To make things simple, assume an open board and people have 2 tape measures handy, could people play this by setting up with 2 people over the internet without using VASSAL (I can't get it on this piece of junk)?

Sorry for the double thread, mods please delete this one. God I hate my computer.

I was going to say not with double posts it wont!

I was going to say not with double posts it wont!

But in all seriousness, would it work?

Theoretically it could work, but I would expect it to be slow and difficult. You'd have to deal with a LOT of posts going back and forth. You'd have to figure out a way to fairly randomize dice and damage decks. If both players are maintaining their own copy of the board state, you'd have to deal with the two getting out of sync with each other due to minor differences in imprecise movements ("You bumped my ship." "No I didn't, on my board the move cleared.")

Play by Post works much better for games like Chess that are fully deterministic.

Even ignoring randomness, the lack of a grided(hexed) movement system will produce headaches given a 1/4" different in placement will make the difference of a bump or not.

That said, if you and your opponent are aware and casual I dont see why you couldn't make it work, just, far from ideal.

Truthfully, the only way I can see it working well at all is over Vassal.

Play by post games are for convoluted, multiplayer strategy games where it's hard to gather opponents like Diplomacy, not fast, tactical 1v1 star wars fighter combat sims.