Scenario generators for the tabletop
Vedette
vedette, n. — a mounted sentry posted beyond the outposts, to watch the enemy and report what he sees.
Vedette makes scenario generators for the wargamer who reads the history. Each one is built for a single period and named for the man that period sent forward to look at the ground: the exploring officer of Wellington’s Peninsula, the uhlan riding ahead of the German columns in 1870, the intelligencer of Marlborough’s wars. What comes back is a scenario you can print and play — orders of battle, a staff map, objectives — built from the sources and ready for the table.
Napoleonic Wars · 1798–1815
Exploring Officer
Pick a theatre and a table; print the scenario. Six theatres, from Egypt in 1798 to the Hundred Days, and thirteen researched battles — Austerlitz, Leipzig, Waterloo and ten more.
Available · Early release · £15
Franco-Prussian War · 1870–71
Uhlan Patrol
The war of 1870–71: the frontier battles, Sedan, the siege of Paris and the armies of the provinces.
In preparation
War of the Spanish Succession · 1701–14
The Intelligencer
Marlborough and Eugene’s war: Blenheim, Ramillies, Oudenarde, Malplaquet, and the sieges between.
In preparation
How a Vedette scenario is made
From the sources
The historical battles are built from the published returns and histories, and every sheet names what it stands on. A generated scenario has no return to cite, so its forces are built to the period’s own establishment — and where the record gives no figure, that establishment supplies a standard one, so every unit plays.
Cut to your table
You say how big the table is. The scenario is fitted to it, not the other way round.
Ready to keep
Both orders of battle, the staff map with its deployment zones, objectives, victory conditions, special rules and umpire’s notes — one printed sheet, saved as a single file that will not change. That’s what to send a friend or the club.
Exploring Officer works this way today. The apps that follow are held to the same rule. See how it works.
Made by a wargamer, for wargamers
Vedette is made by a wargamer, for wargamers. I’m not a historian. The scenarios are built from the published returns and histories, with the sources cited, but they are a guide to a good game, not a work of reference: where the history and the table disagree, the table wins, and where the record is silent I have made the assumption or the substitution a playable scenario needs. If you want to argue about the numbers, the sources are there to argue with.
Early release. £15 now, while the next major update is still being built — the price rises when it ships.