World at War #92 - Narvik 1940

From Decision Games:

The Magazine:

Narvik 1940 On 6 April 1940 the troops of the German 139th Mountain Infantry Regiment embarked on a destroyer squadron in Bremen. They were led by Lt. Gen. Eduard Dietl, commander of 3rd Mountain Infantry Division. Their target was Narvik, a port above the Arctic Circle. The fighting there would last for over two months. Here is our analysis.

Articles

Red Storm Into Poland: The Lviv-Sandomierz Summer Offensive The Lviv-Sandomierz offensive secured bridgeheads for future offensive operations into southern Poland. In the process, they broke through along a front of 273 miles and penetrated 186 miles. They also mauled Army Group North Ukraine, causing total casualties of 137,000 compared with 224,000 of their own losses. Given the overall numerical imbalance in the east, any exchange rate less than 5:1 has to be seen as ultimately favoring the Soviets.
    
SS Caucasus Cavalry Brigade The origins of the Caucasus units of the Waffen SS date to the formation of the “Volunteer Cadre Division,” made up of defectors from various ethnic groups of the USSR, initially set up in France early on 1 February 1944. The division was a conglomeration of five training regiments, each with personnel from different ethnicities (“tribes” to the Germans).
    
Romania at War When Romania entered the war the country’s armored corps, while equipped with a relatively large number of tanks, had a decidedly outdated inventory. The tanks, aircraft and ships available were light pre-war designs, many produced abroad.. With that obsolete equipment they still conducted relatively effective defensive operations prior to the Soviets’ Stalingrad counteroffensive.

The Game:

Narvik 1940 is a two-player wargame of low to intermediate complexity that simulates the battles around Narvik, Norway in 1940. To control complexity and present an overall force commander’s view of the battle, the game uses a tactically scaled map and units of maneuver coupled with an operationally scaled turn length. The Allied player is normally on the offensive, trying to clear the Germans from the Narvik area, but the German player has opportunities for counterattacks. The game starts in mid-April, after the Germans seized control of Narvik and just as the Allies have made their initial landings to begin their counteroffensive. Narvik models a battle fought in Arctic conditions with extremes of weather and long daylight hours. There was a chaotic command system on the Allied side and an overextended force on the German.

Each hex on the map represents 1.5 miles or 2.4km. Each game turn represents one week. Units of maneuver are platoons to battalions representing from 50 to 1000 men. Air units represent a variable number of sorties.

22 x 34 inch map 176 5/8 inch counters.