Ownership in pre-defined setups

I’m having trouble getting the ownership (player sides) right in predefined setups. i saw something or other that said to retire before saving or such but I have been able to find that post. Any advice / help appreciated.

Once you’ve setup the game the way you want, you’ll want to change sides to Observer before saving. Otherwise, it’s likely you’ll lock a player side to a person.

I must be doing something wrong. I log in as ‘side A’ and place all of side a’s counters. Then retire to ‘side b’ and place all of side b’s counters. Then retire to observer and save. When the game is loaded to play both sides have access to both sides counters as if they were both sides.

Not sure if its my traits or the way I am saving the game.