Scenario writing for IABSM

As I'm running a game at the club on Monday, and most of the players have probably seen the one I ran at OML7, I guess I need to write another.

Time to dig out my fictional collection of units. I know I could research some historical units for the area of the Gothic Line, but the Hereward Fusileers (an infantry regiment), the Mercia Light Horse (Churchill NA75s), the Granta Yeomanry (Shermans), the 223rd Field Regiment of the RA, and those dashing chaps from 93 Squadron RAF have acquired themselves some history and backstory, as well as (once I'm done with the designs) a complete set of custom cards from Artscow (once I've figured out why Silverlight has stopped working on my browser!)

Ranged up against them as ever are their usual foes, the 741 Grenadier Battalion and their ragtag collection of armour support (sadly, Unteroffizer Jurgen Honisch is still waiting repairs on his beloved Tiger 1E after a lucky hit from a verdamnt Firefly in the defence of San Marco). 

Battle Report - 25-Nov-2012 - Bretwalda - WAB Age of Arthur day

Sunday saw our club put on a WAB Age of Arthur day at our venue. In the end, we had 14 players turn up, a mix of our members and folks from further afield - the venue could, with a bit of a squeeze, hold 24, so there was a reasonable amount of room.

The players were split into two factions, the British (with mercenary allies) under Vortigen, and the Saxon invaders under Hengest: we diced for leaders, and issued them with crowns. Format was three rounds, the first being three sets of doubles plus the leaders (Scrivs as Vortigern and Phil from the Halifax club (the Pennine Raiders) admirably cast as Hengest) in single battle. I paired up with Stephen (also from the Pennine Raiders) to take on the worst Britian could throw at us (which turned out to be Reuben and AndyB from our club!).

It all went OK (ish) for the first three turns, but turn four saw an awful lot of damage done to the combined might of the Saxons and a lot of failed tests, despite our best efforts, and we wound up on the receiving end of a Mighty Victory to Britain. Which rather set the pattern for my day, sadly.

After a quick dash home for the scenery I'd forgotten, we set up the tables for two rounds of singles for the afternoon. The plan here was that each leader was given the scenario sheets for the seven different tables, and had to allocate a player to each table for the second round, and then a different one for the third round. Most of the scenarios were out of the Age of Arthur rulebook, but we added a couple of Andy Hawes and my devising (The Old Roman Signal Station and Our Lady of Wansford) and James Morris' Battle of Chester scenario.

For the second round I got assigned Cat Coit Celedon against Vortigern himself, Scrivs. This basically requires the attacker to punch a hole or two in the defender's formation and make it off the table. I almost managed it: my cavalry vapourised in the face of some remarkably unpleasant double-shotted sling fire, but I did get two units of Duguth headed in the right direction. Except that, due to a complete bit of tactical idiocy on my part, I'd got my hearthguard rather firmly stuck behind some fleeing Geoguth, and in no position to charge. So when Scrivs charged them and they broke, fled and died, my army proceeded to fail its tests, and ... yup, another Mighty Victory to the British.

Last up I got Grahame from our club's Franks in the Mount Badon scenario, which I picked largely because it was the only one of the seven I'd never played. Looking at his forces, and really not wanting to attack uphill against thrusting-spear armed Franks, I decided I'd defend the hill: at this point (in order to make the 2000pts vs 1500 pts the scenario calls for) my cavalry defected to Grahame.

It so nearly worked. I spent four turns resisting the temptation to leave the hill. My reinforcements obligingly turned up on turn four, and proceeded to charge what used to be my cavalry... which actually worked out quite well, as they fled, causing a bit of a logjam for Grahame. By turn 5 I'd lost a unit of Duguth and both my skirmishers, and was poised to charge my Gedriht off the hill and hopefully turn a close-fought victory... except that Grahame unloaded on my Gedriht with every missle troop he had, and did 6 out of 24 casualties. A panic test. They failed. And fled. 11", which was about 3/4" too far for them to stay on the table... You can guess the rest :D

All in all, though? It was a brilliant day - I had a blast, and it certainly seems that everyone else did. The British won the most territory, despite some sterling efforts in the final round after a pep talk from Hengest, and there was a three way tie for the mightiest warrior, resolved in favour of Andy Beer who actually managed three Mighty Victories. Thanks to everyone who came, to Andy Hawes for being organiser in chief and MC ("Yet more interesting NEWS, gentlemen, from the Land of Britannia!"), and to everyone else who helped.

I'm also very pleased to report that the dice-off for various goodies, including a bottle of mead and some of the very nice new Musketeer character figures, raised £65 for the Battlegames Combat Stress Appeal.

Oh, and, P.S.: Scrivs? I win :D

Designing scenarios part 3 - execution

Onward, and last (cor! a post series that only lasted one more post than expected, and is finished! whatever next?), let's talk about what happens 'on the day', as it were.


The Table

There are two almost conflicting things to consider here, Number one - use all the table. If you can't, make it smaller so it looks like you are! There's really no point, especially in a crowded club environment, for example placing the objective in the middle of the table for Blue to defend and restricting the Red forces to entering along one edge, as that renders half the table, pretty much, pointless. I'm guilty of that in my Op: Squad scenarios - most of them would have fitted on a 4'x3' or almost a 4'x2' rather than the 4'x4' that they were laid out on. Equally, though, don't just start Red's forces at the far end of the table simply to use all the table space. If Blue are in defensive positions they don't want to, or the scenario won't let them, vacate, and don't have long range weapons, you're going to effectively waste several turns until the sides get into range.

Designing scenarios part 2 - the rôle of the umpire

Following on from part one, this section (perhaps inevitably) merits more thought than I expected when I started laying out the plans for this series (wow, was it really a month ago!). The extended digression in question is the matter of an umpire - should you have one, and what should his powers be?

I'll come right out and admit it - I spent a lot of my time between my teenage wargaming years and my recent rediscovery of the hobby as a GM for assorted roleplaying campaigns: predominantly D&D, but other systems (and complete lack of systems!) besides. I've done everything from lead a party through a pre-planned commercial scenario to tease them with a completely un-pre-planned whodunnit where there were several occasions on which they knew more about the plot than I did. As a result I'd like to think I know what I'm talking about about roleplaying games and GMing :D

Designing scenarios part 1 - preparation

Having knocked together a few scenarios for Operation: Squad, as well as had my thoughts provoked by an excellent piece from Bob Cordery on his Wargaming Miscellany blog, I've been thinking about the practicalities of scenario design (which you'd probably guessed from the title, right?), in particular, the things one needs to do to get it right.

I'd start by pointing out that this isn't about 'tournament' scenarios, but if you like 'mini-campaign' scenarios - it's not about figuring out something to amuse X-thousand point armies, but about giving the opposing generals a hopefully reasonably balanced tactical workout that they can, at the same time, enjoy and feel involved in. I'd also point out that far better people than me have designed scenarios for wargamers, and these are just my opinions.

This post will be divided into two parts: first up, preparation. (OK, let's be honest here. On my past form? at least two parts!)

The Plot


Basically, the first question you need to answer is 'why are the opposing forces here?' The standard tournament answer ("Because they ran into each other, duh!") generally Won't Do - armies don't, normally. One side or other will have an objective, which may or may not be known to the other side, and is usually on terrain of the other's choosing. Some of the more interesting, particularly smaller-scale, battles, focus around taking small strategic objectives like river crossings (Pegasus Bridge) or villages, or covering retreats (Quatre Bras). Sure, that objective sometimes is 'bring the opposing army to battle and crush them', but even then there's a story - look at Waterloo for an example.

Briefings


Make them fun. Go to a little bit of effort - they can just be verbal briefings, but you could prepare handouts.

Briefings should actually be in two parts: the mission, and, for want of a better word, the knowledge.

If you like, you can consider the mission briefing to be the victory conditions. It could for instance be an in-character communique from the commander's superior officer telling him what his goal is. For extra verisimilitude and immersion, take advantage of modern computers and printers, and use a suitable font as well. I've done at least one mission brief (which those of you going to Hammerhead will see at our club's participation game) with authentic German stamps and Himmler's signature!

The knowledge is the stuff that the commander should know as well as the mission brief - why he's where he is, what condition his forces are in, etc. This can also be used to set up and justify some of the rationale behind the scenario - for example, in one of my Op: Squad scenarios, the German squad (attached to a Flak unit) is transport-less because the Feldwebel of the overall detachment has driven off in the Opel Blitz to visit his (presumably French) girlfriend. It can also be used to set up personal aims for the commander (or commanders, if you're expecting multiple players a side). Above all, it can and probably should be entertaining, something that draws the player in.

On top of that? Maps. Always! Maps are cool: even if they're just sketches. Better yet if you can use one of the cheap or free graphics packages to pretty them up a bit. (For the Mac, OmniGraffle's really neat and not that pricey. For the PC, it's a complete no-brainer - just buy Campaign Cartographer and the Dungeon Designer add-on! (note for Mac users, this will run under CrossOver.)

If you want to see some really masterful attempts to impart knowledge, go grab a copy of Don Featherstone's Skirmish Wargaming, and read some of the two and three page pieces that precede each scenario - they are, to all intents and purposes, short stories. While there's probably considerably more information in those than is absolutely necessary, they do make for excellent plots for scenarios.

Balance

This is always a tricky one. The briefing is the primary place where you can tune game balance: number of units available, timings of arrivals, etc. For example, a lot of my Operation: Squad scenarios are designed for equal forces, but compensate for one side being in good defensive positions by requiring half of them to roll to wake up. If you're running with an umpire, it also allows you to add unknown numbers of reinforcements to either side at a later stage in the battle, if things are getting a little one-sided.

That, in itself, opens a whole can of worms, which I'll save for another post, namely the whole question of umpired vs not, and whether the scenario as you write it down should be set in stone thereafter.


Of which, more next time. Enjoy!