I work nights a lot, and my friends work days, so I can't get enough gaming in to really improve.

A long time ago I tried Vassal for a much more complicated game, and the problem for me was that it required voice communication.

What if I can't communicate with people by voice?

Is it possible to play X-Wing on Vassal without using voice communication?

You bet! Everything has a shortcut key, but everything can also be done by right clicking on the ship. Well designed system, but as there are a lot of commands I recommend printing out the shortcut sheets from the help section. The first game or two are challenging, but soon you are focused on the game and not the interface! Good luck!

Well, I guess I know what my reading list will be this weekend.

Thanks for the reply.

If there's a way to join a community elsewhere, I'd appreciate a reference.

Grwyfax, loved you write up! Similar experience for me too. I came late to this game with a core set in October. My 9yo son and had a bunch of games. Xmas rolled around and it was a very X-wing Xmas indeed! Then I got a friend of mine hooked in January. Now more "mistakes were made" and I have a ridiculous collection, esp considering I am now trying to get the hang of a 3 T-70 list and only play that these days.

I'm ready to get into vassal too. I want to learn the game more.

A long time ago I tried Vassal for a much more complicated game, and the problem for me was that it required voice communication.

What if I can't communicate with people by voice?

Is it possible to play X-Wing on Vassal without using voice communication?

I don't know where you got the impression that it 'required' voice communication. It absolutely does not. I've been playing on VASSAL for over a year and have never used voice. Ever.

A long time ago I tried Vassal for a much more complicated game, and the problem for me was that it required voice communication.

What if I can't communicate with people by voice?

Is it possible to play X-Wing on Vassal without using voice communication?

I don't know where you got the impression that it 'required' voice communication. It absolutely does not. I've been playing on VASSAL for over a year and have never used voice. Ever.

I played another game using Vassal, and because it had a real-time 'interrupt movement' sequence for reaction fire, voice was required.

I'm glad to hear it doesn't. I am right in the middle of reading the long-version "how to X-Wing on Vassal" and I have a map and two sides set up. Now all I need to figure out is how to move, shoot, etc. Hopefully I'll be up and observing/playing in the next day or two. Fortunately, Monday night is real face-to-face X-Wing night. Thanks for the encouragement here, though. I'm looking forward to getting some real experience with regular play on Vassal.

A long time ago I tried Vassal for a much more complicated game, and the problem for me was that it required voice communication.

What if I can't communicate with people by voice?

Is it possible to play X-Wing on Vassal without using voice communication?

I don't know where you got the impression that it 'required' voice communication. It absolutely does not. I've been playing on VASSAL for over a year and have never used voice. Ever.

I played another game using Vassal, and because it had a real-time 'interrupt movement' sequence for reaction fire, voice was required.

I'm glad to hear it doesn't. I am right in the middle of reading the long-version "how to X-Wing on Vassal" and I have a map and two sides set up. Now all I need to figure out is how to move, shoot, etc. Hopefully I'll be up and observing/playing in the next day or two. Fortunately, Monday night is real face-to-face X-Wing night. Thanks for the encouragement here, though. I'm looking forward to getting some real experience with regular play on Vassal.

I tried vassal a while ago and thought it was just too much of a hassle to even bother with.

Last week I tried it again after reading a "how to start xwing in vassal" guide.

And in all honest, if one only spends a cuple of hours learning and setting it up it flows fairly smoothly!

I can now pretty quickly set up a new list and get ready for a game, and have several lists saved and ready to go!

Ive only played a few real games, none with voice comms, and can attest that it is absolutely not required.

Basically, whenever you do something you type "set" in the chat to indicate that you are done and the next player does whatever they do.

But if the opponent is willing, then voice coms is of course much more fun since you can chit chat.

And avoiding mistakes with timings and what not becomes easier!

If I count a game with an 8 year old, I got in 3 games on the table this weekend. His was the last one, but was fun. No real strategy involved as he doesn't pick up on the upgrade cards or pilot abilities. I let him pick the ship group he wanted (I was playing his 15 year old brother earlier and have several 100 point lists staged). And we just played with the colored numbers on the ships, which worked out fairly well except for my Scum HWK-290 with the 1 red dice... mostly we moved and then fired reds and greens at each other. Overall, he did fairly well... until he flew Chewbacca off the board. For me it was a chance to work on positioning and asteroid approaches against a vastly unpredictable foe (ha!). A list built on upgrade cards is not nearly as balanced when you just go by the numbers and suddenly the Falcon and two X-Wings are powerful little ships.

Against his brother, I had a little more struggle. He chose the 3 B-Wings with a Y-Wing and Ion Turret (no K-Wings yet) against a control Scum list (Talonbane, Kaa'To, Palob and a Marauder). Definitely more challenging to fly against and B-Wings have so much hull and tight turns. At one point Talonbane and a full health Blue got ioned into the same asteroid and both took a lot of shots. Luckily I was able to re-ion him and get Talonbane out of there. We should have started a timer as he had an event he had to be at about an hour and a half after we started. I was down two ships when he left and he had his stress y-ion and a blue left so it was still going to be a close match.

We all enjoyed the new starmat and had fun. I hear I missed a good episode of the Walking Dead while we were playing, but I'll take a chance to play X-Wing over any TV show any day.

The third match was on Saturday against my wife. Let's just say things turned sour when a certain large based ship flew off the board... again...

I'll have to let things lie low for a while until she is ready to try again. Overall, she does very well. Sometimes her focus fire is amazing. When flying through asteroids she rarely hits anything... I hit way more asteroids than she does. She just doesn't get how much faster the large ships fly and sometimes miscalculates that part. I know she can master it, but she is not confident, so, in time, I know she will do well... but today the struggle is real. She does want to help me, and I applaud her for that... she just forgets how competitive she is until she is in the middle of the match.

Now... I look forward to another round of Vassal pod games so I can keep getting better...