Hi everybody,

I will be away from home for a longer time period and I am therefore looking for opportunities to play the game on a laptop. As it will be only me I am planning to play the app campaigns now and then. I know that you can play the game on VASSAL or on Steam. I guess there are other options as well.

Any preferences which of the engines/tools is best to play the app campaigns? Please also consider that this will be my fist attempt to play the game on a PC. Therefore a tool with an "easy" setup and a steep learning curve would be great (not sure whether this exists though).

Thanks

On ‎7‎/‎1‎/‎2018 at 5:46 AM, jacenat said:

VoD is up on Youtube!

btw: What are they using in their videos? Is this Steam?

The video shows the play with TableTopSimulator.

The app doesn't have the components for actually playing the game, so you:
1) Play with the physical stuff on a table
2) Play on TableTopSimulator like in the video
3) Play in the Vassal IA Campaign module
4) Any other method.

All methods need you to find the cards, tokens, and map tiles and build the map as you go along. I don't know which is easier to learn, TTS or Vassal IA Campaign Module. You need to purchase TableTopSimulator.

Thanks a1bert,

I know that the app doesn't have the components and requires a physical copy (which I have).
If I am not completely wrong you developed the Vassal IA Campaign module, right? Or at least you were heavily involved.

My understanding is that for normal non-app campaigns the maps are somehow pre-loaded or sort of "ready to use".
For the app maps I would have to build them as I play, correct (since the map is changing depending on what I do - thinking about the second mission with the shuttle crew).

In the Vassal campaign module I will find all the cards and tokens? Or do I have to provide them somehow?

Maybe I should just try it out

Yes, I took over the IA Campaign module at an early stage.

You can find all cards and tokens you need from the IA Vassal Campaign module. The campaign maps are included in a save file. You don't necessarily need the save file. It's pretty easy to build the supply deck.

The tiles are available to build the maps as you go on. (Shift-clicking selects map tiles. Otherwise you can just use the menu to see the available operations like rotation. See the html help for more information, it's included in the module and there's also a link on the Vassal page.)

Tabletop Simulator is prettier, but costs money and can be clunky and slow down play. Vassal is free and once you figure out where everything is it’s a much more efficient tool. I would recommend starting with Vassal.

Playing the App on an Android tablet (or in Steam on a laptop) and with the physical components has been the best experience in my opinion. I've found that using VASSAL (for any game) is clunky and has not been a very pleasant experience for me.

True, but you can't take your whole collection with you on a holiday.

(Borrowed an old laptop from work to run the app, played "as intended" with the physical components.)

47 minutes ago, dwaynedauzat said:

Playing the App on an Android tablet (or in Steam on a laptop) and with the physical components has been the best experience in my opinion. I've found that using VASSAL (for any game) is clunky and has not been a very pleasant experience for me.

Fully agree. That's why I spend that much time in painting my minis: I want to play with them
But as I will be abroad for a couple of months I thought it would be better than nothing if I can play a bit whenever I have the time and whenever I am in the right mod.

So I gave VASAL a try. Launched it and build up the map etc.

I have to say that it is pretty intuitiv to use. And since with the app you don't need to build decks and count rounds and thread it's even easier

Two things I came accross where I didn't know how to do that: 1. How can I shuffle the supply deck? 2. How can I change the colors of a unit (e.g. I need two regular probe droids in the first mission but both appear grey)?

Thanks and regards

23 minutes ago, Whitebubble said:

Two things I came accross where I didn't know how to do that: 1. How can I shuffle the supply deck? 2. How can I change the colors of a unit (e.g. I need two regular probe droids in the first mission but both appear grey)?

The supply deck is set to draw a random card. As long as you drop in all of the cards you need, you're set.

You can't change the color of a figure token (maybe that's a good idea for the next version), but you can add a label (ctrl-L) to differentiate between several regular groups.

Thanks for the fast response a1bert! Yeah...if you can include different colors for figure tokens that would be great (I understand that this has minor priority :)).

On 8/10/2018 at 12:49 PM, a1bert said:

The video shows the play with TableTopSimulator.

The app doesn't have the components for actually playing the game, so you:
...
2) Play on TableTopSimulator like in the video

...

Does anybody know the warehouse mods boardwars uses in their video?

thanks.