... Let me start with this... I ALWAYS log my games and note the opponent in the file notes. SO this particular opponent... if are reading this... you know who your are.

Game is going well... My Chewie/Leebo list vs their Jake Farrell/Corran/Blount list.

I knock off Corran quickly in the first two rounds of exchanged fire. Blount soon after and Jake eventually finishes off Chewie.

AS SOON AS IT WAS 1v1... of course they wanted to stay in Leebo's donut (HLC with Outrider). AS LONG AS they can predict my movements it will work... but after a turn or two of 1v1 this opponent says "can you hold on for a sec, BRB."

No problem, I fly casual as they come. I check email and such and they come back.

we both have dials down... we are both "set" ... I reveal my dial and move then target lock. then I "set"

... it takes this person forever to reveal and I notice their unrevealed dial is outlined in red like it was moved then not, then outlined in red again, then not again. Appears fishy but I go with it. they reveal the perfect move. They take two shield from a full, untouched leebo, who can't fire back (donut). NEXT move I watch closer their dial....

They sets theirs, I set mine. They are RIGHT behind leebo, tailgating him. So I pull a hard 1 to the right and announce barrel roll right... before I even get to make the barrel roll I notice their dial going red outline, no red outline, red outline again, not red outline again... I look at their player window where you keep all the pilot and upgrade cards and what do you know... there is a COPY of Jake's dials, then it's gone, then it's back, then it's gone.

This person is basically waiting to see my maneuver and then using one of their two copies of Jakes dials to change what they do AFTER they've seen where I move.

I guess I don't get it... if you have to cheat... what fun is it to play? There is nothing to gain from cheating on a VASSAL game that is casual. No one wins anything. There is not prizes. Nothing. It's all for fun... unless one person is cheating (of course).

I have the logfile and you can clearly see the copying and pasting and duplicating of the dial over and over again for two turns. It's just sad.

I will only share the logfile with someone from VASSAL or an admin from the XWing Vassal community as I'm not here to point fingers at anyone specifically OR out someone as a cheater. Needless to say, I will NOT be playing that person again.

But has anyone else ever seen this form of cheating?

I was thinking of looking for a VASSAL league to play in, but is this kind of thing prevelent?

Wow, didn't even think of that method of cheating. I honestly have never seen it happen before on VASSAL, but I never thought anyone would go to the lengths of doing that.

I guess I don't get it... if you have to cheat... what fun is it to play? There is nothing to gain from cheating on a VASSAL game that is casual. No one wins anything. There is not prizes. Nothing. It's all for fun... unless one person is cheating (of course).

Nothing to gain for sure but a lot to lose. Win or lose there is stuff to be learned in each game you play...if you're cheating then you're learning nothing.

I don't get it either.

It's never occurred to me to do this; I know that Vassal screams loudly if you try to change a dial on the table, but copying-and-pasting a dial? Weird. I wouldn't have expected that to work.

I just don't see the gain in it. How else will you learn to predict your opponent (and recover from bad predictions) if you are cheating?

Never understood why people are so afraid to name names. If you're bold enough to cheat, you're bold enough to get caught.

I've never caught anybody cheating on VASSAL. I've suspected it maybe twice in 300+ games.

In addition to dial-copy shenanigans, it's also possible to measure maneuvers on VASSAL in at least a couple of different ways. (I've done this when I'm commenting on games. I'm not fast enough to do it when playing, even if I wanted to, but I would imagine somebody quicker than I am could do so.)

FWIW, I've actually seen cheating in face-to-face games more often than I've suspected it in VASSAL games.

I've never caught anybody cheating on VASSAL. I've suspected it maybe twice in 300+ games.

In addition to dial-copy shenanigans, it's also possible to measure maneuvers on VASSAL in at least a couple of different ways. (I've done this when I'm commenting on games. I'm not fast enough to do it when playing, even if I wanted to, but I would imagine somebody quicker than I am could do so.)

FWIW, I've actually seen cheating in face-to-face games more often than I've suspected it in VASSAL games.

Honestly I would never have been able to prove the cheating had it not be so easy to see. But serious it's 100% without question when there is single maneuver dial on the map labeled "Jake Farrell" and no where else. Then that dial on the map turns red (that is when the copy was made), then when this person dragged that copy over to their player window you can clearly see two maneuver dials labeled "Jake Farrell" ... then when they swap the two, the dial on the board goes red outline again.

If it just happened once in the game, I probably would not have said anything... but after seeing it happen multiple times, I call them out and ended the game. Of course this person played innocent, but I said, "I've got this game log saved. Not cool."

Naming names wouldn't be too helpful in this case, as any vassal player could just rename themselves. Sucks to have to worry about it, but it's good to know what to look for.

The dude is really cheating himself more than anyone else.

Unfortunately, there's no VASSAL community or admin structure, and people can rename themselves, though somebody who's built a reputation under a certain name would be sensitive to accusations made against that name.

Another thing to keep an eye on is the maneuver templates laid out next to the map in the starting setup. VASSAL doesn't report a move of a piece until it has been dropped, meaning somebody could drag it over to their ship, and then put it back where it was. This often results in a slight jump on the piece. Or sometimes you'll notice rotation going on. (Note that I think it's important to have the templates on the 'table' as its still part of eyeballing your moves, just as it is on a real tabletop.

I caught somebody moving templates during dials, and just deleted the offending template, which sent the right message without me having to say anything.

It helps if you have multiple screens to always keep player hands and the map visible, so you can notice any shenanigans.

If you're looking for organized VASSAL play, try the ELO ladder at http://www.challengeboards.net/boards/standings/2167

or the tournaments run pretty frequently over at Team Covenant.