The Warlords II Players' Encyclopedia -   Info, Tactics | FAQ | Demos, Patches | Scenarios | Army Sets (+) | Scenario Editing | WarBOT | Tournament | League | Remailer | Other Sites - This page last revised 27-Apr-02 by Bob Heeter


Scenario Selection

This contains all our accumulated wisdom on selecting scenarios for Warlords Play-by-Email games. It's not complete, but it is still very useful.

There are basically two choices you must make:

  1. Will this game use the WarBOT to determine the battle outcomes?
    1. If so, you will need to use a WarBOT-compatible scenario.
    2. If not, you can use any scenario, but you will need to customize the game rules.

  2. How many players will be in the game?
    1. The size of the scenario depends on the number of players, particularly for games using WarBOT and the Tournament Army Set.
    2. A good rule of thumb is a minimum of 10 cities per player, and a maximum of 20 cities per player for games using WarBOT and Tournament armies. You can "shrink" a larger scenario by declaring some parts of the map to be "off limits".

Scenario Selection: Existing Scenarios suitable for WW2L play

For starters, see the three archives:
  1. Tournament Archives
  2. Tournament Downloads page
  3. General Scenario Archives

Here is a list of scenarios worth investigating. Existing Scenarios suitable for League Play with WarBOT:

  1. Aerolandia (Tournament Round C)
  2. Duel of the Ancient Gods (Tournament Round B)
  3. Dwarven Mines (Tournament Version - Deluxe only)
  4. Hand of Fate (Mac only)
  5. Isles of Sorcery (Tournament version - Deluxe only)
  6. Olympics I (Tournament Practice Round)
  7. Olympics II (Tournament Round A)
  8. Shades of Hadesha (Tournament Version of Hadesha - Mac Classic only)
  9. WC Wars (Deluxe only)
  10. Any random scenario using the Tournament Army Set
  11. Any scenario with any army set using an imported army data file for WarBOT 1.6

Custom Scenario Guidelines:

Note: When you are trying a new scenario or set of game options, you'll need to generate a starting gamefile with the appropriate modifications. City production, ruin contents, item types, and so on may all need to be edited. If you need a hand with this, just ask; we have several volunteers willing to help; just ask on ww2l-talk. (Also see the Scenario Editing pages in the Warlords II Encyclopedia.) Eventually we hope to have many many prearranged game and scenario packages, so that games can be fought from interesting starting conditions with less work required!

  1. Selection Criteria:

    1. Compatibility with WarBOT. You may need to generate a new army data file for importing into WarBOT.
    2. Games playable in no more than 2 months per player. For a 2 player game, this is about 8 turns at an average speed of 1 week per move per player, 12 turns at 5 days/move, 20 turns at 3 days/move, 30 turns at 2 days/move, or 60 turns at 1 day/move. So you need a combination of fast-moving, fast-building army sets, relatively small scenarios, and fast-moving gung-ho players. :)
    3. Not too many cities per side. When WarBOT is used with the Tournament Army Set, more than 12-15 cities per side becomes unmanageable. The number of possible movement/battle combinations gets too large.
    4. Not too few cities per side. This becomes boring and games stalemate.
    5. Fair starting conditions. Challengers, remember that the defender picks his side first, and you get what's left!

  2. Army Sets - Successful:

    1. Tournament Army Set (Rounds A to C and Practice Round)
    2. Tournament Round E Army Set (Tarot)

  3. Scenarios to be Tested (One-on-one games):

    Note: all of these need to be modified to use the Tournament Army Set; other modifications (set cities to build only scouts, increase starting gold, etc.) may be needed as well. If you are planning on customizing a scenario, try these first!

    From the Deluxe CD-ROM:

    1. Island Wheel - 21 cities
    2. Knights Isle - 21 cities also balanced
    3. Dragon Realms - 40 Cities
    4. Elemental Problems - 43 Cities
    5. Elkor's Tomb - 26 Cities
    6. Essessge Isle - 40 Cities
    7. ... and many others ...
  4. Scenarios to be Tested (4-player games):

    These should have a maximum of 60 cities and good balance for 4 players.


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This site began in 1994 as Eugene Lee's Warlords II Home Page in Australia. It has evolved steadily since then, and now includes material by a variety of authors, including Bob Heeter, Eugene Lee, Elam Birnbaum, Glen Barnett, Dirk Pellett, Vern Vaillancourt, Gary Best, and others where indicated. A number of graphics are copyright by SSG; copyright and other rights to the Web source are reserved by the appropriate authors. (This site is not the Official Warlords Site by SSG.)