In this game http://www.wargear.net/games/view/707235 a new player asked: 

'So in normal Risk, you get 1 army per territory initially, then you decide where to place a larger pot of armies. It’s not just a blanket “three armies everywhere” situation. Is that possible on WG?'

As long as I have played here, I was ashamed that I don't know the answer to this question.

Are there any manual initial placement scenarios on WG?

I can only think of boards where you select initial territory (simultaneously) and then select initial placement (Hordes of China, Gates of hell). Can't think of a board that has only selection of initial placement with random initial distribution. 

But, given that the rules have "Territory selection" and "Unit placement", I would assume that it is possible within the WG engine. Just can't recall any board that has it.

Yes, Territory Selection is an option for designers.  For a given scenario, they can choose from the following: Automatic, Turn Based, and Simultaneous.

As one of the board designers here, I admit that I have pretty much forgotten about these options and I have left all of my scenarios in the default "Automatic" mode.  I definitely wouldn't choose Turn Based as an option for most boards.  In a typical "standard" 3-day turn move game, it could take months just to populate the board.  But I should probably consider Simultaneous for some of my boards.

Come to think of it, Ozyman's "Pirates of the Caribbean" has some simultaneous placement scenarios - and it's a first rate board.  One of the very best designs on this site in my opinion. One-way attack borders are brilliantly used to simulate trade winds.

Just be clear, do these territory selection options allow a player, before the game starts, to only put 1 unit in all of their chosen or engine-selected territories, and then put all the rest into one territory? 

And I mean placing all your units simultaneously as the other players in one 'turn,' not placing one at a time round robin style.

zyx wrote:

Just be clear, do these territory selection options allow a player, before the game starts, to only put 1 unit in all of their chosen or engine-selected territories, and then put all the rest into one territory? 

And I mean placing all your units simultaneously as the other players in one 'turn,' not placing one at a time round robin style.

Simultaneous: Players select their territories by placing a number on them in order of preference. After all players have placed their preferences, Player Number 1 gets his first pick, then Player 2 gets his first pick, unless it is taken, in which case he gets his second pick. Player 3 gets his first pick, etc..   From here, I'm not so sure but I seem to remember that territories are then filled in standard fashion.  I.e, by the program, not the player.

I would imagine that the same is true with Turned Based.  Unit counts are assigned once territories have been selected. I just remembered - Micro Mission has both Simultaneous and Turned Based scenarios.  It's a small map - perfect for these scenarios.  I would recommend trying them to find out exactly how it works.

I believe M57 is correct.

I think I can recall a time that I tried to do that way back when; but couldn't make it work. I think with the addition of some of the more 'recent' designer tools (factories, etc); you could probably make something where you could set up a simul-select territories; all units get placed into an off board territory and then everyone's first turn has zero attacks and fortify to any connecting before reverting to normal play.

I know I just played Gearstorm with simul-select territories but auto place all units. 

Maybe Kjeld can chime in - he has several different types of initial board placement/selection maps.

weathertop wrote:

 I think with the addition of some of the more 'recent' designer tools (factories, etc); you could probably make something where you could set up a simul-select territories; all units get placed into an off board territory and then everyone's first turn has zero attacks and fortify to any connecting before reverting to normal play.. 

This is a great idea, though the map would need to allow unlimited fortifies. You could even make it a first turn only fortify by creating an auto-factory that wipes out all the armies on the staging territory by the second turn.

see i knew if i threw something out there one of the more skilled would pick up on it and improve it

There are actually two settings:

• Territory selection   
• Unit placement   

I think xyz is asking about:

territory selection = Automatic

unit placement = Simultaneous

I'm not sure if there are any existing maps that have this specific combination, but I'd be wiling to add a scenario to any of my maps that make sense.  It's a minimal amount of work, so I imagine most active designers would also be willing.

zyx wrote:

Just be clear, do these territory selection options allow a player, before the game starts, to only put 1 unit in all of their chosen or engine-selected territories, and then put all the rest into one territory? 

And I mean placing all your units simultaneously as the other players in one 'turn,' not placing one at a time round robin style.

Yes. Global Warfare has several different options set up including that one: http://www.wargear.net/boards/view/Global+Warfare

FYI - I think you want the Global+Warfare scenario - "Random and place simultaneous"

zyx - can you remove me as an enemy?