Scenario designers- how much research do you do?

[Pyros]

Hi,

It depends on the battle... If you wish to design a battle with historical accuracy then you must choose one with a lot of coverage.

Usually in a period of 30 work-days, I would spent 15 days for historical research, 7 days for a topographic huge map, 5 days for tactical analysis and the rest (3 days) for pure scenario construction.

The hardest thing to find is the tactics and evolution of the battle that historically happened.
Next is the amount and availability of support assets.

Anyway, I would suggest you to search in various TO&Es forums for the details concerning the composition of historical opponents and then try to find some aero photographs of the region (or a similar region).
Also try to study various topographic maps (find ones that resemble with the region) in order to understand basic topographic principles.

cheers,
Pyros