Gneisenau and a couple destroyers. I managed to locate and engage in a surface battle with them, and sent Gneisenau and her DD escorts flaming into the depths. After which I sent the TG back south to join up with the troop transports headed to Narvik.
Meanwhile, I had a second TG of capital ships (a pretty strong TG I might add) consisting of BB Rodney, BB Valiant, BC Repulse, several cruisers (both heavy and light), and multiple destroyers to play as Escort for my troop transports heading into trondheim our of Rosyth port. I found it necessaryu to escort them else the german raiders from land bases would inevitably wear down the auxilliary units and prevent them from reachign target before subs, CV strikes, or other land based strikes would grind them into the ground. Unfortunately, this means the capital ships have to act as a screen or distraction as bob targets, but they are robust and can withstand a good amount of damage, and they buy the time needed for the transports to get to target range. Unfortunately, it also wears down the strength of the TG, and as yourtansports come closer to their destination their are ample German forces to contend with, but the TG is just not up to the job, as one of the German Task Forces is quite powerful and consists of the BB Tirpitz,and three other ships with 11" guns, with multiple cruisers and DD as wlel. So by the time you get there, there is no way the TG can engage in surfcae comabt and expect to win. Not unless you have been able to use yoru own carrier strikes and land based bomber strikes to thin them out and weaken them amply.
The greatest threat to your success when playing the british is to deal with those new Reich aircraft carriers. They are brutal, and you need to deal with them ASAP, and get them out of your hair. If you can do that early on, the odds of a major victory go up significantly, the longer those carriers are in play in the engagement, the more your chances of success go down hill. The second key is making sure you take out or turn back those German bombardment and invasion forces. There is little you can do to prevent them from takign Oslo, but if you stay focused, you can prevent them from getting any of the other citys (which they need to win), and thus cut down on their points for victory significantly. If they manage to get stavanger, you will have a hard time getting a major victory, although you could still win. The points awarded on both sides for invasion/supply is significant, and this was done to make the point to the significance of the battle at hand, what was taking place, and the agenda of the operation. Anyways, with that said, it is crucial to suceed in yoru own invasion/supply orders, because if you do not, you cannot win a major victory. It will be critical to keep those transports moving along as quickly as possible, and lame ducks should be suttled ASAP if they cannot be repaired quickly. Yes, it means less troops/supplys, but the bigger picture is to get forces there. Yes, you will need enough forces, but as long as you get better then half of them there, you should be fine.
In the end, I did achieve a major victory, but not before having to remove a seriously damaged BB Valiant and send her home to port with an escort, and not before havign to do the same thing with the CV Glorious (both ships (and the furious need to survive for a major victory). I lost a significan tportion of the rest of my TG's..including the complete loss of TG B, and most of TG A, not to mention almsot ALL of my transports headed to stavanger (althgouh fortunately I only lost about 1/3 of them before mission sucess...i lost the rest of them tryign to get them back out of stavanger and back home to scapa flow. In the end, only ONE transport from the stavanger group made it back alive. The Narvik and Trondheim groups fared quite well, with minimal losses to each.
Over all I thought the mission was quite challenging and fun on the British side. Fun but relatively easy on the German side. Each side historically suffered some pretty significant losses in terms of naval ships. Both sides also made extensive use of submarines as well, with the British having 20 subs in the area, and Germans having 30. You will find the subs on both sides are quite active and can tip the scales either way, and even back and forth throughout the engagement.
I hope you all enjoy this one as much as I did in both making and playing it.
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AAR CAW: Operation Norway - 
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