There are many ways of changing the size and position of the table on screen.
To pan the table when you have zoomed in, just move the mouse onto the table background and then drag and drop.
First select the component, so it has a blue dashed border. Hold the Alt key and the mouse button down and then move the mouse around the component until you get the angle of rotation that you want.
Yes, there are two special moves Wheel and Flip, available using the keyboard
Moving units with the keyboard give a very precise control to the movement.
The following keyboard shortcuts make manipulating the selected item much faster
Keys |
Action |
| Delete | Removes the selected unit from the table |
| W, Up | Move unit forward by 0.5", or half the base size for a model |
| A, Left | Move unit left by 0.5", or half the base size for a model |
| D, Right | Move unit right by 0.5", or half the base size for a model |
| X, Down | Move unit backwards by 0.5", or half the base size for a model |
| Q | Turn the unit anti-clockwise |
| E | Turn the unit clockwise |
| Z | Wheel the unit anti-clockwise |
| E | Wheel the unit clockwise |
| S | Flip the unit |
| 1..9 | Move the unit forward 1..9 inches, or centimetres depending on the settings |
Components and units both rotate by 5 degrees at a time. This makes it much easier to align things in the same direction. It is possible to change the 'Rotation Snap Angle' using the Edit->Preferences dialog. Setting this to 0 will turn rotation snapping of altogether.
How the Ctrl key down while dragging the unit with the mouse.
By default a unit will gradually turn toward the direction it being moved to. This can save you a lot of time, but some people find it annoying. This is configurable so you can make the behavior right for you. The Edit->Preferences dialog contains combo boxes which control the behavior of a mouse move with or with out the Ctrl and Alt keys.
The 'Turn distance' field controls how quickly a unit will turn as it is being moved. A smaller value makes it turn faster.
The "In The Box" feature came from concept of taking models from their storage box and putting them on a table and then placing them back in their box.
So this checkbox controls if the unit is on or off the table.
In a drawing, graphics, or dtp application it is common to be able to select an object and drag its corner to resize it. It is not possible to do dynamic re-sizing in Battle Chronicler, because it has a different design philosophy.
Accurate measurements are critically important to table top games. Battle Chronicler uses real game measurements in inches and centimeters. Everything is accurately scaled, so everything matches up.
So if a hill is 10" wide then it will always appear 10" wide on the Battle Chronicler table.
If you want to use a 16" hill instead of a 10" then you need a new component. It is very easy to do this by going to the 'Edit->Components' menu, select the component you want to make a different version of. Press the Copy button and then alter the width and length of the new component to the size that you require.
If you change you mind after moving a unit then it is possible to undo that change without resetting the entire turn. Select the unit, then select the 'Game->Reset Select Unit' menu option.
If you see solid red rectangles, with dark red borders on the table, the these will be missing components. When you use a component in a game a reference to the component is all that is stored in the game file. If the component is missing then it will appear as a red rectangle.
Have a look at the log file in My Documents\Battle Chronicler\logs You should see some error messages. e.g.
2009-07-09T15:42:25 [Error] Missing Component 'Unit Start Position - Artlliery'
You will need to ensure that you have exactly the same component files on both you and your friends computer.
Background terrain is handled by Battle Chronicler in a special way. When place on the table it is automatically covers the entire table. It is not possible to select the background terrain on the table as the would be far too annoying. So to remove the background terrain you can either place another price of background terrain on the table, which will replace the first piece, or select the 'Game->Reset Terrain Background' menu option.
Heres the problem: you deploy all you units onto the table in the correct place. Then you move to the next turn and all the units disappear and are marked as in the box.
This is one of the common things that does catch new users out.
When you change to the next turn Battle Chronicler makes a copy of the previous turn, so each one builds on the previous one. However it won't do this if you have already 'opened' the next turn. The problem comes is if you initially move through all the turns then it will make copies of a blank turn. If you then go back and do things in an earlier turn then these will not be copied into the future turns. Thats why Battle Chronicler puts up a warning dialog if you change turns without moving anything.
If this happens you can "Game->Reset Current Turn" or "Game->Reset Current Turn And Later Turn" options to set the current turn to the same as the previous turn.
Battle Chronicler runs on top of the latest version Microsoft's .Net framework, which is a Windows only technology. So there will not be a Mac version.
Some Mac users run a Windows emulation, like Parallels Desktop, or VM Ware and have successfully got Battle Chronicler working that way.
If you want advise on this then best ask on the Forum.