NewRecruit Docs

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Core Concepts ​

NewRecruit data is built from a small set of pieces.

  • Game system: the ruleset foundation of cost types, profile shapes, categories, and the forces that structure an army. One per game.
  • Catalogue: a faction's content, its units, wargear, and rules. A system usually has many catalogues.
  • Library catalogue: a catalogue marked as a library, holding shared content that other catalogues import rather than a playable faction. See Library catalogues.

Each is stored as XML (.gst for a system, .cat for a catalogue), zipped XML, or JSON. The format is your choice and doesn't change the data; JSON gives the cleanest git history (see Best Practices).

  • Selection entries: the things a player picks (units, models, weapons, upgrades). They nest into groups and reference each other with links.
  • Profiles and characteristics: the stat blocks (Move, Save, Range) attached to entries.
  • Categories: tags used both for grouping units in the builder and for logic. Every unit needs one primary category.
  • Constraints: limits (min/max, exactly, percentages) on what can be taken.
  • Conditions: tests that turn other rules on or off.
  • Modifiers: changes to values (cost, name, characteristics) applied when conditions pass.

A note on finding things in the editor: when these pages name a field or flag (Collective, Aliases, Show tracker, Affects...), it lives in the right-hand panel shown when the node is selected in the tree. Creating things and structural actions (new entries, Move To, References) are on the node's right-click menu.

The ideas that take the most getting used to have their own pages:

  • Forces: the containers an army is built from, and how categories make units available in them.
  • Scope & Context: which part of the army a condition or constraint looks at.
  • Links & Shared Entries: defining something once and using it in many places.
  • Profiles & Rules: stat blocks, rules text, and how their type controls display.
  • Conditions: tests that gate rules on and off.
  • Constraints: limits on what can be taken, including automatic constraints.
  • Modifiers: changes to values, including relative modifiers that affect other nodes.
  • Associations: attaching one selection to another, such as a leader joining a unit.
  • Collective: how identical models in a unit are shown and counted.
  • In-text References: auto-linking names in rules text.