Battle Chronicler Tutorial

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Benigno
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Battle Chronicler Tutorial

Post by Benigno »

I want to create a tutorial for these users that have no experience with these computer applications, and build an easy way to play online. If you like it, you can sticky it when the tutorial is finished.

First step: Download the application
From this site: http://www.battlechronicler.com/downloa ... adv08.html
you have to download the latest version of the application and the Latest Official Component Collection, with a lot of stuff for the battlefield.

Second step: Create an Army Template

When you open the application the first time, it will ask you some questions about the game type you will be writing the reports, answer that Warhammer games and square bases.

When the main window is visible, you need you open the Edit menu and select Army Templates. That will open a window like this but with no templates at all:

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Click the New button and then you will see a screen like this:

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If you click the Edit Army Colours, you can change the look and feel of your army shapes, you have colours and many other options, I'll let you explore that, we will just change the colour:

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In the Units section, you can click the New button to add a new unit to the template, let's add a Glade Guard unit. You can change the name, the number of models, the number of models per rank, base size, and more optional stuff.

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If you want to add special models to the unit (like the command models) you can click the Edit button right to the Specials section of the unit:

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Just click the new button to add the command members and click Ok when you are done. Note: If you create new command members for a unit, these command members will be available in the dropdown list for other units.

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After that you will see the special members in the template screen.

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You can add more units to the roster, if you add a Wardancer unit, you should select the Loose Files in the formation dropdown list, that will enable the gap values, that you may edit as you wish.

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You can also add characters, just making the unit of a single model. We will see later how to attach these models to units.

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When you are done, you can click the Ok button and the Template will be saved to disk.
Last edited by Benigno on 22 Feb 2013, 13:05, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Battle Chronicler Tutorial

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Third Step: Create a new game.

In the main window select the File menu and click on New, that will open the New Game Window, here we can define two important things, the Table, and the Armies.

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You can create a Table yourself or use a table from a previous game. To use the table from a saved game click the Import Terrain button, and select a xml game file.

If you want to import an army from an old game, you can also click the Import button, select a xml game file, and then a window will give you the option to import one of the armies in the game file.

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If you don't have old games with terrain or armies, don't worry, we can create the terrain later, and we can use the armies from the template we created on the Step2. Just click the Define button on the Army section, that will show the Army Definition Window:

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We have already created a template, so we can select it from the Template dropdown list and we will see this:

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We have imported the template, now we will get the units. In the Units section, click the Unit from Template button, that will show us a list of the units saved in the template. If we want to import them all, just select the Select All checkbox and click the Ok button.

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After that we have our units imported and we can click Ok to finish defining our army.

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Now that we have defined our army, click Ok in the New Game window to open the new game in the main window.

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You can save the game and send it to your friend, so he can add his army to the game, to do that, you have just to load the game, and select the Edit - Game Details menu item, that will show you a window identical to the New Game window, where you can define your army from a template in the same way we explained before.

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Last edited by Benigno on 22 Feb 2013, 13:15, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: Battle Chronicler Tutorial

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Placing terrain. When you open a new game you are in the 'Terrain' turn, where you can take terrain pieces from the left menu and place them on the table.

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The first submenu has the available backgrounds, this gives some texture to the background, instead of the plain green colour, try them clicking on the desired background to select it and then click again on the table to apply the background texture.

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Now you have several submenus with a lot of terrain pieces, you just need to click on them to select and on the table to place them, you can move them through the table, turn them pressing the Alt key while you move the mouse, and resize them using the 'Dimension' textboxes. I like to oversize trees to represent whole forests, it is better than add a lot of single small trees. Here is an example terrain:

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When you are done, just click the right arrow of the turn bar and you will be on the Deployment phase :)
Last edited by Benigno on 22 Feb 2013, 13:16, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Battle Chronicler Tutorial

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All right, so you want to deploy your forces now. If you are emailing the xml file, you may want to deploy two units at a time instead of just one if you want to speed it up. Whatever, you pass the Terrain phase and you get to the Deployment phase, you have your forces inside your 'box', you can see your units on the left panel like this:

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You may click on a unit to select it and then click on the battlefiled to put it out of the box. To move it around the table just click it to move it around. Remember that if you move it while pressing Ctrl, it will rotate without moving, and if you press Alt while moving it will move without rotating. Easy, uh? Just give it a try and you will see what I mean in a second. Deploy your forces on the table.

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Let's see how to attach Characters to their units. Click a character and take a look at the properties panel on the bottom left of the screen. You can check the Attached checkbox and then select the unit you want to attach him to.

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That will place the character inside the unit and will move with it (you can place him wherever on the unit if you click it and move him around). We will place them on the unit's corners.

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Now that we have deployed, we can begin the game. The first turn will be for the Player A, but it really does not matter who is who, but if you miss something, you want to add a forgotten unit, you put the wrong base size to a unit or whatever, you can always use the Edit -> Game Details menu to fix anything.

Beggining the Game

Now it is turn one, you want to move your forces, and it is easy to move your blocks using the movement menu you can see when you select a unit.

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You can move forward a number of inches, turn, wheel, etc. You will find this usefull. You can of course free move a unit, just clicking it and moving around, that is good for a monster, or the Great Eagle of our example. When you grab it, you can see on the bottom of the screen how many inches it has moved from the original position.

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So, you make your moves and then you can roll for magic, shooting etc.

Imagine you kill one of the Silver Helms with the Chariot bows, then you may remove the model using the Unit tab on the Silver Helms properties sidebar. Just unclick one of the models, and it will be shown as destroyed. You may use counters to show the destroyed models this turn or to take count on the wounds of large models.

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When you are finished, you may pass turn.

You can show also when a unit is charging or retreating, this will help you to track the movements of the units and remember what are they doing. We can see here the Skeleton Warriors charging the Great Eagle, that flees. You can use the properties sidebar to check the proper option.

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Last edited by Benigno on 18 May 2013, 18:34, edited 1 time in total.
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Yuri
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Re: Battle Chronicler Tutorial

Post by Yuri »

Awesome mr. Benigno! That's all what I can say. :thumbsup:
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Re: Battle Chronicler Tutorial

Post by thedevilchild »

I'll go ahead & second that! :D This tutorial is great!
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Re: Battle Chronicler Tutorial

Post by Moose123 »

Yes now my battle reports can look cool.
But here, cleverly disguised as a bomb, is a bomb.
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Re: Battle Chronicler Tutorial

Post by Benigno »

Added 'Creating a new game' and import/define the rosters in the game.
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Re: Battle Chronicler Tutorial

Post by Baardah »

One question. How do you send a game to someone? Email the .xml file?

I found that this program works like a charm together with army builder. Create an army in AB, save it as an XML file and import it to BC

The army template is created in an instant. I found you have to check the base sizes, since I think all units goes on 20 square by default. Skirmishes must be edited as well so they get the correct footprint.

It seems like a program that can be used to actually play the game online!

Great job with the tutorial Benigno.
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That item would be in every list.

That item is a horse...
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Re: Battle Chronicler Tutorial

Post by Benigno »

We usually just attach the files in the threads, a single file for each turn is enough, and a screenshot after movements and another after magic, so your opponent can see the units position on each phase.

I've played a couple of games with BC here, you can take a look to the threads :)
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Re: Battle Chronicler Tutorial

Post by Beithir Seun »

Thank you for this Benigno. I've wanted to take you up on your offers for a BC game on this site for a while, but having no experience of Battle Chronicler I chickened out. With a tutorial, I might make the attempt and give you a game some time...


Let me know when you've finished the tutorial and I'll get it stickied :)
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Re: Battle Chronicler Tutorial

Post by Shandrakor »

Benigno wrote:We usually just attach the files in the threads, a single file for each turn is enough, and a screenshot after movements and another after magic, so your opponent can see the units position on each phase.

I've played a couple of games with BC here, you can take a look to the threads :)
This all makes sense and all and I don't think it'd be a problem for me to setup a game with Battle Chronicler, but how do you determine distances on how to move the units and how far they are from opponent's units on the board?

Also, I assume games have to be open listed and where do you get a dice roll log that other people can see and can't be edited after the fact?

As for Beithir's comments... not knowing what to do and no tutorial is another reason I didn't invest the time in bothering with online Warhammer. (Although I have used Battle Chronicler before, self taught.) Maybe with a full scale tutorial it might be easier to get into, so thumbs up for the nice job you're doing with it Benigno! :thumbsup:

Something you might consider adding after you've finished up is a section for people who have used battle chronicler and a section for an online play tutorial that's used in conjunction with Battle Chronicler. I think, while Unicorn's guide is nice and all, it's a bit dated for what people are using now-a-days.
Last edited by Shandrakor on 11 May 2012, 09:20, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Battle Chronicler Tutorial

Post by Benigno »

Shandrakor wrote:This all makes sense and all and I don't think it'd be a problem for me to setup a game with Battle Chronicler, but how do you determine distances on how to move the units and how far they are from opponent's units on the board?
The application has a default meassurement system, and also has rulers of different sizes for exact meassurement, I'll show it in the tutorial.
Also, I assume games have to be open listed and where do you get a dice roll log that other people can see and can't be edited after the fact?
You can make a roster without showing the magic items, if you are honest enough you can trust your opponent that the list will not be changed during battle. I bet that you don't look at your opponents list after the game is done when you are playing friends.

And for the dice, you can use dicelogs as http://dicelog.com it is a great page where you can throw dice and let a log about it, where you can also chat with your opponent if both of you are online at the same time.
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Re: Battle Chronicler Tutorial

Post by Benigno »

Terrain phase updated!

Please, if you have any question, or suggestions to improve the tutorial, just tell me :)
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Re: Battle Chronicler Tutorial

Post by Baardah »

Where did you get all those terrain templates? I only have a very limited selection....anywhere to download?

I really wanna try this out for a game someday. Seems waaay easier than drawing up everything in paint or gimp.

Too bad there is not a MAC OSX version....
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Drstrangelove wrote:Imagine a magic item. For 20 points you get +4M, Vanguard, extra +1 to your armour save, unlimited free reforms, and an extra S3 attack at I4.
That item would be in every list.

That item is a horse...
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Re: Battle Chronicler Tutorial

Post by Benigno »

In the download site (first tutorial post for link) there is a Official Component Collection, that you can download and install. That will add a lot of stuff on the terrain menu :)
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Re: Battle Chronicler Tutorial

Post by Baardah »

Thanks.
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Drstrangelove wrote:Imagine a magic item. For 20 points you get +4M, Vanguard, extra +1 to your armour save, unlimited free reforms, and an extra S3 attack at I4.
That item would be in every list.

That item is a horse...
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Re: Battle Chronicler Tutorial

Post by XViper »

Just thinking out loud here, but could you in theory utilise hamachi with some sort of VNC(or similar remote control software) connection to play this real-time on a single PC?
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Re: Battle Chronicler Tutorial

Post by Benigno »

Deployment, and moving done. I think it is finished, but if you think that I can add something, just tell me and I will add it.
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