As I've got a few minutes I thought I'd post a bit on something I've seen mentioned in different places.
Why aren't there more scenarios with lots of movement options? After all, a number of the scenarios (like say Zorndorf or Kunersdorf) have the forces pretty much in position to fight right away, and you're left with more slugging match than maneuver.)
There's a few reasons for that. First of all, I would like to point out that there are some scenarios that have "longer" versions which allow for more approach maneuver (Lobositz, Prague, Kolin, Rossbach, Leuthen come to mind.)
However, there are a few issues in to keep in mind here. I'm sure not everyone will agree, but here's the thought pattern.
First of all, as I've talked about before, these armies are pretty rigid compared to the armies of the Napoleonic Era. They had carefully prescribed march orders and followed some very clockwork type maneuvers. They didn't really have the operational freedom to simply change all of that on a whim and send troops off in new directions. If you notice the scenarios with approach marches, even then the march formation is designed to get into deployment fairly quickly. Honestly, in all of John's Blackpowder games, there's too much ability for players to send troops off here, there and everywhere, but with the army restrictions of the SYW, that is even more pronounced. The rules about no detached melee are in part designed to deal with that, but the setup of the scenarios does that as well.
Another issue is the nature of the scenarios that would create. You didn't necessarily have a huge number of "meeting engagements" in the war, especially among the larger battles. A very common theme was that one side would be dug into an attacking position, and the other would maneuver to attack them to best advantage. On many occasions, the defending side moved little if at all in response (Leuthen and Hochkirch would be good examples of that.) On others, there might be some shifting of reserves (Prague and Kolin would be examples of there) but beyond that, little overall movement. At Zorndorf and Torgau, the Russians and Austrians did reverse their position to face the opposite direction, but there was little movement beyond that. (Well, ok, at Leuthen, the Austrians did move some reserves. In the wrong direction. Oops.)
That means that in a game situation, you'd have a situation where one player would have the chance to move a great deal while the other would be stuck "fixed" until they could see the enemy movements. Not a terribly exciting game prospect if I'm the Russian at Zorndorf waiting for Frederick to decide where to attack from and hitting "end turn" because everyone is fixed.
Let's take Zorndorf as an example. The night before the battle, Frederick was N of the Russian army, so the Russians set up facing N. However, starting at 3:00 in the morning, Frederick sent his troops on a flank march across the Russian E flank all the way around the army, so they would get into position S of the Russian army to attack in the morning. In order to make that work in game, I would first of all have to set night moves as 15 minutes, otherwise the Prussians simply wouldn't have enough time to make the march. Second, the Russians would likely have to be fixed (other than the Cav pickets) leading to some pretty boring play for the first 20-25 turns of the game. Unless of course the Prussians decided to launch a night attack from the N, counting on the chaos and Russian Fixed units to give them the win. Bleh.
This is one of the reasons that Kolin and Torgau have the "Campaign in One" in game right now, where it gives the players the chance to decide on operational movements and different avenues of attack, while sidestepping most of the above issues. If they're popular, I can easily do them for some of the other battles (Zorndorf and Kunersdorf likely at the top of that list)
I will say that there will be some hypothetical scenarios in the upcoming expansion that will have a bit more maneuver possiblity. Then also Wilhelmstahl which is going to be a fairly wide open battle with Ferdinand attacking in three sectors and five columns.
_________________ Feldmarschall Freiherr Gary McClellan IR44 Portner Grenadier Battalion Austrian Army
Scenario Designer: JTS Midway JTS Seven Years War
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