A package to make Hex'n'Counter wargames in LaTeX

Version 0.8

This package can help make classic Hex'n'Counter wargames using LaTeX. The package provide tools for generating

• Hex maps and boards
• Counters (called chits since TeX have already taken counters) for units, markers, and so on
• Counter sheets
• Order of Battle charts
• Illustrations in the rules using the defined maps and counters

The result will often be a PDF (or set of PDFs) that contain everything one will need for a game (rules, charts, boards, counter sheets).

• The package uses NATO App6 symbology for units.
• The package uses TikZ for most things.
• The package support exporting the game to a VASSAL module

Sources

The sources of the package are kept at GitLab

Downloads available at GitLab

• Zip file of package and support files
• Browse content of package
• Documentation
• Tutorial (and associated VASSAL module)
• Table of symbols
• Compatibility

Installation

The instructions below are geared towards Un*x-like systems, for example GNU/Linux and MacOSX. For more information on setting the prerequisites and this package on various platforms, please see this page.

From ZIP file

To install, get the (zip file) and unzip into your TeX tree, for example

mkdir -p ~/texmf
(cd ~/texmf && unzip ../wargame_tex.zip)

From git clone

If you clone from GitLab

git clone https://gitlab.com/wargames_tex/wargame_tex.git

to get the sources, then you can do,

cd wargame
make install 

to install in ~/texmf. If you prefer another destination, say /usr/local/share/texmf, do

make install DESTDIR=/usr/local/share/texmf

Download from CTAN

The package is available from CTAN in the directory /macros/latex/contrib/wargame. The package is part of the CTAN distribution TeXLive.

From TDS zip archive

You can get the TDS zip file and unpack that into your desired destination, e.g., ~/texmf

unzip wargame.tds.zip -d ~/texmf

or

sudo unzip wargame.tds.zip -d /usr/local/share/texmf 

From sources

If you get the source (wargame.ins, all .dtx,.py, and Makefile) files, then do

make install 

to install into ~/texmf. If you prefer to install somewhere else, say /usr/local/share/texmf, then do

make install DESTDIR=/usr/local/share/texmf 

If you do not have make (or gmake on MacOSX), or because you are on some system which does not have that tool (e.g., Windows), then do (the equivalent of)

latex wargame.ins
pdflatex wargame.beach
pdflatex wargame.city
pdflatex wargame.light_woods
pdflatex wargame.mountains
pdflatex wargame.rough
pdflatex wargame.swamp
pdflatex wargame.town
pdflatex wargame.village
pdflatex wargame.woods

(You need to use pdflatex, xelatex, or lualatex - plain latex with DVI output will not work)

Then copy the relevant files to your TeX tree (e.g., ~/texmf/) as

mkdir ~/texmf/tex/latex/wargame
cp tikzlibrary*.tex ~/texmf/tex/latex/wargame/
cp wargame.sty      ~/texmf/tex/latex/wargame/
cp wgexport.cls     ~/texmf/tex/latex/wargame/
cp wargame.*.pdf    ~/texmf/tex/latex/wargame/
cp wgexport.py      ~/texmf/tex/latex/wargame/
cp wgsvg2tikz.py    ~/texmf/tex/latex/wargame/

To generate the documentation, after having done the above, do

pdflatex wargame.dtx
makeindex -s gind -o wargame.ind wargame.idx
pdflatex wargame.dtx
pdflatex wargame.dtx
pdflatex symbols.tex
pdflatex compat.tex
pdflatex compat.tex

(You need to use pdflatex, xelatex, or lualatex - plain latex with DVI output will not work)

You can install these into your TeX tree with (e.g., ~/texmf/)

mkdir -p ~/texmf/doc/latex/wargame/
cp wargame.pdf  ~/texmf/doc/latex/wargame/
cp symbols.pdf  ~/texmf/doc/latex/wargame/
cp compat.pdf   ~/texmf/doc/latex/wargame/

If you want to generate the tutorial document, do

cd tutorial 
make 

or

cd tutorial
pdflatex game
pdflatex game 

If you also want to make the tutorial VASSAL module, do (also in tutorial), do

pdflatex export.tex 
../wgexport.py export.pdf export.json -o Game.vmod \
    -d "Example module from LaTeX PnP game" \
    -t "LaTeX wargame tutorial" -v 0.1 \
    -p patch.py
    

Note, you need pdfinfo and pdftocairo from Poppler, and Python with the module PIL for this. On Debian-based systems, do

sudo apt install poppler-utils python3-pil

Tutorial

See the tutorial page for more (here if you browse from CTAN).

Another simple example to get you started is the game Tannenberg4 also available from GitLab.

Examples

Below are some print'n'play board wargames made with this package. See also LaTeX Wargames for more. These are not original games but rather revamps of existing games. All credits goes to the original authors of these games.

• American Civil War
  • Smithsonian Gettysberg (Avalon Hill)
• WWI
  • Tannenberg4
• WWII
  • Eastern Front
    • Battle for Moscow (classic introductory game)
    • Western Front
      • D-Day (Avalon Hill classic)
        • Smithsonian D-Day (Avalon Hill)
        • Smithsonian Battle of the Bulge (Avalon Hill)
        • The Drive on Metz (from The Complete Wargames Handbook)
    • Pacific theatre
      • First Blood (Avalon Hill International Kriegspiel Association classic)
    • Africa
      • Afrika Korps (Avalon Hill classic)
• Modern/Speculative
  • Strike Force One
    • Kriegspiel (Avalon Hill classic)
    • Port Stanley (from the Wargamer magazine)
• Abstract
  • Battle

VASSAL support

The packages has the script wgexport.py to generate a draft VASSAL module from the defined charts, boards, counters, OOBs, and so on. More about this is given in the documentation.

The script will generate a first draft of a module, which then can be edited in the VASSAL editor for the final thing.

Alternatively, one can provide a Python script to do more on the generated module, such as defining starting positions, fixing grid layouts, and so on. Using such a patch script, one can get an (almost) final module. This means, that even if one makes changes to the original content, it is easy to remake the module without much need for the VASSAL editor.

An example of this is given in the Battle for Moscow project, and of course in the tutorial

The sources of this script is kept in a different project pywargame also on GitLab. The script is generated in that package. The pywargame package allows one to manipulate VASSAL modules from Python, or to read (and convert) CyberBoard (GitHub) scenarios.

NATO App6

The package supports

• All air, equipment, installation, land, sea surface, sub surface, and space command symbols, including amplifiers and modifiers
• All friendly, hostile, neutral, and unknown faction frame. Undecided faction frames can be made by specifying dashed line styles.
• Some, but very few, other kinds of symbology.

Here are some references for more information on the NATO App6 symbology standard.

• The Wikipedia page on NATO Joint Military Symbology
• The NATO page. If this does not work for you, then try to go to the standards page and put in and write in SYMBOLOGY in the Document Title Contains Words field and press Start.
• Other LaTeX package for making NATO symbology XMilSymb

Copyright and license

(c) 2022 Christian Holm Christensen

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC-BY-SA-4.0). To view a copy of this license, visit CC or send a letter to Creative Commons, PO Box 1866, Mountain View, CA 94042, USA.

Some comments on copyright

Caveat: I am not a lawyer.

Note that this license applies to the wargame package as such. What you generate using the package is not required to be licensed according to the ShareAlike clause of CC-BY-SA-4.0. That is, you can license your materials any way you want.

However, copyright rights on games is not as prohibitive as you may think (see this thread on BGG). What you can copyright is original, artistic expression. That is, the copyrighted work must not be a copy of something else (originality) and must be some form of expression. One cannot copyright ideas, only their expression in so far as it is artistic (i.e., not a trivial expression that anyone knowledgeable within the field can do with rudimentary effort).

This means you can not copyright your game mechanics, for example, only how you described them. You can not copyright a title (but you may be able to claim trademark on it). You can copyright the wording of the rules, the graphics that you use, and so on.

This also means, that you are essentially free to make your own version of previously published game, as long as

• you do not copy existing text,
• you do not copy existing graphics, and
• you respect any kind of trademark claims

However, it is advisable to contact the copyright holders of the previously published game to avoid SNAFU. If in doubt, seek professional help.