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First, I’d recommend that you get experience playing Steam and/or mobile implementations of board games or board-game-like games, like Risk, Axis & Allies, Twilight Struggle, Race for the Galaxy, Fort Sumter.
These have in-game tutorials, nice animations, music, good graphics, etc.
This can help ease you into some board game concepts you might not be familiar with if you’re jumping into Vassal without a lot of previous board game experience. Things like having different phases, playing cards to take actions, rolling dice to determine outcomes, cubes and meeples, victory points, tracks, CRTs, etc.
Next, I’d recommend that you get experience playing browser-based board game implementations that guide you through the game’s phases and limit your actions to what you’re legally allowed to do.
This will ease you into the experience of needing to refer to the user manual frequently while learning the rules, needing to look stuff up on player aids, and needing to play some throwaway games to get the feel for the rules.
The graphics aren’t as slick as the Steam/mobile versions, there’s no music, no tutorials. But you get access to a lot more games than if you stuck with Steam/mobile board games.
These are sites like Rally-The-Troops (the best UI IMO), Yucata, BoardGameArena, BrettspielWelt.
RTT has easily-accessible HTML versions of the rules of the games it carries, which makes searching for stuff much easier than if you’re using a PDF manual without searchable text.
https://www.mcssl.com/store/danverssengames/vassal/pdf-games/solitaire - These aren’t free but they’re guided versions of some highly-regarded solo wargames.
Finally, take on using Vassal itself:
I’ve seen people recommend starting with Salerno ‘43 because it’s a smaller scenario, although others recommended The Caucasus Campaign, Normandy '44, or France '40. (source)
- My understanding is the best way to learn games is to just go through the examples of play or start a game and get practice going through the sequence of play.
You can download the Tic-Tac-Toe module and get practice playing a game locally, via PBEM, and live.
You can try some solo games to get more experience with Vassal before getting into multiplayer games if you’re worried about bothering your opponent with basic questions (although honestly, Vassal’s UI isn’t that complicated, and you may get bored playing by yourself).
Singleplayer games I found that seem like good fits to help you get comfortable with Vassal:
(For reference, Risk has a BGG complexity of 2.07)
Intro:
Micro Space Empire - BGG - 6.5 rating, 10 Min, 1.22 complexity
12 Patrols - BGG - 6.3 rating, 5-15 Min, 1.78 complexity
Solitaire Chess - Not on BGG - 15 Min
Delve: The Dice Game - BGG - 6.4 rating, 20 Min, 1.26 complexity
Aces of Valor - BGG - 8.2 rating, 30 Min, 2.50 complexity
Shadows Upon Lassadar - BGG - 6.6 rating, 30 Min, 2.25 complexity
Sunburst City Transport - BGG - 6.6 rating, 30 Min, Unknown complexity
Bomber Boys - BGG - 7.7 rating, 15-30 Min, 1.80 complexity
The Way of the Warrior (Second Edition) - BGG - 7.3 rating, 20-60 Min, Unknown complexity
Utopia Engine - BGG - 6.9 rating, 30-60 Min, 2.03 complexity
Corvette Command - BGG - 8.1 rating, 30-90 Min, 2.00 complexity
Village Builder - BGG - 7.4 rating, 40-100 Min, 2.00 complexity
Intermediate:
Agricola, Master of Britain - BGG - 7.1 rating, 60–90 Min, 2.54 complexity
The Hunters - BGG - 7.7 rating, 120 Min, 2.54 complexity
Beneath the Med: Regia Marina at Sea 1940-1943 - BGG - 8.0 rating, 120-180 Min, 2.42 complexity
The Castles of Burgundy - BGG - 8.5 rating, 70-120 Min, 2.94 complexity
Ambush - 180–240 Min, 3.26 complexity
Target for Today - BGG - 8.1 rating, 45–90 Min, 3.34 complexity
D-Day at Omaha Beach - 120–480 Min, 3.47 complexity - Note that you can get a guided computerized version at the DVG website.
Advanced:
Fields of Fire - BGG - 7.9 rating, 60–300 Min, 4.24 complexity
You can then try multiplayer games:
The best way to find people to play with is to join the official Vassal discord server and the Vassal PBEM discord server and post in one of the LFG (“Looking for a game”) channels. It’ll probably be quicker and easier for you to find a game if you reply to someone else’s request for an opponent than if you post your own request.
How to think about Live games vs. PBEM: Live games are useful (especially with a voice call) because you can ask for help immediately if you don’t know how to do something. If your partner can’t record a screenshare video showing you how to do everything, then it’s probably best to start with a Live game to get help with the UI for whatever game you’re using. However, Live games have the disadvantage that you’ll feel pressured to make decisions quickly, which can make the game feel less pleasant (in my experience anyway). I like that when I play an asynchronous game I can take my time reading the rules for whatever decision I need to make.
I found people recommending Battle for Moscow as a good PBEM game for beginners to wargaming to start with because the rules are simple and each player only needs to send 7 emails.
You can find an online implementation of Battle for Moscow that’ll let you play against a bot here: https://oberlabs.com/b4m/
Core controls / methods:
Alt + Left click will ping a certain part of the UI (normally the main map but it also works for auxiliary windows) and center other players' UI on that point. So this is a key way to make it easy for other players to follow what you’re doing when it’s your turn or when you’re taking some action.
It seems common for people to write a comment in the log when the dice are going to be rolled that summarizes what the roll is for.
In my Last Hundred Yards game, IIRC we’d write a comment describing who was attacking whom with each roll.
When I played Downfall of the Third Reich, my opponent would write a simple “X / Y” comment that summarized the die roll modifiers(?) for each side prior to each side rolling a D6.
Pros and cons of board games vs. PC games
I spent a while learning about board games to get a sense of what they have to offer that you can’t get from PC games.
Note that there’s a spectrum of options:
pure board games - physical board, played in-person (or possibly via a video call, but that can be very difficult with many games that have small text or hidden information).
Tabletop Simulator / Vassal, where it’s often a pure simulation of a board game with no automation to help you, or there might be some automation available to guide the game along. You can still make a mistake interpreting the rules.
Rally-The-Troops / Steam editions of games (like Risk, Axis & Allies, various niche wargames), where you’re playing board game and guided through the whole process. There’s no way for you to not follow the rules.
Pure PC game, where it was never intended to be a board game, and has features that couldn’t work as a board game.
Advantages
Variety. Board games require less technical knowledge to develop than PC games, and so it seems more common / easier for non-technical people (like historians) to develop board games than PC games. This seems to lead to a wider variety of gameplay / themes than you typically find in PC games.
On the other hand, it is possible to develop a game as just a Vassal module. But since there doesn’t seem to be as much of a market for paid Vassal modules, it seems like the market for physical board games is what is
Modability. Board games are extremely easy to mod. It’s extremely easy to add rules, remove rules, change rules, create new maps, etc.
See the note above about this being possible in Vassal modules.
The visual/tactile experience. The physical presence of the pieces on the board can add to the experience.
“There is something inherently dramatic about holding the die above the table and knowing I need a 5 or 6 to take Paris. Computerized wargames -- and computer-based versions of board games -- suck a lot of the drama out of the situation. B-17 Queen of the Skies was great at building dramatic tension during solitaire play, by making you roll on a series of charts. Bad things happen on one chart, which leads you to another; then you get another bad roll which puts you onto another chart... It would be really simple to write a program that just presents you with the final results, but you would not get the tension building that you get from manually rolling dice and looking things up.” (Source)
It’s common to hear people say that after spending all day working on a computer, they don’t want to look at a computer screen while playing a game to relax.
“I spend too much time staring at a screen as it is.” (Source)
The social experience. Being physically present with your opponent does seem to add to the experience (depending on the circumstances).
See the note above about this being possible with Vassal modules.
Disadvantages
Refereeing. You don’t have the computer guiding you through the sequence of play / ensuring you’re following the rules / rolling the dice / keeping track of the state of the game, which means:
it can take a lot, lot longer to play if you’re not familiar with the rules
if you bump the table or a cat jumps on the table, you can lose the state of the game
it can be harder / almost impossible to “undo” your decisions (like how you can on rally-the-troops.com)
Remote/Async. You can’t easily play remotely / asynchronously.
Space. The games take up a lot of space, are harder to travel with, etc.
Fog of war. You can’t easily hide the pieces of your opponent, which means that often you’ll unrealistically be able to see a lot of information about your opponent.
YouTube review playlists
19XX series by Mark Simonitch
Learning the system
PBEM:
Create a channel in the Vassal PBEM by commenting in the “lfg-discussion” channel like this:
@grogs Could we please get a room for <the game you want to play>. <then tag every player you want included, like @nathan1234 @john1234>
After loading a log file, “you will need to click the play button on the top left of the map screen to step through the log file. Once it is finished you will be prompted to create a new log file. Increment the number in the file name and then complete your turn. Once your turn is finished you will need to select End Log File from the File menu to save the file. You can then upload it [to the Vassal PBEM Discord server] for [your opponent] to look at.”
Pros and cons of board games vs. PC games
I spent a while learning about board games to get a sense of what they have to offer that you can’t get from PC games.
Note that there’s a spectrum of options:
pure board games - physical board, played in-person (or possibly via a video call, but that can be very difficult with many games that have small text or hidden information).
Tabletop Simulator / Vassal, where it’s often a pure simulation of a board game with no automation to help you, or there might be some automation available to guide the game along. You can still make a mistake interpreting the rules.
Rally-The-Troops / Steam editions of games (like Risk, Axis & Allies, various niche wargames), where you’re playing board game and guided through the whole process. There’s no way for you to not follow the rules.
Pure PC game, where it was never intended to be a board game, and has features that couldn’t work as a board game.
Advantages
Variety. Board games require less technical knowledge to develop than PC games, and so it seems more common / easier for non-technical people (like historians) to develop board games than PC games. This seems to lead to a wider variety of gameplay / themes than you typically find in PC games.
On the other hand, it is possible to develop a game as just a Vassal module. But since there doesn’t seem to be as much of a market for paid Vassal modules, it seems like the market for physical board games is what is
Modability. Board games are extremely easy to mod. It’s extremely easy to add rules, remove rules, change rules, create new maps, etc.
See the note above about this being possible in Vassal modules.
The visual/tactile experience. The physical presence of the pieces on the board can add to the experience.
“There is something inherently dramatic about holding the die above the table and knowing I need a 5 or 6 to take Paris. Computerized wargames -- and computer-based versions of board games -- suck a lot of the drama out of the situation. B-17 Queen of the Skies was great at building dramatic tension during solitaire play, by making you roll on a series of charts. Bad things happen on one chart, which leads you to another; then you get another bad roll which puts you onto another chart... It would be really simple to write a program that just presents you with the final results, but you would not get the tension building that you get from manually rolling dice and looking things up.” (Source)
It’s common to hear people say that after spending all day working on a computer, they don’t want to look at a computer screen while playing a game to relax.
“I spend too much time staring at a screen as it is.” (Source)
The social experience. Being physically present with your opponent does seem to add to the experience (depending on the circumstances).
See the note above about this being possible with Vassal modules.
Disadvantages
Refereeing. You don’t have the computer guiding you through the sequence of play / ensuring you’re following the rules / rolling the dice / keeping track of the state of the game, which means:
it can take a lot, lot longer to play if you’re not familiar with the rules
if you bump the table or a cat jumps on the table, you can lose the state of the game
it can be harder / almost impossible to “undo” your decisions (like how you can on rally-the-troops.com)
Remote/Async. You can’t easily play remotely / asynchronously.
Space. The games take up a lot of space, are harder to travel with, etc.
Fog of war. You can’t easily hide the pieces of your opponent, which means that often you’ll unrealistically be able to see a lot of information about your opponent.
YouTube review playlists
19XX series by Mark Simonitch
Learning the system
I’ve seen people recommend starting with Salerno ‘43 because it’s a smaller scenario, although others recommended The Caucasus Campaign, Normandy '44, or France '40. (source)
My understanding is the best way to learn games is to just go through the examples of play or start a game and get practice going through the sequence of play.
COIN series
The British Way
How to play well
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbF4dZZxY4c
As the British, your job is to react to the insurgents.
You pretty much never want to do a limited op if you’re first eligible.
The “sabotage” action is one of the major ways that the insurgents are going to accrue victory points (subtract from political will).
The “propagandize” action didn’t come up much in their game at all.
You’re going to go through ~16-18 cards total.
There is a strategy guide in the rulebook that gives general advice for how to play well:
General advice:
“you should begin each campaign with a plan for what you want to achieve, and only divert from it if there is something more important you need to respond to”
“in the long-term the Propaganda Round effects are likely to have a greater impact [on political will / who wins], and you should make sure that you are always working towards achieving these.”
“you can use a Limited Operation on one turn to set yourself up for a powerful action on the next”
MCP (insurgent) advice:
“it is important to expand early and often into areas that [the British] are seeking to control. Rally is ideal for this, but don’t be afraid to use March to re-enter otherwise inaccessible areas if necessary, especially if they are only protected by a New Village.”
“make sure to [March into Economic Centers and place Sabotage] at every opportunity you get”
“make sure to secure your own income, with a Base in Thailand being virtually untouchable and worth 4 Resources over the whole game if placed down early.”
“Once Active your Guerrillas are easily removed by the British, especially outside of Mountains”
British advice:
Diplomacy
Misc. Thoughts:
- In casual games it seems important to keep your eye out for players who are likely to remain in alliances for longer than they should. The same thing happens a lot in casual games of Risk.
Questions to Answer:
What is the smallest functional game that you can make? In other words, if I wanted to have as few players as possible and as few territories as possible, but I also wanted to not violate any of the original rules, how many territories / players would I have?
Analysis of Simple Situations:
2-player games
2-square game:
If each player starts with one square and there are only 2 squares, the game will be a stalemate. [Is there any way to generalize this observation?]
3-square game
If the winning condition is to get 2 squares, this game should be a stalemate with perfect play (the pieces should bounce every time they try to move into the middle territory). However, with an imperfect opponent one player could win by convincing the other player to not
Misc Links
The Diplomatic Pouch Zine
PlayDiplomacy.com Forum Discussion - Diplomacy Game, Scoring and Game Theory
LessWrong.com - Diplomacy as a Game Theory Laboratory
David Rosen - Diplomacy and International Relations Theory (Part 1)
David Rosen - Diplomacy and Game Theory (Part 2)
Wikipedia - Edi Birsan (apparently one of the best Diplomacy players)
Demis Hassabis
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demis_Hassabis
http://www.mobygames.com/developer/shee ... erId,2659/
YouTube videos about him: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_q ... sabis&sm=3
YouTube - Systems Neuroscience and AGI - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjG_Fx3D0o0
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Columbia block wargames
Julius Caesar
How to play well
Pay attention to the road movement limits, because they make it so you can’t just mass like 8 blocks in one city and then move them all together to attack at once.
Pay close attention to the garrison limits of each town/city so you don't get units disbanded during the winter turn.
Most of the additional units you can recruit require that you control certain towns that you don’t start out controlling, so you want to be thinking about capturing those towns so that you can recruit those units.
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