Unfortunate Son's counters

[Unfortunate Son]

FINALLY!! I have completed a full set of counters for SC-WiE!!! SC-WAW will follow soon!!!

I have sent my final files to the developer's!!!

I want to give a special thanks at this time my good friend Mike "Old Crow Balthazor" whom I feel the SC community owes a debt of gratitude for all his contributions to the SC game community.

If I hadn't reached out to Mike back in May /June 2021 and he hadn't encouraged me to show a few other players like Tanaka and post my counters on the forums they may have never seen the light of day.
Mike has been constructive with ideas and suggestions during the whole process in creating the set of counters. He has helped many other modders from SC-WW1 MDsmall's "Icarus Mod", Balkan Variations Mod, Jazon's "Polish-Soviet War-Battle 0f Warsaw 1920 mod", SC-WaW Ellesar2 "War in the Pacific mod" "Strategic Command Naval Test Mod", SC-WiE Lothos "TRP-Total Realism Project for War in Europe". Beta testing SC-American Civil War, 1904 Imperial Sunrise, 1879 Ghosts in the Pacific etc...
Plus all the Videos he creates for his YT channel.




Hello everyone,
Welcome to Unfortunate Son's counter thread. I originally posted a few counters in the Whats' next generation SC-WAW? thread.
With this thread I can publish counters as I complete them.

A few notes regarding the counters:

I'm doing my best to make sure that every counter image is from the country it represents. There will be exceptions due to I cannot find a specific unit, reference images or they only used or co developed an allies weapon system. Ex: UK's Firefly tank was a US M4 Sherman fitted with the UK's 17-pounder anti-tank gun.

At the moment Infantry units will mostly have the same figure. I plan on creating different counters for SP & Airborne units. The garrison counter I will change once all countries are complete.
I will keep them historically accurate as best I can but taking artistic license as I see fit.

I would like to see some changes regarding units/counters are used. I am not a modder and I do not know the first thing about game engines etc... I don't have the time to learn, plus I am trying to complete the counters. Some armor units can take several hours to build.

1) I would like to use the DN counter for WWI era type battleships and WWII era battleships for the BB counter. And have them in the game. Ex: USS Pennsylvania class on the DN counter and the South Dakota class on the BB counter. Same for Japan UK etc... Would like to see US purchase the CC counter currently I think the AI uses it but in a multiplayer you can not.

2) I would like to see the Anti-tank units a bit stronger than they are they seem to be weak against armor units. When in fact they were hunting tanks. During the war the German Stug-III destroyed more allied tanks than another German tank. This is one of the reasons why I have made the Stug-III the main image for the German anti-tank units. I think players would purchase them more if AT units was stronger. Maybe give the anti-tank units one extra bonus move point so they can finish the turn behind a friendly unit safe from counter attack. This would simulate the tactics by Stug units who would lie in ambush then retreat once they fired.

Just some thoughts for the developers or someone who can mod.

[Unfortunate Son]

German Luftwaffe

[Unfortunate Son]

German Kriegsmarine

[Unfortunate Son]

UK ground units

[Unfortunate Son]

UK RAF

[Unfortunate Son]

UK Ground units

[Unfortunate Son]

UK RN

[Unfortunate Son]

I have the USN, IJN, and IRM completed. Along with Soviet aircraft.

[OldCrowBalthazor]

Wow these are great! Can't wait to see more. I will use them when you get the counter set done.( I usually use NATO) but these will help with the immersion for sure.

[Elessar2]

ORIGINAL: Unfortunate Son

1) I would like to use the DN counter for WWI era type battleships and WWII era battleships for the BB counter. And have them in the game. Ex: USS Pennsylvania class on the DN counter and the South Dakota class on the BB counter. Same for Japan UK etc... Would like to see US purchase the CC counter currently I think the AI uses it but in a multiplayer you can not.

Another option for WWII would be to give Dreadnought status to the Yamatos & Montanas. Yeah feel free to relabel them something more appropriate for the time period if you wish.

What program are you using for the editing, if I may ask?

[Unfortunate Son]

ORIGINAL: Elessar2

Another option for WWII would be to give Dreadnought status to the Yamatos & Montanas. Yeah feel free to relabel them something more appropriate for the time period if you wish.

What program are you using for the editing, if I may ask?

Hi Elessar2,

That could be an option, but since the US didn't actually build the Montana class BBs I would prefer to keep it as I stated. Although I wish they had done so. I used the South Dakota class BB vs the Iowa class BB on the US BB counters simple because the Dakota class BB where shorter in length (for a better fit on the counter) and the silos of the two classes a very similar looking.

I would place the USS Alaska CB-1 on the CC counter.

To answer your question as to the program I use for editing, I have been using Photoshop to create the counter art.

[fulcrum28]

Hello Unfortunate,

It is an impressive work, congratulations! Do you have an estimate on when we could enjoy/download a set for WiE or WAW?

I love them but I wonder if the infantry could be less blurred/pastel painting style, or show upper body only so details of the uniforms can be seen ?(e.g. German, field grey up to 1942, and camouflage from 1943-45 like the panther and Tiger).
some example:https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.a ... age=4&key=

Do you consider to add the actual name of the tank/equipment instead of or together with the MT, HT? e.g. Pz III, Pz IV, Panther, Tiger etc

Same for a small national symbol on the upper left of the counter? The Germans have them on the tanks but UK for example, would be difficult to distinguish with some minor countries maybe.

Overall, 9.99 Quality Work!

[Unfortunate Son]

ORIGINAL: fulcrum28

Hello Unfortunate,

It is an impressive work, congratulations! Do you have an estimate on when we could enjoy/download a set for WiE or WAW?

I love them but I wonder if the infantry could be less blurred/pastel painting style, or show upper body only so details of the uniforms can be seen ?(e.g. German, field grey up to 1942, and camouflage from 1943-45 like the panther and Tiger).
some example:https://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.a ... age=4&key=

Do you consider to add the actual name of the tank/equipment instead of or together with the MT, HT? e.g. Pz III, Pz IV, Panther, Tiger etc

Same for a small national symbol on the upper left of the counter? The Germans have them on the tanks but UK for example, would be difficult to distinguish with some minor countries maybe.

Overall, 9.99 Quality Work!

Hi Fulcrum28,

Thanks for your generous score of 9.99. So close to a perfect score. Maybe I'll get one next time.

The figures are designed that way for a reason. For one I prefer the full figure over cropped figure. I'm afraid you won't see that detail of which you have described in your post on a full figure. So I have created them to be a bit more graphic in nature vs a detailed one. I do hope when I am done with the set to go back and possible add some kind of action figures. I have done preliminary work on already but haven't come up with anything I like just yet. I have thought about changing the uniforms as you go up in tech like you have suggested. But that will have to come later.

I have thought about adding the actual name to the tanks etc... but I didn't like when the counter is reduced to fit in the game the text was not very readable (I may revisit this at a later time). I may add small Nato symbols at some point. Also I think most players recognize what each tank unit is, If they do not you can easily research them.

At one point I had a national symbol (flag) on them but removed them because the game adds one in lower left. I did leave them on the naval counters.
The Germans tanks have the crosses on them because they did put them on their tanks. If you look at the UK tanks they do I insignia markings but did't place roundel on them like their aircraft had on them.

Overall I want the counters to look clean and very identifiable as much as possible so players know exactly what they are looking at.

As far as timetable to when I will have a complete set depends on how much spare time I can devote to them. The armor units can take several hours to build. They are the most time consuming.

Thanks

[CaesarAug]

Yes sir, some pretty fine artwork, lad!

A curiosity: maybe it’s because I’m traditional and old school, but why are Battlecruisers designated as CC?
I’ve always been used to them being designated as BC. Seems more natural.

But then again, maybe CC is an even older (possibly original?) designation than BC…

Whatever the true history behind battlecruiser designation, I much prefer BC.

[Unfortunate Son]

ORIGINAL: CaesarAug

Yes sir, some pretty fine artwork, lad!

A curiosity: maybe it’s because I’m traditional and old school, but why are Battlecruisers designated as CC?
I’ve always been used to them being designated as BC. Seems more natural.

But then again, maybe CC is an even older (possibly original?) designation than BC…

Whatever the true history behind battlecruiser designation, I much prefer BC.

Hi CaesarAug,

Thanks for liking my work.

As far I know the USN designated their Alaska class ships as large cruisers with "CB" Ex. Alaska CB-1. Prior to 1961 "CC" is the designation for battlecruisers.
Most of what we read regarding ships like Hood, Gneisenau and Alaska are often referred too as battlecruisers.
The original design of the counter for the game is CC so I have not changed it. I may change it for the US to CB.

[Magpius]

These units are a beautiful bit of work.
I'm generally a Nato units player but will make an exception for these.
I'm curious to know whether these are vector or pixel based artwork.

[Unfortunate Son]

ORIGINAL: Magpius

These units are a beautiful bit of work.
I'm generally a Nato units player but will make an exception for these.
I'm curious to know whether these are vector or pixel based artwork.

Thanks Magpius
I am working in Photoshop to create the counters. They are pixel based.

What I have posted here on the forum are jpegs. If you look at my avatar that is more what they will look like in game.

[fulcrum28]

vector you mean EPS or SVG format?

[Unfortunate Son]

The program I am working in to create the counters is Photoshop it is a raster based application although you can place vector images into a PSD file (Photoshop file). Once the PSD file with a vector image is converted to a different file format such as a jpeg, tif, or eps will become rasterized.

A raster image is made up of pixels and most of the images you see have square pixels. Hence when you see a low quality or image that has been enlarged you can see jagged edges. What you are seeing then is the square pixels.

The file format I work in is the PSD file format. Or the native format of Photoshop. When I am finished with my files I have to resize them to be smaller (so they will fit / work in the game) and change the file format to a PNG file.

The PNG format from what I see is the original format used in the game itself. PNG files allow the background to be transparent.

[Unfortunate Son]

Thought I would pay homage to Elessar2 mod which looks really great.

Yes that is the "DN Fuso" in the IJN fleet.