Desert War: How to Design a Scenario

[bcgames]

In the beginning, the first scenario ever designed for Desert War was called 1st Alamein. This is what it looked like back then:



It was a division/brigade level scenario where each turn represented one day. This scenario is not represented in Desert War 1940-42...so let's get into the way-back machine and pull this scenario forward into the present. Let's call this new scenario, 1st Alamein: The Battle for Ruweisat Ridge...

Now...what to do? In this tutorial, we'll learn how to use the editor while recreating the original Desert War scenario.

[Toby42]

Does this mean that we will have a new scenario to play?

[bcgames]

yep

[rickier65]

I'm looking forward to seeing this tutorial

Thanks
Rick

[giffin]

ORIGINAL: bcgames

yep

Great News Love to have more Scenarios! Smaller the better.[:D]

[bcgames]

ORIGINAL: rickier65


I'm looking forward to seeing this tutorial

Thanks
Rick

Alrighty then! I'll try not to disappoint.

[bcgames]

ORIGINAL: giffin

Great News Love to have more Scenarios! Smaller the better.[:D]

Okeedokie. Define small so I know how big that is. Thanks!

[giffin]

ORIGINAL: bcgames

ORIGINAL: giffin

Great News Love to have more Scenarios! Smaller the better.[:D]

Okeedokie. Define small so I know how big that is. Thanks!

Yes I like the map size & turn size of the Introductory Scenario of "Bardia". Thank you!

[bcgames]

ORIGINAL: giffin
Yes I like the map size & turn size of the Introductory Scenario of "Bardia". Thank you!

Got it!

[bcgames]

THE MAP

Let's start with the map. We are going to make two. Why? To illustrate two techniques that are dramatically different--one allows you to create your own scenario map from scratch (medium complexity), the other allows you to "snip" a ready-made section from one of the three Desert War mega-maps (easy).

The Snip Map

Open the editor...


Let's go find those mega maps. Select File/Open...


Select Up One Level...


Open the editorMaps folder...


...and we see three choices. Because 1st Alamein occurred in 1942, we'll select 1942_TileMap.scn


Now let's look at the map and figure out the coordinates for the upper left hand corner of our scenario map...300,70 looks good. Looking at the terrain, I think a 30 x 30 hex playing area is about right and matches the area of the original scenario...


So...time to punch in the numbers. Go to File/Save sub-section of map...


Enter the coordinates (300,700), dimensions (30 width, 30 height), a map name, and a scenario name...


You're done.

NEXT UP: Creating a map from scratch.

[bcgames]

CREATING A MAP FROM SCRATCH

Creating a map from scratch broadens the horizons of what can be achieved using the Desert War game engine. To prove this, let's do something new. Feedback on the current game indicates many folks have a desire to play scenarios with lower unit counts. To achieve that end without losing the operational flavor of the system, let's do some scale adjustments. Here they are:

The basic unit size for land units in our new scenario will be the regiment (aka regimental combat team/brigade/battle group/kampfgruppe). The "regiment" will be a consolidation of all the combat and combat support units associated with that regiment--into a single unit on the game board. For example, a regiment at the current scale in Desert War might consist of the following:

* Regimental Headquarters
* 3x Infantry Battalions
* 1x Artillery Battalion
* 1x Anti-aircraft Battery
* 1x Engineer Company
* 1x Recce Platoon/Company

That’s eight units. In our new 1st Alamein scenario, all of these units will be consolidated into one unit. In addition, the ground scale will be increased from 2 to 3 miles per hex. This will provide the space required to host a regiment plus attachments and its direct support units. Stacking allowance is changed to allow one regiment plus one battalion per hex (i.e. a max of two units per hex). The number of turns per day is decreased from three to two to shorten the length of scenarios and to provide movement factors that are close to the current three-turn day. Odd numbered game-turns will be considered day turns; even-numbered game-turns will be considered night turns. Both day and night turns are 12-hours long.

Alrighty then...with that preamble in place, let's continue--How to Design a Scenario.

NEXT UP: Creating the 3-mile per hex map...

[bcgames]

CREATING THE 3-MILE/HEX MAP

Okeedokee...let's start with a map--a REAL map. Why? Cuz we are going to use a real map to create our scenario map. Where to get one? One of my go-to's for maps is the University of Texas at Austin's On-Line Map Collection. Here's a link to the North Africa 1:250,000, Series P502, U.S. Army Map Service, 1954 map section. These maps are compilations of information extracted from maps created during WWII. The map we are interested in for the 1st Alamein scenario is NH 35-8 Burg El 'Arab (5.0 MB).

Go get it here:

http://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/maps/ams/n ... nh35-8.jpg

It looks like this:

[bcgames]

We don't need the "edges" of this map so we need software to get rid of them. We're going to need a photo-editing program. I use PhotoShop but that is expensive for casual users--and FREE is always better. We're going to use a program called GIMP to cut out the portion of the Burg El 'Arab map that we actually need. Go get it here:

https://www.gimp.org/

Here's a YouTube link that will introduce you to how to use GIMP:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8C0LJPpr64

My purpose here is How to Design a Scenario--not to explain how to use GIMP. If you know of other YouTube videos that would be useful to scenario creators/modders of this game that explain how to use GIMP, please list them below.

[bigus]

Are the DesertPlain_1.png through to DesertPlain_4.png used in the stock scenarios?
Can I convert the DesertPlain_4.png for instance to a custom grass terrain without breaking the stock scenarios?

So far it seems to work.

[Zovs]

It’s been a year since this was last posted in. Is it dead? What’s up?

[bcgames]

If you have questions about scenario design I would be happy to answer them.

[GibClaret80]

Be great to see the 1st Alamein: The Battle for Ruweisat Ridge scenario step by step finished

[bcgames]

ORIGINAL: GibClaret80

Be great to see the 1st Alamein: The Battle for Ruweisat Ridge scenario step by step finished

That's a great topic for Desert War 2.