You build a routine as a list of words of command, press Build & Run, and watch it on
the parade square. Nothing is uploaded and nothing is lost by experimenting — your work
stays in this browser until you save it to a file.
Five steps
-
Set the formation up. Pick Platoon or Colour party, then set the size
on the unit card. Ranks follow CF 201 — up to 5 members form one rank, 6–9 form
two, 10 or more form three.
-
Add your commands. + Move adds a step. Each step is one word
of command, in the order you would give it.
-
Say who obeys. A step targets everyone by default. Choose
Selected and click members on the square to give a command to just those people
— that is how two halves of a squad turn different ways at once.
-
Build & Run. This compiles the routine, checks it and redraws the
square. Until you press it, nothing you have typed has moved anybody.
-
Watch it. Space plays and pauses, the arrow keys step one pace at a
time, and dragging the scrub bar moves through the routine. Fit frames the whole thing.
What each part of a step means
- Movement
-
The word of command, grouped by kind. A command the squad cannot obey from
where it is standing is not offered — a rifle at the order cannot be given Change Arms,
and a pace stick can never be given Present Arms. If a command you expect is missing, it
is almost always because of the state the previous steps left the squad in.
- Who
-
Everyone, a whole unit, a rank, an off number, or Selected — the members you
have clicked on the square. The ⊙ button re-captures the current selection into the
step.
- Start (@)
-
The tick the command begins on. One tick is one pace — half a second at normal speed.
Leave it blank and the step runs after everything above it; the faint number in the
field is where that works out to. Type a tick to make two steps overlap, which is how
simultaneous movements are written. Different people may share a tick; the same person
may not, and the routine will tell you.
- Paces
-
How far a marching command carries. Only shown for movements that take a count — a Halt
or a turn has its own fixed length, so the field disappears.
Reading the square and the timeline
Symbols follow CF 201 figure 1-1-1: a square is a service member, a filled
square is the marker, and the appointments carry their own symbols in gold. The timeline
below the square has one track per person, so you can see who is doing what and when. A
red block means two commands are fighting over the same person at the same tick.
The status line under the routine is the check on your work. Green means the routine is
drillable as written. A warning is legal but worth a look — leaving the parade square, for
example. An error names the step and the reason, and the step itself is marked in the
list.
Ready-made routines
These are complete competition sequences you can open, read and take apart. Opening one
replaces what is currently in the panel.
Keyboard
- ?
- open this help
- Space
- play / pause
- ← →
- step one pace back / forward
-
Alt + ↑ /
↓
- move the focused step up or down the routine
- Esc
- close a dialog
The divider between the panel and the square can be dragged, or focused and moved with the
left and right arrow keys, if you want more room to read a long command.
Where the drill comes from
Movements, symbols and formations follow the
CF Manual of Drill & Ceremonial (A-DH-201-000/PT-000), with Lee-Enfield drill taken from the RCSC manual. Where the manual is silent the
simulator makes the simplest reasonable choice; if something looks wrong against your
copy, please use Report an Issue and say which paragraph.