Narvik 1940 (patch now available)

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Hoplomachia
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Narvik 1940 (patch now available)

Post by Hoplomachia »

Narvik 1940 scenarios for COTA is now available for download here:

Narvik 1940 to unzip directly in COTA main folder

Narvik 1940 consists of 3 scenarios:
Midnight Valley 01 May 1940 to 12 May 1940
Burning Snow 13 May 1940 to 27 May 1940
Lost Cause 28 May 1940 to 09 June 1940

Please read Designers Notes before play.

Feedback appreciated [:)]
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Hoplomachia
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Narvik 1940 Designers Notes

Post by Hoplomachia »

NARVIK 1940

Designers Notes

The Battle of Narvik
This battle started with the German occupation of Norway 9 April 1940 and ended with the capitulation of Norway and the evacuation of the Allied forces 9 June 1940. Narvik had strategic value as the main outlet of iron ore from Sweden and both the Allies and Germany planned to take control of this town, but Germany eventually got there first. During this period the Allied has slowly concentrated troops around the Narvik area and started to push back the defensive perimeter of General Dietl's 3rd Mountain Division. Strategic considerations, logistical difficulties and not least horrible weather and ground conditions prolonged this campaign, and when at last the Allies were ready for the final attack, the German attack on the low Countries and France suddenly changed the overall situation overnight.

Installing Narvik 1940
I recommend using the Generic Mod Enabler to install Narvik 1940 as it contains files that will replace some of the standard COTA files. If however the files are moved manually to the respective folders, remember to backup your original files.
I regard these files as important to create the look of Norwegian mountains and Winter landscape on the game map, so I recommend using them.

COTA and Norway 1940?
In COTA estabs there are no Norwegian, French and Polish units that could readily be used for this campaign. So I have chosen Greek units as Norwegian, Australian units as French and British units as Polish. I have also changed the unit and commander capabilities to my perception of the respective national unit at that time and place in history.

The Game Map
The map is combined from four Russian topographic maps of the area together with historical knowledge of the Narvik area from 1940. Map names are ofcourse in Norwegian, but I have replaced some of the unique language characters with generic ones.

Long scenarios?
Narvik 1940 has 3 scenarios:
Midnight Valley 01 May 1940 to 12 May 1940
Burning Snow 13 May 1940 to 27 May 1940
Lost Cause 28 May 1940 to 09 June 1940
I thought it was necessary to have fairly long scenarios to more accurately recreate this campaign. In addition the overall purpose of the Allied campaign was to slowly push back the German defensive perimeter and this was not done in
just a few days. It will be an important aspect to take good care of your troops and not to waste them in unnecessary attacks. Always keep the current weather in mind when planning your operations.

Movement
As the map in certain areas confines the operational movement of units care should be taken to select the appropriate order for the situation at hand.

No nighttime?
Narvik is in the land of the Midnight Sun and that fact is also reflected in the scenarios, so in most scenarios there is no nighttime at all.

German reinforcements
German reinforcements would either appear by paradrop, by seaplane or by train from Sweden and all appear within their historical timeslot and area. To create some uncertainty around the apperance of reinforcements I have mostly set the schedule of arrival somewhere between early morning and late evening.

Scenario Balance
A fair amount of time has been used in an effort to create a force balance in each scenario. If you feel that either side is too weak or too strong in a given scenario, then do not hesitate to use the reinforcement schedule variants included.


References:
A valuable source on this battle has been the War Diary (Kriegstagebuch) of the German General Alois Dietl of 3rd Mountain Division as it is fairly accurate in both events and weather conditions. But to get information of the respective national armies operations at Narvik in 1940, it has been necessary to search the respective national resources. So the research of Narvik 1940 are based on many sources to recreate more accurate historical scenarios.

Narvik: Die Kämpfe der Gruppe Dietl Im Frühjahr 1940. Buchner, Alex 1958.
I Kamp Om Narvik 1940 by Brauteset Steinar 1987.
Narvik 1940 by Bjørnsen Bjørn 1980.
The Norwegian Campaign Of 1940 by Moulton J. L. 1966.
Norway 1940 by Francois Kersaudy 1987.
Kampene Om Narvik by Johan Waage 1962.
6. Divisjon by Lindbäck-Larsen Odd 1946.
The French Army 1939-45 (2) by Sumner Ian 1998.
En alpejegers beretning fra 1940 by Pounhet Jean-Francois.
French Foreign Legion 1914-1945 by Windrow Martin 1999.
The French Foreign Legion a complete history by Porch Douglas.
General Dietl by Dietl Eduard 1951.
Kampene I Norge 1940. Bind 2 by Andreas Hauge 1978.
Operasjonene til lands i Nord-Norge 1940, bd. I by Sandvik Trygve 1965.
Operasjonene til lands i Nord-Norge 1940, bd. II by Sandvik Trygve 1965.
Forsvarsstudier Forsvarets Høgskole Forsvarshistorisk Forskningssenter 1987. The French Army 1939-45 (1) by Sumner Ian 1998.
Various Internet sources.


Leonidas, February 2007

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Dagfinn
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RE: Narvik 1940

Post by Dagfinn »

Could we please see some screenshots of your Norwegian maps?
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Hoplomachia
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RE: Narvik 1940

Post by Hoplomachia »

-
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Dagfinn
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RE: Narvik 1940

Post by Dagfinn »

Oops, a little missunderstanding. [:o]

I wanted to see your COTA maps.

Topographical maps of Norway, I have plenty of... [:D]
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Hoplomachia
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RE: Narvik 1940

Post by Hoplomachia »

Dagfinn,

Here is a screenshot of the gamemap:

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Arjuna
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RE: Narvik 1940

Post by Arjuna »

Great stuff Leonidas. Well done.[&o]
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Vance
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RE: Narvik 1940

Post by Vance »

Nice!!

One remark though. If you leave out the leading 'Narvik 1940' directory when making the zip file you can extract the files directly into your COTA installation and all files fall into the right directories. In that case you should not provide the default map patterns in 'Graphics\Map\Default' (overwriting the custom patterns that someone might have installed). Instead provide a 'Graphics\Map\Narvik1940' directory with map patterns, and use this directory in your map files. This way the map pattern for the Norwegian map can be changed (a little snow perhaps) without affecting the default maps.


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Future
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RE: Narvik 1940

Post by Future »

What a great mod. Well done. It is so good to see this phase of WWII being cattered for at long last.
The wargamer also known as Ross Moorhouse.
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Hoplomachia
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RE: Narvik 1940

Post by Hoplomachia »

Vance,

The files are zipped in regard to the use of the Generic Mod Enabler, but you have a good point here. I think I will provide another zip-file like you described.

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RE: Narvik 1940

Post by Hoplomachia »

Alternate download now available for unzipping directly into main COTA folder (see above).

Leonidas

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Vance
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RE: Narvik 1940

Post by Vance »

Thanks.

For me everything works ok now. The Greek scenarios and the Norwegian scenarios are available in the game at the same time, and the maps display with the right pattern.

I think using the mod installer is unnecessary, and has the drawback that you need to exit the game and run the mod installer when you want to switch from a Norwegian scenario to a Greek scenario and visa versa. Of course you need it when you want to mod non scenario files like souds and the startup video. Anyway, you did a great job.
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RE: Narvik 1940

Post by jhdeerslayer »

Thanks for doing Narvik. Just started a scenario and looks awesome!
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RE: Narvik 1940

Post by Arjuna »

Leonidas,
 
Yes you have done well. Have been mucking around with it yesterday. One thing I do think needs more work are the Allied objectives. I left a test game running overnight and awoke to find the Germans almost wiped out - just four HQs left [:)]. The Allies had secured all their objectives but none of these were the town of Narvik itself. I found this odd.
 
The briefing implies that the aim is twofold - first to encircle and destroy the enemy and then to secure Narvik. I think these were in accord with the historical objectives - well at least the securing Narvik.
 
So, for the Allies, I would suggest placing a very high victory objective at Narvik, an AI objective ( ie no VPs ) on SEP2, where the French land and another at Bjerkvik in the north. Then low VP objectives at Beisfjord and Sildvik and maybe another at Hundalen. But that's it. I would also up the VPs for destroying the enemy.
 
The Germans need a similar high VP objective at Narvik. It's fine to start with the ring of minor objectives on the two fronts, but make these very minor as a percentage of the overall VP total.
 
In this way the Germans should abandon these as things get tough and fall back to their major objective at Narvik. Liekewise the Allies will focus on busting through to Narvik, rather than on just taking out the frontier posts. Should make for manouvre.
 
You will need to experiment a bit to get it right.
 
Also, there is a problem with the sunrise/sunset timings. It's something I had not anticipated before - ie having less than four hours between sunset and sunrise. This causes problems for the weather code. I recommend you set sunset to 2200 for each day and sunrise to 0200 for each day. Effectively there will be no night, just broad daylight, dusk at 2300 and dawn at midnight. No wonder those Norwegians have such a sunny disposition. [;)]
 
Overall an excellent job. Well done. [&o]
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Hoplomachia
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RE: Narvik 1940

Post by Hoplomachia »

Arjuna,

I guess this is the first scenario Midnight Valley?

In this scenario Narvik is not among the Allied objectives and the briefing states that you must secure objectives up north for an attack later at Narvik, later meaning not in this scenario. Perhaps I should make this more clear in this briefing.
This scenario is sort of intermediary in regard to overall objectives. Historically the Allies was not ready for an attack on Narvik itself and there was quite an argument between General Mackesy and Admiral Cork about this. So if the Allies are content with the objectives up north then all is actually fine.
Furthermore if high priority objectives are placed on Narvik, then the Poles in the south will start attacking towards this objective right away and that is not intended here. In this respect I have tried to simulate merely a defensive attitude from Polish troops south of Narvik.
As to VPs for destroying enemy, this was set low to make the AI go more for objectives than kills. Upping this will bring the Germans into more trouble I think, but I will have a go at it again.

Regarding sunrise and sunset I will correct this immediately.

Thanks for the scenario test [:)]

Leonidas

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Dagfinn
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RE: Narvik 1940

Post by Dagfinn »

ORIGINAL: Arjuna

The Germans need a similar high VP objective at Narvik. It's fine to start with the ring of minor objectives on the two fronts, but make these very minor as a percentage of the overall VP total.

In this way the Germans should abandon these as things get tough and fall back to their major objective at Narvik. Liekewise the Allies will focus on busting through to Narvik, rather than on just taking out the frontier posts. Should make for manouvre.

Might be right in a game setting, but historical it would be plain wrong. The germans abandoned Narvik and withdrew towards the Swedish border. Here they could recive supplies via a "neutral" [8|] Sweden...
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RE: Narvik 1940

Post by Arjuna »

Actually the scenario I played was the Burning Snow one.
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Hoplomachia
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RE: Narvik 1940

Post by Hoplomachia »

Arjuna,

The Burning Snow scenario is much like Midnight Valley in regard to objectives, as the Allies only wanted to shrink the German defensive perimeter even further and no assault on Narvik was intended. And again if a high priority Allied objective is placed on Narvik, then the Polish troops will go for an all-out assault, which is likewise not intended. In the scenarios I have tried to balance this two-front battle that the Germans actually faced here and the need for them to allocate troops for both fronts. It would have been a lot easier to design, if the Allied focus was always on capturing Narvik, but I have tried to recreate history as far as it goes here. I have actually also played with the idea of having an extra long scenario that summed up all three scenarios in one, but the amphibious landings later on was a problem.

Only in the last scenario Lost Cause the Allies get an objective on Narvik, but the German objective on Narvik only has minimum priority. So in this scenario you will actually see the Germans abandoning Narvik, because as Dagfinn says, the Germans did not want to hold Narvik at all costs, but simply withdrew towards Sweden.

The challenge in all scenarios for the Germans is to hold the current defensive perimeter/objectives and for the Allies to negate this.

Leonidas

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Hoplomachia
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Narvik 1940 Patch

Post by Hoplomachia »

A patch for Narvik 1940 (all files) is available here or via link in first post above:

Narvik 1940 to unzip directly in COTA main folder


Fix list:

1. Sunrise and sunset times in all scenarios where appropriate now set to 0200 and 2200 as recommended by Arjuna.

2. Small change in scenario briefing in Midnight Valley and Burning Snow to reflect that Narvik is not an Allied objective in these scenarios.

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RE: Narvik 1940 Patch

Post by RedMike »

[&o]
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