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Well I tip my cap to anyone who can pull off a Decisive Victory in Norway. I have tried it three times now, and the best I can do is a Marginal Victory, which ends a few hexes short of the northern most city. Playing on the General's difficulty level, I came through Poland relatively unscathed, but Norway really did a number to me. I lost two Panzer units, and had to waste a good amount of prestige just to keep my embattled infantry slogging forward. And to add insult to injury, to make my prestige go further I had to use regular replacements, so I also lost some experience. Now I get to go through the Low Countries depleted.

That was not a fun scenario. Well back to it I suppose....

Did you overlook the northern placement hexes at the beginning of the scenario? Doing so has prevented at least one player from getting a Decisive Victory.

I use a few paratroopers in this scenario. Their range makes them quite useful and they add some strength to the northern landing party.

I land one inf, one tank and one arty in the northern landing sone (tank furthest north, then inf then arty to help the arty survive), I also use paratroopers. The ones you start with, I immediately order to reembark after they take their initial objectives, and use them to land close to Trondheim to allow them to aid the tank, inf and arty allready in place.
At this time, I also tend to have two paratrooper units in my core units, and send them all the way to the north.

I would also say that in this scenario, the presence of a level bomber (startegic bomber) is a great help, as that will allow you to get rid of the RN alot faster.

Terje

No I didn't overlook the northern most placement hexes. I actually placed two Inf, one group of regulars, and the Mnt Div you start with. I also placed a Pz38 up there. My problem is that I take punishing losses from the two capital ships the AI parks in the little inlet up there. Add to that a regular dose of Rugged Defense and it makes taking those cities very hard. I actually used the Paratroopers in the bottom of the map to clean out the AA in the airfield in the SE. The fortification down there also gave me headaches. Once that was cleaned out I loaded the troopers on planes and flew them up north to deal with the mess up there. Only it is usually too late to do anything measurable with them. I was afraid to place an artilery unit up there. I figured that it would get pummelled so I kept it at the bottom of the map. And you are right without a JU88, the British Navy is impossible to deal with.

On to Belgium....

MJ

ORIGINAL: michael1776
The fortification down there also gave me headaches.

As it did to the Germans IRL as well (Blücher) [;)]
You mention you get blasted away by those capitol ships. That can be a problem, but I found out that is what destroyers are for - cannonfodder [:D]

Terje

LOL, I get a decisive victory any time I want and destroy all the allied units and ships except for the carrier which tends to sit at the top of the map on colonel mode. The key is to consolodate your naval power right away - move your southern ships west and north right away and use their bombards on the southern most units - land all your troops on turn two - dont try to sail farther North and use your sub to nail the big allied bb. Like any good ground war, soften up with stukas and art, then go in with grenadiers. Three fighters in the mix ends Norway airpower by turn 2 or 3 and the ME109's are usually good to soften up the allied infantry w/o loss which only increases the experience. Drop the paratroopers right away where they start and use the northernmost one to kill the fixed gun south of Oslo, usually takes 2 attacks after an Art barrage or two. Use the 'extra' panzer 4d to move up and crush the anti air near Oslo by turn 4 or 5.
I like to put 1 tank and two infantry up north, they usually end the art units (one in the city south and one near the objective on the AF). If you get good weather, the brits are sitting on transports on turn two about to land and are great airpower targets. I like two art (1 is SP) and the rest infantry (mtn and gren are great), 3 ftrs and two fbs. Dont buy tanks for Norway - just isn't maneuver room and they dont punch like the paras and grens. Save the prestige to buy the PZ 4D when available - cheaper than buying pz 2 or 3 and trying to upgrade.
Just my 2 cents

I got a decisive victory on FM level. As has been mentioned you need to land troops including an Arty in the 3 northern LZ. Also, the paratroops that are staged to land also have to go north immidiately. I let other forces capture the southern airfields.

Move both heavy cruisers towards the british at full speed, and gather all your light ships with them. Remember that the enemy moves his biggest units first, and he shoots at the closest targets he can hit. If you can get your schnellboots and destroyers close to his cruisers and battleship he'll waste turns shooting at them instead of your heavier ships. Meanwhile, use your cruisers to kill his destroyers and strategic bombers to kill his battleship and cruisers. I added two Ju-88 to my forces for that role.

There's nothing in the south that can hold you up. You don;t need any help from shore bombardment or your bombers to capture Oslo and the southern airfields. Anything that can go north needs to. Your airforce, all the ships, all the paras. Anything that can get north should go without delay. You don't have a turn for your bombers to soften up landing points. If your bombers rush north immidiately you can kill the british landing craft trying to land at the port just south of your northern LZ. Once you destroy his fleet you can bring your cruisers up north. With their support it is a mop up operation to capture the last port. Keep your bombers nearby, the british will continue to bring in landing craft to any open ports throughout the scneario.

I thought the scenario was pretty unfair because of the many cruisers. But I managed a decisive victory at turn 12, in the first attempt. But I lost 1 tank and 1 inf from my core unit.

Luckily the AI made the mistake to concentrate their cruisers on my cruisers, instead of bombarding the shit out of my vulnerable units in the north.

It's definitely winnable if you:

- move your paratroopers north

- lure the Royal navy south and concentrate your cruisers.
- concentrate fire on cruisers/BBs not on destroyers. you will lose them all but the RN will be weakened greatly

- reinforce often, don't care too much about the prestige

- accept that you lose a few units

- embark more infantry and disembark at airfields, when you see fit. you have plenty of air transport pts.

- be careful that your airplanes don't run out of fuel

I still think that the scenario sucked and should be rebalanced.

ORIGINAL: GlobalExplorer

I thought the scenario was pretty unfair because of the many cruisers. But I managed a decisive victory at turn 12, in the first attempt. But I lost 1 tank and 1 inf from my core unit.

Luckily the AI made the mistake to concentrate their cruisers on my cruisers, instead of bombarding the shit out of my vulnerable units in the north.

It's definitely winnable if you:

- move your paratroopers north

- lure the Royal navy south and concentrate your cruisers.
- concentrate fire on cruisers/BBs not on destroyers. you will lose them all but the RN will be weakened greatly

- reinforce often, don't care too much about the prestige

- accept that you lose a few units

- embark more infantry and disembark at airfields, when you see fit. you have plenty of air transport pts.

- be careful that your airplanes don't run out of fuel

I still think that the scenario sucked and should be rebalanced.

Next time buy a Strategic bomber. It does wonders to the RN.
Your navy will be bombarding the Allies troops up North (assuming you don't get nothing but bad weather)!

ORIGINAL: James Ward

ORIGINAL: GlobalExplorer

I thought the scenario was pretty unfair because of the many cruisers. But I managed a decisive victory at turn 12, in the first attempt. But I lost 1 tank and 1 inf from my core unit.

Luckily the AI made the mistake to concentrate their cruisers on my cruisers, instead of bombarding the shit out of my vulnerable units in the north.

It's definitely winnable if you:

- move your paratroopers north

- lure the Royal navy south and concentrate your cruisers.
- concentrate fire on cruisers/BBs not on destroyers. you will lose them all but the RN will be weakened greatly

- reinforce often, don't care too much about the prestige

- accept that you lose a few units

- embark more infantry and disembark at airfields, when you see fit. you have plenty of air transport pts.

- be careful that your airplanes don't run out of fuel

I still think that the scenario sucked and should be rebalanced.

Next time buy a Strategic bomber. It does wonders to the RN.
Your navy will be bombarding the Allies troops up North (assuming you don't get nothing but bad weather)!

Makr it a Ju-88' better against ships than the Heihkel-111.

Ok, didn't know that. My old PG instinct was to ignore strategic bombers. It worked all the same.

Always pay attention to the various unit values For example, compare 38T'S WITH mk iiiS.

ORIGINAL: GlobalExplorer

Ok, didn't know that. My old PG instinct was to ignore strategic bombers. It worked all the same.

Also note that the soft and hard attack values of Strategic Bombers in PC is alot higher than in PG. In PG they were 1/4 (s/h), here you have something like 4/8 (do not have the game running atm, but it is substanital higher than in PG), meaning you will score alot more hits on enemy ground units as well.

Terje

Obtained a just-in-time decisive victory using GlobalExplorer's tips [:)]