"What makes a good Scenario?" Topic

Specifically for Bolt Action, or any WWII rule set, 28mm?

I am completely jaded with the 6 missions in the hardback Bolt Action rules, and, yes, I am aware of the numerous supplements. But I was interested in perhaps making my own scenarios based on actual battles.

Does anyone have any tips on how to handle terrain, army lists, etc.? If a battle really had say 200 US Paratroopers v. 2,000 SS, should I scale it down to something like 1 American platoon vs. 2 or 3 German? The German player would have the numerical advantage, but would have to cross more open ground, while the Americans have cover and concealment.

I just don't want the attacking player to feel like he can't win because he will get annihilated, but conversely I don't want the attacker to just roll right to Utah Beach, as it were.

And, lastly, how many real events, such as a commander getting killed halfway through the battle, do you add? And do you make it a random event, or something that occurs on a specific turn?

I think you would do well to purchase some of the Skirmish Campaign scenario books. I believe Lon of Brigade Games carries them. 44'Normandy First Hours and Heroes of Omaha and Panzer Lehr are fantastic for the kind of forces it sounds like you have available. While most of the books are designed for 15mm games you can easily scale things to fit with 28 mm. The two I mentioned actually have a few scenarios that are designed for 28mm.

I have put a good bit of thought into this myself as I prefer scenarios to just throw downs or bring "X" amount of points. Setting various victory conditions or goals can balance out uneven forces. Perhaps the smaller out numbered forces gain victory points for each turn they hold an objective or to reflect their dogged stubbornness or elite do or die attitude you give them extra activation dice so that units can act more than once in a turn.

I'd say 2-3 special rules (enough to be interesting, limited enough to be easy to remember), don't be afraid to bath tub the scenario, and ignore the shrieking harpies who insist that a scenario must, by law, be 3 to 1 odds for the attacker.

A good game tends to be around 2 to 1 or even a bit lower, depending on attacker quality. 3 to 1 is what you wanted if you wanted to ensure success.

Just use your imagination, or read a few 1st hand accounts and copy them. Don't make it a fair fight, that's just boring.

Ok I am biased as I do make terrain. Personally at that cale you have to play in dence terrain. I would suggest 10 to 15 houses spaced not more than about 100mm apart so that you have a vaguely relistic spacing, not perfect but OK. The houses should roughly outnumber the players squads bt about 2 to 1. Allow the defender about 1/3 of the forces of the attacker, but give him a couple of strong points. That is at least a fighting position with sufficent overhead cover that a direct hit will not do other than supress him. Such emplacements may have limited fire arcs and hence may not be engaged easily out of their fire arc.

Note the defender does not have to say where he is unless you actually walk ino hime or he fire.

If you give the defender lots of engineering then you will have to give the attacker artillery (smoke and HE) to allow him to isolate the battlefield.

That with tunes and swapping sides should give you a few starters for 10. Of course there are always variations on Kellys Heros raiding banks etc.

I like Weasel's ideas and while I am working to one day being about to say run Carentan, having 10 to 15 houses as UshCha suggests is to me a little unfeasible until you either have the funds to purchase or time to scratch build all the structures. I do agree with UshCha that especially in 28 mm WW II (but I would say this for any WW II game or other period) you need to have lots of places for cover. Even my North Africa games in 28 mm are set with lots of rocks, brush, waddies, and yes even small towns in which the combat takes place. Modern warfare is deadly which is why that whole marching shoulder to shoulder thing went out of fashion.

Actions in the ETO took place in a lot of terrain. One thing you must have if you are doing Normandy of course is bocage, lots and lots of bocage at least until the breakout and even then walls, fences and plenty of narrow dirt roads. You also need an abundance of wooded areas as well as orchards. You can get by with a few buildings at first. Many a fire fight took place at a single farmhouse.

Many of the scenarios I have played in or used the "defending" forces often have fox holes and slip trenches. Make or purchase some of these which will of course provide cover.

Give the defenders the ability to call in a limited number of a artillery missions. Say two or three which can potentially slow down high numbers of attackers.

Above all make if fun for both sides.

3:1 at point of impact. We normally use 5:3 attacker:defender on the Westfront and 6:3 on the Eastfront (4:3 if attacker is German).

If you are a player first not a modeller first, or you just want to try this sort of thing, we do simple print your own card houses cheap. But we started with spray painted cerial packet houses. They will hold 28mm, as a friend uses them in his Bolt Action games.

link

look at these and some of the others and maybe start with cerial packets. You cam make 3 story versions as long as you make big open windows the model will fit in. This adds interest as you can see over, but not down without losing the cover benefit. Strech it a bit and it can be Starlingrad. Tanks can't elevate at close range to hit the upper floor and the roof kills the mortars. Move in almost complete safety. Plus if its onlt a bit of car you can "mouse hole" it and have ladders as bridges beween bulidings.

Don't forget also when there are a lot of buildings (say 10 or more closely packed) e the eye does not see so much detail as a lot of the time all you see is the roof. Don't forget houses want to be close say a tank and a half width to restrict fields of fire like in a real urban area.

It depends on scale too.
In scales with individually based figures, one of the best things you can do is "clutter".

Individual rocks, rubble, trees, fences, all kinds of stuff you can put in open spaces to make it look more alive.

It's amazing what sticking a few trees in a yard between two houses will do, both visually, and when you suddenly have a guy pinned down behind one of them :-)

Hey those are pretty cool UshCha! And cheap! Nothing wrong with cheap.

For me, a good scenario is creating non-abstract objectives. A scenario with "Kill or rout all the other guys" as the win condition for both teams is boooooring. It can be as simple as "push x units off the opponents' side of the board" for the attacker and "still have combat-capable units at point a, b, and c" for the defender, or you can create your own system of objective-based victory points. If your objectives are well-balanced, even a hugely outnumbered force can still have a fair chance at winning the game.

Reading history, especially first-hand accounts, is a great way to come up with interesting objectives for your scenarios.

Having players work towards objectives can create all sorts of interesting in-game decisions, too – where do I focus my main push, if I not only have to get through the enemy line, but have to preserve 75% of my fighting force? Can I use a feint to draw off some of the defenders?

We have constructed over 60 scenarios for World War Two skirmish actions based on actual situations.

In order to balance them, many actions will not try to cover the entire battle but only a segment of it. Our biggest hold up was the lack of map systems so I had to devise a clock system (dividing the map into 9 sectors (NW, N, NE, E, Se, S, SW, W and Central).
These have been very challenging.

As snodipous mentioned reading the actual history can be an excellent way to come up with scenarios. While most books on WW II tend to discuss the larger actions there are plenty of memoirs and personal accounts that provide platoon size ideas. Also check into government archives and Federal Depositories in your area as there are often collections from the War Department with excellent maps and a plethora of materials to gather ideas.

As Rudy stated sometimes you just have to extrapolate from the larger actions and create a snap shot of that moment that is at the tip of the spear.

For Normandy you cannot go wrong with such things as side A must hold "X" number of buildings while side B must take "X" number of buildings. If side B is the attacker with a slightly larger force then side B has to take at least one more building than side A must hold. This can make for some pretty lively scenarios because the placement of said buildings will naturally favor the smaller side except for perhaps one more that is in no man's land that A has to have in order to win. B will have to press hard to achieve its goals and of course turn limits can really ratchet up the action. The side with the higher number of soldiers/vehicles/support should not be able to take all day. Most battle plans had strict time schedules that the commanders wanted to meet. "Lieutenant, that crossroads has to be taken before 1800 hours. Now move out!"

A good scenario for wargaming is one that is historically plausible and yet set up so that either side can win.

Some scenario designers go for maximum accuracy to the point that one side is hopelessly outmatched and yet the victory conditions say they must defeat the enemy. On the other hand you get games that are so balanced either through points or mirror image armies that they become stalemates.

My method uses a checklist:
1. Base it around a real battle or campaign.
2. Make a note of the terrain either through original maps or even Google Earth; times may have altered the landscape but you will still get an idea of what the land is like.
3. Once you have a time and a place, you can make your OOBs. Base it around a mission objective; is it going to be a straight up slugfest, a reconnaissance mission, capturing a landmark, defending a landmark, fighting withdrawal or another kind of mission? The nature of the mission will influence what kind of forces you'll need.
4. Even if you don't like point systems games, make a note of the running points costs as you build up your armies if your preferred rules has them. The reason is, not to make a pointed game, but to be aware of how much of an advantage one side has over the other. Use the points not as a hard and fast but rather as a guideline.
5. If you are designing a scenario that is very historically based and one side is very outnumbered or at a significant disadvantage, give them victory conditions that don't rely on them utterly defeating the enemy in combat. Give the side with the advantage a time limit or set victory conditions that rely on objective occupation or being able to withdrawal from battle intact or some other condition that is within reach of the outnumbered side. Otherwise you're setting up half your players with a doomed force and expecting them to enjoy themselves in an exercise in futility.