Creating a customised Reference Sheet

Reference sheets are unique in Optio in that they are army specific, i.e. you have a different sheet for each army vs another army. If you are playing Mid-Republican Roman vs Late Carthaginian you use a sheet tailored for those two armies. This allows the combat table and terrain effects chart to show only the troop types used for that game and also allows them to absorb about 80% of the modifiers that appear in other rulesets, leaving a short list of general modifiers that are replicated on page 2 of the sheet. IMHO it's one of the greatest strengths of Optio.

A customised reference sheet allows for something else: as many different troop types as the heart desires. Optio currently has 27 troop types and counting. My plan is to create as many troop types as would behave with a sufficient difference on the battlefield to be worth distinguishing.

The problem is how to create all the different ref sheets a player will need in the course of his illustrious career as a wargamer? Publish all the possible combinations (729!) in book form? How many players would plonk down money for that?

The problem bothered me for years until the solution finally hit me: give the players the tools to create the ref sheets themselves. For that I opted to use software that most people are reasonably familiar with: MS Word and Excel. 

I created a ref sheet template in Word, then a Master Combat Table and Terrain Effects Chart both in Excel. The Combat Table has every troop type cross referenced with every troop type, whilst the Terrain Effects chart also has every troop type represented.

So how does it work?

There are three templates and one set sheet you need to download: 

• The Reference Sheet template here.
• The second page of the Reference sheet here. You don't need to modify this, just print it out. 
• The Master Combat Table template here.
• The Terrain Effects Chart template here. 

Step One

Open the Reference sheet template. It looks like this:

 The "REFERENCE SHEET" text is not editable, but you can edit the "ONE ARMY vs ONE ARMY". Select it and change it to the armies you are using for the game. In this example I've chosen Late Carthaginian vs Mid Republican Roman. Change the font to suit yourself.

 Step Two

Now open the Excel file "Master Combat Table." You will see this.

The table gives all troop types at the top vs all troop types at the side (right and left sides are the same).

First I renamed the armies in the boxes at the top left. Yellow box for the list in the row at the top and white box for the list in the column on the right and left sides.

Then starting with the top list, I eliminated the columns I didn't need, beginning with the left. I started by selecting the heavy cavalry. I placed the mouse pointer in the top left cell and dragged right and downwards to select the columns to delete. You need to select only part of the columns.

 Once the cells were selected, I right-clicked and chose Delete.

Then chose "Delete entire column(s)"

And voila, columns gone.

Then the next batch of unwanted troop types.

And so on until all unwanted the troop types in the top list have been removed. Also the rightmost column giving the list of troop types (I'll probably eliminate it in a future version of the Master Combat Table).

Then I passed on to the troop types in the side lists, starting with the heavy cavalry and this time choosing "Delete entire row(s)".

And so on until all the irrelevant troop types were gone.

Step Three

Now to copy the table to the Word template. First I selected everything remaining, right-clicked and chose "Copy".

Then I opened the Word document Reference Sheet template, right-clicked and chose "Paste." You need to choose the option "Paste as picture" in Word. I did this in Open Office Writer which is a bit different.

And the Combat table appears as a picture.

It can be resized by grabbing the corner handles and dragging.

Step Four

Now for the Terrain Effects Chart. I opened it in Excel.

Then selected the columns I didn't need, starting with the Cataphracts and Knights.

And deleted them.

Then carried on until I had only the columns I needed. The rows are left alone.

Step Five

Now to copy the table to the Word template. First I selected everything, right-clicked and chose "Copy."

Then pasted it (as a picture) in Word.

The two tables can be moved around and resized until they fit nicely. As for the broken border lines, you can fix them in Excel before copying and pasting into Word, but that's probably too much to explain in one post [edit: explained at the end of this post].

That's it. Save the Word document as "Carthaginian vs Republican Roman" or something like that. Then print it out. The second page is printed out as is, without changing anything. And you're good to go!

 

POSTSCRIPT

Putting a nice green border around the combat table and terrain table before copying them and pasting them into the Word ref sheet template 

It's simple enough. Using the combat table as an example delete the irrelevant rows and columns until you have what you want:

Select the entire table (minus the empty cells of course).

Right-click in the table and choose "Format cells".

In the popup menu choose "Borders".

Go to the "User defined" window and, selecting the border lines one at a time, choose a solid line for each with a thickness of 2,5pt. Make sure you don't select the horizontal or vertical line in the middle.

Choose the colour you want for the lines from the Color palette, just below the Style palette. I chose dark green. You can choose any colour you like, even pink. But dark green works better than pink. Much better.

Then click " OK".

And voila, nice border lines.

Copy the table and paste into the MS Word ref sheet template. And there you are.

The complete Optio starter kit

 To play Optio you need the following:

• Miniatures (though, sure, you can get away with flats)
• A non-addiction to dice (therapy courses available at a modest fee)
• A love of a game where you are completely in control
• About 2-3 hours spare time for each game
• A good feel for tactical finesse and timing

Then you need the material aids. These are:

• Terrain pregame
• Square grid battlefield with grid squares measuring 10 x 10cm (for standard 15mm stands) but size is flexible depending on the size of your stands. It must be possible to fit two stands side by side with some additional space for the general or commander (see below) 
• Ruleset
• Army-specific Reference Sheets
• Generals and Commanders' counters (you could also use individual miniature figures for these)
• Commanders' underbases with orders counters
• Underbases holding Morale, Order/Disorder and Shooting counters
• Orders counters
• Victory track with counters

Let's go through them.

 Terrain pregame

This is the short 5-15 minute game used to establish the terrain for the main battle. I did a post on it here. You can download the ruleset for it here, the counter artwork here (you will need to buy 1cm cubes) and a selection of maps: very open terrain, open terrain, average terrain  and forested terrain. My plan, naturally, is to create more of these and also create a selection of maps for a campaign. I'm currently working on terrain maps for Sicily in view of campaigns between Carthage and Syracuse, and Carthage and Rome. What most people don't know is that about 85% of Sicily's terrain is entirely unsuitable for set piece battles, so I have to do terrain maps only for the last 15%. Makes life much easier. The same percentages apply to Italy and elsewhere. Not too many options in the more mountainous parts of Mediterranean Europe for where to fight a battle. Hence the First and Second battles of Mantinea.

Battlefield

There are various ways of doing this. I use a printed cloth about 2 metres square. You can get them made up at a branding company like this one  or this one in the UK, or this one or this one in the US, or this one in South Africa (where I live). Branding companies are plentiful and it won't be difficult to find one near you.

The artwork for the cloth is available for download here.

Alternatively, you can get wargaming tiles like this one (30 x 30 cm which you can divide into 3 x 3 battlefield squares.

Otherwise just make up your own battlefield cloth/tiles. It's not that difficult. 

You need a battlefield with a minimum of 8 x 8 battlefield squares though 8 x 16 is ideal.

For terrain you will need rivers, streams, lakes, freestanding trees (and ideally bushes), hills, ploughed land, marsh, etc. For hills you can make up modular hills (composed of sections) like these ones, adapted to a square grid. A lot of ways of killing this cat (with love).

I did a post on how I made Optio hills here.

Ruleset

This I can make available as a pdf for players willing to try the game out. It's complete and fairly polished, with plenty of diagrams. The ruleset is not long, 35 A4 pages with plenty of diagrams and white space, followed by a section on special formations an additional 9 pages long, also replete with diagrams and white space. Please contact me, either here or by email: justinswanton [at]gmail[dot]com

Army Specific Reference Sheets

These you can make up yourself. I've done a separate post on how to create a reference sheet using supplied Excel and MS Word templates (with a separate Word document of the back of the sheet). You will need to adapt the armies you have using conversion lists from popular rulesets to Optio. There are available on the forum here. I'm working on others but player input is always welcome.

General and Commander Counters

These are customisable and are available as a pdf download here.

Commanders' Underbases with Orders Counters.

Underbases can be made with something magnetic counters can stick to (see this post) like coffee tin sheeting or non-magnetic ferrous sheets. At the limit you can just keep the orders counters with the commanders, ensuring they are orientated correctly with the commander - or use cubes with the correct order number uppermost. Another cat-killing spree. Artwork for counters here.

Underbases holding Morale, Order/Disorder and Shooting Counters

Artwork available here. See this post on how they can be made up.

Orders Counters

Artwork here. 

Victory Track with Counters

Artwork here.

 

...and that's all you need. Happy gaming!

 ...oh yes, dice. You'll need a couple of dice. 

 

Nearly forgot. If you want to try out Optio online or just experiment with it solo on your PC you can download a VASSAL module here.

Edit: Question: would players prefer making up the bits and pieces themselves or slapping down money for a ready-made starter kit? I'm thinking Kickstarter....