My friend and I are trying to work out whether we can play Battlelore by email.

With so many rules that require both players interactions, the most obvious one being retreats, we are trying a number of ideas.

1. retreats - attacking player controls retreats (too powerful)

2. retreats - attacking player controls retreats, but must choose best option for defending player (too difficult to implement)

3. break down each action (i.e. active player emails intended action, defending player responds to email, active player responds to reponse, repeat until both players state no further response, then implement the action, TOO SLOW!!!!)

Any other ideas out there?

There is a BattleLore game set for Vassal.. allows real time play over the internet.. no need for PBEM.

--JP

JJP said:

Vassal is also a fabulous option for PBEM (though the game is better suited for live play on Vassal, for the very reasons Sean posted originally ). It can also be used to switch seamlessly between PBEM and live play.

The option I have used when playing by email is that the controlling player makes all of the decisions for the defending player (choosing to ignore flags, taking the paths for retreats, etc., that make the most sense), but the defender has the opportunity to revise the decisions taken. This also accounts for lore plays that occur during the game, which obviously cannot be made on behalf of the other player. If there is trust between the players involved, this can be done using vassal without seeing what has occured after the point of the decision, until after the decision has been revised.

I'm happy to go into greater detail if desired - hope to see you on the Vassal server

JJP said:

It is time, not geography, that creates the need for PBEM.

toddrew,

Do you mean the controlling player makes all the decisions initially, and then the defending player steps through their moves, and stops and revises the defending player's responses as necessary?

Once the defending player makes a change, does the controlling player need to start their turn again from that point, because the defending player's choice may change the rest of the turn?

It seems like a particularly complicated turn could take many iterations and revisions before it was complete. Did you find this happened often and slowed down play a lot?

I've halfway convinced myself that we should find a different better suited game for PBEM.

SeanWalsh said:

Yup, exactly.

"Once the defending player makes a change, does the controlling player need to start their turn again from that point, because the defending player's choice may change the rest of the turn?"

Many times the turn can continue as often the change does not affect the remainder of the turn, rather the non-controlling player's next turn. However, if it does (a play of Blinding Light for example, Foiled! played against something like Assault for another example), then yes, the turn would be stopped at that point and sent back for the controlling player to continue from the new state of the game.

"It seems like a particularly complicated turn could take many iterations and revisions before it was complete. Did you find this happened often and slowed down play a lot?"

A particularly complicated turn (one involving lore plays from both sides, lots of flags rolled, etc.) could take a few back and forths, but I find that the exceptional turn rather than the common one. I don't find it to be that big of a hinderance, but I love BattleLore and perhaps will put up with more than others

"I've halfway convinced myself that we should find a different better suited game for PBEM."

I've got to be close to the last person on earth that would suggest playing a game other than BattleLore , but you might find C&C:Ancients a better choice if you do find the "revision" turns too tedious. Not sure if you are familiar with it (would not be in the least shocked if you were ), but it plays much more straightforwardly than BL (the more surprising nature of BL is the reason I prefer it slightly to C&C:A - but find both to be excellent games) due to the lack of a Lore Deck-like mechanism. The only card play that could lead to a revision turn is First Strike (equivalent to the Lore Card of the same name in BL), and there would still be the possibility of revisions due to retreat choices, as well as "evade" choices - a mechanic that currently doesn't exist in BL save for the lore play of Evade/Scatter (though even that is different), however, all-in-all there would be fewer revision turns required

Good luck, have fun

I tried my first PBEM/Vassal game in the tournament a while back. I was worried about how well it would work and was very pleasantly surprised. It helps that the game didn't take too many turns (but I might have been far too aggresive), but it went very smoothly. And this is coming from a guy who doesn't have computer access at work playing against someone in, I think, Germany. So we weren't able to have a lot of exchanges in the day. But even the out of turn lore cards worked fine.