By
Leland
Tankersley
Starting a new game
Run CBPlay. From the File menu, select New. You'll get
a file browse dialog. Find the scenario file (*.gsn)
that you want to play. (Darren distributes several of
these with each kit.) [If you want to customize a
scenario, e.g. because you want to play a two-player
game rather than three-player, see the end of this
post.] You'll have the opportunity to change the
default players names. [If you really want to, note
that you need to select the player name from the list,
type in the new name in the box below, and then hit
the Update Name button, or your changes won't take.]
Then you're asked to provide a "Base Game Name" for
the game files. Whatever you type here will form part
of the filenames for this game. Make sure it's
sufficiently distinctive. Once this is done, CB will
create a bunch of game (*.gam) files, one for each
player (and one for a Spectator). Distribute the game
files to the appropriate players (Axis player gets the
Axis game file, and so on). Note that only one player
needs to do this step.
Playing the game
Launch CBPlay if you haven't already. From the File
menu, choose Open and select the game file created
above (or emailed to you by your opponent); it will be
named something like MyGameName-Axis.gam. Note that
when you do this, if your game file isn't located in
the same place as your gamebox (*.gbx) file, the
program will ask you to find the gamebox. Browse to
find the *.gbx file and proceed; the game file will
remember where to find the gamebox next time. Once
this is done, the various game windows will appear
(about which, see below).
The various windows
The Game Project window
This window starts out iconified at the lower left. It
is the only window that is required to be visible; if
you CLOSE this window (as opposed to just minimizing
it) you are closing the game file (you'll be prompted
to save changes, if any). If you restore this window,
it lists the various game "boards" (windows) that are
part of the game, as well as a listing of all the game
history or "move" (*.gmv) files. You can doubleclick a
game board in this list to open it, even if you closed
the window earlier. If you click an entry in the game
history list (which starts out empty) you can "replay"
the events of that move file to review what happened.
You probably won't need to use this window often, so
you can probably leave it minimized so it doesn't take
up much space.
The Map window
This window displays the TK map along with any
counters or markers that have been placed on it. You
can scroll the map with the scrollbars, or autoscroll
by dragging near an edge. You can select items
(counters, etc.) on the map by clicking,
shift-clicking or dragging just as with most typical
programs. Selected items have small square black
"handles" around them. Selected items are displayed in
a pane on the right side of the window (on some
windows, this pane has been minimized to save space).
Other Windows
You can explore the other windows on your own. There's
one to hold the current/pending/discarded Option
Cards, one for each faction's Force Pool, one has the
CRT, one has the Political Tables, there's one that
lists all the Strategic Hexes to make it easier to
keep track of who controls what when you're doing the
seasonal victory check, and one has the sequency of
play. Technically these are all "boards" and you can
drag pieces (counters, cards and markers) onto any of
them. Obviously, it doesn't make much sense to put a
unit counter on the sequence of play. But be aware
that it can happen. Cyberboard attempts to mimic the
tabletop experience, right down to dropping a counter
and having to hunt for it later.
The Toolbar
There's a toolbar at the top of the main Cyberboard
window with a bunch of commands (these all have menu
commands associated with them, too). The one that
looks like a magnifying glass lets you toggle between
zoom levels for the current board. There's a
full-size, half-size and quarter-size option for each
board. The game map and force pools start out at
half-size (so you can see more of them). But if you
can't read the map text or want to zoom in to check
out the river hexsides more closely, this button is
your friend. Zooming in the boards stay more or less
centered where you were before. Unfortunately, when
you toggle back out to full-size on the map window,
you'll end up looking at the lower right corner of the
map and more than likely have to scroll back to where
you were.
Next to this button is a little button with 2 squares
separated by a slash. This toggles display of unit
counters on/off (for the active window only). This
lets you hide the counters to see the map better, for
example.
The buttons labelled 'A' and 'B' will open two
different (but identical) counter tray windows (see
below).
The button that looks kind of like a hand holding a
wand pointing to the left will open a tray of markers.
This holds things like DRM markers to use as
reminders, and control markers for use on the
Strategic Hex Control Tracking board.
The button that looks kind of like a post-it note
brings up the message window. This is where messages
from your opponent will appear.
The button that looks like a hand holding a pen brings
up a window that lets you type messages to your
opponent (including making die rolls). You'll probably
have this open all the time during your turn.
Most of the rest of the buttons are concerned with
PBEM mechanics, about which more later.
The Counter Trays
The buttons labelled 'A' and 'B' bring up two
different (identical) counter tray windows. A drop
list at the top of the window lets you select the
specific tray you want. There's a tray for each
player's hand of option cards (which is "owned" by
that player so the other player(s) can't look at it
and deduce the pending option card); a tray for each
player's counters that arrive with option cards
(sorted in option card order); a tray holding all the
Neutral forces; a tray with misc. counters like
Neutrality, the Push marker, Failures and so on; and a
bunch of empty trays with self-explanatory labels.
Note that you don't have to use the empty trays for
available support units; they are just there as an
option. There are two trays because sometimes you
might want to drag a counter from one tray to another,
so you need two windows. Also, you can size one tray
for use when browsing option cards, and another for
smaller things like unit counters. Every item in a
tray is displayed with its current "top" side on the
left. If the item has a reverse side, it's shown on
the right.
PBEM mechanics
When you actually start playing, it's a lot like
playing FTF. Select a counter and press ctrl-I to flip
(invert) it. To move a counter, click and drag. You
can do this between windows (when taking replacements
from force pool to map, for example). To neaten up a
stack, select the counters in it and hit ctrl-A (autostack).
[Be careful that you don't select any extraneous
counters.] As appropriate, type in messages to your
opponent in the message window. Don't neglect to hit
'Send' -- you'll see the message text appear in the
message log. After you roll dice, be sure to hit the
Send button to add the message to the log, or your
opponent won't be sure what's going on.
Sending a Move File
When you've finished your turn (or have reached a
point where you need input from your opponent before
you can proceed), press the Send Recording To File
button (it looks like an envelope next toa floppy
disk). You'll be prompted for a move file (*.gmv)
name. Once created, save changes to your game file and
email the move file to your opponent. Then wait for a
reply.
Receiving a Move File
When you get a move file from your opponent, you
should first fire up CBPlay and load your game file.
Then choose Load Recorded Move File (looks like an
opened envelope) and load the move file.
Note: you may see a warning that says something
about how the game state doesn't match the move file.
If this happens, it probably means you either missed a
move file, or else you have loaded the wrong file.
Basically, what happens is each move file stores the
current game state and the moves that are made, but
none of the history. Your game file stores all the
moves that have been saved. So most of the time, your
game file state should match the initial state of the
move file you load. If it doesn't, something might be
wrong somewhere, so proceed with caution. If you go
ahead and load the file, and things look wacky, DON'T
save the changes to the game file.
After loading the move file, the tape-recorder style
buttons in the toolbar should be active. These let you
step through your opponent's actions move by move, or
jump to the end of the recording all at once. You'll
see all the manipulations of counters as well as
messages typed by your opponent. You can also back up
to review portions of the move again. When you're done
watching the moves, click the Accept Move File
Playback button (envelope with checkmark) to add the
changes to your game file. Then it's your turn to
respond.
Customizing a Scenario
Here is how to create a two-player version of one of
Darren's scenarios: Run CBPlay and choose the Open
command from the File menu. From the droplist at the
bottom, select files of type "Scenario Files (*.gsn)"
and open the scenario file you want to convert to
two-player. From the Project menu, select Create
Players, and enter '2' in the text box. Then select
Edit Players from the Project menu. Edit the names to
whatever you like (Axis and Allied are suggested). Be
sure to press Update Name for each player name you
edit before dismissing the window.
Now open the Scenario Project window (if you can't
find it use the Windows menu). For each of the Option
Card playing piece trays (all 3) do the following:
select it in the project window and press the
Properties button at the bottom of the list. Then from
the Tray's Owner drop list select the player that
should own this tray (Axis for the Axis Option Cards,
Allied for the Western and Soviet cards). Press OK.
This will prevent opponents from looking at each
other's card hands.
