And the student asked of the Dalai Lama, "Master, what are the secrets of preparing a microarmor scenario ?" Upon hearing this, the master smiled, and sat meditating for 3 days and 3 nights, with an occasional pause for a smoke. All the while, the students sat patiently, attentively, and generally peeed off. On the fourth day, the master spoke, saying, "Consider the lotus blossom. Each flower is lovely, yet intricate; delicate, and marvellous." "On the other hand, forget the flowers. What do they have to do with wargaming, anyway? Consider instead your supper." The student looked down at the scattered boxes which were all that remained of his take-out Chinese dinner. "I do not understand, master." The master smiled benevolently, saying, "Of course not, for you are dumb. When the chef who prepared your dinner was but an apprentice, he must have asked 'what are the secrets of preparing a Chinese dinner?' He didn't ask me, of course, but nonetheless, he must have asked. Oh, all right, it was probably subvocalized, so nobody actually *heard* it, but regardless, the question must have popped into his mind." "When one prepares a meal, he places foremost in his mind the goal of pleasing the diner. By focusing his mind on this one objective, he can channel the cosmic energies more efficiently. This is good." "And what does one seek in a meal? It should be flavorful; complex, interesting, tasty. It should be nutritious and healthy, and balanced. It should be filling, yet not stuffing. At times, it should be unusual, though not alien. All should leave the table satisfied and pleased. If any have special needs, these should be catered to." "And so it is with microarmor scenarios. First in your mind must be the entertainment of your players. "Your scenario should be flavorful; that is, it should be printed on fruit-flavored paper. But more than just that; it should be fun to play in. Complexity comes from well-designed terrain, with proper controls over the available forces, together with reasonable, yet challenging objectives. Interest is sparked by the amount of action inherent; strive to create a situation in which combat will begin early in the scenario, and to keep the pace moving and prevent boredom. Your scenario should be interesting as a puzzle is interesting; the players should churn it about in their minds with large wooden spoons, seeking a solution." "Do not feed your players "junk scenarios"; lots of starchy Tigers and Panthers, glazed with 88's and topped with a minefield. These fatten the mind, and make it lazy. Feed them instead a balanced diet. Just as the Chinese dinner is based around bland rice, so should the German order of battle center on the PzKw IV. Spices are to be encouraged, of course, for they make the meal, and the scenario, more interesting. But just as you would not drown your dry fried beef in a sweet-and-sour sauce, neither should you overwhelm your PzKw IV's with Elefants. "Except sometimes. As vinegar (sour) may be countered by sugar (sweet) or pepper (hot), so may strong, spicy tanks be countered by equal strength. Thus, a strong taste of JS-ll may be controlled by careful additions of Jagdtiger. And just as one would never add a pound of pepper to a dish, one must limit the quantities of the more powerful tanks in a scenario." "Neither, though, should your scenarios be so bland as to be tasteless. Serve not rice gruel at a dinner party; neither serve up a simple T-34 battalion for a scenario. Always there must be a spice. In a simple dish, a simple scenario, there may be only one "interesting" tank platoon. In a very elegant and complex dish, there could be many spices competing for attention, and in the complex scenario, plenty of different units for the player to piece together and use wisely." "Balance is crucial to your scenario; both sides must have equal chances of victory. There are five key elements to balance; forces, terrain, and objectives. These five elements must blend harmoniously, just as water, oil, and egg blend in mayonnaise." "Like a mathematical equation, the five are inexorably linked. You may start with any variable freely chosen; then pick a second from a limited range of options; the fifth will then be fixed. Quite commonly, one will start with the terrain, choos~ an objective; the two then fix the forces necessary for balance. Yin and Yang, that kind of stufff with the fishes." But let us again look towards our supper. Would we first choose the table decorations and china pattern, then pick the time allowed for a meal, and only last decide how many people to serve? Of course not. Instead, we start with the number of guests, and then choose how long to allot; decorations are the last thought, though they are nonetheless important." "And so it should be with microarmor. First, select your forces; base this on the number of players you have, so that each player gets a satisfying command. Feed them Not too many tanks, for they will become rash; neither give them too few, lest they become timid. The wise gamemaster can achieve scenario harmony with imbalanced forcesby countering this Yin with the Yang of objectives or the Jung of terrain." "Lastly, just as the appearance of an unusual, yet wonderful dish can multiply the enjoyment of a fine meal, so too can the addition of an unusual, yet interesting aspect of a scenario. There are numerous aspects of this factor, and it can impact any portion of the scenario design. The most obvious is in forces; the use of unusual vehicles, for example, or an unexpected reinforcement schedule, perhaps an ad-hoc organization. The unusual can also appear in terrain; a ford known only to one side, for example, or information thought secret by one side being known to both. Hidden bogs, houses with basements, landmines... all exemplify surprising terrain. Finally, one can install surprises in the objectives. The most straightforward method is to assign a side objectives which you know to be beyond their grasp, to judge how well they react in this realistic situation. This can be frustrating, however, and should only be used when one is certain the players will appreciate this subtlety. Another possibility is to change objectives in midstream; for example, the force is initially told to hold or die, then later told to try to retreat intact while delaying the enemy." Thus spake the master on microarmor scenario design. He returned to his peaceful meditations as the student, having gotten more than he'd wanted in the first place, went out for pizza and beer. Back to The Gauntlet No. 9 Table of Contents Back to The Gauntlet List of Issues Back to Master Magazine List © Copyright 1997 by Craig Martelle Publications This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com