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Showing posts with label Norway1940. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Norway1940. Show all posts

Sunday, 7 December 2025

Norway 1940 : Defence of Tretten

Looking for a quick setup battle this weekend I dug back into my Norway Skirmish scenarios book. This battle is loosely based on the Defense of Trenton. The Germans are forcing the allies back, after the collapse at Lillehammer. We played the scenario with the basic ‘breakthrough’ scenario from the Bolt Action rule book (yes I’m still playing version 1).

Elements of the 163rd Infantry Division are supported by Gebirgsjager and some suitable armoured support. Their objective is to break through the defence line held by the 15th Infantry Brigade and the Norwegian Torkildsen Battalion. The river is only crossable on foot and the woods will slow movement. I didn’t take too many photos as we were having too much fun.

The start of the battle, the Norwegians and British dug in on the right, the German preliminary bombardment pinned nearly every unit and killed one of the 2LB gunners by the small White House. The green markers indicate the location of a hidden Norwegian sniper team. Which would only be revealed when it was overrun.
German infantry Gebirgsjager  come on through the woods using the high ground as cover.
A second 7nit heads for the bridge again using cover, German tanks can be seen advancing slowly through the woods in the distance.
First ‘blood’ to the Norwegian though when their medium mortar hits a German MG first shot behind the logs completely knocking it out. The infantry push on up the hill
Elite Norwegian ski troops come on in reserve and look to cover the bridge. In the distance a lone antitank rifle team and machine gun team are left to cover the woods but are dismayed to see the advancing German armour !
British infantry also moves up to cover the bridge, the second ski unit can be seen heading off into the woods where they got into heavy hand to hand combat driving the Germans in that area back.
 The Gebirgsjager make a bid to cross the bridge and take heavy fire they hit the deck, but they may have only been a diversion for the main assault.
Which is coming over the high ground.
The Norwegians batter away at the attackers but they are out numbered with too many of their troops cover their right flank. The German armour chooses to sweep through in the distance and with the infantry on this flank reaching the stream the battle is over. A good win for the Germans who cleverly kept their armour away form the British artillery.

A fun battle played in fine spirits. Hopefully we can return to Norway again soon, it reminds me I have a couple of french units I need to get painted and some Germans I was going to do in greatcoats.

Keith I think mentioned on one of my previous posts how many trains I have for the model railway, so I thought I would come clean, here is the current train storage case. I doubt very much this will be the end of collecting so I’m going to need to build some more shelves soon….and yes I have quite a lot of stock for them to pull :)

More games planned next week and likely some painting, well why not !

Thanks for popping in

Matt♥️


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Tuesday, 3 September 2024

Norway 1940 : Bolt Action

Another jolly week visiting relatives and squeezing hobby time in around other stuff. Jonathan was visiting from over in Canada and we were looking for a fun game so time to roll out my Norwegian collection. Not a historical encounter but a basic Bolt Action breakthrough scenario.

The Norwegians will be advancing from the left supported by two Polish Infantry squads. The Germans are dug in on the high ground on the right and around the small building where the road heads of the table
The Germans have half their small force dug in on the hill, the Norwegians fail to call in a preliminary barrage so the Germans hold their position in ambush
They also have a 75mm gun as support
The Norwegian commander pushes the Polish infantry to the right and sets up their mortar in the cover of the small wooded hill
A wider shot of the German start position
The Norwegians have two units of elite ski mounted troops who advance across the road and fields, the Germans having moved up into the copse come under heavy fire and are pinned down
On the left the Poles are hit really hard as they cross the road and as soon as they break cover
The Norwegians start to advance knowing they need to break through in six turns
They are supported by a single French R35
After several failed attempts German reserves arrive and head towards the second wooded hill
The first unit of ski troops have been nearly wiped out but the second now sweeps up the hill to combat the defenders, who are cut to pieces
The ski troops then cleverly pull back down the hill awaiting the next turn before sweeping into the victory zone
The German machine gun is knocked out by mortar fire
We are now at six turns and the Norwegians have broken through for a pretty clear win, the Germans just couldn’t stop the tide, although they put up a pretty good fight. Almost all the Poles have been wiped out as have the leading ski troops. A fun game and great to get something different on the table.
Painting this week, after the game last week I realised we didn’t have enough wound markers and I had six more in the box
That should be enough ?
I’ve also finished my Tallarn Captain
Recently I also picked up a couple of rather poorly painted but cheap Spanish units off eBay. I was hoping these would need fairly limited work to get them table ready, here is the first unit. A new flag and a general reworking. They don’t look too bad and certainly good enough, my plan isn’t to create a whole Spanish army rather collection enough for a single Brigade to support the British. So perhaps 3 or 4 units plus some cavalry and an artillery piece ?
Finally Martin was having a clear out and gifted me some 28mm trucks, these are really cheap plastic models but actually look pretty good. He originally thought they were Opal Blitz but after me spending loads of time on the internet, I think I have them identified as Russian Zis-150 trucks. They look very close to American dodge trucks though so some will be painted for Sicily and some generic.
Here is one with some Germans in the back
Finally we’ve been out and about again, a trip to the very interesting Jodrel Bank in Cheshire
…and Appleby Castle where the Norman Keep was renovated about 3 years ago
It has a really interesting history, and a good collection of helmets to try on 
It took me ages to try them all on 😂

Phew busy at the moment, thanks as always for checking in.

A couple of days in London at the end of this week then hopefully some more gaming 

Matt😀
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Tuesday, 19 December 2023

Bergen U-Boat base : Norway 1940

Probably the last battle in the dungeon before Christmas although possibly not  the last of the year. Nothing very historical but a chance to get the U-boat back on the table. This time the Norwegians will be attacking. The scenario was originally developed as a remote game but due to some last minute changes it was expanded to a slightly larger face to face battle.

The Norwegians have three objectives, the large bunker in the foreground, the Uboat of course and a second bunker by the gate in the distance. The Kreigsmarine start the game on the boat, whilst German reserves will arrive from two possible roads accessing the harbour area. The Norwegians will arrive from three of the corners as directed by their commander. All the squads are fairly small to ensure a quick moving battle.
A Norwegian sniper and a single squad get into the harbour
More arrive from the woods beyond the fence
German reserves also arrive
The Kreigsmarine after some initial shooting move off the boat to delay the attack, the Norwegians have a light Howitzer which manages to hit the machine gun on the top of the U boat with its first shell !
The bulk of the Norwegian infantry break through the fence, more Germans arrive behind them down the road through the woods and a firefight starts in the woods
Harbour guards run off across one of the bridges
Some of the sailors are cut down, but the Norwegians don’t want to break cover yet
But then suddenly they run out into combat, they are then cut down themselves before getting onto the boat
At the other end another unit makes a break from cover to try and make it onto the boat
They make it and knock out the machine gun set up on the deck
Again these Norwegians are themselves knocked out by German reinforcements.
The Germans are now clinging on ! As nearly all of their units have been knocked out, the Norwegian commander makes a bid to get onto the boat
At this point the German defence collapsed with pretty much all their forces knocked out, the Norwegians have blown the bunker by the gate, and have made it to the Uboat even if it hasn’t been blown up in time.
The end result which wasn’t really important was somewhere between a draw and a minor victory to the Norwegians, they certainly have the advantage  at this point. They were slightly slow to set off which cost them a stronger victory.

A fun time and a suitable game to finish up before Christmas. I will be posting a Christmas post with some reviews of 2023 in the next few days. But for now I hope you enjoyed the picture of the U boat at least it survived for another battle.

Thanks as always Matt


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Tuesday, 7 March 2023

Lillehammer II : Norway 1940 and the other Roman Wall

We played a Lillehammer scenario a few months ago from the book below and although we are not playing them strictly as a campaign I thought it would be nice to play the follow up battle where the allies having been pushed out of the town counterattack.

A useful source of information
The allies are attacking from this table edge the north of the town, their objective to capture the road junction and get the Germans if possible out of the buildings. Working in 28mm I have had to adapt the map slightly and for a one off battle I simply balanced the troops as I felt suitable. Although you can’t really see them across the stream there are two small (wooded) hills.
The small German force consists of three smallish infantry squads, a supporting mortar, MG34 and a single Panzer I. They have already set up on the table and the allies were asked to develop an attack plan without knowing the German deployment. The Germans have troops on both hills and the third unit held in reserve.
The allies have 5 infantry squads, with machine gun and Bren gun support a light mortar and an ATR. The Norwegians come in from the woods
The British infantry to their left across the road.
The defenders open fire form the wooded hillock
Infantry Held in reserve by the objective and the PzI heads off to block the road once it knows where the ATR is
The leading Norwegian infantry comes to the die of the woods
But in one of those unlikely events are hit hard almost immediately by mortar fire. A turn later they fail to activated and are hit again effectively knocking out the whole unit.
After a couple of turns of long range firing and with one eye on the turn limit the allies bring on some faster moving ski troops to try and out flank the defenders over the stone bridge
The Norwegians have had the worst of the fire and their advance has stalled.
The British make better progress through the trees and towards the stream
They make it to the stream laying down fire on the defenders in the nearby field.
The ski troops are now nearly at the bridge but they have delayed their arrival and May struggle to reach the objective in time ?
That said the Germans have taken a number of casualties and are very thin on the ground apart from the reserves
The British are pressing on the left the crossing here only defended by the remains of a single squad in the field.
The residue of the Norwegian infantry makes a brave dash for the ford across the stream
But they are in the open and take heavy fire from two directions
The battle is now in the balance and the skiers are moving quickly across the bridge, we give them advantages over moving and shooting
With time running out they make a bid for the objective and almost kill the German HQ
After several failed attempts the ATR finally hits the Panzer in the flank and it bursts into flames 🙁
On the British left they are hit again by mortar fire and although they start to push across the stream and the defenders are now almost wiped out it is too late.
This is the high point for the allies as the German reserves are able to relocate down the road and with some devastating fire the Norwegians caught in the open are wiped out. An enjoyable battle, the Norwegians were perhaps a little slow off the mark spending a turn hiding in the woods, similarly the ski troops made it tough for themselves coming on in turn three. It may have been very different if the ATR had hit earlier or the German mortars had been less effective ?

End of last week I was up in Edinburgh again and On the way back stopped to visit some sections of the Roman Antonine Wall. Those not acquainted with the wall it is located further north than it’s more famous cousin built by Hadrian cutting across central Scotland at it narrowest part. It was less robust than Hadrian’s wall but imposing all the same. It isn’t visible for its full length.
As to be expected it has a number of Forts along its length one of these are perhaps the best preserved section near Falkirk. Just across the ditch is Rough Fort as it is known
It was a beautiful day the ditch, the wall is on the left running away into the distance
Excavations have revealed a number of defensive stake holes in the area which can still be seen
I was also biking a bit along canals around Falkirk and visited a separate section which again shows the impressive scale of the ditch
Equally impressive but more modern the canal network here goes through Falkirk tunnel it was fun if slightly perilous to cycle through

That’s all for now another CoC game planned tomorrow and some painting this evening 👍


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