"Battle Chronicler" Topic

Has anyone else come across this utility? It's a map builder designed specifically for wargamers. It's free to download and even I found it simple to use. Are there other such utilities around and if so how do they compare?

Bdr.

battlechronicler.com

I'm have problems installing this program but it looks good

Having got it working here are some thoughts:

Im having trouble placing roads at anything other than <- ->

No help functions – ture they told me about this in the notes but it does not help me.

No hills in terrain selection.

No streams/rivers in terrain selection.

Looks a little too limited for me in this release.

You need to select the road and then use the alt key in conjunction with your mouse to rotate it. There are additional terrain components including rivers in the components section and I've found a few others on peoples blogs.

I've put a map of our latest game on the link below so you'll be able to see the hills that are available there.

I believe the next release will have NATO standard map symbols and more components.

Bdr.

garagegamer.blogspot.com

Installing your own images as terrain, counters or symbols for units isn't too difficult. Simply run the program, go into the Edit menu, then components, then click on "new". The key bits to get right are the fill type, – choose image, its dimensions and opacity and follow that with the computer file address of your image, that is given just above the bottom list of options. I've installed maps as terrain pieces under the pre-set category "Background" and I've used a variety of programs/sources of my battle maps. The issue at hand is that Battle Chronicler tries to simulate the exact terrain, therefore falls down on the fact that the world is full of the stuff, so people need to add their own.

Importing an army works in a less straight forward fashion, i discovered how to do it in June last year, and nearly wrote an instruction document for my learned techniques, but have since forgotten and not completed. I've just duplicated an order of battle for the first time since June (within hours of picking up Battle Chronicler again for some work). It seems that you have to create a dummy scenario, do some jiggery pokery with the existing army template to make it think it is looking at the same template but it is a duplicate with a different name. Quite how that works with importing a file that orignated from a different computer, I need to try, as so far my duplications allow me to copy different sections of a large order of battle made previously, or change its strengths as an option between "maximum theoretical strength, and historically recorded strenghs.

Great idea thanks

Is there a Mac version of this utility? Last time I checked it was only for PCs.