OOB Files Unleashed
The HPS Order of Battle (.oob) Files

Updated, August, 9th, 2002

This article continues our exploration of the various supporting files found in the campaign Eckmuhl folder. This oob data is copyright HPS and Talonsoft® and is part quoted for educational purposes. HPS, Campaign Eckmuhl, Battleground and Talonsoft are registered trademarks.

Introduction
OOb outline
Legend
HINTS AND TIPS

INTRODUCTION

The army organizations for the Campaign Eckmuhl and other HPS Napoleonic games are found in the *.oob files. In all games the French Army is listed first then the various Allied Armies. At the top of the file is the version number.

The version number is 2 in campaign Eckmuhl.

Then follows the the Order of Battles.

The first most noticable feature of the file is the the outline format. This helps the reader to identify the hierarchy of the various formations. As you read through the Order of Battle keep in mind that each indentation denotes a subordination to the above line. You will note that each formation (defined as any organization above the unit level, can be comprised of leaders, units and subordinate formations) has the word "Begin" directly under the formation's title line any leader, unit or subordinate formation indentifiers belonging to this Formation will be at the same indention. The Formation continues until you see the word "End" at the same indentation.The "Begin" and "End" can be quite widely seperated! Take note if you do not have both of these the program will read an error message and deploy no troops on the map.

The examples are taken from Talonsoft Borodino (green-Russians), Waterloo (red-British), and Prelude to Waterloo (teal-Prussians). [We'll let the French set this one out.] The Basic outline of the main.oob file is shown in black.

You may include as much as 3 allied nations in an *.oob file at the same time as french army. The list of allied armies available are :
British
Russian
Austrian
Spanish
Prussian
Their spelling must be exactly as above.

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OOB OUTLINE

French A army_name

Russian A The Combined Russian Armies

British A Anglo-Allied Army

Prussian A Das Heer des Niediger Rhien

Begin

L command_level leadership_rating command_rating leader_name

L 4 6 0 General of Infantry Kutuzov

L 5 5 0 Field Marshal Wellington

L 5 6 0 Generalfeldmarschall Blucher

W wing_name

W 1st Army of the West

Begin

L command_level leadership_rating command_rating leader_name

L 4 5 0 General Baron Barclay de Tolly

C corps_name

C 2nd Corps

C I Army Corps

C I Armee-Korps

Begin

L command_level leadership_rating command_rating leader_name

L 4 4 0 Generallieutenant Baggovut

L 3 4 4 Prince of Orange

L 4 5 0 Generalleutnant von Zieten II

D division_name

D 4th Infantry Division

D 1st Infantry Division

D 1. Infanterie-Brigade

Begin

L command_level leadership_rating command_rating leader_name

L 3 4 0 Prince Eugene of Wurttemberg

L 3 4 4 Major General Cooke

L 3 4 0 Major General von Stienmetz

B brigade_name

B 1st Brigade

B 1st British Brigade

B 12. Infantrerie Regiment

Begin

L command_level leadership_rating command_rating leader_name

L 2 4 0 Colonel Pyshnitskoi

L 2 4 4 Major General Maitland

L 2 4 0 Oberstleutnant Othengraven

U strength quality type weapon picture icon unit_name

U 18 -4 R M 44 1 1st Bn./Krementchug Inf. Regt.

U 32 7 F M 40 0 2nd Bn./1st Foot Guards

U 31 4 R M 80 8 1. Bn./12. Inf. Regt.

U strength quality type weapon picture icon unit_name

U 18 -4 R M 44 1 3rd Bn./Krementchug Inf. Regt.

U 32 7 F M 40 0 3rd Bn./1st Foot Guards

U 31 4 R M 80 8 2. Bn./12. Inf. Regt.

End

S Strength picture supply_wagon_name

S 6 59 Supply Wagon

S 6 98 Supply Wagon

S 6 99 Nachsub Wagen

End

the subordinnation is showed by the "tabs" in front of each line
It is important that tabs are correctly typed.

Exemple :
( ------> = 1 tab)

Army
------>Corps
------>------->Division
------>------->-------->Brigade

or :

Army
------>Corps
------>------->brigade

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LEGEND

Title Lines

The Title Lines are found at each formation level. These lines help the program identify where the formation falls in the organizational hierarchy and give the name of the formation that is listed in the Unit Display box. The line begins with a capital letter. Here is the key for them (the first letter of each word is the letter used):

Army

Wing

Corps

Division

Brigade

Notice in the above example the Russian Army is the only army utilizing the Wing level. You may omit levels if you wish. However, with the missing link in a chain you may jeapordize the Morale bonus that is handed down from senior to junior leadrs and eventually the units themselves. Also, just because these titles are used in the main.oob file doesn't mean that you are limit to only these levels for the titles. Notice in the above example the Prussian Division level is actually called a Brigade and their Brigade level is called Regiment. This can be done with any of the title lines. The Wing level may be used to represent the adhoc manner in which the Austrians of 1805 or the Prussians of 1806 divided their troops up on the day of battle into Right, Center and Left; or, to represent Lannes' Prvosional Corps during the 1809 campaign against Austria.

This system is very flexible and with a little imagination and trial and error almost any command structure found during the Napoleonic Era can be represented.

The other lines that start with a capital letter represent:

Leader

Unit

Supply

First we will look at Leaders.

command_level

The second item in a leader's row indicates the level of command that the leader is found:

1 = not used

2 = brigade

3 = division

4 = corps

5 = army

Example: L 5 5 85 Field Marshal Wellington

leadership_rating

The third item is for the leadership rating of the officer. The range for this number in the main.oob file is from 1 (low end) to 6 (high end). In the Leader's display box the ratings are shown as letters, F (low end) to A (high end).

Example: L 3 4 120 Major General von Stienmetz

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Leader pictures

The fourth item is the code rating for the faces used for the leaders in the leaders box display.
Example :

L 3 4 120 Major General von Stienmetz

The Leaders.bmp file contains the faces used in the Leaders Box display.

The Leaders.bmp file is found in the /Info folder of the game. It is a bitmap file made of a quite unlimited number of rows of 10 icons, each of 47 pixels width * 59 pixels height.

Each icon represents a given officer. The officers are numbered starting from 0 (1st icon at the top left of the file) then 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, then to next line, 10, 11, etc.

Another file : anon.bmp is found in the same /Info folder.
It represents the leaders icons apperring when Fog of War is in effect and that you don t see exactly what teh enemy officer is. It also shows the "colonel" icons, used to represent replacement leaders.

It is made in a similar fashion as Leaders.bmp file, except that it is limited to 6 rows of 12 icons. The icon on the left side displays "unknown" leaders, then comes 11 colonel icons.

The first line is for french officers, the comes, in that order : British, Prussian, Russian, Austrian, Spanish Officers.

I think a bug in the program makes that only the french and British officers are used.

The leaders icons are placed by the program over a "leaderbox.bmp" file that is found in the /Info folder.
The Leaderbox.bmp file is a bitmap file of 216 height *774 width pixels.

It is made of 6 rows of 2 boxes each.

The left box is used by the program to display leaders that have not been selected by the program. The right box is in a brighter colour. It is used by the program to display a leader that has been selected by the player, by clicking with the mouse button.

Each row is for a different country, in that order, from top to bottom :

France
Britain
Prussia
Russia
Austria
Spain

The leaders icons are placed by the program in a specific part of the box.

The upper left pixel of a leader icon is set at position 32,15 (for x,y position) of each box.

The right part of each box is used to display text information about the leader : Movement allowance, command rating, etc.

leader_name

The fifth item is for the leader's name.

Example: L 2 4 121 Oberstleutnant Othengraven

Next we will look at Units.

strength

The second number in the Unit Line gives the maximum strength a unit may be. It may be lower in any given scenario. The program also uses it to determine:

1. strength of unit on arrival as a reinforcement.
2. the size of the skirmish breakdowns. The program takes the strength found in the *..oob file and divides it by the number found in the first position of Line 7 in the main.pdt file.

Example: U 26 8 G M 0 13 1er Bn./1er Gren.

quality

The third number rates, numerically, the quality of the unit. The range for this number in the main.oob file is from 1 (low end) to 6 (high end). When there is a minus (-) infront of this number it idicates that the unit will receive the guts/fanatical bonus found in the third line from the bottom in the main.pdt.

Example: U 18 -4 R M 44 1 1st Bn./Krementchug Inf. Regt.

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type

The fourth item in the Unit's Line tells the program what type of unit it is. This letter code corresponds to different lines in the main.pdt file. It tells the program which movement capabiliteis and penalties to use and if the unit can breakdown into skirmishers or not. It also tells the program if the unit is a 2 or 3 rank formation.

A	Foot Artillery (heavy)
B	Foot Artillery
C	Horse Artillery
F	2-rank Guard Infantry (multiple skirmishers)
G	3-rank Guard Infantry (multiple skirmishers)
H	Heavy Cavalry
I	3-rank Line Infantry (single skirmisher only)
K	Cossacks
L	Light Cavalry
M	Militia
P	Pionniers
R	3-rank Line Infantry (cannot skirmish)
S	Independant Skirmish Companies
T	2-rank Line Infantry (single skirmishers)
U	2-rank Light Infantry (multiple skirmishers)
V	3-rank Light Infantry (multiple skirmishers)
D	Dragoons * see note below

Example: U 31 4 R M 80 8 1. Bn./12. Inf. Regt.

Dragoons : these units are cavalry that can DISMOUNT ! dismounted dragoons:
1. Can only be in Line formation. Cant change to column or square.
2. Cannot attack more than once (which mounted units can do if the multiple cavalry melee rule is ON).
3. CAN recover from disorder while in open OR non-open terrain. ALL units that can disorder can now do this btw as of Jena 1.03.
This will get added to Wagram next and then in the next go round of updates, Eckmuhl and the rest of the series.

weapon

The fifth item in the Unit's Line tells the program what kind of weapon the unit uses. This letter code corresponds to different lines in the main.pdt file. The table underneath is from the usual Battlegroung games. Other games may use different weapons. A file called "weapons.dat" includes the name of weapons types.

A	French/Prussian 12 lb. Batteries
B	Russian 12 lb./All Nation's 6, 8 & 9 lb. Batteries
C	All Nation's Howitzer Batteries
D	All Nation's Cavalry Batteries
L	Lances
M	Smooth-bore Muskets
P	Pikes
R	Rifled-bore Muskets
S	Sabre/Sword

Example: U 6 5 C B 42 0 Ramsay's Troop

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picture

The fifth item is a number that tells the program which picture stored in the units.bmp. A more detailed explanation will be presented on a separate page.

Example: U 18 -4 R M 44 1 3rd Bn./Krementchug Inf. Regt.

The units icons are placed by the program over a "unitbox.bmp" file that is found in the /Info folder.
The unitbox.bmp file is a bitmap file of 380 height *774 width pixels.

It is made of 6 rows of 2 boxes each.

The left box is used by the program to display units that have not been selected by the program. The right box is in a brighter colour. It is used by the program to display a unit that has been selected by the player, by clicking with the mouse button.

Each row is for a different country, in that order, from top to bottom :

France
Britain
Prussia
Russia
Austria
Spain

The units icons are placed by the program in a specific part of the box.

The upper left pixel of a unit icon is set at position 22,4 (for x,y position) of each box.

The right part of each box is used to display text information about the unit : Strenght, weapon, fatigue, rating, status, etc.

icon

The sixth item is a reference to the picture line in varous 3DUnitsxxx.bmp files the program will use to when "placing" the unit on a 3D map. These pictures are found in multiple files labelled :

3DUnits100a.bmp and 3DUnits50a.bmp for artillery units
3DUnits100b.bmp and 3DUnits50b.bmp for cavalry units
3DUnits100c.bmp and 3DUnits50c.bmp for infantry units
3DUnits100d.bmp and 3DUnits50d.bmp for supply units and limbered artillery units
3DUnits100e.bmp and 3DUnits50e.bmp for skirmishers units
3DUnits100f.bmp and 3DUnits50f.bmp for leaders

A more detailed explanation will be presented on a separate page

Example: U 20 6 L L 87 14 3. Uhlan Regt.

unit_name

The last item of the line is the Unit's name. This is what will appear in the Unit Display Box.

Example: U 4 9 L S 15 4 Gendarmes d'élite

The lenght of the unit name is limited due to size constraint of the space allocated to it in the unit display bar.
The name appears above a Unitname.bmp file, found in the /Info folder.
The size of the Unit name.bmp file is : 98 pixels width * 16 pixels height.

Finally we'll examine Supply.

strength

The first number represents the number of rounds of ammunition available to resupply infantry units out of ammo or running low.

Example: S 600 98 Supply Wagon

picture

The second number refers to a number that tells the program which picture stored in the units.bmp.

Example: S 600 59 Supply Wagon

supply_wagon_name

The last item of the line is the Unit's name. This is what will appear in the Unit Display Box.

Example: S 600 99 Nachsub Wagen

HINTS AND TIPS

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It has been noticed that when opening .oob files (and this is true for any other .scn, .pdt file) with WIN WORD text editing software, it causes problems, and the files were sometimes not working. This is caused by WIN WORD inserting at random places tabulation spaces and shift line markers that you can't see. To fix that, you must write again the area where these signs are inserted.

To spot these areas, it is wise to open the oob with the GUI OOB EDITOR available in this site. It will show where mistakes are located.

Otherwise : AVOID USING WIN WORD at all cost for editing purpose.

OTHER OOB RELATED FILES

The "weapons.dat" file contains the names of the weapons. It is linked to the weapon value in the oob.

OOB Files Unleashed The HPS Order of Battle (.oob) Files

Introduction OOb outline Legend HINTS AND TIPS

INTRODUCTION

OOB OUTLINE

LEGEND

Title Lines

command_level

leadership_rating

Leader pictures

leader_name

strength

quality

type

weapon

picture

icon

unit_name

strength

picture

supply_wagon_name

OOB Files Unleashed
The HPS Order of Battle (.oob) Files

Introduction
OOb outline
Legend
HINTS AND TIPS