Vassal Game Finder

[DV8]

We the increased awareness of Vassal among the grognards I thought it might be helpful to have a thread for finding a Vassal game or two.

If we already have this tread elsewhere please feel free to admonish me.

[Bison]

GJK here is the CC:A screenshot from Vassal.  I just finished setting up Vassal on my desktop.  OK.  It took 3 seconds but still it's a major accomplishment for a Saturday morning.

[GJK]

Looks good.  I need to re-read those rules and actually play it some day soon. 

Now we need to get you set up on VASL for some ASL action!  I have some instructions that I've written out if you're interested.  If you got VASSAL going, you can get VASL going.  The major issue is that *currently*, the latest version of VASL (5.9.2 I think?  Several years old) is not compatible with the newer versions of VASSAL.  So, you have to have multiple installs of VASSAL - old and new - in order to use VASL.  They are working on updating VASL and should have it ready fairly soon (I hope).

[Bison]

I need to put VASL on this Macbook.  I had it install on a previous one before I exchanged it for this one.  I seem to remember having to mess around a bit before I figured out how to get the folders to work on a Mac.

[GJK]

Jay Richardson posted these instructions for getting VASL installed on a Mac.  The only difference is that you will need to grab a pre VASSAL 3.2.xxx install because VASL 5.9.2 won't work with VASSAL 3.2.x. 

Here's where you can get a 3.1.x VASSAL:

http://www.vassalengine.org/releases/

And here's Jay's instructions (hope it helps):

Make sure that Java is installed on your system, since VASL requires Java to run.

Assuming that you want to install VASL 5.9.2, which is now a VASSAL module rather than an independent program, you have to first install the proper VASSAL 3.1.14 software from this page:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/vassalengine/files/

The download should start automatically after you click on the appropriate link for your operating system. If the download does not start automatically – which might be the specific problem that you are having – then look for the direct link. For Windows, this would be:

http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/vassalengine/VASSAL...

or there are several other mirror sites that you can try:

http://sourceforge.net/settings/mirror_choices?projectname=v...

Run the file you downloaded to install VASSAL. Once VASSAL is installed, download the VASL 5.9.2 module ("vasl.mod"), extract it from the ZIP file, and place it in the "Modules" folder under the VASSAL folder:

http://www.advancedsquadleader.net/images/f/ff/VASLv592.zip

You'll also need to make folders for Boards, Overlays, and Extensions, and download the ones you want to use, placing them in the appropriate folders:

https://docs.google.com/View?id=ddbmp44t_157ddkzfpdj
http://www.advancedsquadleader.net/index.php/VASL_Extensions

Then finally run VASSAL 3.1.14, use the Open Module command to load the VASL 5.9.2 module, and tell VASL where to find your boards, etc.

[Bison]

OK.  Thanks.  I'll look at getting it working later tonight.

[Ubercat]

We the increased awareness of Vassal among the grognards I thought it might be helpful to have a thread for finding a Vassal game or two.

If we already have this tread elsewhere please feel free to admonish me.

That is a damn fine idea.

To date, here are some of the games I've successfully played on Vassal:

For the People. I have played this game, no lie, over 40 times while training for the tournament at WBC. I was eliminated in the first round by Mike Mitchel, who went on to the finals and lost to the master, James Pei. James has failed to win exactly one tournament since 1999, when they first started holding FtP tournaments. He was kind enough to let me sit at his shoulder and watch several turns of the final match, while letting me see his hand and giving occasional tips. Incidentally, Mike was James final opponent in the very first tournament as well. This was the second time he'd made it to the finals.

Andean Abyss. I played some turns of this live with three guys that I met at WBC. We're planning to start a 4 player Vassal game in about a week. I've successfully played it solo on Vassal to get ready. I need to D/L teamspeak.

Lock and Load. We played plenty of this in between games of FtP. I haven't messed with it much since kind of burning out on it. Still a good game, but Combat Mission: Battle for Normandy made it hard for me to push counters around on hexes and pretend that they're squads! Combat Commander: Europe also suffered from the same comparison.

Clash of Monarchs. This is a great game on the Seven Years War, though somewhat of a commitment at about 20 hours for the full campaign. It plays just as well with two players as with four. My main Vassal opponent and I played a few turns but didn't continue the game. I want to improve my knowledge on the conflict before tackling it again and I bought The Seven Years War in Europe: 1756-1763 to study up.

Red Winter. This is a fantastic company level game depicting a specific, week long battle during the Winter War. It has the best written, most engaging rule book and playbook I've ever read. It's too bad that no matter what side I played, or how brilliant my strategy, I couldn't role a successful attack more than 1 in 20 times or so while my opponents die rolling regularly crushed me. Bell curves just stopped working whenever I used the Vassal die roller for this one!

OCS: Case Blue. Great, monster wargame of the Eastern Front. We played about a month of game time before illness and RL issues made us stop. No other games besides the OCS series seem to give as good a demonstration of the necessity for adequate logistical preparation before launching major offensives. I know that sounds dry, but I definitely enjoyed it. Bigger time commitment than CoM.

Almost all my Vassal games have been live, while my opponent and I Skyped. TeamSpeak sounds like a better option for games involving more than 2 players. All of the games above can be played fine with 2 players, though I'd much rather have 4 players for AA. I'm not keen on trying the AI flowcharts they have for controlling non player factions. Incidentally, I own physical copies of all the games above except Case Blue. It's out of print and runs over $300 if you can even find a copy. I hope to buy it some day.

Anyone interested in any of the above? My regular opponent has had health issues for most of the year and we haven't played in a long time. I'm available most weekday mornings (east coast US).

P.S. I just got my copy of Sekigahara: The Unification of Japan yesterday! I'm so fired up to play this right now and there is a Vassal module available. I lost, badly, three times at WBC and kept wanting to try again.

[GJK]

I recently acquired a copy of "For the People" but haven't had a chance to read the rules yet.  I'd really love to get in to that one.

Another is "Labyrinth" which is a cousin of "Andean Abyss" and "Twilight Struggle".  Any of those 3 would be cool - but AA would be #3 on my most preferred to play.

I also prefer pbem using VASSAL.  Weekdays are near impossible for me to play and most people have lives to live on weekends (I don't heh!).  Pbem works really well for me then since we can get to the turns as time permits.  It doesn't work for all games however.  If "For the People" would work pbem, I'd love to get one going after I've had a chance to go through the rules.

[Ubercat]

FtP definitely works PBEM, though it's obviously slow. I haven't played that way yet but plenty of people have. I'd want to talk to my PBEM experienced friend first to figure out how to handle certain situations that come up.

Here's my website. We started making a detailed FtP AAR which unfortunately didn't make it past turn 1. The game actually reached about turn 6 before I conceded, but we kept playing faster than I could get it on the website and I discovered that my record keeping was ... inadequate.

I do have a detailed article on the game, including what I hope is a simpler description of the naval rules than what is in the rulebook. They're the hardest aspect of the game to learn and I'd be happy to get on Vassal some time to go over them if it would help.

[GJK]

Holy s*** I really want to get in to FTP now!  Great blog - I wish that it would of gone on deeper in to the game but what you have there gives some really good insight in to the game.  I remember how much that I enjoyed E.L. Smiths classic "Civil War" (VG) but this looks like it takes it up a notch with the CDG aspect; they look to add quite a bit to the game.  I'll start reading the rules - maybe we could meet online some time to kick around a turn or so or maybe get a pbem game started.

[Bison]

I'm interested in some Vassal gaming.  Unfortunately I only have Lock and Load on your list and have yet to figure out the rules for it.  It's rules are right up there with ASL for being written to create the greatest level of confusion for the player possible.

I do think if we could figure out an operational level style game with multiple commanders per side would be awesome. 

[Ubercat]

I'm interested in some Vassal gaming.  Unfortunately I only have Lock and Load on your list and have yet to figure out the rules for it.  It's rules are right up there with ASL for being written to create the greatest level of confusion for the player possible.

I do think if we could figure out an operational level style game with multiple commanders per side would be awesome.

heh. LnL wasn't nearly as hard to figure out as ASL. It was tough, but for the opposite reason. The conversational style of the rules leave out a great deal of precision which leads to confusion in determining what to do in certain situations. ASL rules have too much precision, leading to a denseness that must be experienced to be believed. I bought a used copy of ASLSK1 a couple years back and sold it unplayed after tackling the rules.

An operational level game would be fantastic, whether with multiple commanders or just one on each side. If we go that route, I vote for an OCS game! DAK2 is another OOP game that I want to pick up some day if/when I get a better paying job or win the lottery. I think it would be perfect for Vassal as the unit count is much less than an Eastern Front game and still has engaging subject matter. We could refight Rommels wars from the beginning.

[GJK]

I could not wrap my brain around the LnL system.  I really, really, really wanted to play Day of Heroes but couldn't figure out the rules and didn't feel like writing my own.  ASL was not difficult at all for me to learn.  The hardest part about ASL is remembering when to apply drm's and what value the drm is.  That and all the acronyms makes reading the rules very dry; it's like reading a chemistry handbook.  However, I like that ASL is very black and white: "you CAN do this, you CANNOT do that".  Ok, I guess it's more like "you CAN do this, you CANNOT do that unless it is THIS phase, you have LOS, the weather is CLEAR and no SMOKE is present and you first pass a Task Check".  lol

I'd be up for trying DAK2.  I enjoy Dean Essig's games (as I've mentioned).  I made the VASSAL module for his "The Mighty Endeavor" and had fun playing it via email a few times.  I haven't played it in some time however.  I think that a RSS or CWBS with multiple commanders would be the bomb.

[Ubercat]

I don't know what RSS or CWBS mean. I'll get back to this thread tomorrow. My wife and I are headed out to a B & B for our 6th anniversary!

[Bison]

I don't know what RSS or CWBS mean. I'll get back to this thread tomorrow. My wife and I are headed out to a B & B for our 6th anniversary!

Happy anniversary Uber!

They are Civil War games at Regimental and Brigade level from MMP.