Battle Chronicler

Battle Chronicler aims to make it quick and easy to produce great looking battle reports that other gamers will want to read. Using the latest developments in Windows technology Battle Chronicler delivers fantastic graphics and a ultra modern user interface.

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Maybe you might have heard of this program or even have it already installed. Primarily I'm planning to use this program for communicating the players deployment, movements and for logging purposes. Furthermore, it gives the players a better overview of the situation and estimation of the distances involved. It's a bit of an experiment, so I'm not sure yet if we'll stick with it.

For starters, I suggest to download the program at http://www.battlechronicler.com/ and try it out to get familiar with it.

I've imported all of the scenery and army lists into the program and setup the game we're going to play. You need to download my component pack and game file in order to make use of it. Download the pack here at http://db.tt/P3C4cL3q and extract the contents of the archive into the "Battle Chronicler" directory under your "My Documents" directory.

NOTE: Make sure there're no instances of BC running when extracting and you must have started BC at least once in order for the "Battle Chronicler" directory to exist.

Once you've extracted the component pack into the "Battle Chronicler" directory, download the game file "2012WFB3Chai.xml" here at https://www.dropbox.com/s/d2s9xw18j0oktsn/2012WFB3Chai.xml and place it in the "\My Documents\Battle Chronicler\games\" directory. Start BC and open the game file "2012WFB3Chai.xml" by selecting "File" -> "Open" from the menu.

The first time you open the game file it will begin in "Deployment" mode. Deployement mode allows you to select units from the left side pane onto the battlefield. Each player will use this mode to deploy his troops onto the battlefield. You can position and move units, change rank & files and attach units with others. We're currently still working on the deployment rules. As soon as they're finished you'll receive instructions on the deployment zones and restrictions.

For the time being we'll do an exercise to see if we're all on the same page. Deploy your units as if it was real, orc north, dwarf south. Once you're happy with your deployment save the game by selecting "File" -> "Save" from the menu. Locate the game file at "My Documents\Battle Chronicler\games\2012WFB3CHai.xml" and email it to me.

I'll process your game file changes into my own game file. Don't worry about messing things up. Your game files will only be used to process your phase actions. I'll combine them and send mine each time we finished processing a turn.

Remember, this is just practice, we'll repeat the process once the deployment rules are finished.

Done

Looks good that battle chronicler - should be pretty handy

Perfect, you get an A+, well done sir, you passed the test!

If you zoom in on the "SCC" or "MMC" crews, you'll notice that they are scattered and you can arrange the individual members 2" apart from each other. This allows you to place the unit members around the war machines. You can zoom in by using your mouse wheel of by using the right-top slider.

Did you know you can change the "Files" and "Models" of the unit? Just select an unit and change the numbers in de "Properties" dialog at the left side pane. The same dialog also allows you to attach an unit to another and has various other options to play with.

Sometimes you can screw up the organisation of a unit. It's a bug in the program. You can easily fix this by changing the number of models to 0 and back to the original number.

The scale of the program is quite accurate and it will give you a good idea what's going on. I won't solely be using BC, but also real pictures. Yesterday, I ordered some studio lights, this should fix my lighting problem, this allows me to take pictures any time of the day!

Right, just a couple of more things to do and we're off...

Yeah I'd changed the frontage of the crewmen but hadn't realised about the zooming in thing - very useful.

Out of interest, how much do studio lights set you back if you don't mind me asking - the dog knocked off one of my desk lamps last night so until I get some more bulbs I'm down to my only my daylight lamp!

How long did you guys put for the subscription to battle chronicler? Are we going to need it for more then a month?

@airborne, I'm not sure if I'm following you, what subscription do you exactly mean? As far as I know BC is free to use and doesn't need any subscriptions.

@Thantsants, this is what I've ordered: https://www.koopgoedkoop.nl/studio-lampenset-incl-paraplu-s-en-lampenkappen. Nothing fancy, basically just a light on a stick.

On a different matter. For future reference to units and characters, I'll be using the unit abbreviations as used in BC. Maybe, it's a good idea to write these abbreviations down on a print-out of the army list.

Ah, I'm an idiot. I accidentally clicked on an advertisement. Sorry.

So, now you got a month supply worth of Viagra or something??

No I didn't sign up. I some how got here and was very confused. http://www.vgamenetwork.com/signup?...ronicler.com&gclid=CPyZh4vkmrMCFehDMgod4hYAsw I just wasn't paying attention to were I was. Drew some red flags so that's why I asked.

I now have all the right files downloaded, and have it opened to the battle. I will mess around with the deployment when I get home tonight. Sorry if I have kept you a little behind schedule. However this is going to be really fun.

Don't worry, I'm still waiting for Gaj to answer... Good to hear you go it all setup and working. Let me know when you need anything.

Received the studio lights today and naturally I immediately tried them out.

Behold the table setup:

Ah, the quiet befroe the clamour of battle

Great looking setup - those bridges have come out nice!

Very nice. The terrain is gorgeous.

Players,

The Gaming Set-up has been published. This means we can start deploying the units. We'll deploy the units using BC, as I explained in previous posts. You'll need to update the game file. Download the latest version here at https://www.dropbox.com/s/d2s9xw18j0oktsn/2012WFB3Chai.xml. Place the game file in the "My Document\Battle Chronicler\games\" directory and overwrite the previous version.

Once you've opened the game file with BC, you'll notice some units are already deployed. These are predetermined by the scenario and although you can move them around, one should leave these units where they are.

The picture below shows the deployment zones. The zones are not visible within BC, so keep this picture alongside with it. E-mail the game file to me, once you're done deploying your units. I'll process and merge both deployments and send the modified game file back to you.

If you got any questions regarding the deployment, now is the time to ask them; otherwise, may you choose your deployment wisely..

Sounds good. I will start placing my units this weekend.

That throws up some interesting tactical choices!

I should have deployment sussed tomorrow...

Just a quick note on BC...

I won't be using the turn sequences and game options of the program. The controls of the program are too cumbersome to be of any use and the phases work differently when playing remotely. For now I'll stick with the positioning of units, which are all done in the deployment mode. Arrows and other graphical elements are all done in Snagit. Just so you know...

Yes, I thought BC might have a feature. But microsoft gallery lines will do.

Sounds good to me - does it by any chance have a feature for banging Orc heads together?

That would would be comical. When I played my first 3E here over the summer, dad's Orcs did the same things.

They spent the whole game squabbling, as my Chaos bore down on them.

The result was not pretty.....for him. Garth my champion giggled the whole time.