PANZER CORPS TOOLKIT
SCENARIO ASSISTANT MANUAL

OVERVIEW
The Scenario Assistant is a guided, fourteen-step workspace for planning, documenting, and preparing a Panzer Corps scenario. It does not replace the Panzer Corps Scenario Editor. It collects scenario data, maps, forces, briefings, victory conditions, messages, and designer notes in one project.

Projects are normally saved as:
Documents\Panzer Corps Toolkit\Scenario Assistant\<Scenario Name>.json

Use Save to store the current project, Previous Step and Next Step to move through the wizard, and Skip Step when a page is not yet needed. Entered data is preserved when moving between steps.

STEP 1 — SCENARIO NAME
Enter the working name of the scenario. This name is used for the project filename and for the default briefing filenames. Avoid characters that Windows does not allow in filenames.

STEP 2 — SCENARIO DATE
Enter the scenario date in DD/MM/YYYY format. The default is 01/09/1939. The date is reused by Global Parameters, equipment availability checks, OOB generation, and weather generation.

STEP 3 — GENERAL INFO
Enter the location and historical name of the battle. Select the nations for the Player Side and Opponent Side. Nation IDs 0–34 are shown as their actual nation names. The recommended limit is five nations per side. More than five are allowed, but a warning is shown.

STEP 4 — MAP
Paste a map from the clipboard or load a common image format. Large images are scaled to fit the viewer while keeping their aspect ratio. The original image remains part of the project data.

STEP 5 — GLOBAL PARAMETERS
Review or enter the Scenario Name, Scenario Description, Theatre, Date, Number of Turns, Days per Turn, and Turns per Day.

The built-in Weather Predictor can run in the background. It creates a complete day-by-day weather schedule from the scenario date and duration. The schedule appears below Ground Condition and shows the relevant date, covered turns, weather, and ground state. All generated values remain editable.

Weather probabilities include Clouds, Rain, Snow, and Sandstorm. Ground Condition can be Dry, Mud, or Frozen.

STEP 6 — PLAYER'S SIDE
Enter the player's side name and numerical settings: Initial Prestige, Prestige per Turn, Core Slots, Auxiliary Slots, Unit Experience, Experience Cap, Overstrength Cap, and Number of Elite Units. Unit Experience and Experience Cap have a maximum of 599. Overstrength Cap accepts values from 0 to 5. Choose Share Flags and Attacker as Yes or No.

Initial Prestige automatically fills the prestige field in Step 7 and remains synchronized.

STEP 7 — PLAYER'S OOB
Enter the Name of Army and select an OOB construction method:
• Manual
• Army Doctrine Generator
• OOB Generator

Manual selection shows only units belonging to the player nations selected in Step 3. Use the Class dropdown to filter the list, including All Classes. The maximum army size is Core Slots plus Auxiliary Slots from Step 6.

Generate creates an army for the first time. Regenerate replaces the displayed generated army. Generated forces use real entries from equipment.pzeqp and respect selected nations, scenario date, available prestige, core and auxiliary slots, and applicable doctrine. Entries with nopurchase or bonus traits and class 6 Structure are excluded. The visible list identifies Core and Auxiliary units and shows real unit information. Attacker status is used internally and is not printed in each unit row.

STEP 8 — OPPONENT'S SIDE
Enter the same side settings as in Step 6 for the opponent. Initial Prestige automatically fills Step 9. The opponent's attacker status is the inverse of the player's attacker setting.

STEP 9 — OPPONENT'S OOB
This page works like Step 7, but uses the opponent nations selected in Step 3 and the settings from Step 8. Manual selection, class filtering, Generate, Regenerate, slot limits, budget handling, and equipment exclusions work in the same way.

STEP 10 — INTRO BRIEFING
Create, import, edit, save, or save as a Panzer Corps intro briefing. The default filename is:
<Scenario Name>A.PZBRF

Panzer Corps briefing markup is compulsory. Use tags such as <p>...</p> for paragraphs and <b>...</b> for bold text. The editor supports Copy, Cut, and Paste from external programs. Plain pasted text is converted into paragraph markup where appropriate.

Briefings are saved in Panzer Corps-compatible format: UTF-16 Little Endian with BOM and CRLF line endings.

STEP 11 — OUTCOME BRIEFINGS
Use the three collapsible editors for Decisive Victory, Marginal Victory, and Loss. Each supports Copy, Cut, Paste, Save, and Save As. Default filenames are:
<Scenario Name>B_decisiveB.pzbrf
<Scenario Name>C_marginal.pzbrf
<Scenario Name>D_loss.pzbrf

The same compulsory markup and file format rules as Step 10 apply. Skip Step is available when outcome briefings are not yet ready.

STEP 12 — VICTORY CONDITIONS
Enter the conditions for Decisive Victory, Marginal Victory, and Loss. Save, Save As, Previous Step, Next Step, and Skip Step are available.

STEP 13 — IN-GAME MESSAGES
The page starts with two columns, Turn and Message, and nine message rows. Turn accepts numbers only. Use the + button below the last row to add another message. Save, Save As, Previous Step, Next Step, and Skip Step are available.

STEP 14 — DESIGNER NOTES
Use the large text area for design notes, historical sources, testing remarks, instructions, and other project information.

Save stores the JSON project. Save As chooses another project filename. Save as Text exports the complete project from Steps 1–14 as an ordinary human-readable .txt file without JSON syntax or HTML coding. Mail prepares a message with both the JSON project and the text export attached. Print prints the complete project. Quit closes the assistant. If unsaved changes exist, Quit offers Save, Don't Save, and Cancel.

PROJECT FILES AND RECOVERY
The JSON file is the editable Scenario Assistant project and should be kept as the master copy. The text export is intended for reading, sharing, printing, and review. Briefing files are saved separately in .PZBRF format.

GOOD WORKFLOW
1. Enter the scenario name and date first.
2. Select both sides before building OOBs.
3. Enter turns and timing before generating weather.
4. Enter prestige and slot limits before generating armies.
5. Save regularly, especially after adding maps or long briefing text.
6. Use the text export for testers and collaborators; keep the JSON file for continued editing.
