Sometimes that might not give you exactly what you want, the map might have extended in the wrong direction. You then have to experiment with the X and Y offset settings to get the desired result. I am sure there is a logic to how the map moves in certain directions when you resize it, and what is the correct X and Y setting to correct it, but I can’t be bothered to figure it out, and I probably would not be able to explain it to you anyway, so I just experiment with the X and Y settings until it is right. Note that you often have to put in a minus X or Y setting to move the map the right way, and always click on the “Resize the current map” button to amend the map, NEVER the “Make a new empty map” button.
Now that the map should be completed to our satisfaction, lets move onto the finishing touches. First, lets have a look at the "Conditions Button". Click on this button at the top of the screen:
This brings up another sub screen, where you can make some choices about the weather and lighting conditions for your battle:
For most battles you probably won’t want to alter the standard choices. But if you want to change the weather, you just click on the arrow buttons to scroll through the options. Please note that the rain and snow options do adversely affect all shooters except javelins with a minus 50 POA modifier.
The next option is for the type of lighting to take effect during the scenario, you can separately set the day time lighting, twilight and night. There are arrow buttons to scroll through as normal. If you hover the mouse button over arrows, you will see the hours in which the lighting takes affect. They are:
Day 0630 to 2029
Twilight 0430 to 0629 and 2030 to 2229
Night 2230 to 0429
The next option is the Start Time. This is the time that the scenario will start, and you just type in the time that you want to set. Notice that the default value is 0900, and for an ancient battle you normally would just leave it at that, as we usually don’t know what actual day it started, let alone the time. There are some battles though, that we know started in darkness (eg: Castulo 211 BC) and for those you will need to change the start time appropriately.
With the start time set to anything between 0630 and 2029, when you change the daytime lighting using the arrows above, you will immediately see the effect of the different lighting options, that will help you decide which style you prefer. They are also named which might help!
The last option is the number of minutes per turn. Again, just type in what you want that to be. Normally you would leave it at 15 minutes which is the default, but there are circumstances when you might want to change it. Please note that this value seems to be for each side. For instance when it is set at 15 minutes, that is 15 minutes for Side 0 and then another 15 minutes for Side 1, so it is actually 30 minutes for the turn in total.
So say we were creating the Battle of Castulo , and we wanted 4 turns of darkness before it gets light. We could actually set the Start Time at 0430, and the Minutes per Turn at 15.
Please note that the Twilight and Night time lighting is purely cosmetic, it does not affect actual visibility or Line of sight on the battlefield for your units, I will explain how you do that in another instalment.