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LOSING THE BATTLE BUT WINNING THE SCENARIO

Kandu

FGM Colour Sergeant
FGM MEMBER
Joined
Apr 19, 2021
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Location
London Ontario Canada
This is about creating balanced scenarios that recreate imbalanced historical situations. Most historical situations were, or ought to have been, imbalanced. For example, no one is going to intentionally attack at 'even odds' except in a desperate situation. Balanced battlefield conditions would be expected to result in an undesireable draw or worse. It is possible to create scenarios where a player can be expected to lose the fight but win the scenario on points. And therein lies the key. The balance is not in the engagement itself but rather in the judicious allocation of victory points. For example, in my scenario Lt. Levy at Cauquigny, Levy is going to be driven out of Cauquigny, or even destroyed (since CM does not do a great job of withdrawing troops, nor are players encouraged to do so). But if Levy can destroy or render disabled a (hidden) given percentage of German attackers then the player can still achieve a draw or a victory. Although on appearances the player has lost the fight. How does this make sense? Allowing a player to win on points when the objective has been lost, reflects the overall impact of the engagement on the surrounding campaign. Thus Levy's Alamo has an impact on how much of the German force remains to later attack la Fiere Causeway. So to sum up my design philosophy, not every scenario needs to have the 'appearance' of play balance, as long as the victory point distribution provides both sides a reasonably equal opportunity to win.
 
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I've been curious about 'evac zones' in CM scenarios, and have played at least one which featured them. I'd love to see if they could be worked into campaign maps somehow, ie, an overwhelming force is headed your way so you need to get as many of your forces to safety while conducting a rearguard action.
Obviously the job of the enemy is to prevent your escape, as any units that do make it out will have to be dealt with later in the campaign.
 
Can victory points be allocated for denying the enemy an objective for a certain amount of turns?
 
Can victory points be allocated for denying the enemy an objective for a certain amount of turns?
No. Very unfortunately not. I'd like to see that feature as well. But there is a workaround involving the same map used twice in a mini-campaign. Make the length of the initial scenario equal to the number of turns you have to hold the position. Then link the first scenario to a second played on the same map with the remnants of the opposing forces continuing the fight.
 
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I've been curious about 'evac zones' in CM scenarios, and have played at least one which featured them. I'd love to see if they could be worked into campaign maps somehow, ie, an overwhelming force is headed your way so you need to get as many of your forces to safety while conducting a rearguard action.
Obviously the job of the enemy is to prevent your escape, as any units that do make it out will have to be dealt with later in the campaign.
I have used 'Exit Objectives' for 'penetration' scenarios where one side needs to dash across the map and get off the other side with a given number of elements. Recently I also introduced an exit objective into my scenario "Levy at Cauquigny" giving the player the option to reduce the German A.I.'s victory level by exiting Capt. Schwartzwalder's troopers off the map rather than getting them killed.
 
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