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...