	AACW Battle Report ("ABR") is a Windows-based utility program that excerpts from !BattleLog.txt the shot-by-shot experience of each unit engaged in a battle of Ageod's American Civil War("AACW"), and presents this information in a Notepad-readable (.txt) format organized according to the higher headquarters of these units.

	To use ABR, you must generate !BattleLog.txt, which provides an extremely detailed account of every battle that appears in the game's battle screen.  Do this from the game's main menu by clicking on "Options", then "System", and then checking the box for "Error Logging".  (The tooltip will warn you that this may slow down turn processing; if it does, I've never noticed it.)  Every time you exit, the game will then produce several files, including !BattleLog.txt if you finish a turn, and put them in a folder called "Logs" within the "AACW" folder of your main game folder.  Unfortunately, this means that you cannot pause your game with Alt-Tab after the resolution phase of each turn, run ABR, then resume your game.  You have to exit the game to generate the log files, run ABR, and then restart the game program.

	However, if you want to play several turns without interruption, the !BattleLog.txt generated when you finally exit will contain all of the battles fought during your session, and they will all appear (up to a maximum of 21 battles) on the battle menu when you run ABR.  In this case, don't be confused by the "Days" that appear on the battle menu.  The battles are listed in chronogical order, earliest first, so if, say, Day 1 follows Day 9 on the menu, Day 1 refers to the first day of a later half-month turn.  (!BattleLog.txt, alas, does not record the turn or turns it covers.)     
	Beware that !BattleLog.txt and the other log files in the "Logs" folder are erased or overwritten every time you restart the game, not at the end of the next turn.  So if you start the game, work on your orders, and then exit the game without finishing the turn, don't expect to find the !BattleLog.txt from the previous turn in the "Logs" folder.  It's a bit of a hassle, but I get around this by copying the new !BattleLog.txt to a user-created folder (I call mine "Old Logs", and inside create a new folder for each turn) every time I finish a turn and exit the game.  This method has the added benefit of creating an accurate record of every battle fought during your war or campaign, making it easy to write an AAR.

	Run ABR by double-clicking on its icon within the folder where you install it, or on a desktop shortcut that you create.  ABR looks for a !BattleLog.txt file within its own folder.  This means that you must install ABR either by copying the AACW Battle Report.exe file into the "Logs" folder, and use it every time you finish a turn and exit the game, or put it in the user-created folder to which you copy the !BattleLog.txt files.

	When you choose a battle from the ABR battle menu, the program creates a text file called BattleRep.txt, saves it in the same folder, and then opens it in Notepad.  The saved file will obviously be overwritten by the next battle report you view, so use the drop-down "Save As ..." option in the Notepad "File" menu to save the report under a different name if you want to save a copy of the report beyond your next report.

	The battle report is not fancy, primarily because of my design decision to stick with a simple .txt file.  The terms "Force" and "Element" are used as in the game.  A force is any collection of elements that can move independently; it may be an army corps, or an independent command with or without a leader.  An element is the lowest-level unit in the game, typically representing an infantry or cavalry regiment, an artillery battery or a support company.  (Elements are highlighted in the report with "--->".)

	!BattleLog.txt does not keep track of brigades, so they are not shown as higher HQ's in the battle report.  In fact, brigades play little part in AACW, except to provide some period color through their names, and the frustrating inability to break them down into their constituent elements.  If you'll pardon the editorial comment, this is one of the game's few shortcomings, since in the later years of the real war both sides learned the advantage of collecting their cavalry and artillery in separate units. AACW allows this to only a limited extent, with most of the cav and arty being bound to the infantry brigades with which they muster in.  

	The summaries for each element and higher HQ are (I believe) largely self-explanatory.  Pay attention to the relationship between "average final chance", "shots", and "hits".  Obviously battles are won or lost based on the damage each side inflicts on the other.  Damage depends on the number of hits, which is very likely to be within a couple of standard deviations of the product of average final chance multiplied by the number of shots.  More firing elements and a higher rate-of-fire yield more shots.  Final chance, or probablity, depends on a great many factors, and is usually the source of your frustration when you have a three-to-one superiority in strength and still manage to lose a battle.    

	The blow-by-blow stuff below the element summaries shows all the shots (including assaults) by or against that element during the battle.  For each shot, you'll see the round and range, then two percentage probabilities separated by a slash. The first is the base hit chance.  At a range greater than zero, the base chance equals the shooter's offensive or defensive fire value (depending on its force's rules of engagement (ROE)) multiplied by 1.25.  For assaults (combats at a range of zero), both the assaulting and defending elements get a chance to hurt the other, and their basic hit chances equal 0.4 times their assault values times their discipline (or "TQ").   

	The second percentage shown is the final chance, which takes into account all of the other factors affecting the battle, including cohesion, leaders, terrain, weather, entrenchments, river crossings, supply wagons and so forth.  (Most of these factors appear in the icons near the bottom of the game's battle screen.)

	The next number shown is the computer's 100-side die roll; if it is equal to or less than the final chance, the shot hits and the report shows the strength and cohesion lost by the target.  The last entry is the Action Number assigned to the shot in !BattleLog.txt.  Sometimes it helps to see how the final hit chance was determined; just open !BattleLog.txt in Notepad and use the Edit-Find... option, entering an asterisk(*), then a space, then the Action Number in the search field (e.g. for (Act#238) enter * 238).  Depending on how many battles your BattleLog.txt contains, you may have to search forward several times, but you will quickly find the shot you want.

	You may notice some minor discrepancies between BattleRep.txt and the battle screen shown in the game.  For example, the game calculates total losses based on the damage normally done by the firing element, which is the first value shown for the element's Ranged Damage or Assault Damage, as appropriate, not on the defender's actual strength loss.  So if a defender with one HP remaining is hit and destroyed by an attacker whose Ranged Damage is two, the game's battle screen will add two hits, but BattleRep.txt records only one.  Similarly, a leader may be fired upon and hit (in the sense that the die roll is less than the final firing odds) repeatedly without being killed; BattleRep.txt records the kill only if the leader actually dies (as shown by a small cross next to his icon on the battle screen).

	On the other hand, I've noticed that sometimes a defending unit with low cohesion just gives up and dies when it's hit, even if its remaining strength points exceed the attacker's normal damage.  In this case, BattleRep.txt shows all of the defender's remaining HP's as losses.  Thus the losses shown in the report may be more, or they may be less, than those that appear on the game's battle screen.

	As another example, BattleRep.txt includes only the elements and higher HQ's that actually participate in the battle, either as the attacker or defender in at least one action.  I've noticed that the battle screen sometimes shows leaders and elements that are not participants in this sense, either because they retreat before they're bloodied, or due to the game's frontage limitations.

	I hope you enjoy the battle reporter, and perhaps learn some things about AACW that help your play.  There are bound to be a few bugs; please let me know if you find any.  Also, I'd appreciate hearing what you like or dislike about ABR.  If there's enough interest I'll try to add some options in future revisions.

Caccio   

	           