Dealing with loss of the "surprise" factor

[Havoc]

Anyone have comments on how you deal with the loss of the historic surprise factor in gaming? Case in point: Austerlitz.

Napoleon's whole battle plan was based upon an elaborate deception he implemented over the course of days to lure Czar Alexander into attacking his weak right flank. So in the HPS Austerlitz game, despite the initial fog, the Russian/Austrian player has omnipotent powers that make the initial French positions invalid. Chancellorville is another battle where surprise is lost and the trade off to maintaining the surprise is to "fix" the poor Union commander in place to receive the mallet blow.

I think the HPS Shiloh 2-day scenario deals with it fairly well by fixing the Union forces at dawn and not allowing either side to "dig-in" (hated running into dug-in "sleeping" Yankees in BG Shiloh), and both sides have an opportunity to attack and defend.

I find myself always wanting to play the grand scenarios in the games so I can develop my own surprises and make my own mistakes, rather than be chained to the historic ones.

Thoughts?

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Anyone have comments on how you deal with the loss of the historic surprise factor in gaming? Case in point: Austerlitz.

Napoleon's whole battle plan was based upon an elaborate deception he implemented over the course of days to lure Czar Alexander into attacking his weak right flank. So in the HPS Austerlitz game, despite the initial fog, the Russian/Austrian player has omnipotent powers that make the initial French positions invalid. Chancellorville is another battle where surprise is lost and the trade off to maintaining the surprise is to "fix" the poor Union commander in place to receive the mallet blow.

I think the HPS Shiloh 2-day scenario deals with it fairly well by fixing the Union forces at dawn and not allowing either side to "dig-in" (hated running into dug-in "sleeping" Yankees in BG Shiloh), and both sides have an opportunity to attack and defend.

I find myself always wanting to play the grand scenarios in the games so I can develop my own surprises and make my own mistakes, rather than be chained to the historic ones.

Thoughts?

Guess this would've been more appropriate on the main board for BP/CS...

[Al Amos]

Havoc,

There is a way to reintroduce suprise on the level you're wanting. It takes a little work, though.

Create a single battle campaign. Give each side two or three choices, and generate (in the scenario editor) the resulting scenarios. Then when you play you don't know which option your opponent will chose.

al

[Havoc]

Havoc,

There is a way to reintroduce suprise on the level you're wanting. It takes a little work, though.

Create a single battle campaign. Give each side two or three choices, and generate (in the scenario editor) the resulting scenarios. Then when you play you don't know which option your opponent will chose.

al

I've never used the scenario editor in any of my games. Wish I had the time.

[Al Amos]

It is easy to use, especially in the ACW since you have to use the supplied OOB file, it's just a matter of placing units and making a few deciscions about how long, victory levels amount of ammo. What if stuff takes no time at all. You can look at existing scns in the editor to see how many VPs are assigned per 25 inf/cav lost or per gun. al

[Liebchen]

Another idea might be to have a third party choose the scenario for you and send you the file with a limited briefing.

Has anyone tried this, yet?

[Al Amos]

Yes that works well. The two players send their passwords and options to a third party. Then the third player starts things up, and sends the encoded bte file along.

This method is effective if the third party creates a new scenario specifically for the game. The players do not need the original scn file, only the map, pdt and oob files (and the encoded bte file of course.) With JT's ACW series you can't modify the oob files, so everyone already has it, if a weather specific pdt file is created and if a sub_map file is created just make sure each player gets a copy. It is very fun to do, as the third party and as a player. I've been in a few tournaments in the CCC that ran that way.

al