My night is free to do with as I please. Since nothing closer than a two hour drive has X-Wing going on I might finally start up on the vassal thing.

I see all the links in the sticky.

Is vassal at a point where a common noob can install it and get a game in on day one or am I going to have to begin the journey of many days futzing around to memorize the controls and whatnot?

Yes. I installed it played a practice game against myself to get some of the shortcuts down a little bit and played a game against someone that night. I put off getting on Vassal for months because of the "complexity." It is simple to set up and simple to play. Just follow the links.

Shortcuts help, but you can do everything you need to with left-clicks and right-clicks. I wouldn't worry about 'controls,' per se. If you give yourself an hour for setup and getting familiar with the interface, that should be enough, usually.

Ya play around in the module on your own for a bit, search youtube for a quick tutorial (the Outer Rim Smugglers tutorial, though a bit dated, is still fantastic), and then jump online and find a patient opponent (most of them are and are willing to help as well), and you will be right at it!

Make sure to save a list before you start looking for a game. That can take a bit of time so be aware of that.

Great news! Thanks fellas.

Ya play around in the module on your own for a bit, search youtube for a quick tutorial (the Outer Rim Smugglers tutorial, though a bit dated, is still fantastic), and then jump online and find a patient opponent (most of them are and are willing to help as well), and you will be right at it!

Make sure to save a list before you start looking for a game. That can take a bit of time so be aware of that.

This is true; I forgot abou saving a list. That could take a while to figure out, but it's helpful for you if you want to play the same squad a few times, and it is extremely respectful to your opponent if your list is built ahea of time.

Ya play around in the module on your own for a bit, search youtube for a quick tutorial (the Outer Rim Smugglers tutorial, though a bit dated, is still fantastic), and then jump online and find a patient opponent (most of them are and are willing to help as well), and you will be right at it!

Make sure to save a list before you start looking for a game. That can take a bit of time so be aware of that.

Yea, most everybody on there is great about helping. I tend to just warn them that I'm new and they are happy to help out. It's still generally much quicker than a live game even while learning.

It's still generally much quicker than a live game even while learning.

It wasn't always this way. Many thanks go to Mu0n for all his hard work streamlining the movement mechanics and keeping the whole thing up to date. And many thanks to all those wonderful helpers that often go unrecognized! (And in fact I'm still not technically recognizing you, just calling you out in general. The list of contributors is in the module, and it's fun to see who has contributed over the years).

Can't you just wamt by yourself. Practice different techniques. Don't try the 2 bank, unless your comfortable with it.

If you would rather play offline, I recommend Heros of the Aturi Cluster, it's a campaign based on XP awarded per mission, I'm currently playing by myself running 4 ships, it's difficult, but a blast