Scenario Design and Play

Scenario Design and Play

Squad Leader, despite its complexity, has only three ways to win: One can be required to exit certain units or one is required to destroy certain units or one must control something. There are many variations; for example, control could mean occupation of certain buildings or denying the opposition’s LOS to certain hexes or possession of certain counters (think Royal Family.) Designers will often combine conditions and in these cases judgement determined which was the primary condition for victory. Scenario 1 has a control condition of occupy two buildings and an attrition condition of a favorable 3:1 squad ratio. In this case Control seemed the primary condition as was often the case in the Battle for Stalingrad and the Attrition condition seemed to prevent the hoaky practice of a sprinting squads through open ground in hopes one will re-occupy a building on the last turn.

The most important measure of an appropriate victory condition is balance. Most players wish to spend their time with a scenario that provides a reasonable chance of winning. Balance is a tricky thing and sometimes its trial and error that finds an advantageous position. Those doubting if trial-and-error can influence victory should read “Fallback Defense” by Jon Mishcon in TAHG. Accordingly, one should allow some latitude in using balance as a determinant of play - there is sometimes more to a scenario than first appears. A Balanced scenario yields victory in 40% to 60% of games played. A ‘+’ yields victory in 60% to 80% of games played and a ‘++’ is 80% to 100%. The following chart is from the ROAR as published on Advance Phase and includes scenarios with three or more recorded (152) plays.

Although a detailed analysis of the counters is beyond the scope of this article, a look at the relationship between major components can reveal the designer’s believes on National Characteristic, that element of the Squad Leader system which captures the differences between the nations’ forces. A reasonable measure of the differences is the relationship between the squads or multi-man counters (MMC), and their Leaders, Support Weapons (SW) and Armored Fighting Vehicles (AFVs.) The following two tables look at that relationship by Allied nations and by game(tte). In the following 1:x ratios, a lower "x" means the leader, SW or AFV appears more frequently for each squad in the game.

It would be interesting to see how the relationship changes between historical time, publisher and publication date That is analysis for another time.

The category SMC, single man counters, includes leaders, snipers, armor leaders and heroes but their frequency is not enough to distort the ratios. Likewise the MMC category contains squads, half-squad and crews but their frequency is not enough to distort the ratios. Also vehicles and fortifications are excluded from these counts as is “Blood and Sand” because i don’t have the cards to analyze.

Quickly we can see the Russians have a dearth of leader compared to their adversaries and that the Axis supplement their shortage of manpower with support weapons. Keep in mind an American .50 is worth 4 LMG counters when comparing. The AFV ratio includes half-tracks and nobody has more than the Germans. Pulling them out reduces the ratio of tanks and SPGs, a reduction which is offset by the better quality in arms and armor of their AFVs.

Size is important when selecting an appropriate scenario to play as not all of us have the time for 200+ monsters. Both of the following graphs categorize scenarios by the number of counters they contain. The first graphs the frequency of the Scenarios and the second graphs sums the counters in those scenarios. Fortifications are excluded from counters.

Boys and Their Toys

Perhaps the popularity of Squad Leader is due, in part, to us not knowing anyone willing to lend us a real Flamethrower or 105mm Howitzer (thankfully so.) Part of the fun is getting your hands on a tasty Flamethrower or Panther or a brigade of paratroopers and wreaking a little havoc. No analysis would be complete without an accounting of the more bad-ass counters in the mix. The following tables count the frequency these counters appear in the Scenarios (ie: the Russian Guards appear in 59 scenarios.)

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