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  • #106618
    Avatar photoWhirlwind
    Participant

    On this thread, a poster (Just Jack) mentioned how important scenario books were to his hobby.  They are quite important to mine too, since magazine scenarios and scenario books, supplemented by campaign battles, are the basis for most of the games I play.  How important are scenario books to you, and which ones are your favourites?

    #106624
    Avatar photogrizzlymc
    Participant

    Not at all. The best source of scenarios is to read the period.

    #106625
    Avatar photokyoteblue
    Participant

    Scenario books are great, but I never have all the forces in there OOB.

    #106626
    Avatar photoLogain
    Participant

    I really enjoyed and used the scenarios in the back of one hour war games for a wide variety of historical periods and rulesets. I also really enjoyed the Battletech Scenarios books that use the Warchest/ Chaos system back in the day.

    I wish there were more scenario books on the market, instead of publishing endless rule versions.

    #106627
    Avatar photoMartinR
    Participant

    I buy loads of scenario books, mainly as I like reading them. I generally prefer to research my own historical games, but if I haven’t the time or inclination they are a handy fallback.

    Hard to pick a favourite, but in recent years probably those in One Hour Wargames, although as the author admits, a lot of them are simplified versions of other scenarios, especially C S Grants.

    For more historical stuff, Mark Pipers various Rapid Fire scenarios, and endless Command Decision ones, particularly Bob Mackenzies which are meticulousy researched. Also the Wyre Forest gamers scenarios for the Austro and Franco Prussians Wars.

    "Mistakes in the initial deployment cannot be rectified" - Helmuth von Moltke

    #106634
    Avatar photoAlan Millicheap
    Participant

    The Berkeley Vale club uses scenario books quite a lot as most of us don’t have time to write our own.

    We do a lot of Colonial gaming. We use the Colonial Campaigns scenario books by Skirmish Campaigns as they allow us to throw a historical game together quickly. they are geared towards The Sword and the Flame but we convert them to use Bloody Big Battles.

    We also use the historical scenarios from Bloody Big Battles both as they were intended and in different periods.

    #106635
    Avatar photowarwell
    Participant

    I have found the scenarios in One Hour Wargames to be invaluable.

    #106639
    Avatar photodeephorse
    Participant

    I have some scenario books but the only ones I have ever found to be useful were the various Rapid Fire ones, and that was because those are the rules we use for WWII.  The rest were generally useless because they either didn’t suit the rules we used for the period, or else we didn’t have some of the necessary troops.  But mostly the former.  Almost all the scenarios we play come from our imagination, based upon avid reading of the period concerned.  I can get as much pleasure from writing a scenario as I can from playing it.

    Play is what makes life bearable - Michael Rosen

    #106652
    Avatar photoShaun Travers
    Participant

    I really like scenario books and have used some of them a fair bit.  For WW2 I have used some of the Two Fat Lardies IABSM scenario books as they fit nicely on the table.  I have also played a few of the IABSM scenarios from the their specials.  I am midway through playing the Operation Jupiter scenarios from Britton Publishers that I love as they are small in size and vignettes of battles (my current sweet spot for what I like to play).  I have a few more of there scenario books but not played any scenarios from them due to lack of time.  I use my own rules for all the replays.

    For ancients, I rely on three of the Peter Sides scenario books of major ancient and medieval battles.  I am trying to replay them chronologically but have only played about 30.  I do some limited research and sometime change the battle around.

    #106698
    Avatar photoDarryl Smith
    Participant

    Extremely important to me as a way to organize forces.

    Buckeye Six Actual
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    #106790
    Avatar photoPhil Dutré
    Participant

    Very important – even more important than rulebooks. A good wargame is made by a good scenario.

    Although the name ‘scenario’ can have many different meanings. The type of scenario that simply states 3000pts  each side, and only gives deployment zones for both sides, is not a scenario. That’s a deployment guideline.

    A scenario should have a context, an oob, a mission, a tactical challenge, etc.

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