Double Sided Counters - lifelike/countersheetsextension GitHub Wiki
Double-sided counters are very common. This tutorial continues from the Editing Counters tutorial. Open counters.svg but make sure it is in a clean state (no generated counters; just remove those layers if they exist).
A good idea is to copy counters.csv and work with the copy, so that the original file still remains to be used with other tutorials later.
There are a lot of things in this tutorial. A file counters-2sides.csv is included with the other examples that shows exactly what the CSV file should look like after applying all the changes to make the double-sided counters as described below.
To make double-sided counters the same templates are used as for single-sided counters. It is all done by editing the CSV (see Editing Counters tutorial)!
So open up the counters.csv example data file.
| unit | combat | move |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | 5 | 4 |
| 2 | 2 | 3 |
Optional: Try to Generate Countersheet now just to make sure everything still works as intended. You should get a single sheet with a total of 5 counters.
Remember the trick mentioned in Editing Counters to generate counters then undo (ctrl-Z) to quickly get back to a clean state to do more edits and repeat until the countersheet(s) look as intended!
To tell the extension to generate two sides of counters a new heading in the first row is needed. After (to the right of) the last column add a header saying BACK. Just that single word, in upper-case. That means all the headers following it to the right will describe the back of the counter.
Assuming that these counters are for some kind of wargame and that the back is used for a unit that has taken losses, the combat value on the back of each counter should probably be lower than on its front. Add a combat header in the cell to the right of BACK and fill in some lowered values for each unit. For instance the units that had 5 on the front can have 3 on the back, the units that had 2 can be reduced to 1.
| unit> | combat | move | BACK | combat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 5 | 4 | 3 | |
| 2 | 2 | 3 | 1 |
Try to Generate Countersheet! Did that work? Probably not. Adding a BACK header is not enough. Because there can be a mix of single-sided and double-sided counters on the same sheet, the cell in the column below BACK must also say y (or yes, or just a x) for each row that should generate a double-sided counter. Just add y for each row of counters and Generate Countersheet again.
(NOTE: Before version 2.1 you had to put BACK instead in each cell in that row, so if you are still on an older version type in that instead.)
Still no counters. That is because we have not said anything about what counter to use for the back of each counter. Counters can have sides that look very different from each other, so there is no assumption that the same template is used for both sides. To fix this add a > (greater-than) after the template name (unit). Then run the extension again!
Now there should be two new layers, one for the front and one for the back of the countersheet. Notice that the order of the counters on the back of the sheet are properly mirrored for each counter’s sides to line up correctly when sheets are printed and glued together.
| unit> | combat | move | BACK | combat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 5 | 4 | y | 3 |
| 2 | 2 | 3 | y | 1 |
Saw anything strange about the generated counters? Yup, they all have a movement rating of 7 on the back side! How is that? It happens because the template has the digit 7 as a placeholder for the move text and for the back of the counters we did not specify any move. There are two ways to fix this. One is to add move just as combat was added above. But what if we know that move will always be identical on both sides? Then we can save a lot of work by a simple trick: Add a > (greater-than) sign after move in the header, just as we did for the template! Now Generate Countersheet and the back of each counter should have the same move rating as the front.
| unit> | combat | move> | BACK | combat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 5 | 4 | y | 3 |
| 2 | 2 | 3 | y | 1 |
It is also possible to use different templates for the front and back of a counter, but that is outside of the scope of this tutorial.
tl;dr:
- The header needs a BACK and each row below a y/yes/x (in the same column).
- Append a > to each cell that should be copied over to the back, including the template name.
- Add columns to the right of BACK for things that are specific to back of counters.
See also: Editing Counters, Templates and Examples, Side-By-Side Folding Layout