VASSAL Training...

Yesterday afternoon, Dirk Heinz kindly ran me through VASSAL, as I've signed up to play a pbem Here I Stand (HIS) game via that engine.  The set for HIS looks real nice, and, once I started getting up to speed, it seems fairly intuitive -- though each set designer seems to put their personal touches on the product, making some sets better than others, not to mention easier to use.  For instance, the HIS set doesn't have automatic logging of moves, meaning that each player will need to "Begin Log" and "End Log" as they do their move.  My bet is that there will be an impulse played where logging has been overlooked.  Also, for a pbem game, I think we'll be taking a long time.  Things would go much quicker if we could play live, but with 6 players from the UK to California, finding a good time for all would be tough.  We'll see how it goes.

On the other hand, Dirk then showed me how great VASSAL is for playing live.  We were both hooked up to talk with each other via Skype, so it was like a face to face (FTF) match between Rochester, NY and Salt Lake City, UT.  We chose to play the Cannae scenario from Command & Colors: Ancients.  Now, I love this system, as it uses blocks and cards (and even I can deal with the big hexes here!) to give a fair representation of ancient warfare.  I drew the Romans, who historically got slaughtered here, while Dirk got Hannibal and his boys.  The game began pro-Carthaginian, as Dirk's warrior units made short work of several of my light units.  He had me on the ropes for most of the game, but then his dice went cold and mine got hot, especially in counter-attacks.  Carthage made a cavalry charge around the Roman rear -- success would win the day for Hannibal, failure would lose it.  Dirk's dice stayed cold, so the Romans changed history, at least for a day!

Playing live was a lot of fun.  Dirk is a good teacher (he was very patient with my dumb questions and slow computer) and fun to chat with.  Last evening I downloaded the module for Combat Commander, so I hope to get in some live VASSAL playing of that in the near future.

Gaming life be good --FTF, live online, and pbem.  Once we get into the new place I plan to upgrade my computer and find even more time for online game.  Can't wait!