I've signed up for the FB group, waiting to be accepted, but I have a question.

How long do games generally take? Does it have to be played all in one go? Or do folks play it like email games where you "send" a move and then come back later to see the next move from your opponent.

I think you're in now...

Games can take anywhere from 1 hour to...many hours. I'd say around 3 is average?

Using voice chat help speed things up, but it's possible to be quick with the chat too: me and JJ used a little over 3 hours from setting up to ending turn 6, and this was a high-stakes tourney game with lots of squads.

I've added a lot of automation and extra hotkeys, so that's helped quite a bit. Learning to setup fleets beforehand and saving them saves a ton of time. What tends to drag things out is overmuch premeasuring and fiddling with the maneuver tool. Sometimes it's well into the slow play category (I'm guilty too!). Experience with the module speeds things up as you learn hotkeys and generally become more efficient. But voice chat is probably the no. 1 speed-up measure.

It's possible (common even?) to save a game and finish later. But Armada alternating activations and reactions doesn't lend itself to play-by-mail type games.

Hi

I've signed up for the FB group also and I'm waiting for acceptance.

I've never used Vassal before but I'm very interested. I have a question.

Can I watch a game in progress so I can see how it plays?

Thanks in advance.

Most players leave their games open. So you can watch. And ask questions (but not during tourney games).

Also: getting someone to help with a teaching game is usually not a problem.