Custom Scenario Templates

A custom scenario template is a special TacOps scenario file that can be used with any TacOps battle map. When the template is first loaded there are no unit markers in play for the Blue force nor for the Red Force. The purpose of the template is to provide the user with a convenient skeleton for creating and then saving a game setup. The user adds Blue and Red Force unit markers to a map and then saves the completed setup in the form of a saved game file that he or others can then use for actual game play. 

When using a custom scenario template, the user places unit markers in play by using either the 'Add Units' menu item or the 'Add One Unit' menu item. 

The 'Add Units' menu item presents the user with a selection dialog listing various previously designed unit groupings - typically a spread of mixed unit marker types from platoon to brigade groupings. This is a  quick way to add the many different types of unit markers present in a particular defined grouping. Example: a mech infantry grouping consisting of multiple markers for mounted or dismounted mech infantry, additional markers for tanks, APCs, individual weapon systems, etc.

The 'Add One Unit' menu item presents the user with a selection dialog that lists every specific unit type in the data base (the building blocks for larger unit groupings) and allows the user to add one unit marker for each type that can represent from one to fifteen of that type of unit. Examples: One to fifteen rifle squads in a marker, one to fifteen M1 tanks in a marker, etc.

It is important to note that 'scenarios/saved game files' created with a custom scenario template do not contain an AI/computer opponent that can maneuver. Units will exchange fire during a combat phase but the Red Force will not be automtically given movement orders by an AI/computer opponent during orders phases. This type of TacOps scenario was originally meant to be played only by two humans and not by only one human in a solitaire mode. It is possible to play a semi solitaire game with a template if one side or the other is in a purely static defense or if the user occasionally intervenes and give orders himself to the enemy force (as we all used to do when we played board wargames against ourselves).


When a user adds unit groupings (say a Mech Inf Bn) in a custom scenario  template, he is presented with a selection dialog that lists the  available unit groupings. Within that selection dialog,  use  'TT' at the beginning of any unit grouping that is experimental.  Examples: 'TT Mech Inf Bn', 'TT Brigade Command Section', etc.