Loading and Saving BG's and Force Pools
BGEdit can load BG's and Force Pools in either .ADB or .TXT format. The file dialog box is used to indicate the folder and the file type. Either the Bgroups or the FPools file may be specified. Once loaded, all the BG's and Force Pools from the game exist locally within BGEdit's working space. All changes made will not be stored in the BGroups and FPools files unti a Save operation is performed, a la a typical Windows application. The files will be saved in the format in which they were loaded.
In addition to the Bgroups and FPools files, the AlsTeams and GETeams files are also loaded from the same folder. They are expected to exist in the same folder containing BGroups and FPools, and are expected to be in the same ADB/TXT format as read for BGroups and FPools. The AlsTeams and GETEams files are used for reference only and their contents are not changed upon a Save operation.
Battlegroup/Force Pool edit
Changes to Battlegroups and their Force Pools are done in the BG tab pages. There is a tab page for each side, Allied and German. All the available teams in the game are provided in a hierachical display for picking. Clicking on the plus sign (+) expands a given group. Teams can be added or removed from the BG's Force Pool by clicking the corresponding button. To remove a team from the Force Pool, select either the team name or its quantity by clicking on the cell.
The quantity values can be changed by selecting a given quantity cell using the mouse and then modifying the value. Important: The quantity is changed by exiting the cell. This results in a quirck when editing the last quantity value in a Force Pool. In order for the new quantity to be accepted in the last row, it is necessary to exit the cell using a Tab or Arrow key. The Enter key will not work.
Which Force Pool is displayed and modified by actions in the page is determined by the Date and Difficulty settings in the Options window.
Replicate Force Pools
Because there are thousands of force pool records, most persons do not wish to edit them manually. BGEdit provides various replication functions for the purposes of replicating a force pool to other dates and difficulty levels. The replication functions are Replicate-By-Date, Replicate-By-Difficulty, and Replicate. Replicate-By-Date will replicate a force pool across all dates. Replicate-By-Difficulty will replicate a force pool across all difficulty levels. Replicate will replicate across both dates and difficulty levels. The replicate functions only replicate a force pool to other force pools internal to the battlegroup. They do not replicate force pools across battlegroups.
The last function is Team-Replace, and will replace a given team in all the force pools in one side, Allied or German, with another team. Team numbers from the teams tables are included for reference.
CC4 and CC5
Force Pools are implemented differently in CC4 vs. CC5, and this impacts how BGEdit is to be used. In CC4, battlegroups are reinforced each day from the force pool quantities for the current date. As a result, customized changes to force pools must be replicated across all dates so that the desired teams will be available each day. Typically one will manually edit the force pools for one date only, for example Date=0, and then replicate the force pool for Date=0 across all other dates.
While quantities in CC4 are per day quantities, a turn allocates 1/2 day of time. CC4 automatically reserves teams and will often withhold teams on the first turn of the day if teams are in short supply. As a result, a quantity=1 may not cause a team to appear on the first turn of a day because CC4 may reserve the team for the second turn. Allocating a quantity of 3 for each team slot requiring that team usually guarantees that the team will be available for both turns. In CC5, with one exception, force pools are not reinforced, and their quantities for the entire compaign are established by Date=0 values. The force pool quatities for Dates > 0 do not appear to be used for the Grand Campaign, but rather appear to be used for battles and operations beginning on a date other than Date=0. The one exception is that the Allied player is allowed one reinforcement, but this reinforcement appears to be done from Date=0 values. So in CC5, the Date=0 quantities appear to be the only relevant values for a Grand Campaign starting on June 6th.
In CC4, teams in the force pool are allocated to team slots in the battlegroup by the computer. It is very important in CC4 that team types in the battlegroups and teams in the force pools be compatible. If a team type does not have a compatible team avaiable in the force pool, the computer may leave the team slot empty at time of battle. Therefore when editing teams in CC4, one must be mindful of the team types in the battgroup.
On the other hand, in CC5, team types in the BG are not important and the player may manually insert any team from the force pool into a given team slot. So attention to BG-force pool relations when editing in CC5 is not important.
Lastly, in CC4 multiple BG's share the same force pool. In CC5, each BG has its own force pool. In CC4 changes made to a given force pool will become apparent when displaying other BG's sharing the same force pool. Secondly, calculating quantities in sufficient supply is more complicated in CC4 because multiple battlegroups can share a force pool.