08 Jan 2014
Thought I would copy this from the Tomb Kings website guys, hopefully someone will find it useful.
Hey Guys
Ive been meaning to do this for a while as often people ask how do I create the maps in my battle reports and even though initially it does take a bit of work, like anything the more you practice the better you get at it and it takes less and less time to do it. Currently it takes me around 20-30 minutes to create a battle report.
The advantage of Battle Chronicler is it can take those wall of struggling text and when added with detailed maps can become a very entertaining battle report, it basically will increase the amount of times it is read and secondly can be a great reference material for army blogs and tactical articles. The measurements are accurate in the program and lastly its very easy to use and setup.
First things first, go and download the program as well as the components (terrain, rulers etc.)
Battle Chronicler
Components
Once installation is complete fire up the program to get started. (A word of note, Im actually lucky enough to steal my wifes netbook when I game which is ideal to jot down notes about the game being played as well as cover the movement in Battle Chronicler, I then go over this after the battle and add in graphics and casualties.)
The first thing to do is create a new game, this is done simply by selecting File in the top left hand corner and selecting New.
This will bring up the following dialogue box with a variety of options, these are pretty straight forward however there are a few points I will discuss in detail.
Firstly in the table sub heading there is an option to import terrain. This allows you to import terrain from a previously saved battle already on your system however keep in mind it doesnt allow you to re-orientate the terrain to other directions, you can move it however.
The other area that needs explaining is in the army creation. Also note you select what direction youre playing from and which army had first turn. (If youre using battle chronicler whilst playing these can simply be changed in Edit > Game Details so no need to panic.) After youve named your army and selected its colour you can add units to it under the Define button. If youve used Battle Chronicler previously youve also got the option to import a previously used army from a prior game.
Once again this is fairly straight forward, simply click the New button and enter in the details. Remember for different units to adjust the base sizes accordingly and unit formations (this can be altered in game as well as units reform/change formation). I dont enter the points value here but the more details you want then by all means go for it. You can also create templates here to save units that youll use frequently. Apparently there is a way to import your armies directly from ArmyBuilder but I haven't tried this so can't verify so please if you do find a way let me know and I'll update this post.
Once youve defined both armies its onto the next step of setting up the battlefield. Hit OK.
Terrain
In the drop down menus to the left there is a large selection of terrain that can be chosen for the game, the size can be changed in the lower left hand corner so if you want a dead accurate diagram then by all means measure up your pieces. Simply select the piece you want and then click anywhere on the battle field to deploy it. You can then adjust this position by holding shift and dragging it into place. Use the arrows close to the top of the screen to pivot and/or rotate the pieces. Click on the RH arrow once to take you to deployment.
Deployment
This step is very similar to deploying the terrain except were putting down our units. Youll notice the battlefield has grids on it, each of these is a 12 x 12 section so most of the time you can deploy right on the 12 line without putting too much thought into it and its an easy reference point. Once again the tools up the top can be used to fine tune your deployment. On units that dont deploy (ambushers, EBTS) simply leave them and you can select and add them into the game the turn they arrive. Click on the RH arrow once to take you to Turn 1. If youre deploying characters inside a unit firstly select the character and in the bottom right hand corner a number of options will appear. Tick the Attached box and in the drop down box select what unit theyre beginning with. (In game if you wish your character to leave the unit, first select the character and then un-tick the box.)
Turn 1 and Beyond
Now the easy part, onto the battle. Simply click and hold each unit for movement, holding shift to reduce the pivoting and turning, youll notice as soon as you select a unit that whatever you move it a figure in inches will appear on the bottom of the screen so you can really get an accurate portrait of the game being played.
Once you select a unit a number of options will appear in the bottom right hand corner, you can tick boxes to indicate a unit is charging or fleeing, reduce the amount of models in the unit and change the ranks of the unit. Also a handy tip is you can hide the move arrow which is required if the unit comes on from ambushing.
When action takes place in the game you can select the special/markers and add to the map whatever youre after, so a bullseye for example on a unit with a hex on it, or skulls for a unit taking casualties.
Ensure you make all the turn adjustments on the map before writing your report. Sometimes if you write all the turns action in the report section then make changes to the map it resets the text which gets frustrating.
Points to note:
Be careful when shifting from your turn to the next as it does lock the previous turn. This however can be unlocked but note everything will be reflected as it was so for instance if youve forgotten to reposition something in Turn 2 and youve just finished Turn 5 youll have to manually reset some units and hide move arrows to ensure everything looks correct so to ensure you never have to do this take the extra 30 seconds to look over your notes and ensure everything has moved, casualties applied and markers have been added to the map.
Found this on the website:
When you change to the next turn Battle Chronicler makes a copy of the previous turn, so each one builds on the previous one. However it won't do this if you have already 'opened' the next turn. The problem comes is if you initially move through all the turns then it will make copies of a blank turn. If you then go back and do things in an earlier turn then these will not be copied into the future turns. Thats why Battle Chronicler puts up a warning dialog if you change turns without moving anything.
If this happens you can "Game->Reset Current Turn" or "Game->Reset Current Turn And Later Turn" options to set the current turn to the same as the previous turn.
Exporting the images
Before you can export the image youll want to save your battle. Next ensure youre signed up with a host that you can link your images to like www.photobucket.com or www.imageshack.com is another that comes to mind.
Once the game is complete beginning with deployment and working through to the last turn simply go into File and then Export to Image File. Select what size you wish to export the image in and then select Export Complete Image. Id also recommend exporting it to a single folder rather than the default directory otherwise it creates a new folder for each image and becomes time consuming to upload them all.
After all of your images are exported and uploaded to a server, simply use the image tags to insert the images into your battle reports.
Update
17/4/13
Just thought I would take this opportunity to update this post. I never realised however that the entire report can be written in Battle Chronicler from start to finish and then exported completely to a text file making it so simple to upload/edit/insert tags for images.
Its very simple, during the turns simply type down the action under the 'report' tab which can be seen in any of the images above. When you're happy that all of the information for the game has been captured then under file select export to text file. From here you can select image sizes, I de-select the thumbnail option and I also only tick the box for the 'report' data.
There you have it.
This has severely cut down my reporting time and I can knock them out in around an hour now including uploading to a site so it's well worth it to give this way a go and if you already were then you're clever.
I hope this tutorial has been of some help to people and please feel free to ask any questions and I will do my very best to answer.
Mods this could possibly be a good topic to sticky.
Hey Guys
Ive been meaning to do this for a while as often people ask how do I create the maps in my battle reports and even though initially it does take a bit of work, like anything the more you practice the better you get at it and it takes less and less time to do it. Currently it takes me around 20-30 minutes to create a battle report.
The advantage of Battle Chronicler is it can take those wall of struggling text and when added with detailed maps can become a very entertaining battle report, it basically will increase the amount of times it is read and secondly can be a great reference material for army blogs and tactical articles. The measurements are accurate in the program and lastly its very easy to use and setup.
First things first, go and download the program as well as the components (terrain, rulers etc.)
Battle Chronicler
Components
Once installation is complete fire up the program to get started. (A word of note, Im actually lucky enough to steal my wifes netbook when I game which is ideal to jot down notes about the game being played as well as cover the movement in Battle Chronicler, I then go over this after the battle and add in graphics and casualties.)
The first thing to do is create a new game, this is done simply by selecting File in the top left hand corner and selecting New.
This will bring up the following dialogue box with a variety of options, these are pretty straight forward however there are a few points I will discuss in detail.
Firstly in the table sub heading there is an option to import terrain. This allows you to import terrain from a previously saved battle already on your system however keep in mind it doesnt allow you to re-orientate the terrain to other directions, you can move it however.
The other area that needs explaining is in the army creation. Also note you select what direction youre playing from and which army had first turn. (If youre using battle chronicler whilst playing these can simply be changed in Edit > Game Details so no need to panic.) After youve named your army and selected its colour you can add units to it under the Define button. If youve used Battle Chronicler previously youve also got the option to import a previously used army from a prior game.
Once again this is fairly straight forward, simply click the New button and enter in the details. Remember for different units to adjust the base sizes accordingly and unit formations (this can be altered in game as well as units reform/change formation). I dont enter the points value here but the more details you want then by all means go for it. You can also create templates here to save units that youll use frequently. Apparently there is a way to import your armies directly from ArmyBuilder but I haven't tried this so can't verify so please if you do find a way let me know and I'll update this post.
Once youve defined both armies its onto the next step of setting up the battlefield. Hit OK.
Terrain
In the drop down menus to the left there is a large selection of terrain that can be chosen for the game, the size can be changed in the lower left hand corner so if you want a dead accurate diagram then by all means measure up your pieces. Simply select the piece you want and then click anywhere on the battle field to deploy it. You can then adjust this position by holding shift and dragging it into place. Use the arrows close to the top of the screen to pivot and/or rotate the pieces. Click on the RH arrow once to take you to deployment.
Deployment
This step is very similar to deploying the terrain except were putting down our units. Youll notice the battlefield has grids on it, each of these is a 12 x 12 section so most of the time you can deploy right on the 12 line without putting too much thought into it and its an easy reference point. Once again the tools up the top can be used to fine tune your deployment. On units that dont deploy (ambushers, EBTS) simply leave them and you can select and add them into the game the turn they arrive. Click on the RH arrow once to take you to Turn 1. If youre deploying characters inside a unit firstly select the character and in the bottom right hand corner a number of options will appear. Tick the Attached box and in the drop down box select what unit theyre beginning with. (In game if you wish your character to leave the unit, first select the character and then un-tick the box.)
Turn 1 and Beyond
Now the easy part, onto the battle. Simply click and hold each unit for movement, holding shift to reduce the pivoting and turning, youll notice as soon as you select a unit that whatever you move it a figure in inches will appear on the bottom of the screen so you can really get an accurate portrait of the game being played.
Once you select a unit a number of options will appear in the bottom right hand corner, you can tick boxes to indicate a unit is charging or fleeing, reduce the amount of models in the unit and change the ranks of the unit. Also a handy tip is you can hide the move arrow which is required if the unit comes on from ambushing.
When action takes place in the game you can select the special/markers and add to the map whatever youre after, so a bullseye for example on a unit with a hex on it, or skulls for a unit taking casualties.
Ensure you make all the turn adjustments on the map before writing your report. Sometimes if you write all the turns action in the report section then make changes to the map it resets the text which gets frustrating.
Points to note:
Be careful when shifting from your turn to the next as it does lock the previous turn. This however can be unlocked but note everything will be reflected as it was so for instance if youve forgotten to reposition something in Turn 2 and youve just finished Turn 5 youll have to manually reset some units and hide move arrows to ensure everything looks correct so to ensure you never have to do this take the extra 30 seconds to look over your notes and ensure everything has moved, casualties applied and markers have been added to the map.
Found this on the website:
When you change to the next turn Battle Chronicler makes a copy of the previous turn, so each one builds on the previous one. However it won't do this if you have already 'opened' the next turn. The problem comes is if you initially move through all the turns then it will make copies of a blank turn. If you then go back and do things in an earlier turn then these will not be copied into the future turns. Thats why Battle Chronicler puts up a warning dialog if you change turns without moving anything.
If this happens you can "Game->Reset Current Turn" or "Game->Reset Current Turn And Later Turn" options to set the current turn to the same as the previous turn.
Exporting the images
Before you can export the image youll want to save your battle. Next ensure youre signed up with a host that you can link your images to like www.photobucket.com or www.imageshack.com is another that comes to mind.
Once the game is complete beginning with deployment and working through to the last turn simply go into File and then Export to Image File. Select what size you wish to export the image in and then select Export Complete Image. Id also recommend exporting it to a single folder rather than the default directory otherwise it creates a new folder for each image and becomes time consuming to upload them all.
After all of your images are exported and uploaded to a server, simply use the image tags to insert the images into your battle reports.
Update
17/4/13
Just thought I would take this opportunity to update this post. I never realised however that the entire report can be written in Battle Chronicler from start to finish and then exported completely to a text file making it so simple to upload/edit/insert tags for images.
Its very simple, during the turns simply type down the action under the 'report' tab which can be seen in any of the images above. When you're happy that all of the information for the game has been captured then under file select export to text file. From here you can select image sizes, I de-select the thumbnail option and I also only tick the box for the 'report' data.
There you have it.
This has severely cut down my reporting time and I can knock them out in around an hour now including uploading to a site so it's well worth it to give this way a go and if you already were then you're clever.
I hope this tutorial has been of some help to people and please feel free to ask any questions and I will do my very best to answer.
Mods this could possibly be a good topic to sticky.
"Nec sorte nec fato"
Ogre Battles!
Tactica: Sabretusks
Tactica: Gnoblars
Ogre Battles!
Tactica: Sabretusks
Tactica: Gnoblars
