Legitimate Scenario Titles

bendizoid

Official ***** Dickweed
Joined
Sep 11, 2006
Messages
4,630
Reaction score
3,244
Location
Viet Nam
Country
llUnited States
Model's Yodel
Kleist's Feist
Zuchov Shmukov
Wainwright is Uptight
Yomamoto's Mojo
Khang Kie Shek? Awwww what the heck!
Lee is Pee'd
Hube's Dudes

hmmmmmm,
Bob

Glenn is right Hube's Pubes
 
Last edited:

Relvig

Death Panel Czar
Joined
Jul 31, 2006
Messages
241
Reaction score
3
Location
Lancaster, PA
Country
llUnited States
Patton's pissed
Monty's mad
Eisenhower's enraged
Manstein's mess
Rommel's rampage
Keitel's cauldron
Stalin is stimied
Bock is back
Chesties Testies
Nimitz's Nuts
Macarthurs manhood
Mussolinis mousolium
Tito is beato
Guidarian is a goner
Bradly's brats
Degaul's gaul
Wavel's navel
Luck is stuck
Italian's battalions




To suggest a few
Bob

Bob, you getting some big azz medalions and chains to go around your neck??? Sounds like your gettin ready to put out your 1st Rap album with all those ryming skilz you have goin, homie.

Wat Uppppp!

Relvig
 

jimfer

Member
Joined
Feb 3, 2003
Messages
875
Reaction score
231
Location
Fort Worth Texas
Country
llUnited States
How about a Bocage night scenario called ... "Lost and all Alone". The straying die rolls would be interesting.

Jimfer
 

Jim McLeod

Member
Joined
Feb 15, 2005
Messages
3,332
Reaction score
11
Location
Manitoba
Country
llCanada
Used my now missing Divisional History book to create G42 and was working on more. There was a town near Authie, where the Canadians met the 12th SS PD off the beaches. The town was called Rot. Canadian Commandos were to take this town against units of the 12th SS Division. Called it Rots in Hell. Thought that was pretty good and simple...

Relvig
Actually, the commandos were British Royal Marines.

The Canadian units involved were primarily fromt he Fort Garry Horse A.R. and the Le Chaudiere.

The SS chalked up another 'L' after that fight.

;)



=Jim=
 

Relvig

Death Panel Czar
Joined
Jul 31, 2006
Messages
241
Reaction score
3
Location
Lancaster, PA
Country
llUnited States
Actually, the commandos were British Royal Marines.

The Canadian units involved were primarily fromt he Fort Garry Horse A.R. and the Le Chaudiere.

The SS chalked up another 'L' after that fight.

;)



=Jim=
Jim, Thanks for the clarification! Like I said, my unit history is gone, and have only a shadow of memory for the battle. Was a pretty neat scenario, with some good tank action, and a Canadian assault against SS defenders.

Thanks again!

Relvig
 

Pitman

Forum Guru
Joined
Jan 27, 2003
Messages
14,104
Reaction score
2,371
Location
Columbus, OH
Country
llUnited States
The best scenario titles are not just descriptive ("Company C Attacks Again") or blindly alliterative ("Cluster**** at Closterdamm") or puns ("Manila Envelopment") or rhymes (Smith at Vith).

Ideally, a scenario title evokes something about the battle or situation, or it gives meaning to some aspect of the action, or it makes the reader think a little bit.

Without making any great claims to being a good scenario title comer-upper-wither, here are the rationales behind some of my scenario titles.

Welcome to the Jungle. I thought this would have good resonance value, as it is a song lyric. However, it was also appropriate on two other levels. First, it was the first action experienced by the unit the scenario pack was based around. Second, the scenario itself was conceived of as a good introductory PTO scenario.

Repple Depples No More. Repple Depple was slang for "replacement depot" and came to mean rear area troops, especially those who had not seen combat, or new replacements. I used this title because the slang term was a great, catchy "period" term, and because the action itself involved a Japanese force infiltrating behind US lines and attacking service units, etc., in the rear.

Hell on Horseshoe Hill. This is an example of the power that "slang geography" has for scenario titles. Horseshoe Hill was the term used to refer to a particular geological formation in the battle area. Because the term itself was alliterative, I added "Hell on" to give a feel for the battle.

Flamin' Frank. Okay, so I'm not proud of this one. It involved flamethrowers and a hero named Frank. 'nuff said. They can't all be winners. :)

Men Remembered Well. In the general action in which this scenario took place, someone won a Congressional Medal of Honor, and a well known song ("The Ballad of Roger Young") commemorated this hero. "Men Remembered Well" is taken from the lyrics of that song.

Big Guns at Bibilo. This is an example of taking advantage of local names. The scenario involved an American assault against Japanese gun positions at a hill called Bibilo. "Big Guns at Bibilo" has a very nice rhythm, and it explains the importance of the scenario.

Up the Numa Numa Trail. This is my favorite scenario title (and a great scenario). It is a very simple use of an incredibly evocative name for a piece of local geography. It involves a patrol heading up the eponymous trail that ran into the vanguard of a massive Japanese force heading south to launch an offensive.

Cut, Slash and Mow Them Down. This phrase was taken from the statement issued by a Japanese general to his troops before launching a major attack on American troops on Bougainville. Ironically, it was the Japanese who were mostly cut and mowed down. I thought the phrase was a great aggressive quote.

To Take Back A Hill. Not a very inspired scenario title; a straight description of the action--a US counterattack to regain control of a hill.

Buckeye Blitzrkrieg. Yikes, the dreaded alliteration. Oh well, you can't win them all. I used "blitzkrieg," because it is one of the few jungle actions of this unit that involved tanks.

The IJA's Last Battle. Not a great scenario title, I admit, but I wracked my brains for a long time and couldn't come up with anything better. It represents the last independent offensive launched by Japanese troops--actually occurring after their surrender.

Unlikely Allies. I like the rhythm of this short scenario title, but the main reason it is good is because it so concisely captures the conceit of the scenario: British and Japanese troops fighting on the same side!

Bloody Bari. This is a combination alliteration and play on words. The alliteration is obvious, and the play on words involves "Bloody Mary." Do two wrongs make a right? I don't know, but I actually like this scenario title quite a bit, as opposed to "Buckeye Blitzkrieg," which I can't defend.

Red Don. This scenario title--which I love--actually can be read two ways. First, a straight description. The scenario represents a bloody assault across the frozen Don River. Okay, red Don, I get it. Then, of course, it is also a pun of sorts on the movie "Red Dawn." Plus "red" connotes the Red Army, and the assault was a dawn assault and so on and so forth. I just like it.

Ghost Riders. Taken from the song, of course, to get that familiarity coursing through your neurons, but it is also evocative of a key feature of the scenario: Soviet reinforcements in winter camouflage riding tanks suddenly appearing out of nowhere. I loves it, my precious.

Village of the Damned. Also taken from a title! Man, three in a row. But again, extremely evocative, because the action centers around the hopeless resistance made by Italian and German soldiers trapped in a village by the Soviets when the main retreating Axis column left without them. It was their doomed last stand, and all were killed or captured.

Agonia ad Arnautovo. You have to be careful about using foreign languages for scenario titles. Done right, they are incredibly evocative; done wrong, and people just say "whaaaah?" I thought I was safe here. It's got alliteration but good rhythem, and the use of a foreign language makes up for the use of alliteration. Plus English speakers will easily discern it: Agony at Arnautovo.

Victory is Life. Originally, I had this in Italian. However, the meaning wasn't clear at all. The slogan for this one elite Italian unit was basically "for us, victory is life." It sounds better in Italian, basically meaning that achieving victory was the essence of life. I later changed it to a shortened English version of it. It's an okay title, but nothing inspired.

The Valley of Death. This was a no-brainer. This was the name given to a valley by the people who fought there. It's obviously evocative. So evocative that someone else who read about this action decided to design a scenario on the same action and give it the same title, at the same time I did! That bastard. :)

Tridentina Avanti! Unless people read the historical description, they may not get this title, which means it may not be a first rate title. Nevertheless, I like it. It is the "war cry" of the Tridentina Division: Tridentina Advance! The action depicts what is probably the crowning glory in the history of that division, and the war cry was uttered by one of its commanders as he led them into battle.

The Winter of their Discontent. Hey, a literary reference! And Shakespeare, too. I get extra points for that. It involves a bitter winter struggle with demoralized Italian troops. So it ideally is evocative of the situation.

The Hunters Become the Hunted. I thought this was natural. It involves a bunch of German parachutists (fallschirmjaeger, i.e., hunters from the sky) who get surrounded and defeated by Italians. It is evocative of the situation and uses the english translation of jaeger in a great way. Two points for the Pitman.

All Roads Lead to Rome. Hey, it's battle on a road to Rome, what better title could there be?

Flea Circus. This falls into the "what on earth could this scenario title mean" category. Flea Circus was the code name (in German) for the operation the scenario is based on. I thought it was very cool and exotic sounding.

The Last Day of the Cuneense. This is a straight descriptive title, involving the elimination of the remnants of the Cuneense Division, which sacrificed itself as a rearguard so that the rest of the Alpini Corps could escape.

Those are the titles from my published, or about to be published, scenarios.

Maybe tonight I'll post the reasoning behind the titles from my in-progress "Ruins of the Reich" scenario pack.
 

Pitman

Forum Guru
Joined
Jan 27, 2003
Messages
14,104
Reaction score
2,371
Location
Columbus, OH
Country
llUnited States
What the heck is your problem? I was posting how I came up with my scenario titles. I thought people might find that interesting. I thought they might comment on the titles, and I thought other designers might explain how they came up with their own scenario titles.

Man, I actually made a (rather lengthy) effort to get some substantial discussion going and the very first response is a personal attack.
 

Darrell Andersen

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 26, 2004
Messages
3,623
Reaction score
178
Location
Cedar Rapids, IA
Country
llUnited States
Maybe you're right...perhaps a bit rough.

Given your penchant for blowing your own horn, at length and admitted to by yourself on several occasions, I thought that this was more self aggrandizement....upon further review, I'll cease my *****iness.

Not neccesarily a personal attack, more of an observation. One that you have made about yourself, several times.

Mark...you like to hear yourself talk....nothing new there. I should also know better than to wade into this. Shutting up now....
 
Last edited:

Honza

The Art Of Wargames
Joined
Dec 30, 2005
Messages
13,868
Reaction score
2,632
Location
Oxfordshire
First name
Jan
Country
llCzechia
Marks addition to the thread was really helpful in that it shows how he was thinking when choosing scenario titles. I find a lot of scenario titles out there are a bit cliched, and therefore to find original titles is tricky.
 

Ralph Malf

***** Veteran
Joined
Feb 6, 2005
Messages
687
Reaction score
68
Location
Wisconsin
Country
llUnited States
I have a scenario title for an action where a couple of DUKWs were used in combat, or used in a river crossing under fire, or maybe just as transport in a scenario with exit VPs.

The opposing force would have to be German.

And the title is..........................



"DUKW, DUKW, GOOSE-step"
 

paulkenny

Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2003
Messages
3,848
Reaction score
54
Location
USA
For the record, I find scenario naming to be quite a pain in the ass. Unless something jumps out at me I agonize over coming up with something. Some scenario packs I struggle through many scenario names to come up with something acceptable (I think Battlin Bastards of Bataan was the most difficult in this regard), I mean come on! Plenty of time to rest When You're Dead! UGH!

However, when it comes easily it is great. For my SCW packs the names seemed to just come and what a relief that was. I suppose it was the lack of SCW scenarios allowing for a fertile ground.
 

Pitman

Forum Guru
Joined
Jan 27, 2003
Messages
14,104
Reaction score
2,371
Location
Columbus, OH
Country
llUnited States
I don't know why, but I love trying to name scenarios. It is sort of like putting the icing on the cake to me, really giving a scenario that last touch.

I said before I'd post the titles for the Ruins from the Reich pack, so here they are:

RotR1. Able Was I Ere I Saw Elba. How often do you get to use a palindrome in a scenario title? This features a battle over the Elba battery factory in Trieste, so it seemed pretty appropriate to use this famous palindrome.

RotR2. Attack to Retreat. This is not one of my better efforts. It features an attack by a retreating German force against a partisan blocking force; thus the title--the Germans have to attack if they want their retreat to be successful. I like the inherent contradition in the title, but I wouldn't call it inspired.

RotR3. The Kindness of Strangers. Basically short for "beware the kindness of strangers," although I suppose a Streetcar Named Desire reference could be inferred by someone, too! I like it, because the scenario involved a few ostensible Austrian partisans who help Americans find a secret way to attack a German unit from the rear. The kicker: the Austrian commander was actually a Nazi war criminal who had helped Adolf Eichmann, and he was currying favor at the last second by changing sides. He later worked for the CIA before being uncovered as a Nazi war criminal.

RotR4. The Last Stand of the Besotten Jenny. The Besotten Jenny is the name of a Sherman tank. Once I read it, how could I not put it in the scenario name?

RotR5. Sword of Damocles. This involves a situation where a German commander got an order to hold a town until noon on a particular day or his head would be forfeit. That seemed like an appropriate action for a Sword of Damocles ancient Greek literary reference.

RotR6. The Kings are Dead. I like this title a lot; it refers to an action in which several King Tigers met their rather timely end.

RotR7. Fury at Zhuri. Man, I went for the cheap-ass rhyme option with this one, didn't I?

RotR8. Wolves in the Forest. Pretty straightforward; the Americans have to clear a section of dark forest of lingering Germans and their roadblocks.

RotR9. Czechs and Balances. Okay, I have one bad pun in the pack, I admit it. It's a Prague 1945 scenario.

RotR10. Most Barikádníků. This scenario reflects battle in Prague between Germans and partisans for control of a key bridge; later, the bridge was renamed after the partisans. I named the scenario after the renamed bridge, which means "The Bridge of the Barricade Defenders." By its very nature, it is not a top scenario title, because the meaning of the Czech term is not obvious, but I still like it. It's exotic.


Maybe this weekend some time I will post some of my favorite scenario titles that I've seen over the years. When I first started playing ASL, for about a year I kept a list of the "good," the "bad," and the "ugly" scenario titles that I came across. Alas, I later threw it away.
 

Honza

The Art Of Wargames
Joined
Dec 30, 2005
Messages
13,868
Reaction score
2,632
Location
Oxfordshire
First name
Jan
Country
llCzechia
Hey Mark, your last paragraph gave me a good idea. We should start a new thread on our favorite scenario titles. :)
 

Glennbo

Elder Member
Joined
Jan 9, 2005
Messages
7,086
Reaction score
671
Location
Detroit, MI
Country
llUnited States
I don't know why, but I love trying to name scenarios. It is sort of like putting the icing on the cake to me, really giving a scenario that last touch.
I'm with Mark totally on this one. I create scenario titles every day. Sometimes as few as one or two. Sometimes as many as fifty. I've got dozens of lists with hundreds upon hundreds of titles.

A lot of them are silly. I regularly post them here on my "Outlandish Scenario Titles" threads.

By the way I have to take back the title I posted earlier in this thread. Apparently we're going to use it for one of our scenarios. To make up for it I'll offer up some other "borderline" titles:

Dealing from the Bottom
Ominous Hills
Cheating the Undertaker
Shell Game
 

Michael Dorosh

der Spieß des Forums
Joined
Feb 6, 2004
Messages
15,733
Reaction score
2,765
Location
Calgary, AB
First name
Michael
Country
llCanada
I think Seinfeld had it right. They deliberately chose to title the episodes very simply - The Soup Nazi, The Stakeout, The Robbery - because they didn't want writers getting hung up on complicated or clever titles and wasting their time on what it the end didn't matter.

Although, just as in sports reporting, where "won" has to be replaced by a million different words (aced, edged, blanked, defeated, triumphed over, savaged, topped, outscored, etc.) I suppose one needs to replace 'battle of' with something also.

For me, there will never be anything as evocative as the original SL scenario titles - "Hill 621", "Streets of Stalingrad" and "The Tractor Works" instantly bring to mind memories of something special. I think the same phenomenon has occured in Combat Mission, where "Chance Encounter" or "Valley of Troubles" reminds one not just of the scenario itself, but of one's earliest experiences with The Game, which will never be duplicated.

The rest ... kind of doesn't matter. I prefer the titles to be representative of the battle, preferably geographically but with regards to some aspect if necessary. My favs include:

a) Climax at Nijmegen Bridge
b) Sweep for the Bordj-Toum Bridge
c) Sowchos 79 (somehow, numbered geographic features always seem cool to me)

Actually, all the SL scenarios 1-47 have really good titles. Most of the ASL core module ones do too.

The punny ones have me lost, and I'll actually pass on playing one just because of the name.

a) Oy Veghel
b) Dreil Team

Direct quotes are ok, if they're short and have something to do with the battle. I absolutely hated George Kelln's "Whiskey? Well at least it's Canadian!" - what on earth that has to do with ASL is beyond me!

The ASL core modules all had good names up to ASL 62 - Bungle in the Jungle was marginally ok, but starting to get a little punny. End of the Ninth (ASL 76) is ok too since it refers to the 9th Army, but tell me none of you Americans think about baseball as soon as you hear it. Followed by "Play Ball" (ASL 80). Then "Huns of Steel" ASL 115 was the finale of the dreadful titles.

I think a good title will not draw attention to itself while still being evocative. It also shouldn't remind one of something else . "Strangers in a Strange Land" (ASL 75) is a good title, but unfortunately is also the name of a book about USAAF aircraft interned in Switzerland. You could use "The Longest Day" as a scenario title but only if it was about the Normandy invasion and somehow related to the historical writeup, I think. "Sea of Tranquility" (ASL 72) may be clever and a dichotomy to some like Pitman, but to me, it just evokes the moon landing.

Something simple like "Silence That Gun" (ASL 14) describes the scenario and is easy to remember if you decide you like it and want to play it again or tell someone about it.

I think those that spend the most time coming up with catchy titles are wasting their time as in many cases, it's counterproductive. I think only occasionally will a mystic combination like "Bridge to Nowhere" (ASL 54) lend itself to a scenario without looking mawkish.

It's ok too to name the scenario after a participant - "Swatting at Tigers" (SL 41) was a good title, and would have been equally good had Gavin's name been in the title. Whomever came up with "Smith and Weston" (ASL A53), an obvious pun on "Smith and Wesson", should be shot, even if that really was their real names. I'm still waiting for "I Can't Believe It's Not Butler." Names of units are okay too - "Encircling the Ruhr" (SL 47) would have been just as good to be titled "Task Force Richardson" since it was about that unit. Though there would be a certain chutzpah to naming a scenario involving less than a company of the 1st US Infantry Division as "The Big Red One", I think.

So let's have a little exercise here that might be enlightening - I'll post it in a separate post.

http://www.xtreme-gamer.com/forums/advanced-squad-leader/63046-scenario-design-title-exercise.html#post809197
 
Last edited:
Top