[Major Update] Impartial Leader Selector

[vince hughes]

I think a tricky one for you will be the Workers & Peasants Robin.

For Germany only EFD leaders are required in most scenarios, BUT

Soviet leaders have to come from both WP and EFD combined as if they were all thrown in together (or certainly in most scenarios I have looked at). Be careful not to get your counters mixed up when sorting it out :-)

[Matt W]

Luckily the construction of the counters is markedly different between the W&P and EFDx.

I have to agree with Vince re: the need to think about how the selector works with respect to supplements. It is easy to use for boxed games but far too many supplements grab from several games for their leader units.

Perhaps a "grab bag" option could be added which permits you to input the number of leaders by rank for selection.

Note also that there are some scenarios (at least one in SiF) which permit you or the opponent to select the leaders directly. The selector will have to take account of those items as well (or indicate that another method should be used).

[rerathbun]

Thanks for the kind words on the ILS tool, but Shad is the one who deserves all the credit (and the questions!). He is doing all the programming. I'm just entering the leaders from the various games. I only made the announcements so that people will know when they can start entering scenario leader OOB's.

I'm hoping that once all the leaders are entered, Shad can find a way to program a scenario entry system for the supplements.

Perhaps something along the lines of drop-down menus (menu items in red)along the lines of:

Scenario #
Select Leader Pool:
Select all leaders from: [Game Title]
Or
Select [Nation] Leaders from [Game Title]
Select [Nation] Leaders from [Game Title]
Select [Nation] Leaders from [Game Title]
Select [Nation] Leaders from [Game Title]
Select [Nation] Leaders from [Game Title]

(Duplicate menu items for battles with multiple nations.)

I'm hoping that the leader pool selection for a scenario only has to be done once, and then the tool will 'remember' the leader pool for the scenario. That way, once a scenario is programmed, the user will just have to select the scenario and request the result.

As for the scenarios that allow you to choose your own leaders, I plan on copying out the "List All [Game Title] Leaders" for the game, then deleting the ones I don't choose before I hit 'print'.

Robin

[rerathbun]

Fall of France leaders are all entered, ready for scenario OOBs.

[Shad]

various demands

Hi Vince,

Robin's been working hard on loading leader OOBs, but the tool's design and maintenance falls squarely on my shoulders.

I wasn't planning on doing much site work during December, but wanted to knock out the basic version of the tool before then and see how it was received.

For stand-alone scenarios that require double-counter sets and for all expansions, you will need to wait patiently. I plan to implement them in due course but probably not until January. I need a break too.

[rerathbun]

Guadalcanal leaders are all entered, ready for scenario OOBs.

[rerathbun]

Kursk: South Flank leaders are all entered, ready for scenario OOBs.

[rerathbun]

Cassino '44 leaders are all entered, ready for scenario OOBs.

[vince hughes]

Not sure what you have to do Robin, but this seems to be going at a great pace !

[rerathbun]

Panzer Grenadier leaders are all entered, ready for scenario OOBs. All of the boxed games are now complete, except for Heroes of the Soviet Union (will go with the supplements, since it requires leaders from Eastern Front Deluxe), and Saipan 1944 (don't have my copy, yet).

Entry was pretty quick and painless, just over an hour for the larger games like Cassino '44, and less for the smaller games like Airborne -IE.

Since I work 14 days on, 14 off, I had some extra time -- Now to see if I can make time to actually play. . .