- All my battles are what-if's. State that at the start or title.
- I need a close in thumbnail of a miniature, with smoke, and a snappy alt-history title. Eg: 1814: Russia Invades France. Can Wellington Stop them?
- Alternate History titles will get people in. Eg: Waterloo: Napoleon attack left (and early)! . 1816: Napoleon Fights Russia - In Germany!. 1820: Napoleon Invades...via Texas! 1806: Napoleon attacks London! (Via airships!). People familiar with the topic will immediately know it's alt-history and might be intrigued to see the outcome.
- Act 1: The stakes. I need to spend time before the battle describing the background- What is the (probably alt-history) reason these armies are fighting? What is the political situation? What part of the world? What's the weather like? Why did the armies meet at THIS location? What's that town's name? Where are the lines of attack and retreat? What is the armies doctrine and supply and morale status? How do this change from the historical record? What are the Stakes?
- This should not be long - I can use my existing title crawl, extended with some maps and (historical) pictures of the general's and units.
- Use accented AI speech for French/Russian/Portuguese/Spanish etc. I have no idea where to get that from.
- Over view of the battlefield, marking points of interest or what will become relevant in the battle
- Maybe a flat 2D map, but this adds extra time and work. If I do that, use NATO symbols for units.
- Act 2: The battle. A brief description of my army and enemy units initially visible. State the unit name (1st Brigade etc) but talk in number of battalions or batteries initially, to give a sense of scale of the units.
- You can use a static picture, but highlight the unit you're referring to (put a white highlight border around it briefly) and zoom in and around the picture for movement.,
- Use arrows (blue for friendly, red for enemy) to show movement and and a explosion or firing icon to show combat. When moving, maybe having marching feet, but have muskets/cannons/charging noises for combat.
- I need smoke on the battlefield! Looks awesome and shows black powder battles very well.
- Use icons/colour flashes for unit states (yellow for disrupted, red for wavering?) and a very dark red or very dark blue for routing with arrows.
- Fade in and out the static pictures.
- Take lots of overview pictures of the battlefield, ideally at the end of the turn.
- Take medium shot pictures of each movement or combat. Not all of these will be used!
- Take close in shots of generals/combat/shooting.
- At the end, act 3: what happened. What went right, what went wrong. What was the enemy plans and what was the key points in the battle? The results, the political and strategic results. What happened to the armies and generals. Is the war over or is this only part of the story.
- Most battles should be part of a continuing campaign! NO ONE ELSE DOES THIS. Units should carry on and do future battles! Mention previous experiences of them! Same with the Generals of divisions and corps.
- End credits - credit who made this, where the figures/terrain/table came from.
- End tag line.. "Napoleon Will Return in...XXXX battle"! Make Outlandish or interesting promise lie "....invading England via Zeppelin" or "...he will have his revenge in the next battle".
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