TOAW IV EDITOR INTERFACE

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Switch to the Escarpment tile (note that escarpments are hex side tiles – click on the side of the hex you want them to be on):

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To place an exclusion zone, right-click in the desired hex:



A menu pops up. Select “Set exclusion zone 1”. (Repeat this to remove the zone). Note that there are a number of other options only available via this popup (Set a distance, Set entrenchment, Destroy/Repair Bridges).

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Now switch the Draw Mode to the “A”:

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Now we can create the Place Names:

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Note that there are several options other than standard place names:

There are three alternate place name fonts, with double font size, blue font color, and half font size. And there are a suite of 10 place name bitmaps available. They are accessed via codes placed in front of the place name text:




The “#” symbol appending the text invokes one of the alternate place name fonts. The 1 specifies that it is the first alternate (larger font size).

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The 2 specifies the second alternate (blue font color):

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The 3 specifies the third alternate (smaller font size):

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The “<” symbol appending the text invokes one of the Place Name Bitmaps. The 8 is the Red Star. Note that there was no text required. You can also place more than one bitmap per location – just add more codes. They are generally arranged toward the various sides of the hex, to facilitate this:



And the map is finished! (Note that this is my “Shiloh 1862” map).

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The next step is to create the two forces. But, like the map, you can’t just plunge into creating the forces until you have sources for them. That requires research. For example, the sources for this scenario were:

"The Battle of Shiloh", West End Games, by Richard Berg with Jon Southard, 1984.

"Bloody April", SPI, Richard Berg, Redmond Simonsen, Thomas Walczyk, 1979.

http://custermen.com/DixieBoys/AOMShiloh.htm#FirstCorps
Organization of the Confederate Army of Mississippi

Army of the Tennessee OOB - Battle of Shiloh - Brett Schulte

Army of the Ohio OOB - Battle of Shiloh - brettschulte.net

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Shiloh

Note that two board wargames were referenced, as were four web sites/documents. That’s sort of typical for a small scenario.

Armed with this force information, the forces are created with the Force Editor:




This is the legacy force editor that was included in all previous TOAW versions. (New to TOAW IV is the limit on units per side that has been increased from 2,000 to 10,000 and the limit on formations per side from 400 to 1,000). A new force editor is partially completed, but will need more work before the legacy one can be abandoned. I’ll cover the new stuff later. For now, the force is best generated via the legacy editor. But, first, this scenario needs some custom equipment. That is achieved via the new in-game Equipment Editor. That is accessed only from the “Available Systems” pane of the Force Editor. Note that that is where we are at.

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Right-click on any equipment item in the right-side pane:



The Equipment Dialog is invoked. But note the button on the bottom right: “Edit Equipment”. This button is only present if the dialog is invoked via the “Available Systems” pane of the Force Editor.

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Click on it:



The new Equipment Editor is invoked, with the equipment that was in the Equipment Dialog loaded into the Editor.

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But we want to put the new equipment at the end of the equipment list where there are plenty of spare equipment slots. Change the “Equipment Number” to 1927:



Note that we are now at the beginning of the “Spare Equipment” section. I’ve edited the equipment to be an “Artillery Crew”. The buttons and check boxes should be mostly self-explanatory, except for the first two on the left side: “Silhouette” and “3D Image”.

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Click on the Silhouette button:



The Silhouette selection dialog appears. Click on the second from last icon.

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Next, click on the 3D Image button. Expect a short delay of several seconds before the dialog appears:



The delay is because all the 3D Images must be loaded when the dialog is called, and that takes a few seconds. You can browse the images via the left and right buttons, or by entering a number in the right button. Once you have the image you want, click the exit button to select it.

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Once the equipment is complete, the button on the far left must be clicked to save the edit to the equipment list. Forget that step and the edit is lost. But even that step doesn’t save anything to disk. That will come later.

Note that there are also buttons to copy and paste equipment as desired. (And I used this extensively in creating the new equipment: Squad equipment was copied to use as the starting point for new squad stuff. Artillery equipment was copied to use as the start of new artillery stuff, etc.). There are buttons to load the previous or next equipment items. But for full access to the equipment list it may be necessary to exit the Equipment Editor and maneuver around the list via the Force Editor.

After creating all the edits desired, you will have a long list of new equipment:

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However, note that this is still just saved to memory. You need to save the edit to disk. That is done outside the Force Editor:

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From the “File” pull-down, select “Save Equipment (XML) As…”:



The Save Equipment dialog is invoked. You can change the destination folder at the top. Once saved, you’ll want to load it into the scenario-specific folder. Re-invoke the Scenario Editor and load the scenario. You will get a “Wrong Equipment File” message. Save the scenario, and the new equipment file will finally be in effect.

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But we’re still not ready to make the forces. We also have a counter color edit to do, first.

I already have a thread on how to do a color edit here:

tm.asp?m=4385511&mpage=1&key=&#65533;

Note that this thread actually describes the CSA/USA color edit that I use in various Civil War scenarios, so it tells exactly how to make the color mod.

Now we can finally build the forces. Back to the Force Editor:




You should already know how to add equipment to units via the manual. This shot shows five equipment items added to a new artillery unit. Here, the “Assigned” is the same as the “Authorized”. But if you need to change that, left-clicking on any equipment item in the left pane will allow the assigned value to be revised. Be aware that setting the assigned to zero will not remove the item from the unit (because zero assigned is a common condition that has to be supported). This is a common misconception of new TOAW designers. That removal has to be done on the Available Systems pane – set the authorized to zero and then the item is removed from the unit.

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The unit name is set by the Unit Name button at the top. The Unit Size is set by the left button on the left of the strength values:



Notice that TOAW IV has three new Unit Sizes: Army Group, Theater, and Supreme Commander.

The Unit Color set is selected by the button to the right of the Unit Size button – just as under TOAW III. Finally, the Unit Icon is set by the button on the right of the strength values, again just as under TOAW III.

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The Unit Proficiency, Supply level, and Readiness level is set by the Supply button on the bottom row:



Note that, new to TOAW IV, there is a “Range” button – you can set the Range to less than nominal if you want.

Once these values have been set, the copy button is the best way to make additional units – you won’t have to re-set those values that way (unless they change).