Frequently Asked Questions
Q. Why is Berthier limited to just 27 units per side? Can I have more?
A. One of my design criteria for Berthier was to keep it simple - the KISS principle. This included putting all relevant information on single screens. That way all the information a campaigner ever needs to know about their forces or the strategic situation is captured on a single screen display. It makes it easy for the campaigner to take in the strategic situation at a glance. The disadvantage is that each campaigner is limited to 27 campaign units per side as this is the maximum that could be formatted on a single screen.
But think about it. This is a campaign. You are playing at least at a level or two above table top games. So aggregate your table top forces. If you control battalions on the table top then control divisions or corps or even armies in the campaign.
Q. Will you please add feature .... to Berthier?
A. I am always pleased to hear suggestions from Berthier users on how to improve Berthier. Many of Berthier's features have come about from such suggestions.
I do however place one design constraint. Berthier is a generic campaign engine designed to be applicable to as many periods and campaigns as possible. I do not want Berthier to have very specific features that will narrowly constrain it to one particular type of campaign.
An example -
A while back I was asked if I could add a feature to allow submarines in naval campaigns to remain undetected by reconnaissance reflecting their ability to submerge. Normally I would not add such a feature as this would be too narrow a constraint. However some reflection showed that the ability to hide from reconnaissance would be a very useful generic feature. It would allow the simulation of -
ambushes;
units that were particularly good at hiding in the terrain (eg. Indians in the American wilderness);
invisible units (eg. fantasy units, Klingons spaceships with cloaking devices etc)
There was a host of possibilities so I added hidden units to Berthier.
Q. Will future versions allow for reference grids larger than 99 x 99?
A. No. Most people's experience seems to be that workable grided maps are in the 30 - 50 square range.
Q. What about a text editor?
A. Berthier uses the standard Windows text editor - Notepad - as its default. Notepad comes on all Windows systems. If you want to try something different, see the file README.TXT in the Berthier package on how to use an alternative text editor.
Q. The setup also mentions some better external image viewers?
A. Berthier comes with a very simple BMP viewer called VIEWER. See the file README.TXT in the Berthier package for ideas on using an alternative viewer.
Q. I don't understand how I can view maps? I just see coloured squares.
A. Images of topographical maps in BMP format can be viewed from the Reference & Tools/Campaign Map BMP Image menu option. All this means is that if you have some map captured as a BMP file you can look at it from within Berthier instead of having to start up a different program outside Berthier to view it.
Both the Marnon3 and Waterloo example campaigns have BMP map image files in them. You should be able call up these BMP examples:
Folder - WATERLOO File - WATERLOO.BMP
Folder - MARNON3 File - MARNON3.BMP
You must have an image viewer set up in Berthier Options screen for this option to work. See previous question.
Otherwise Berthier is dealing with, and only displays, the map reference grid coloured as to terrain type. However if you used GridMap to create your campaign from a topographical map then Berthier can display unit positions on this map as well as on the reference grid. Press the <I> key when in the Intelligence Reports/Deployment Plot screen.
Q. How does the Combat Resolution function work?
A. Combat resolution was kept simple as Berthier is not meant to be an alternative to tabletop encounters. The only parameter to combat resolution is the number (or points value) of the combatants involved. The combat resolution model is based on Weiss's statistical analysis of American Civil War battles. It has been assumed that this combat resolution model is applicable beyond the American Civil War. The key features of Weiss's analysis incorporated into the combat resolution model are:
The probability of winning is a function of the initial force ratios. In Berthier a 1:1 force ration gives a 50% chance of winning and a 2:1 force ratio gives the larger force about 90% chance of winning.
Casualty ratios are independent of which side attacks, or who wins or origin initial force ratios, and lie within the range of 0.46 to 2.33. Berthier uses the range 0.5 to 2.0.
On average the loser sustained 15% casualties and the winner 12%.
Q. Why does Berthier use a square based movement system?
A. Berthier uses an square based movement system ie. campaign units move from one square of the map to another square. Square based movement was chosen because:
By just laying a numbered grid over any topographical map campaigners have the basis for a campaign. That's all the map preparation needed.
You can depict the underlying terrain on the map making campaign to tabletop translations easier.
For naval campaigns area movement is the natural choice since movement on the high seas can be in any direction.
Berthier can easily handle the Pythagorean calculation of diagonal movement. This has been a problem with manual systems and why hex grids became popular.
Q. What does the Berthier Version Number mean?
A. Berthier has a versioning number of the form x.y.z eg. Version 4.12.5. The parts are –
x - Version number.
This is updated whenever the underlying structure of the Berthier campaign file changes.
y - Release number.
This changes whenever a new version of Berthier with new features is released to the public.
z - Build number.
Used by me to keep track of my development changes.
Last Updated: October 2014.