David boutwell
Posts: 353
Joined: 5/28/2000 From: Haymarket, Virginia, USA Status: offline
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Gentlemen,
So, what do you prefer? Custom scenarios that , because they are accurate historically, are not shoot 'em up tankfests...or shoot 'em up tankfests?
I have an Arnhem scenario that I could be about 4 or 5 hours away from posting. It uses the largest map possible, and uses all possible units on both sides, and they are, for the most part historical oob's. Trouble is, I asked some guys (several of whom just happened to be tank, artillery and air happy) to play test it, and they complained that there weren't enough "glamour weapons" to put it in a nutshell. Arnhem was for the most part, a grueling, house-to-house infantry, which, if you are not a historian, is not interesting. Pretty much turned me off, no pissed me off.... It seemed that several of them knew nothing of the details of the battle. They seemed to approach the scenario, which took me over 100 hours, at the minimum, to research and create, not with an appreciation of what it was trying to recreate, but with a critical eye for what it didn't have, that they wanted!
Kind of turned me off to scenario design for the purpose of posting...If there was no one out there that appreciated a historical scenario for what it was, as opposed to what it wasn't, then what's the point.
The predominant flavor of many forum threads have seemed, to me, to lean toward the "non-historical", and, instead, have seemed to focus on things like winning campaigns with whatever it takes to win them (kind of the way my high school students approach games). I like warhorse's perspective. Where are the scenarios that are darn near unwinnable by one side or another, but are historically accurate and educational to play? (Dunkirk, Calais, France 1940, the low countries) There are plenty of scenarios based on Tigers, guys. Let's have some diversity.
So...I am very refreshed by this thread. It makes me feel better to see that many of the "old veterans" still have that vision of recreating history, not running up kills. I still think we need a historical scenario "room", or whatever, where us "purists" can exchange ideas.
That's my two cents, for what it's worth.
Dave Boutwell
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