Posts made by TMTM

I just complete a module for BOTB for ABattlemap. Please try it out and let me know what you think… if you have any idea’s for improvement etc let know.

Download the BOTB module at http://axisandallies.us/bob/

After long study and some help of others I have made a functional map that works completely with ABattlemap… and I have made a tutorial as how to do so for anyone who is interested:

This is a tutorial I made just today… I will be tweaking it in the days ahead… I believe I have

covered the process quite well for those who catch on easy… I will in the future make a tutorial

with step by step instructions.

Make a new folder in your Abattlemap folder. You can name it between 1-3 letters.
Example: A.gim, AB.gim or ABC.gim
Be sure not to name it the same as an existing folder. You can also look at the other folders in the

Abattlemap folder as example. In the Abattlemap folder select and copy 2 files: csek.exe and

b242map.exe and paste them in the new folder you just made… we will use these in this tutorial.

Also Pact of Steel makes a great example… you can download it at www.flames-of-europe.de or

ask me to email you a exercise map I made while learning myself.

Now you need to make all the following 9 files: I will explain each as we go!
Map.bmp
ToolPieces.bmp
ToolPieces.txt
MapInfo.txt
SektorInfo.bmp
SektorInfo.map
SektorInfo.txt
SektorInfo.sek
Start.aam

• Map.bmp
  To make this file I used “Paint” which is provided with Windows. I used the Map.bmp from one of

the existing folders “AAR.gim” and copied and pasted it to my new folder “ABC.gim”. The file is

1500 x 873. I open it with Paint and just erase everything… then draw your map. Make the border

lines same thinkness as other maps and fill in the colors of each area.

• ToolPieces.bmp
  Take and copy this file from one of the existing games… not much I say other then to toy around

with it in Paint until it suits your liking. You can also make BigPeices.bmp from one of the games

that already support it.

• ToolPieces.txt
  Take and copy this file from one of the existing games… and I believe you can figure out how it

works by examining how it relates to the game you are taking it from.

• MapInfo.txt
  Copy this file from of the existing games and edit it how you like… should be easy to figure out

how to stucture.

• SektorInfo.bmp
  This file is made from the Map.bmp. Each area of the map will get a different color. I just followed

the example of Pact of Steel’s SektorInfo.bmp. I first started by changing my color to:
Hue: 0
Sat: 240
Lum: 110
Red: 234
Green: 0
Blue: 0

This color will be a shade of red.

I start by making a complete border line on the out edge of the image. Then with the same color I

trace over all the black border lines of the map I’ve made.

Next you will give each area a different color… I just followed how Pact of Steel was made and

works fine.

You will color land first and water second… from top to bottom and left to right. Once you have

colored all the land then start with the water with the next color sequence in line.

Example:

Land area 1 = color it: Hue: 160,Sat: 240, Lum: 0, Red: 0, Green: 0, Blue: 1
Land area 2 = color it: Hue: 160,Sat: 240, Lum: 1, Red: 0, Green: 0, Blue: 2
Land area 3 = color it: Hue: 160,Sat: 240, Lum: 1, Red: 0, Green: 0, Blue: 3
Land area 4 = color it: Hue: 160,Sat: 240, Lum: 2, Red: 0, Green: 0, Blue: 4

Lets say that your map only has 4 land and 4 water area’s for this example… if it had more you

would keep going like the pattern above… this example has 4 land area’s now its time to do the

water… you just color the first water area the next color sequence in line

Water area 5 = color it: Hue: 160,Sat: 240, Lum: 2, Red: 0, Green: 0, Blue: 5
Water area 6 = color it: Hue: 160,Sat: 240, Lum: 3, Red: 0, Green: 0, Blue: 6
Water area 7 = color it: Hue: 160,Sat: 240, Lum: 3, Red: 0, Green: 0, Blue: 7
Water area 8 = color it: Hue: 160,Sat: 240, Lum: 4, Red: 0, Green: 0, Blue: 8

Once you have completed the coloring… save as SektorInfo.bmp

-SektorInfo.map
This file is made from the SektorInfo.bmp file. Open the “Command Prompt” from the Start button >

Accessories is where you might find it. Once open… type the following command:
cd C:\Program Files\ABattleMap\ABC.gim
Then type the following command:
b242map SektorInfo.bmp SektorInfo.map
You will now have a file named: SektorInfo.map

• SektorInfo.txt
  You need this file to make SektorInfo.sek. Pact of Steel has a nice SektorInfo.txt file you can use to

make those one for this example. In that file you’ll only need 8 lines of code because the map in this

example has only 8 area’s… here is what the final text would look like for this example:

Eastern Canada (Eca)                    : 01030400 00000080 000000be 00000000 00000000 00000000

00000000 00000000 00000000
Eastern United States (Eus)            : 010c0600 00000035 00000138 00000000 00000000

00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
Panama (Pan)                            : 01010600 0000000d 000001a5 00000000 00000000 00000000

00000000 00000000 00000000
West Indies (Cub)                      : 01010600 00000075 000001a8 00000000 00000000 00000000

00000000 00000000 00000000
Hudson Bay Seazone (LAB/Z1)            : 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000

00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
Greanland Seazone (GRN/Z2)              : 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000

00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
North Atlanic Seazone (NAT/Z3)          : 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000

00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
Karelia S.S.R. Seazone (BAR/Z4)        : 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000

00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000

Also the code numbers need to be edited a bit… here is how the ABattlemap files explain it as

translated into english: note I will explain this better later but to save time I’m just pasting how

they explained it.

Here each country (= color index in SektorInfo.bmp) characteristics become assigned.
One does not edit this file directly, but one provides an additional text file
which one compiles with csek.exe.

The structure of your “SektorInfo.txt”:
Name of the area (string, always ends with ": “. e.g. " West Europe (WEu): " )
type ipc owner ‘00’
(as 8 digit Hex number. Type is 1 for land, otherwise 0 for water. e.g.: (for MOS) " 01080100”)

posx posy
(in each case as 8 digit Hex numbers.
Position where the IPC values that l put on the map to be indicated, best first time to set at 0)

‘00’ cvr cv oil (as 8 digit Hex number.
  cvr=Land Convoy route,
  cv=Field is Convoy,
  oil=Field is field)

‘0 0 0 0 0’ (vacant/unused fields)

You just edit and name the area’s what you want… for example “Eastern Canada (Eca)” change it

to what you like and then save the SektorInfo.txt

• SektorInfo.sek
  This file is made from the SektorInfo.txt file. Open the “Command Prompt” from the Start button >

Accessories is where you might find it. Once open… type the following:
cd C:\Program Files\ABattleMap\ABC.gim
*Note: you may have install your Abattlemap to a different directory… just put that directory in place

of the one in this example as well as folder name… you might have name it different then ABC.gim*
Then type the following in the Command Prompt:
csek SektorInfo.txt SektorInfo.sek
Then look in your ABC.gim folder and you will have a new file: SektorInfo.sek

-Start.aam
This file loads the map with all the starting units in the place you want them… when ever you want

to change the starting units of the game for preminant. Open Abattlemap and go to “New” and

select the game/map you just made… everything should be working and each area should have its

own name as you hover over it in the top bar. Now just place your starting units and go to File and

select Save As and name it Start and save it to your new folder ABC.gim etc. Close and reopen

ABattlemap and open your new game and its ready to go!

Hi Tekkyy,

I too would like to know how to use the rsek.exe and the csek.exe described in the Abattlemap help files… they don’t give much details even after translating it into english.

Does anyone know how to do this?

http://www.harrisgamedesign.com/bb2/viewtopic.php?t=1582&start=0

Russia might have less peice and IPC anbd make it seem easy to play as…. but if the question is which country is the easiest to play as and be successful… then Russia might be considered one of the hardest countries to be… I would not make a new player the Russians and expect to win. I would say America is the easiest country to be… all the other countries have already taken a turn… and you have had all that time and able to see how things unfold… your job shouldnt be that hard.

since owning Revised… I just don’t have the feel to play the old game… Revised is better.

no.

The fighter has a movement of 4. If you move the AC 2 spaces then you have also moved the fighter 2 space and the fighter only has 2 moves left.

I like moving US units thru Africa on to India or Caucasas.

For this to work the UK needs to remove the Baltic navy and Russia needs to be offensive for 2 rounds and the UK needs to move units into the Archangel area to back up russia for a bit.

can you move the AC 2 spaces then move the fighters off the AC 4 more spaces? No. They move 4 from the starting spot of your turn. So if they are on a AC and that AC’s moves 2 space… the fighter has moved 2 spaces as well.

Axis need a bid… about 8 to 12 to have a shot. Put a few units in Libya before setup and some extra ipc for japan to have in the bank.

Does anyone think that giving Japan one free IC at the beginning of the game would balance out the Allied advantage?

you could also put in monkeys! J/k :)

You could set them up in the neutral terr. and then get rid of the rule about these terr… so if you want to pass thru them you have to fight the guerrillas… axis or allie would have to fight them… you could either have a set amount of guerrillas to fight or they are set by rolling the dice upon enter this zone to find out how many forces you face and forced to fight them to the death… no matter if you get a bad roll or not or at least one round of combat or something…

UKcommander… your the kind of player or you play with the kind of people I play with but I’m easy going and never get mad… my friend yell and kick chairs over and sometimes tip the whole board of game peices just because one battle went bad… I like to be competitive and never give my friend a free move or go easy on them but I never rub it in or laugh… I try to help them learn from there bad moves or even correct them when they forget the no brainer moves. They will sit back and let me forget my important moves when I over look them… even though they are the best player… what does that prove?

What kind of player are you?

I’m a play that just enjoy’s playing… I don’t care if I win or lose. I just want to play my best game against a good player. If the other play gets good rolls or out plays me, that’s cool!

@Youngstown:

Even if the game got horrible reviews and everyone hated it I still would have gotten it. I couldn’t sleep at night knowing that there was an A&A game out there that I didn’t have! :o

True… it’s a must have! I love the game!

@MOTS:

I voted no !

Why ?

The game is not bad, I like it. BUT : it is way too expansive for what’s inside the box.

I’m certain this game is cool (even if I only played once) but I feel it will not be as cool as AARE. I also feel that the cost per fun hour is too high. It is almost as expansive as AARE but AARE provided me and my friends more than 60 hours of fun since I bought it. I know I will play AA D-Day a lot, but never as I used to play AARE with my friends…

Well it may seem that way… but really enjoyed this game… it’s a fast paced game with each side always taking turns doing something… it really keeps both players in game… instead of waiting forever for your friend to think and make his moves etc. I also think it was a game that put a lot of work into being made and developed… you can tell it has a lot of details put into… they didn’t cut any corners to hurry it’s release. The $40 I spent was notting for how fun and challaging it is!

@rustyblade1984:

I finally got to play this game last night. we went though 2 games to round 5 before we found out we forgot a few rules and started over. Ya would be suprised how mad people get when they think they can stack 20 german units in 1 spot, but you can really only have 8. Anyways, i highly recomend this game, its action packed and really does a good job of ballancing i think. I mean, 4 fighters hitting 1 times each for each untin goin though? amazing. btw, sorry for the guest post, i coulda sworn i was signed in.

The 8 unit rule was always being forgotten in the games I played today… and about the fighters… it does seem weird how many rolls they get but it’s need to balance the advantage the German’s have… and if you play with all the cards Tactical and Fortune… i’ve rolled 6’s and lost the use of some of my fighters for a turn… thats a real bitch… letting the German’s move without fear!

Fast Carriers can be good against the Japs… you can build them then move them to the coast of Japan… forceing the Japs to stay at home instead of moving around messing with the UK.