J&D Publications

Skirmish Campaigns Norway

Reviewed by Bill Rutherford

This 56-page scenario book (magazine format, staple-bound) addresses the 1940 German invasion of Norway at the skirmish level with ten stand-alone scenarios that can be combined into two loose campaign games.

One campaign (around Narvik) links three scenarios linearly while the other (around Oslo and Trondheim) has the other seven scenarios flow-charted into a campaign with a maximum length of four scenarios. The first quarter of the book provides historical background, campaign descriptions, high level orders of battle, and conversion tables for translating the troop training, morale, and leadership characteristics used in the scenarios into terms used in six of the most popular available skirmish rule sets. Production qualities are good throughout, and the writing is, too.

For all that everybody's heard of the ground campaign in Norway, few of us (I suspect) have actually studied it to any degree, and the background information in NORWAY is as a result, particularly valuable to the gamer just becoming acquainted with this interesting campaign. There's little wasted verbiage - I didn't get the feeling that any of the narrative was there simply to fill up space.

The balance of the book is, of course, devoted to the scenarios themselves - and what of them? Each scenario is four pages long and includes: a page of historical introduction, special scenario rules, an historical outcome, campaign notes and player notes; a simple but very functional game map; and an order-of-battle page with detailed squad-level OBs for each side. Forces typically include a core force of a bit less than a platoon per side, reinforced with troops rolled for on a variable attachments table included for each side, said troops typically consisting of an additional squad, an infantry heavy weapons team, or an AFV of one sort or other (as long as that sort is a Pz I, Pz II, or SdKfz 222 - these light vehicles rule when they appear!), as appropriate to the specific scenario. They involve a several troop types, (six different!) nationalities, and a variety of missions. Victory conditions are generally point-based, with points awarded both for accomplishing one's mission and for inflicting casualties, though in most cases the scenario winner will be obvious... Each scenario had a detailed feel to it, as if it wasn't one of a series.

I happily recommend Skirmish Campaigns: Norway! - it's well-produced, well-written, and the price is right, at $14.95. It should be available from your FLGS but if you can't get it there, contact the authors at J&D Publications, 405 Kunkle Lane, Mechanicsburg, PA 17055 or email them at fisherts@mindspring.com.

More Courier Reviews

Back to Table of Contents -- Courier #78
To Courier List of Issues
To MagWeb Master Magazine List
© Copyright 2000 by The Courier Publishing Company.
This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web.
Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com