Attached OOBs - they are useful when you want to modify a standard (or made by yourself) oob but you want to work on a separate project rather than on new one. An attached oob is located in the DATA directory waiting to be used. It is "attached" to a certain target file and described in the E section. When you create new oob you can do this using the second option from the File >> New menu. This will list you a window (shown before) with a list of possible choices. But how to attach an oob file witout editing the target files? Assuming you have a loaded oob (because then the program will know to what target file add the new attached oob):
Open Options menu and use Attach OOB command.
What you will see will be an "Attach OOB" dialog box :
You have several options possible now - you may change name of an already attached oob (double click the name on the list, edit it in the Name text box and press "Update"), delete such oob (double click the name on the list and press "Delete" - note that the oob file will not be removed from the DATA directory - this is for your safety) or add a new one (press the browse button - the one with three dots - select an existing oob file - using an "Open File" dialog - edit it's name and press "Update" - it will be added to the list).
Press "Return" to go back to the editor main window.
Templates - they are useful in automatic (quick) creation of armies. For example you have created a standard French division of the Napoleonic wars from the 1815 campagin. It had two brigades of infantry and one of artillery, one divisional commander, two brigade commanders. First brigade with light infantry regiment & line infantry regiment (both with three battalions). Second brigade with two line infantry regiments. Artillery brigade with one battery of eight 9pd cannons. You have set also the strenght of units, pictures and icons. Now you want to make a second division. You have two ways - first is to copy & pase this one. Fine, but if you would like to have a possibility to add such a formation in many other oobs, created for that game (for example Prelude To Waterloo)? It's impossible to copy the formation from one file to another, except using a text editor. But you have a second option: make this unit a template. All you have to do is to save it as a template. Then in any other oob file for that target platform you will have the possibility to add the ready template. This is how you do it:
Select the division you have created.
Open Edit menu and use Save as template command.
What you will see will be a "Save new template" dialog box :
Put the name similar to the one you see - it helps much if you give good descriptions. Select the country - this helps when adding templates. What you see in the cost box it the full cost of the whole structure including units. To read more about points system go to >>Chapter 16<<.
Press "Accept" - you have just saved a template.
The second aspect of templates is how to add them after they were saved. We will do this using the same file, but you could do it on another oob file that uses the same target platform. Follow this procedure to add a template:
Move to the item you want to add new template after or under. In this example we will add the division after the first one.
Open Edit menu and select Add next >> Template command. You will see a template selection dialog :
You can use "Country" and "Type" lists to filter the template you wish. There are options "All" on both lists, so you can see all templates without filtering. Select the "Standard Infantry Division [1815]" and press "Accept".
Congratulations! You have just added a template.
Anything can be a template: single units, leaders and structures. As you have noticed you can see the cost of the items in the box, so using points system you can see how expensive is it. There is a similar (nearly) option to "Save as template" - it is "Save to file". This option saves a single item (with child items) to a text file. This may be helpful for some designers. Items saved to file can not be used as templates.
Getting data - you can use this command (from the Options menu) to retrieve the current unit strength data from the scenario files and saved games. This is very nice feature in a campagin game or when you just want to make a force report for the scenario. Imagine that (using NIR example) not all of the units are on the field. In NIR there is no one Young Guard division present with other units (another example - Russian Ist Corps). You want to start a multiplayer game and divide the forces. Looking through the OOB is not a good idea, because there are units listed, which are not in the scenario. So you have to manually check in the editor wich units are listed. Now you can do it automatically using the Get data command.
I assume that you have loaded the original Napoleon In Russia oob file. What you have to do now is to retrieve data from the given scenario file. Let's take the bd_b.scn file (famous "Kutuzov Turns To Fight"). Follow the commands:
Open Options menu, then Get data command. You will see a dialog box like the one below :
Browse the data file (in this case Bd_b.scn file).
Set all options like above (I will explain them later).
Press "Accept" button. Congratulations! You have sucesfully retrieved data from the scenario file.
To be sure that this option works check the following values: original strength of armies and the strength after using the Get data command. As you can see there is a big difference (Russians have 102 cannons less than possible, French infantry drops down by some 24,000). Using this data you can now make a report and divide the forces easilly.
| Army | Infantry | Cavalry | Artillery |
|---|---|---|---|
| French (before) | 106,850 | 30,650 | 616 |
| Russian (before) | 93,975 | 29,000 | 718 |
| French (after) | 82,550 | 27,950 | 578 |
| Russian (after) | 81,875 | 25,850 | 616 |
Remember that when you work on the original file, then be careful with saving the modified file. You may lost important data. This is why you can set the third option from "This OOB file" to "Other OOB file". In this case you will have to assign a file using the Data file browse button. The program will not load the new file automatically - you will have to create a new workspace for this.
Other options deal with problems with units not listed in the scenario file (Not exisiting entries). Program want to know what should it do with such units/leader. There are three ways: "Remove", "Set strength to 0" (it leaves leaders unchanged), "Skip". Each are easilly understood. First one is good while making scenario strength reports while the last two in running campagins (you don't want to delete units not present on the battlefield).
The second option (Empty structures) allows you to "Remove" or "Skip" such structures that contain no entries (if they were removed). Sometimes it may be helpful to leave empty structures as it does not modify the "key" of other items (this information is rather for advanced designers).
If you have finished this chapter you should be prepared to work with the editor successfully. All you need now is just an explanation of each command, without exercises.