Zovs Board War Game counters/symbols mod (4 sets)

[Zovs]

Latest version update (currently version 1.5) at the bottom of this post.


Zovs Board Wargame Counter Colors and Unit Symbology Readme
-----------------------------------------------------------
by Don Lazov
-----------------------------------------------------------

------------------------
Version 1.1 (10/25/2021)
------------------------
Initial release.

So, I have been tweaking on the original WitE 2 counters and what I wanted to do was two things.

1) Recolor the counters (creating two sets for now) based on some board war games that I liked (within reason, some color schemes just don't work well with the current map colors, and I am not tweaking the map(s)).

2) Redo the NATO unit symbols and unit size symbols (there was some discrepancies with the originals, a few pixels off here or there) to be more like board war games. Name, I redrew the armor symbol and all derivatives of it (i.e. mechanized, armored-cavalry, assault gun, etc.), Parachute infantry, Airborne Infantry, Light/Jager Infantry, HQs now used a more traditional board wargame symbol, the only other one I am considering to modified for both sets is to use the more traditional Security symbol (instead of the symbol showing 'SEC' it would show an empty small rectangle), but for these versions I'll wait and see what feedback I do or don't get.

The results of my efforts will not be to everyone's liking and that is okay. The counter colors are sharper or consistent since they are just three uniformed colors with a black outline (except for the 9x9 counters). The three uniformed colors are a lighter and darker version more or less of the base color. For the unit symbols they are "sharper" in the sense that I removed all the color variations on them and made sure each symbol was black on a white background with not various shades of black or grey or white present.

The two-color schemes generally derived from two games are the "SPI" counter colors and the "Europa 'like'" counter colors. Essentially, I used the original WitE 2 colors but for the Germans, SS, and Russians I found a gray, black and brown and red color that I liked from web colors hues that seemed to show up well on the map and could also have their unit symbol colors modified within reason to look well. For the other Nationalities, I just used the base color from the 18x18 units and selected the most appropriate color that looked (cool to me). For the Europa colors, the Germans, mixed SS and Luftwaffe as well as the Italians, Hungarians and Romanians got a new background color that is close to the Europa color scheme. I could not really do this with the Rumanians because in Europa the Romanians are a dark blue with white unit symbols and numbers which only the SS and the Russians have, so I used a lighter but yet darker shade of blue for the Romanians.

The two zip files should be zipped into one folder and each folder when unzipped should create a subfolder which you can just drop in your 'C:\Matrix Games\Gary Grigsby's War in the East 2\Dat\Art\Units' folder.

I hope you enjoy and if not, that is okay they are not for everyone and not all may like or use them.

Any feedback is welcomed.
zovs66@gmail.com

Symbol Changes
Redid all symbols for simplicity. Major changes included:
Air Landing
Anti-Air
Anti-Tank
Armor
HQ's
Mechanized
Parachute (Airborne)
Self-Propelled Artillery

Recolored all unit colors and created two color sets. One based on the old SPI game's War in the East 2 and one based on the old GDW's games from the Europa series (Fire in the East/Scorched Earth).

Note that for both the SPI and Europa color schemes in reality I used web html hex colors that closely approximates those 1970's colors but is not an exact match, some are darker, and some are a light shade that works good for the Matrix's Games GG War in the East.

------------------------
Version 1.2 (11/02/2021)
------------------------
Symbol Changes
Fixed all MG's symbols.
Fixed all SEC symbols.
Fixed Air HQ and Air Base Units for 76x76

------------------------
Version 1.3 (11/09/2021)
------------------------
Added support for JSME (created the correct subfolders for JSME to use).

Symbol Changes:

Redid and corrected all Ski symbols.
Redid and corrected all Anti-Air symbols.
Redid and corrected all Naval Infantry symbols.
Redid and corrected all Naval symbols.
Redid all Naval, Amph and Air HQ symbols.

Note: for this release all HQ units will have a standard HQ flag (the filled in squared checker box), and for the Air, Amph and Naval HQ it will also include the text HQ in the symbol. This is still under review and I need feedback on if I should use the HQ in the symbol or remove it or revert back to the originals).

------------------------
Version 1.4 (12/04/2021)
------------------------
Fixed Soviet elite for zoom level 4 (36x36) in the SPI counter set.
For simplicity upped the version for both.


------------------------
Version 1.5 (12/09/2021)
------------------------

Added two new folders (*-dark-ss.v1.5) for a total of four counter sets to choose from (I suggest using GME to make things easier to swap out).

For both:

zovs-board-wargame-counter-unit-symbol-mod-spi-like-darker-ss.v1.5
zovs-board-wargame-counter-unit-symbol-mod-europalike-darker-ss.v1.5

I increased the SS black color as requested.

The original two counter sets just got a version bump to keep things simple

End of readme

Here is some screenshots.
P.S., I have rescaled all the screenshots, since I have a 4k monitor, the default screenshots are rather large when loaded up to Matrix. I can provide one of those if desired.

SPI counter colors (derived mostly from the original GG WitE 2 counter set with some personal interpretations of colors and unit symbols bias):

First comparison (STB)

Zoom 5


Zoom 4


Zoom 3


Zoom 2


Zoom 1


Europa counter colors (derived from the SPI colors above, but embellished with my eye by the original Europa counter set for Fire in the East/Scorched Earth, but tweaked to look good on the default WitE 2 maps).

Zoom 5


Zoom 4



Zoom 3



Zoom 2



Zoom 1




These ones are taken from the 1941 CG.

SPI like:

Zoom 4:








Zoom 3:


Zoom 2:


Europa like:

Zoom 4:








Zoom 3:


Zoom 2:


Just for fun, and note when using the Europa counter colors as the Axis, you'll need to soften or re-config the colors so that the default background color does not 'clash' with the the 'feldgrau' color:



Here is RGoW and a few Soviet tweaks to background colors:





Here lastly is from VTB and just messing with background colors:









Zip file attached here:

[Zovs]

The zip file is in the first post.

[pz501]

Thanks for doing this. It brings back a lot of good memories. Even though I've stopped playing for now and until the editor is fully functional, I just want to say this is an excellent addition. Once again thanks!

[Zovs]

Your welcome and thank you.

[jsqdcsq]

Wonderful mod! I really like it!

[StefanKreis]

great work!

[Zovs]

Thanks everyone, really appreciate the comments.

So far I only see one possible errata change that I might make, there is one icon (in both sets) where the artillery symbol for a specific size looks wrong.

Also, I need to see some tests when a game gets into having Soviet-Polish and Soviet-Czech units to make sure the counters look good.

All things being equal I am more fond of the 'Europa' like counters...and with just a few tweaks to the default background colors...



I have a 4k monitor and the screenshots are really big, so I rescale a bit so you can see without having to use scrollbars forever, so the rescaling is not as crisp as they really are on the 4k.

[Zovs]

Oh, and of course my custom font's that I used in place of the default fonts.

Just noticed also that the MG units may need a rework, originally I thought the original symbols were for rocket artillery and used that, but will have to see about changing that.

[Zovs]

Good morning I removed version 1 and updated and added version 2 to the first post (should be near the end of the post).

Release notes:

Version 2
Symbol Changes
Fixed all MG's symbols.
Fixed all Sec symbols.
Fixed Air HQ and Air Base Units for 76x76

Version 1
Symbol Changes
Redid all symbols for simplicity. Major changes included:
Air Landing
Anti-Air
Anti-Tank
Armor
HQ's
Mechanized
Parachute (Airborne)
Self Propelled Artillery

Recolored all unit colors and created two color sets. One based on the old SPI game's War in the East 2 and one based on the old GDW's games from the Europa series (Fire in the East/Scorched Earth).

Note that for both the SPI and Europa color schemes in reality I used web html hex colors that closely approximates those 1970's colors but is not an exact match, some are darker and some are a light shade that works good for the Matrix's Games GG War in the East.

[xhoel]

Very nice mod, I installed the SPI version and looks quite nice. I am especially enjoying the HQ counters. I have been looking for something like that for a while now.

Would it be possible to darken the Elite SS units a bit? Currently they are a bit too grey for my liking. Also, I am not sure that the airbore units should use the current counter you are using. I know it is the correct one, but it is really hard to tell them apart because of how small the wings look in game. Would it be possible to reverse that?

Cheers!

[Zovs]

Thanks for your comments xhoel. I can try to darken the SS and see if looks okay, I think each monitor is a bit different, but I'll see what I can do. Could you elaborate on the airborne units a bit? Not 100% understanding what you mean by hard to tell them apart and small wings.

Do you mean these Airborne symbol's?

Maxed zoomed in.


Zoomed out one level:


If so then those look good to me.

[xhoel]

Thank you for giving it a try!

Yes, I meant those airborne symbols. It might be just a personal preference though. For me it is difficult to tell them apart especially if they are part of a solid frontline with other units. By themselves you can tell them apart.

[Zovs]

Okay I'll see what I can do. I may make a 'special' one off one for those that like the original airborne para symbol. I just realized that my air landing symbol might be used for ski units, if so then I'll need to rework that. If that is the case I can swamp out the Airborne with the parachute and use a proper air landing symbol for the other and then correct the ski.

Will do the symbols first.

Recoloring the SS elite's to a dark share is (easy but also) difficult to get the black correct because I put a black outline on all counters. But I'll see what tweaks I can do.

[Zovs]

Greetings attached to the first post is version 1.3.

From the readme file.

Zovs Board Wargame Counter Colors and Unit Symbol Readme
-----------------------------------------------------------
by Don Lazov
-----------------------------------------------------------

------------------------
Version 1.1 (10/25/2021)
------------------------
Initial release.

So, I have been tweaking on the original WitE 2 counters and what I wanted to do was two things.

1) Recolor the counters (creating two sets for now) based on some board war games that I liked (within reason, some color schemes just don't work well with the current map colors, and I am not tweaking the map(s)).

2) Redo the NATO unit symbols and unit size symbols (there was some discrepancies with the originals, a few pixels off here or there) to be more like board war games. Name, I redrew the armor symbol and all derivatives of it (i.e. mechanized, armored-cavalry, assault gun, etc.), Parachute infantry, Airborne Infantry, Light/Jager Infantry, HQs now used a more traditional board wargame symbol, the only other one I am considering to modified for both sets is to use the more traditional Security symbol (instead of the symbol showing 'SEC' it would show an empty small rectangle), but for these versions I'll wait and see what feedback I do or don't get.

The results of my efforts will not be to everyone's liking and that is okay. The counter colors are sharper or consistent since they are just three uniformed colors with a black outline (except for the 9x9 counters). The three uniformed colors are a lighter and darker version more or less of the base color. For the unit symbols they are "sharper" in the sense that I removed all the color variations on them and made sure each symbol was black on a white background with not various shades of black or grey or white present.

The two-color schemes generally derived from two games are the "SPI" counter colors and the "Europa 'like'" counter colors. Essentially, I used the original WitE 2 colors but for the Germans, SS, and Russians I found a gray, black and brown and red color that I liked from web colors hues that seemed to show up well on the map and could also have their unit symbol colors modified within reason to look well. For the other Nationalities, I just used the base color from the 18x18 units and selected the most appropriate color that looked (cool to me). For the Europa colors, the Germans, mixed SS and Luftwaffe as well as the Italians, Hungarians and Romanians got a new background color that is close to the Europa color scheme. I could not really do this with the Rumanians because in Europa the Romanians are a dark blue with white unit symbols and numbers which only the SS and the Russians have, so I used a lighter but yet darker shade of blue for the Romanians.

The two zip files should be zipped into one folder and each folder when unzipped should create a subfolder which you can just drop in your 'C:\Matrix Games\Gary Grigsby's War in the East 2\Dat\Art\Units' folder.

I hope you enjoy and if not, that is okay they are not for everyone and not all may like or use them.

Any feedback is welcomed.
zovs66@gmail.com

Symbol Changes
Redid all symbols for simplicity. Major changes included:
Air Landing
Anti-Air
Anti-Tank
Armor
HQ's
Mechanized
Parachute (Airborne)
Self-Propelled Artillery

Recolored all unit colors and created two color sets. One based on the old SPI game's War in the East 2 and one based on the old GDW's games from the Europa series (Fire in the East/Scorched Earth).

Note that for both the SPI and Europa color schemes in reality I used web html hex colors that closely approximates those 1970's colors but is not an exact match, some are darker, and some are a light shade that works good for the Matrix's Games GG War in the East.

------------------------
Version 1.2 (11/02/2021)
------------------------
Symbol Changes
Fixed all MG's symbols.
Fixed all SEC symbols.
Fixed Air HQ and Air Base Units for 76x76

------------------------
Version 1.3 (11/09/2021)
------------------------
Added support for JSME (created the correct subfolders for JSME to use).

Symbol Changes:

Redid and corrected all Ski symbols.
Redid and corrected all Anti-Air symbols.
Redid and corrected all Naval Infantry symbols.
Redid and corrected all Naval symbols.
Redid all Naval, Amph and Air HQ symbols.

Note: for this release all HQ units will have a standard HQ flag (the filled in squared checker box), and for the Air, Amph and Naval HQ it will also include the text HQ in the symbol. This is still under review and I need feedback on if I should use the HQ in the symbol or remove it or revert back to the originals).


Some of the changes:

New Selected HQ and new AOG HQ:


AOG at zoomed out level:


AOG zoomed in:


AOG zoomed in again:


New Anti-Air (all zoom levels corrected, original GG WITE 2 icons were inconsistent):


Luftwaffe Flak:


SP or Assault Gun:


Fixed MG:


New AT:


New colors (both sides) new Jager (light) symbol (19=82 and 12=x):


New Light (HQ, Jaeger, Motorized and Tank):


New Naval Infantry (just Naval is without the crossed infantry lines):


Naval Infantry zoomed out a level:


New Ski:


New Airborne Infantry:


New Air Landing Infantry:

[moichris]

Hello,

Are you sure the file available is updated? I cannot see the change for light infanterie.

thanks again for this great work done.

[Zovs]

Yes, the light infantry is updated. The problem is for the 1941 CG's per the scenario creator: " the light infantry designation is not available for selection in the OB editor. The Light Infantry icon designation is hard coded to show with a unit that just has the single word "Jager" in it. It would be nice if this designation could be selected in the OB editor but it is not and there is nothing that I can do here."

So for the 1941 CG those light infantry units don't have the word Jager in them (and I don't think you can edit that) but for the 1942 scenarios you can see that the jager is/does show the light infantry icon.

[moichris]

Thank you for the quick and clear answer

[Zovs]

There is an error with the level 4 (36x36) zoom counters for the Russian Guards.

I have fixed that with version 1.4.

Also may add a 3rd SPI like to version 1.5 for darker SS counters, still trying to get the color to work out okay.

[Zovs]

I am really liking the SPI counters with the Generals Map Mod.

[Zovs]

Updated to version 1.5. This versions adds two more counter sets (i.e., duplicates of the other two) with dark SS black colors.

Small example (I know it may not look like much changed but its a lot darker):

Max zoomed in:


Zoomed out once:


Zoomed out once more: