As a long-time Advanced Squad Leader player, I've always thought that one way to limit the need to min/max armies was to write scenerios with specific unit selection and non-standard victory conditions. About a year ago, I staged the Basalt Island battle from Ghost War.

I carefully tried to provide each faction in the battle with units and quantities specified in the book. This was nearly impossible since it would have required me to supply Mason Dunne as well as a host of other rare or even non-existant mechs and vehicles.

For the most part I tried to use close substitutes where I needed to, and in the end, we had what I thought was a really interesting battle with shifting alliances and victory conditions that had nothing to do with VCs 1, 2, or 3.

Though the battle was really fun, it was impossible to outfit each army with the correct units specified in the novel. For nearly a year, I have puzzled over solutions and I think I finally hit on one by borrowing an idea from the Star Wars Mini game.

Since units in SW minis have no stats on their bases, stat cards are used to track unit performance through the game. Voila, my solution! Instead of relying on the dial stats, create cards for each specified unit in the battle. Players can then build their armies from their available sculpts and use the stat cards to provide exact matches for the given scenerio.

The only hitch I have to overcome now is simulating Mech heat dials on the cards. Any ideas?

Here are some of the modification to standard rules that make these types of scenerios viable.

1. Games have specified numbers of turns - not time limits.
2. Unit selection in predefined with no attention to build point totals.
3. Balance is provided through adjusting victory conditions.

For example. When we played the Basalt Island Battle from Ghost War. The assaulting faction achieved victory by liberating the prisoner inside a specified number of turns. The defending faction won by avoiding liberation of the prisoner. The game balance came by adjusting the number of turns available to the attacker.

I think scenerios like this one can overcome one weakness that people often complain about in the MW system - the need to min/max armies to be competitive. In real battles, min/maxing is a tactical decision based on available materials, not a strategic decision wherein all the ideal units are made available for a given battle.

In predefined scenerios, if the defender has to make due with forestry mechs because that's what the commander had on hand, then that's what he fights with. Battles in the novels always have an element of commanders having to make due with what's available.

That can make for realisitic and interesting battles, but amassing the proper units is almost impossible. So by using cards to track unit stats, players can assemble battle appropriate weapons without spending a mint on eBay.

Does your battle call for Tara Campbell? Rather than abandon the battle because she doesn't exist, create a card with appropriate stats, grab an available Hatchetman, and go to war.

Does this sound interesting to anyone but me? I know this is long. Thanks for hanging in with me.

This actually does sound rather interesting. More like CBT and recreating scenarios fought in "historic" battles. I think scenarios like this would be great for fun games between friends. I doubt it would lend much to venue supported events however, but it would be great for Sunday sit on my bum and play MW day.

It would be great if every commander on every battle field could have open access to the best possible equipment, but that isn't realistic. This would be a cool way to make battlefield scenerios more "historic" and more "realistic" according to the published fluff.

I will work up a scenerio and publish it here for perusal once I find a battle that I think will be easy to use as training. If anyone has a battle to suggest, I would be happy to look it up.

Okay, ncluff. I think I may have one for you. I consider myself an avid Battletech reader, so I have a few battles memorized. Well, sort of. How about the battle between Mechwarrior Zane Nova Cat's unit and the 11th Alshain Avengers? You can find it in the Battletech novel "Path of Glory." Hope that helps.