In my short, happy ASL career, it's become pretty clear that the level of historical research can vary quite a bit from scenario to scenario, and publisher to publisher. MMP standards appear to be pretty high (especially for HASLs) but I've still seen offical scenarios where an OB designation might say something like, "Elements of the 2nd Ukranian Front." (I'm assuming that in those cases, what historical detail was available came from the German side.) Obviously there's a lot of "judgment" involved in chosing the OBs of a scenario, a lot determined by what sources are available and also by what portion of a given battle you're trying to reproduce in game form.
What strategies, rules of thumb, etc. do designers use to help them figure out an OB?
Are there any consensus standards that publishers, say MMP, use to determine if the historical research is adequate?
It's been said one cannot assure absolute historicity and remain a balanced game, after all one side lost for a reason.
It's been also said that there is a happy medium somewhere between Historical accuracy and playability. After all, if a game is not fun, you won't play it, and you won't recommend it to others.
My beliefs in the accuracy vs playability balancing act a designer walks.
1. Work as hard as you can in the time you have to identify and verify the historical elements to the best of your ability. If you do this, at least you will feel it was as close to verifiable as possible. And it gives you a start point for OB selections.
2. Obtain or get help with as many different primary sources you can arrange in order to verify historical aspects of the action. Becoming a "history detective " is a good way to ensure you are not misrepresenting based upon a single erroneous entry in a secondary or worse tertiary source document. History is written by the winners. It is not always accurate in its perpectives, or its deductive reasonings, as LtCol Glantz does such a wonderful job of showing all of us. A wise designer ( ok Tom Morin) once told me that time spent in design research is never wasted time. He was entirely correct. This will allow you to refine the orignal OB concepts.
3. Now playability will come into the factor. One has a good basis for the OBs, but you can be extremely historically accurate, and yet have a horribly unbalanced game, ( see ABtF CG III for a perfect example).
So now one needs to "fiddle" with the historically accurate OBs to achieve a balanced match that will at least allow either side to win say , 40- 60% of the time. This is achieved through PTing, and lots of it. Take the suggestions to heart, use them in various forms. If 3 or more PTers come to the same conclusion about the use or elimination of a unit, what are you waiting for, a brick to fall on your head?
Keep a side record of which OB units are placed or eliminated in each step ( or altered.) Frequently, the best way to do the scenario balance step is to add or subtract the last OB changes for each side.
4. Pick anyone's brain you can find on the subject. I discovered that the "official" OB of a unit in 7/44 showed it only equipped with StG III G for AFVs. Yet the WaffenAmt strength report for AG North for 7/1944 showed the Army commander reporting the unit with a strength of 7 PzKpfW VG and 10 StG IIIG as of the 15th of the month, in operationg order. ( also noting a huge lack of spare ammunition for the PzV's). This was verified in 2 primary sources and a secondary source, so it was justified to add a Pz V in place of a StG; with a SSR to reduce the special ammo depletion #s. ( Arguably, a Pz V is more useful overall than a StG;' having more and more powerful MGs as well as a rotating turret and better armor.) I got the AG North strength report scan from a friend who had relative access to the BundesArchiv records ( being a "day trip" for him), and armed him with the primary source records I had of the fact the panthers were there, so he had a start point to look for.
5. consider all aspects. It may seem that the axis minor 2-6 B11 LMG is the best choice to represent the Czech ZB -30 in the OB, but if all your counters a german blue, why not use a Hun 2-6 B11 LMG instead? It will ease FTF ?ment play with the edges of the counters matching colors. Think " outside" the box.
6. Another wise designer ( ok Chris Olden) says, remember to thank everyone who PTs your OB choices. After all ,there is only so muchy time each of us has for ASL play, and with 1,000s of already published scens, these guys are willing to try an unpublished ( and most likely unbalanced) one for you. That deserves a special thanks.
KRL, and enjoy the ride!!!
Jon H