Unless indicated otherwise: all screenshots show the situation at the beginning of a new turn, so after my phase and the opponent's phase of the previous turn.
Norway South, turn limit: 15 turns.
Prestige:
Start: 1818
End: 3669
39 core unit strength points lost.
Core:
Infantry:
Pioniere (truck)
Pioniere (truck)
Grenadiere (truck)
Tanks:
Panzer IB
Panzer IB
Panzer 38(t)A (reserve)
Panzer 38(t)A (reserve)
Recon:
Sd.Kfz. 222
Sd.Kfz. 222
Artillery:
10.5cm LeFH18 (truck)
10.5cm LeFH18 (half-track)
Fighters:
Bf 109E
Bf 109E
Tactical Bombers:
Ju 87B
Strategic Bombers:
He 111H2
NEW
Turn 1 start:
A much friendlier experience than most Norway scenarios in PG/PC games, but the Norwegians can still hurt you with Mountain troops if you get careless.
A single Pioniere unit will isolate/"encircle" and capture Bergen, knock out its fortress and on the final turn drive to and capture the nearest village. Support will be provided by two destroyers (one already there and one moving up from Stavanger) and KMS Königsberg.
The main force will land at Fredrikstad (the highlighted hex south-east of Oslo) and attack Oslo from the south-east before moving on the Lillehammer. This scenario also offers one of the easiest landing opportunities compared to previous PG/PC Norway scenarios as the terrain prohibits the Norwegians from interrupting your landings.
Landing between Kristiansand and Oslo is possible as well, but that requires knocking out several Norwegian infantry units before reaching the capital and Oscarsborg fortress can keep firing at you.
The Luftwaffe will support units in the this part of the map together with KMS Blücher and two patrol boats.
The He 111H2 unit will attack the Patrol Boats initially, it does 5 or so damage to them.
The two aux Fallschirmjäger will land north of Kristiansand airfield, capture it and the town, capture the village between Kristiansand and Stavanger and capture Stavanger. Ideally without requiring replacements.
Turn 2 start:
KMS Königsberg and one destroyer are banging away at the Norwegian destroyer protecting Bergen.
Note that ships and structures are single entities and their performance doesn't degrade with losses taken. A 1 strength unit will perform as well as a 10 strength unit.
The Pioniere moved into position last turn and will land in the supply hex adjacent to Bergen this turn. As long as I block the fjord entrance as well, Bergen will be "encircled"
This allows me to capture Bergen without a single core strengthpoint loss.
My forces will land in three waves, starting with the Grenadiere and Pioniere units this turn. The reason I didn't move the transports closer is because the Patrol Boat next to KMS Blücher might've attacked. KMS Blücher would've fired in support, but I had forgotten about that mechanic for a moment and prefer to keep transports out of sight as a habit anyway.
Note that it's easy to save the KMS Blücher and I'd suggest doing so if it all possible as even at 3 strength (after one hit from the fort), it will fire a full strength salvo as mentioned earlier.
The first Fallschirmjäger unit landed last turn, the second had to board transports first so could only move into position.
Strangely, AA units don't fire at transports or paratroopers when they move in/jump.
Turn 3 start:
KMS Königsberg moved in and the beaten up destroyer moved out, KMS Königsberg shelled the infantry in Bergen, to make sure they wouldn't attack the Pioniere.
The infantry wave landed last turn and will begin attacking Oscarsborg fortress, the bulk of my other units will land next turn. The artillery will land and move out of range of the fortress.
The Fallschirmjäger at Kristiansand weakened the AA unit on the airfield last turn and will kill it this turn, the other FJ unit will move up.
KMS Blücher will start bombarding Kristiansand next turn, but this turn it will fire at the Norwegian Patrol Boat that appeared between Kristiansand and the island fortress.
Turn 4 start:
No screenshot for the Bergen area this turn, the Pioniere waited for the defenders of Bergen to become mostly suppressed and will capture Bergen this turn, the Kriegsmarine still had to deal with the Norwegian destroyer and fired in support of the attack by the Pioniere afterwards.
In the south, the second wave is ashore and we're slowly moving towards Oslo whilst slowly depleting the strength of Oscarsborg fortress.
Turn 5 start:
This turn, I realized the lower part of the map will fit in one screenshot in most cases.
The Bergen garrison will surrender this turn, after which the Pioniere will switch their attention to the fortress.
KMS Königsberg is moving towards Stavanger to support the Fallschirmjäger later on.
After knocking out the Patrol Boat in Oslo's port, the AI moved an infantry unit into the port hex.
Oscarsborg fortress will be encircled and only has 1 strength point left at the end of the turn, all forces are ashore.
The Fallschirmjaeger capture Kristiansand after forcing the garrison to surrender.
Turn 6 start:
The Norwegian Patrol Boat that was at Kristiansand a few turns ago popped up near the flotilla at Stavanger and sank itself when engaging a destroyer. A decent move: 2 strength point loss for him and 1 for me for an otherwise doomed unit.
We're slowly surrounding Oslo, attracting the attention of all nearby Norwegian infantry units. That's fine as long as it happens mostly on my terms.
Turn 7 start:
The Fallschirmjäger start moving towards the village between Kristiansand and Stavanger.
KMS Blücher moves north again to fire in support of the recon unit that will clear the remaining villages between Oslo and Kristiansand after encircling the remaining infantry unit.
Oslo will be captured this turn.
Turn 8 start:
Norwegian Mountain infantry badly mauled my Grenadiere unit, but this allows me to knock the Norwegian units out on my terms, encircling and capturing most eventually, so it's a fairly worthwhile trade-off. It was more damage than I expected to take admittedly. Infantry and Grenadiere having a Close Defence of 0 hurts in these situations where the enemy has a positive Close Defence.
The Bf 109's will rebase to Oslo's airfields one by one.
The Fallschirmjäger encircle a Norwegian infantry unit.
Turn 9 start:
Slowly clearing the area around Oslo.
The Fallschirmjäger push the suppressed Norwegian infantry into the "peninsula" forcing them to surrender,.
Turn 10 start:
The area around Oslo has been cleared and my forces are moving towards Lillehammer.
The Fallschirmjäger are regrouping and will continue their advance towards Stavanger, the Stuka unit has been bombing them since turn 7.
Turn 11 start:
Softening up the Lillehammer and Stavanger defenders.
There's a Norwegian Mountain infantry unit west of Lillehammer that can give you a nasty surprise.
I'm trying to keep the Norwegian infantry unit east of Lillehammer out of the game.
The Fallschirmjäger will start attacking Stavanger this turn.
Turn 12 start:
The Norwegian Mountain infantry attacked, but losses were acceptable.
The Fallschirmjäger capture Stavanger after forcing the garrison to surrender.
One Fallschirmjäger unit has 4 strength left, the other 1. The goal was to do this without having to give them replacements, which worked. Europe on a Shoestring indeed.
Turn 12 end, victory:
I've cut out the non-core units, this screen tracks campaign kills/losses not just for the scenario:
I'm happy with the result. It could've been done in ~10 turns if I had not captured all locations. There was no real pressure from the clock.
Will certainly follow these AARs and see whether this approach holds up when enemy forces increase in numbers and quality -- my own campaign showed me that the nature of the early scenarios (small, limited # of enemy troops) made it very easy to maximize the prestige as you had a pretty clear idea of how, where and when you could push. I expect that'll change later on.
