Data sources for creating historical scenarios

[Guest MikeToth]

Hi all,

I posed this question to Wild Bill in an e-mail, but I thought it also might be a good idea to also ask the CM community also.

Where do you great scenario designers grab your data on historical battles, terrain and

OOB's from????.. Is there one particular source you can use, or several???

I would like to give it a shot and create

one, but am in a quandry as to where to go,

as there are so much stuff out on the web

thanks

Mike

[Maastrictian]

I don't know that I qualify as a "great scenario designer" but I'll field this one. Personally, I do not do insane reasearch the way some designers do, I'm simply not hardcore enough. However, I am always reading books on mil history and they will often have relevant anticdotes, though often about units of battalion size or so, you have to just do a part of the battle. My favorite historian is John Keegan. I would recommend his book "Six Armies in Normandy" as being an excellent history of the invasion and aftermath as well as having a number of good small unit anticdotes. I'll also sugest doing a search, as this topic has been covered, by people better than myself, before.

--Chris

[Wild Bill Wilder]

Me either, Chris, but here goes.

I answered Mike on this one, and I have posted this list before but all of these books have proven to be of immense value in research for scenario design.

Most are available for purchase. Many should be in your public library.

Web sites on particular units abound and offer good maps, descriptions and ideas for scenarios.

Books for Ideas for Scenarios – Combat Mission

The US Army in World War II Series, publisher: US Govt Printing Office

Cross Channel Attack

Breakout and Pursuit

Siegfried Line

Riviera to the Rhine

Lorraine Campaign

Battle of the Bulge

The Last Offensive

GENERAL

There’s a War to be Won, Perret

Delivered from Evil, Leckie

Heroes of World War II, Murphy

Battles and Battlescenes from WW2

Daring to Win, Eshel

Bravery in Battle, Eshel

Tank Aces, Zumbro

Tank Aces, Forty

Iron Cavalry, Zumbro

Tank Commanders, Forty

Clash of Chariots, Donnely and Naylor

D-Day

Operation Overlord Series (4), Order of Battle, Christopher Chant, editor

Swords and Plowshares, Maxwell D. Taylor

The 101st Airborne at Normandy, Bando

Band of Brothers, Ambrose

Overlord, Hastings

D-Day, Ambrose

NORMANDY

Panzertruppen II, Jentz

Churchill’s Desert Rats-Normandy to Berlin, Delaforce

Invasion! They’re Coming, Carell

Panzers in Normandy, Then and Now, Lefevre

Normandy, Essame

Death Traps, Cooper

Beyond the Beachhead, Balkoski

Six Armies in Normandy, Keegan

Steel Inferno, Reynolds

The 12th SS Panzer Division, Walther

The Blood Soaked Soil, Williamson

Hell on Wheels, Houston

Strike Swiftly, Jensen

FRANCE

The View from the Turret, Folkestad

St. Lo, Us Army Historical Division

The Clay Pigeons of St. Lo, Johns

Against the Panzers, Karamales

MARKET GARDEN-WEST WALL

Operation Dragoon, Bruer

Death of a Nazi Army, Bruer

August, 1944, Miller

A Bridge too Far, Ryan

Division Commander, Miller

THE ARDENNES

A Dark and Bloody Ground, Miller

Battle of the Bulge, Parker

Bastogne, the First Eight Days, Marshall

Hitler’s Last Gamble, Dupuy

The Devil’s Adjutant, Reynolds

A Time for Trumpets, MacDonald

A Blood Dimmed Tide, Astor

Bastogne and the Ardennes Offensive, Arend

FINAL BATTLES

Battle of the Ruhr Pocket, Whiting

One More River, Allen

[109 Gustav]

Search for battalion histories, division histories, and the like on the internet. There's a lot of reunion sites, most of which have a unit history.

Another good book for scenario design is The Bitter Woods, by John Eisenhower. It covers the battle of the bulge, and describes quite a few battalion and larger sized battles.

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There is nothing certain about war except that one side won't win.

-Ian Hamilton

[Guest MikeToth]

Thanks to all of you for the input.... I think an Operation is definetely in order, I will put my Oracle software development skills to work on this one (fortunately the

scenario editor in CM is A LOT MORE FUN than

Oracle......

Thanks guys

Mike

Cleveland Ohio