Weekend Napoleonic & HITS/GCM Games

The typical RL events that tend to dominate summer have arrived in spades bringing some disruption to our at-large Saturday Napoleonic prime-time and HITS/GCM ACW games over the past month. These events haven't been forgotten and will be resurrected as opportunities arise. However, we obviously don't want to schedule something now when Peninsular Campaign games are possible. My suggestion is that when it is known for sure that Campaign battles will not be fought on an upcoming Saturday, a large non-campaign game can be planned. The kicker is that it takes a minimum of 5 to 6 days' advance notice to allow for preparation of a proper full game (e.g. with map and scenario design, player sign-ups, CinC selection & planning, etc.).

One thing that would be helpful in moving things along is to have a stable of pre-designed scenarios on-hand that can be easily rolled out. If you have a favorite battle or would like to take a stab at creating an interesting tactical situation for players to tackle, Stefan's Scenario Generator and Kevin's SoW Scenario Generator Calculator are terrific design tools. I am more than willing to assist by creating support graphics (e.g. planning maps), Doodle sign-up, forum postings, etc.

Between the raging Peninsular Campaign and our at-large battles, it should be a busy summer!

Ron

I agree, a pool of pre-designed scenarios would be helpful for both scenario and casual games. IMHO it is very easy to setup interesting scenarios with the tools at hand. 

2 things come to my mind.

1) As the scenarios designer, I prefer to know the geography where the battle is supposed to be played out. To get an idea of the line-of-sights I load a map and take a look around, then I setup the scenarios objectives and starting locations accordingly.

To speed up this process, we could create a list of interesting locastions per map. Ideally with pictures and recommended scenario settings (Sector C3, 200 yards north).
But for nomal players this would take away some of the excitement when playing a less known map .

2) The other thing that could be prepared are the storys / background of the scenario. See this link for some ideas: http://79.170.44.85/kriegsspiel.inuk.co/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=45&Itemid=59
[*]An encounter battle.
[*]An advance guard action.
[*]A rear guard action –delaying tactic.
[*]An attack on a flank guard.
[*]The reconnaissance party.
[*]Forming a bridgehead.
[*]Recovering from a defeat.
[*]Attack on a foraging party.
[*]Attack and defence of a village.
[*]The convoy escort.

In addition to those generic types, it would make sense to define the OOB structure a bit more detailed (which side has cavalry / artillery? Which side has more numbers or experience. Are there special objectives for each side?). And also the rough disposition of troops could be described.

Yes, I too have  been guilty of taking weekends off and traveling about.  Of course Ron, Stefan and myself have legitimate excuses, we live in fairly stunning locations.  Although Ron probably can't see much of it as his side of the mtns. are on fire. 

I have a couple of scenarios designed, just not implemented yet.  They are set-piece battles where one or both sides know the location of the other.  But with Stefan's program, the units can be placed close to where they need to be.  Then it is a simple matter of moving them a short distance to their final positions.

Although Ron probably can't see much of it as his side of the mtns. are on fire. 

No problem at all so long as you keep your gas mask at hand and don't stray into Black Forest (about 10 miles NE). Some pretty amazing photos of the fire...
http://photos.denverpost.com/2013/06/11/photos-black-forest-fire-engulfs-homes-prompts-evacuations/#1

Those pictures look eerily like those taken last year.   I assume most of the houses that burned didn't have metal roofs.