One of the most enjoyable parts of wargaming is playing a good scenario, whether it be at home, at a club or at a convention. Many of us have tried to develop scenarios based upon historical battles for our games. This process is often frustrating, however, as we try to integrate the historical battle into our current gaming systems. In this article, I'm going to walk through the development of a typical scenario.

A lot of what you will be trying to accomplish will depend upon the rules system you are using. Our own SAGA rules systems are tactical, meaning the scenarios are normally based upon smaller scale actions or a portion of a battle rather than on the whole. Of course, our rules are also open-ended enough to allow for upscaling of figure ratios in order to play larger battles as well, if this is preferred. Yet, for the purposes of this article (and for most of our scenarios), I'll opt for a tactical scale ratio of 1:25 for the scenario we are developing.

Okay, so we have our favorite rules and know what our figure scale is. How do we decide on a scenario? Using our Victorian Warfare rules, I've decided to work on an early Franco-Prussian War battle. That's not too hard, but should it be historical or fictional? Depending upon what figures you have available determines this. Because the two armies we will be using have been built with no particular battle in mind, it will be an easier fit (i.e. no additional figure purchase of painting) to use a fictional battle. This also gives you free reign to work on all aspects of the scenario without being restricted by the confines of an historical encounter. Most historical battles are anything but evenly matched. With a fictional scenario, you can ensure a play balance that is not possible with an historical battle.

You need a battlefield. Certainly, opting for two forces coming in on opposite sides of the table with no terrain can give you a chess-like battle, but looking at a plain battlefield in not exciting nor at all realistic. Except for the Viking 'hazel field' battles, it is extremely rare to find battlefields virtually devoid of topography. No, this won't do. Are you planning to handicap one of the armies terrain-wise? Is one army sufficiently larger to warrant giving defensive positions to the other? If so, how much of an advantage and where?

After counting up our available forces, we find that we have a definite numerical advantage going to the Prussians in our scenario. This means that to counter-balance this, we must either not use all the Prussians or weigh the terrain in favor of the French. But by how much? Only by playtesting will we be able to determine that.

So we start with our plain 5' x 8' table (for 28mm). For terrain to 'fight over', we'll place two farms on the table, one on the French right flank, halfway between the two armies with the other in the middle left flank, closer to the French set-on. There will also be three low hills, one on the Prussian side, near the center, one of the French side also near the center, and the last near the French farm. This gives us a position for both armies to place their artillery, it they wish, with the advantage again going to the French.

A large woods is placed on the extreme French left flank, running from the Prussian half of the table into French sector. Another smaller woods is placed on the extreme right flank. These woods will restrict movement and prevent cavalry from riding around the flanks without having problems. We still need some protective cover for the foot.

Stone walls are set up around both farms. These will provide protection for portions of both armies. Another stone wall is set up on the Prussian side of the table to counter balance a bit of all the French advantages. Only one more item is needed. In order slow down the Prussians, a stream is placed which runs through 2/3 of the Prussian deployment area. This will delay them a bit.

This is our battlefield. It took a couple of playtests to get the right balance, but it finally is set.

Now Back To The Armies

Because we are using all of the troops we have available to play with, there is not much discussion here. If, during the playtests, we determine that the French are too strong, we can eliminate a unit or two, or cut back on their morale rating. Likewise, with the Prussians you can opt to raise their morale to compensate.

The final objective is to make each sure each side has a good chance to win. You can even decide to assign points values to different terrain pieces, though this can be very difficult to do within the constraints of play balance. Usually, you will simply want a 'won or lost' determination. Since our rules systems are designed to give a definite result in 3-4 hours, this is usually what normally happens. Once side obviously loses and breaks once a set percentage of their army is lost, routed, etc. usually 1/3.

We have our armies, our battlefield and are now ready to fight. One final consideration is where do the units set up? The normal situation is to use a standard set on depth. Usually in our rules systems either 6" or 9" in from the baseline. If you decide to give a positional advantage to one side or the other, this is very easy to do, simply allowing a further set on distance. You have to be a bit careful with this, as it can really throw off the balance of play. If you have the battlefield correctly established and a balanced set of armies, this should not be necessary.

Depending on how many players you invited to the game, you can break up commands as evenly or as unevenly as you like. A typical game will have from 6 to 8 players, evenly divided. Because planning can often be quickly shattered by too few or too many players showing up, you must be flexible. An easy way to handle this 'unknown numbers' factor is to plan for a 6-player game, with three brigades per side as well as having unattached cavalry and artillery. Each brigade has a general (player) and one player will also be the CinC (a 4th general). This gives you the flexibility to handle either a 6 or an 8 player game. What if you have 5 or 7 show up? Simple. You play! You will take a command and get into playing as well as umpiring. We sometimes end up playing in our demos. It's fun and not at all problematic.

That's about it. You can tweak each scenario as you see fit to fulfill the expected results. Once you have the game set up (allow at least an hour for this), make certain you start on time and have enough cheat sheets, rulers, dice and markers for each player.