Battlefront WWII
Converting SkirmishCampaigns
Converting SkirmishCampaigns
Developing a scenario from SkirmishCampaign books.
Kevin Rolfs recently posted his Norwegian battle replay on the forum., He got the concept for his scenario from the excellent SkirmishCampaigns : Norway book. If you aren't familiar with SkirmishCampaigns, check out their website.
They have a scenario generation system for World War II. While they are starting with the early war and working forwards, and we are working in the opposite direction, eventually we will both cover the whole war. Their books are based on a slightly lower organizational scale than Battlefront WWII, and this page is a guide to how to convert their scenarios into ours and also how to come up with reasonable prototype units for the unit cards we haven't yet produced. We heartily recommend their products and have received their permission to use some of their information on our site.
STEP 1 - Choose a battle
Kevin chose the Road to Lillehammar - Encounter at Roa scenario. As this is the first battle in the book, this is a logical place to start.STEP 2 - Develop unit prototypes
Most of the early war forces are available as part of our new Blitzkrieg supplement, and those that are not (including the Norwegians) can be found in our unit data base or printed cards can be constructed using our Prototype PDF creator.Step 3: Modify the map
We are making very few adjustments to the map. We split the stone house into two building sectors (if you wish you can orient it differently) and labeled the area where the roadblock can be placed. Otherwise, we leave the map about the same as in their scenario book (used with their permission).Step 4: Modify the forces
This is the most difficult part. The SkirmishCampaign scenarios are based on individual soldiers and vehicles, while Battlefront WWII works with squads and vehicles that represent multiple vehicles. If you did the scenario verbatim, you would have three or four stands on a side covering a rather large map. We need to expand the scenario to make it interesting. We are going to offer two solutions: The first is an almost 1:1 substitution for our squads and units for their individuals and vehicles. The second is the battle that Kevin proposed, which expands the scenario from Encounter at Roa to a more extensive Battle scenario by making the optional forces standard and turning a small battle into an battalion sized action.Note on discipline ratings. SkirmishCampaigns has a system where it assigns both individual training and morale ratings. We combine our training and morale into a single discipline rating. In their Polish Campaign book they give a translation table
| SkirmishCampaign rating | Battlefront Rating |
|---|---|
| T1+,T1 | Elite |
| T2 | Veteran |
| T3 | Experienced |
| T4 | Trained |
| T5 | Raw |