Making sense of Army Builder XML files

[IBBoard]

We've got a separate thread for the .ab files themselves (and some pages on the Wiki), but people have been asking about Army Builder file support in WarFoundry again recently. It's definitely something I'd like to do, but first I a) need the time and b) need to work out what the hell they've ever done with their XML format, which is ugly as sin, especially when compounded with various shorthands that users use.

So, this thread is for discussions, hints, tips and explanations of the Army Builder file format in the hopes that we can start to convert and load the files. It shouldn't be complex in theory since both WarFoundry and Army Builder are describing the same thing (races) but there may be some niggling issues.