Narvik, the third game in the Europa series, has been remarkably popular considering the relatively obscure subject. I wrote a strategy and tactics article on Narvik a few years ago, the first article that I ever wrote. The following article by James Wells explores some possibilities that I didn't think of.

German Player

Deployment:

While landing the assault wave the German player should keep in mind that he has fifteen turns in which to accomplish his objectives. Generally, all of the ports south of Bergen are too close to the German air bases to be of any use to the British player, and will soon fall anyway, so there is little point in the German player wasting his precious assault wave troops landing at these ports.

All available strength should be committed to the major objectives: Trondheim, the crucial bottleneck, and the road from Namsos to Narvik. If the German player fails to gain both of these, the port of Narvik will be nearly impossible to take in the latter turns of the game. Small forces should be landed in the Oslo area and at Bergen to secure the artillery stores and the Bergen airfield, respectively. Remember, the Oslo area is about the only area that troops from the reserve wave can be safely landed, so don't bother to make a landing in strength near Oslo until the reserve wave.

However, the airfields next to Kristiansand and Stavanger are extremely important to the German player for the purposes of reinforcing the invasion by air. Both fields can and should be taken in the first turn by pulling the surprise landing trick with Me-110's, which otherwise are pretty useless. Once the fields are in German hands, the German player can bring in several battalions to each base via Ju-52 transports.

Strategy:

Once the German player has cleared the Oslo area, every effort should be made to reinforce and relieve his units that are stranded in the north of Norway. By around game turn three the German should have cleared all Norwegian units out of the vicinity of Oslo and begun to drive up the roads to Trondheim.

If possible, the German units that are north of Trondheim should destroy the Norwegians at mobilization center 14. Under no circumstances should the German player allow the concentration of Norwegians there to link up with the British expeditionary forces. If such a disaster does occur the German should use every available plane to bomb all of the allied held bases in the area out of existence.

All this while the German player can reinforce and resupply his forces north of Trondheim by float plane and Ju-52's. Each turn up to two battalions can be brought in. Flak units should be sent in first to protect the airbase from Allied bombers.

After Trondheim is reached by the main German forces the concentration of Norwegians in this area can be destroyed fairly easily by supporting the army with Stukas (Ju-87's) based on Trondheim field. Once the Norwegians are cleared out the German main body can drive up the road to retake the port of Narvik, which the Allied player has probably long since wrested from Germany's frostbitten mountaineers. If he does this by turn fifteen the German player will almost certainly win the game.

Of course, during this time the German forces in the south are clearing out scattered Norwegian resistance in the area. The second mountain division should not be wasted chasing Norwegian units in the southern mountains.

Allied Player

Throughout the game the Allied player should deploy his forces in a way so as to delay the Genrian player as much as possible. To accomplish this end Norwegian units can be spent like water, but allied units should be conserved. They are the only units that can be truly mobile.

In theory the Allied player can win by holding a port south of the weather line, but in practice this is almost impossible to accomplish. As a result, the main Allied effort should be to deny the port of Narvik to the Germans.

To be able to do this the Allied player must interdict all of the German supply and reinforcement sources. The German main supply route is through the air. Normal Ju-52 runs can be stopped by destroying the German lake airfield. Transplanted bombers from Hatson Field are all that is necessary to do this. Float planes, however, are impossible to stop. The Allied player is utterly helpless to do anything about the pesky little transports.

The initial major British landings should be near the port of Narvik. Unless the German deployment is rather foolish the priority objective in the first half dozen turns should be the capture of Narvik. Once Narvik is taken the Allied player should drive south down the road to Trondheim with his full force. 'Me farther he gets, the longer it will take the German to drive back up it again. It cannot be stressed too strongly that the Allied player should seize any opportunity to take and interdict any sections of the road that are to the north of Trondheim unless it brings any appreciable amount of Allied units into contact with the main body of the German army.

Allied units should generally stay north of Trondheim unless the port has been taken by the Allied player. A small amount of miscellaneous odds and ends to slow up the main German force can be quite useful. If the Allied player has taken Trondheim he should form a line of defense (with an ample buffer of Norwegian units) along the Trondheim road, starting one hex south of the port.

As soon as possible British air units should be moved to the airfields where they will be of the most use. After the first few game turns this may become impossible. Air units at Hatson Field are useless where they are, so it is a good idea to transport them to Trondheim airfield, where they will be able to bomb out the German lake airfield if it is deployed up north. Even if the airfield is further south, the bombers can make themselves useful bombing out rail lines and so on.

When the British carriers are at Scapa Flow their air groups should not be gathering dust at home. The turn before a carrier is due to leave is the time to transfer its air group to Bardu airbase or 'ftondheim airfield where they can help by bombing German ground units (especially the Swordfish units).

In conclusion, the Allied player must always remember that his main objective is to delay the German advance, not to destroy German units.

More Narvik

Strategy and Tactics
German First Turn Deployment
Rules Variants