Custom Character Sheet for military units

Help and advice please. I am trying to set up some military history board game type (Avalon Hill) scenarios on Roll20 for my classes. Some of these will be ancient (Caesar, Alexander, etc.), some will be modern, all will be recreations/reconstructions of famous decisive battles - which I believe will be both educational and fun for the students. PROBLEM - I want to set up character sheets for, lets say a M4 Sherman, so like with the D&D character sheets (which I am familiar with) we can use the machine gun or main gun and conduct combat. I have the counter token from a jpg, I have a picture of the tank, I have the basic tank data, I even have some awesome hex maps from Panzer Blitz and other games.But I just cannot figure out how to make a very basic character sheet from scratch. While I have been a pro user on Roll20 for the last year and I have learned a great deal..........I cannot figure out how to set up a very simple character sheet from scratch. Yes, I have read the on-line guide and have watched a video, but I just do not either have some of the software or knowledge to start. Really nothing fancy so any very simplified suggestion as to how to set up the sheet for combat would be very helpful and totally appreciated. Or if you are aware of any already established Roll20 type game that uses the same idea. Thank you very much for your help. Ketih

Tip: Search for Vehicle (case sensitive) in your Art Library for all the free artwork in there, including lots of WW2 vehicles. 

Something you might try is to NOT make a custom sheet right off the bat. Create a game with the sheet option set to "None".  That will give you the generic sheet with just the Bio & Info tab and the Attributes & Abilities tab.  Figure out what rolls need to be made (ability macros).  Constructing those will require coming up with the stats (attributes) that you will need to be able to call on with your macros.  If some of the vehicles will use stats that others don't, then make sure you have them all covered.  Once they are all covered, then you will have the list of attributes that will need input fields on your sheet, and you will know what macros need to have roll buttons. That may be overly simplistic, but that is where I would start.  How many attributes do you need to incorporate into the sheet?  How will they be named to make sure you don't run into any repeats, but they remain clear (at least to you) as to what they represent?  How many roll buttons will you need to set up for people to not have to create their own macros unless they are doing something you didn't foresee? And while doing that, you may find that you can run the games just fine with the generic sheet.  If you have a good template going with attributes and macros already named/created, you can name it something like "Character Template", and copy that already set up sheet any time you need another one for something.

I was going to make the same suggestion as Kraynic. You probably don't need many attributes, so the Attributes list on the A&A tab is probably all you need (and maybe use Abilities for creating macros/rolls you use regularly). This is how everyone used roll20 for a few years, as the Character Sheet tab didnt exist in the beginning, and it's perfectly functional - with the advantage that you don't need to learn any computer languages to make the sheet. To spell out Kraynic's last paragraph a bit more: in each game, create a sheet with all the attributes and abilities you want on it, and enter the base values you want characters to have (which might be zero, but enter it anyway). Then save that sheet, and whenever you create a new character or game piece, copy that sheet and use it for the new character. That way it's laid out with the attributes you want.

Thank you Gigs - Thank you very much. Thus far, by selecting no sheet and going with the A&A I am making some progress. And much less stressful that trying to get the script writing down right now. Trying to get something working for the students by the end of Holiday Break. Happy Holidays