Scenario Tips

I am looking for tips on constructing a scenario. So far I have copied battle maps of the scenario that I want to make. I want to make sure that the scenario is historically correct, but yet playable. Also I think that there is a tendency to clutter up the map with terrain, rivers, and roads and so on. Adding a road or river would only be necessary if it is a vital part of the battle.
Any tips?

there is no Road terrain.. just open.

Read an account of the battle. The relevant terrain is usually mentioned repeatedly in the recounts. I like maps, because they usually highlight the key terrain.
For example Antietam;
The Cornfield, Bloody Lane and Burnside's Bridge are key terrain.



Also, consider time. Did everything happen at once, or sequentially?
Are there multiple scenarios?

“Read an account of the battle. The relevant terrain is usually mentioned repeatedly in the recounts. I like maps, because they usually highlight the key terrain.” I do all of what you mention. Do you ever change the location of some terrain and units to make the scenario playable? Also I get hung up as to what the game units represent a, platoon, company, battalion, regiment/brigade or division. Also what do the game hexes have a scale? Like ½ mile, 150 yards and so on. Maybe I am over thinking all of this. Also I have noticed that some of the scenarios have a lot of special rules. What I like about this game is that there are not of layers of rules. I feel that any special rules should be relevant to the battle information.

there is no fixed scale between scenarios, and probably not within scenarios. Some battles have Brigade sized units, other use Divisional or even Corps strength units.

Personally, I think BattleCry works best at a Brigade scale, but there is no requirement.

Similarly, terrain has no specific scale, nor does it follow map scales. So a large wood might become a strip of woods, that blocks LOS and stops movement, but is nowhere need as extensive as the map depicts.

Special rules reflect some specific character of the battle, but I agree that they shouldn't be over used. Green troops for example. Just because they are Green, if they didn't run in battle, does it matter?

Something that might be useful is set of stock phrase Special Rules. Rather than having slightly different wording for Horse Artillery or Green/Veteran troops, or Sabres hitting only in Melee or common used Special rules.

Also take a look at how the scenarios in the game already were constructed. For example, the higher the scale, the less terrain is represented.

Case in point would be the Gettysburg scenarios, constructed at roughly 1 unit = 1 CSA (or about 2 USA) brigades, the game does not represent Cemetery Ridge as a terrain feature at all.