Re: [DS] Scenario Design for Cons

>You make a valid point about the decisions players want to
make, but you also
>have to make resources scarce enough that the the decisions
they have to make
>are nasty ones. My suggestion is create an interesting
scenario... then pare
>it down to 75% after the first playtest. It won't be easy, and
you may have to
>alter one side more radically than the other, but it will be
worth it in the
>end.

Studies have shown that most officers cannot handle more than
3-6 units--which is why most organizations are triangular or
square, you run less risk of finding out your CO has more units
than he can handle.

In addition, command ability doesn't seem to be scaleable.  I
was reading Kipling last night, he was describing a Boer leader
who was well known to be exceptionally dangerous if he had 250
men, but would trip over himself if he had 500.  Some of
Napoleon's officers could handle a regiment but not a corps--I
recall reading an analysis that suggested that Nappy lost
Waterloo because someone--Ney?--was in command of a larger unit
than he knew what to do with.

I suppose I should mention that, on turn 2 of the Lafayette
campaign, Joshua and I are going to square off in the Lafayette
system: he has all 10K points (24 ships, running largely to
Komarov and Konstantin and such), I have 29 ships for my entire
FTL-capable fleet plus system defense cruisers.  It'll be
interesting to see if we do anything _else_ tomorrow...