Battleground American Civil War

Order of Battle (OOB) File Syntax v0.9

 

 

The Order of Battle (OOB) files in Talonsoft's Battleground series of American Civil War games are text files which may be edited with any text editor. This document defines the format.

 

I. Key

 

Bold - Anything in Bold is literal (it appears in the file exactly as written).

Italics - Anything in Italics is optional

(s) - Anything followed with (s) may be repeated multiple times.

Normal - Anything in Normal text is a construct which is defined in the OOB Construct Syntax section

[Square Brackets] - Anything is Square Brackets is a Symbol which is defined in the OOB Symbol Definition section.

{Braces} - Anything in braces is a set of options (each option is separated by a vertical bar).

 

 

II.  File Format

 

1

UnionArmyDescription(s)

ConfederateArmyDescriptions(s)

Union GunboatDescription(s)

Union SupplyUnit

Confederate SupplyUnit

 

 

III. OOB Construct Syntax

 

UnionArmyDescription =

Union A [ArmyName]

Begin

LeaderDescription(s)

CommandDescription(s)

End

 

ConfederateArmyDescription =

Confederate A [ArmyName]

Begin

LeaderDescription(s)

CommandDescription(s)

End

 

CommandDescription =

{CorpsDescription | DivisionDescription | BrigadeDescription | UnitDescription}

 

CorpsDescription =

C [CorpsName]

Begin

LeaderDescription(s)

CommandDescription(s)

End

 

DivisionDescription =

D [DivisionName]

Begin

LeaderDescription(s)

CommandDescription(s)

End

 

BrigadeDescription =

B [BrigadeName]

Begin

LeaderDescription(s)

UnitDescription(s)

End

 

UnitDescription =

U [UnitStrength] [QualityRating] [UnitType] [UnitWeapon] [UnitPicture] [State] [UnitName]

 

LeaderDescription =

L [CommandRating] [LeadershipRating] [Aggressiveness Rating] [LeaderName]

 

GunboatDescription =

G [UnitStrength] [QualityRating] Z [UnitPicture] [GunboatName]

SupplyUnit =

S [UnitStrength] [UnitPicture] Supply Wagon

 

 

IV. OOB Symbol Definitions

 

[…Name] = A variable length string that is displayed as the unit, leader or command's name in the unit box, in the organization table, or anywhere else the unit, leader or command is identified.  The string may contain any characters.

 

[UnitStrength] = The units numeric strength value.  For infantry or cavalry, each point represents 25 men.  For artillery, each point represents one gun.

 

[QualityRating] = The units numeric quality rating from 1 (worst) to 6 (best).  When displayed in the game, this numeric rating is translated into a letter with 1=F, 2=E, 3=D, 4=C, 5=B and 6=A.

 

[UnitType] = The type of unit.  A is artillery, H is horse artillery, C is cavalry, I is infantry, M is ???, S is sharpshooter, Z is zouaves.

 

[UnitWeapon] = A single character that defines the type of weapon carried by the unit.  The acceptable values (and explanations of the weapons the values represent) appear in Section 7.0 (Weapon Description) and Section 10.0 (Parameter Data) of the NOTES.HLP file.

 

[UnitPicture] = The number of the picture that is displayed for this unit in the unit box.  The unit pictures appear in the file UNITS.BMP in the main game directory and are numbered, beginning with zero, from left to right, then from top to bottom.

 

[State] = The number of the state silhouette picture that is displayed for this unit in the unit box.  The state silhouettes appear in the file ICONS2D.BMP in the main game directory and are numbered, beginning with zero, from left to right, then from top to bottom.  The Confederate state silhouettes (red) and the Union state silhouettes (blue) are numbered separately.

 

[CommandRating] = The leader's numeric command rating from 1 (worst) to 6 (best).  When displayed in the game, this numeric rating is translated into a letter with 1=F, 2=E, 3=D, 4=C, 5=B and 6=A.

 

[LeadershipRating] = The leader's numeric leadership rating from 1 (worst) to 6 (best).  When displayed in the game, this numeric rating is translated into a letter with 1=F, 2=E, 3=D, 4=C, 5=B and 6=A.

 

[AggressivenessRating] = A rating of the leader's aggressiveness that is used by the Artificial Intelligence algorithms.  1 is McClellan, 2 is timid, 3 is cautious, 4 is average, 5 is aggressive and 6 is reckless.