How writing a scenario is an art, which one can get wrong. I did.

[JW Boots]

Last Friday at the BOD in Utrecht, the Netherlands we played a game of Der Söldner. We already agreed to this weeks before X-mas, giving me time to develop a scenario during the holidays. The format was to be 28mm, set in the 30YW and using what miniatures were available. So I went for a what-if… set in 1632 and loosely based, very loosely, on the situation preceding the battle of Lützen.

It was a nice game. Insightful, but short… and I learned a thing or two… more in my blog at: https://tabletopmatrixwargames689972109.wordpress.com/2024/01/06/blog-41-the-what-if-combat-at-thalschutz-1632/

[CapnJim]

Very interesting.  One of the things I very much like about historical miniatures wargaming is scenario design and subsequently acting as gamemaster, running a scenario I designed or developed.

As you mentioned, no plan survives first contact with the enemy.  Nor does it survive first contact with wargamers and their dice...

Being human, wargamers tend to do things not accounted for during the design and development of any given scenario.  That adds to the narrative of a game, sometimes in positive ways, sometimes not.  But it always adds to the narrative.

In your game's case, depending on whether your group had time to do so, perhaps you could have fudged the time it would have taken for the infantry to show up, and have your players bring on their infantry sooner than historically possible.  Then, you could see if the infantry could have turned the tide of the battle. Or perhaps not turn it.

Just a thought....       

[Thaddeu]

Interesting post, that sounds like a fun ruleset. And good timing, as I am currently composing a similar sort of "lessons learned" post for my own blog.

[Vanvlak]

Very interesting, especially as I teach an evening class about wargames for absolute beginners and had not come across a rule set which crosses from matrix games to model-based wargames. Especially as it uses the original matrix of terms idea, which seems to be less in use in current matrix game design.
In addition, the whole exercise and the description were a good read. I might refer the students to your blog. 

[JW Boots]

In your game's case, depending on whether your group had time to do so, perhaps you could have fudged the time it would have taken for the infantry to show up, and have your players bring on their infantry sooner than historically possible.  Then, you could see if the infantry could have turned the tide of the battle. Or perhaps not turn it.

Just a thought....       

Indeed. The summary learning is that scenario’s set the miniature scale… and the other way around. I forgot about this intimate relationship when making this one…

[JW Boots]

Especially as it uses the original matrix of terms idea, which seems to be less in use in current matrix game design.   

I noted that in the professional MATRIX wargame (or war game) arena the keywords tend to have indeed been dropped. I considered that too when designing the rules, but didn’t as I do find them an important tool for the game-master to focus the attention of the players on what matters, etc. and lessen the probability for Marsians landing at Waterloo type proposals… In practise I do see, however, that players tend to make less use of the keywords as the rules prescribe. But that is not a problem because when one carefully listens, as one has to do as game-master, to the reasons the keywords are there, just implicitly. Moreover, I tend to add a few special ones to a scenario for adding flavour. To spice things up a bit. Give an extra challenge, etc. These tend to be picked up rather well…

[JW Boots]

In addition, the whole exercise and the description were a good read. I might refer the students to your blog. 

Thanks for the compliment. I tend to find my writings of varying quality… depending on how I feel after a game… BTW, might I ask what students you teach?

[Vanvlak]

Thanks for the compliment. I tend to find my writings of varying quality… depending on how I feel after a game… BTW, might I ask what students you teach?

Sure: it's an evening course offered by the University of Malta as part of the Programme of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The class is small (6 students this year), and the study unit opens every few years, not annually. It's an introductory course, with the practicals being particularly popular with the students. Tomorrow we are giving Draco Ideas' Onus! Traianus a try. Here's the link to it: https://www.um.edu.mt/courses/studyunit/LAS2042

[JW Boots]

Thanks for the link. Looks like an interesting and fun course… I am not aware of anything like this in the Netherlands…

[Vanvlak]

It's unusual for here too, but the Liberal Arts programme includes stuff such as cheese making and oenology, so there's quite a variety of odds and ends in it.

[DaveCrow]

Thank you for the interesting article.  Beautiful table and figures.

I like your observations on the importance of time, table size, and movement speed of troops. I did a convention game of the English Civil War battle of Cheriton. I laid it all out based on maps of the battle and historical deployments. In 6mm I was able to capture the full landscape with troop bodies taking the appropriate sized footprint on the ground.  What I forgot consider was the rate of movement versus the size of the table. The initial phases were the two armies crawling towards each other. It soon became evident that it would be an hour or more of real time before contact was made or anything interesting actually happened.  I resolved this mid-game by allowing each player to make multiple moves per turn until the armies were closer.  We all liked the opportunity for meaningful tactical maneuver on the table top instead of shove the armies together and roll dice. That part of the narrative was good in concept but poor in execution in this game. If I run the game again I will devise a means of accelerating the initial movements, then slowing them as the armies come closer.

[JW Boots]

Hi DaveCrow,

We use Der Söldner. This has variable amounts of time per round, called a ROSE, and players may try to influence that. In this scenario the players went to much for longer rounds… and hence… I hadn’t foreseen that sufficiently.