I was wondering if there is some players who already made a system which allow to play Armada remotly while both of them have the minis on the table (so without using Vassal and TTS).
Some french players have try to do it, and I will be really interesting in such way of playing Armada.

Maybe snap things to a grid of cm? So squads would move to points on that grid.. ships would deploy their front right corner on the grid ( or something ).. maybe a protractor for transferring deployed angle? Then you'd just need to relay some coordinates once in a while to keep the board up to date. Ship movements are probably pretty good with the ruler. The obstacle placement might be tricky to unify over two boards.

If you both agree that the top left hand corner is 0,0 you can measure to the front left and rear right of the model and get the position and facing of the ship on the board. For squadrons you could just move from x1,y1 to x2,y2 and be done.

The only thing I would add is that you can sometimes poorly communicate things and as such you may have to allow small variations to affect the game now and again. Maybe in a face to face game you can demonstrate that you are not in range by the width of a hair, but in a play by mail game it will be this sort of thing that never makes for a rematch.

I've wondered about this too. I was running a homebrewed campaign and struggled a bit on trying to remotely play. My group decided to wait till we can play again at our FLGS again.

10 hours ago, Amanal said:

If you both agree that the top left hand corner is 0,0 you can measure to the front left and rear right of the model and get the position and facing of the ship on the board. For squadrons you could just move from x1,y1 to x2,y2 and be done.

The only thing I would add is that you can sometimes poorly communicate things and as such you may have to allow small variations to affect the game now and again. Maybe in a face to face game you can demonstrate that you are not in range by the width of a hair, but in a play by mail game it will be this sort of thing that never makes for a rematch.

The main issue seems to be with the movement tool which is not really precise (no ****). This problem is acceptable when the two players are seeing directly the action but on the game my fellows players have made it had bring sensible differencies in the position of ships. So I was thinkin like @homedrone about playing on a grid (but I will go as far as the millimeter), by using two corner of each ship to constrain it. With a small work of programmation, you can have directly the coordonnate given to the players when you will be moving the ship. This will also allow players to always check if the ships share the same coordonnates at every moment of the game.
For the obstacle and the squadron, you'll have to mark them with orthogonal lines to have precise position.
The only thing with this solution it's that it needs a little work and every player would have to print the same new playmat

We tried this back in March and April. We ultimately came up with a printed grid to help with placement. The issue came down to maneuver tools and exact placement. You are measuring two corners for each ship after every activation to get a close approximation of where a ship is along with the rotation. Squadrons are easier to place, but still a pain to get correct.

In short, can you do it? Yes... It will take a lot of work to do right though. In our best attempts, we still had ships a good 1-2 inches (3-5 cm) difference after turn 3. A single game took about 3.5 hours and had photos going back and forth.

Seems difficult, at best. One thing you could do is have a camera set up overhead (and ideally, a second camera that can be moved around for better angles) in one player's house. That player puts all the minis on the table, while their opponent has their own cards, command dials, and dice on camera at their place. Then the player without the minis can tell the other player where to move things (this is where the second camera comes in--often you'll probably be leaning over to move ships and blocking the overhead camera, and it would make precise squadron movement easier if you can move the camera closer). This way you don't have issues with ships colliding on one table while they narrowly miss on one, or one player believing they've got a target in range while the other has them recorded as just out of range.

The downside is that not everyone has a collection large enough to field two full lists, especially if both players want to play the same faction. It also requires a degree of trust and good faith since the player without the full table setup can't see as well and has to rely on the other player to move their ships, but if you're willing to go this far I'm assuming you're on good enough terms that you trust the other person not to screw you over.

Yeah that doesn't interest me if both players can't use minis... But I still think with a little programming to speed up the calcul of the ship's new coordonates and a adequate playmate it's doable, in this way each player has always the same coordonates of all the ships, so it will be as precise as we can get. I will try on a small sheet of graphic paper to see if I can track easily the movement of a ship or if it just to much trouble.
I should try to play more on TTS and Vassal, but it's just sad to have all this minis and doesn't use it. 😔

20 hours ago, Hockeyzombie said:

Seems difficult, at best. One thing you could do is have a camera set up overhead (and ideally, a second camera that can be moved around for better angles) in one player's house. That player puts all the minis on the table, while their opponent has their own cards, command dials, and dice on camera at their place. Then the player without the minis can tell the other player where to move things (this is where the second camera comes in--often you'll probably be leaning over to move ships and blocking the overhead camera, and it would make precise squadron movement easier if you can move the camera closer). This way you don't have issues with ships colliding on one table while they narrowly miss on one, or one player believing they've got a target in range while the other has them recorded as just out of range.

The downside is that not everyone has a collection large enough to field two full lists, especially if both players want to play the same faction. It also requires a degree of trust and good faith since the player without the full table setup can't see as well and has to rely on the other player to move their ships, but if you're willing to go this far I'm assuming you're on good enough terms that you trust the other person not to screw you over.

Tried this. Even with two cameras being streamed the player whose setup is not being used is constantly asking for specific measurements. It can be done, but greatly increases the time to play.

5 hours ago, ZaZ333 said:

Yeah that doesn't interest me if both players can't use minis... But I still think with a little programming to speed up the calcul of the ship's new coordonates and a adequate playmate it's doable, in this way each player has always the same coordonates of all the ships, so it will be as precise as we can get. I will try on a small sheet of graphic paper to see if I can track easily the movement of a ship or if it just to much trouble.
I should try to play more on TTS and Vassal, but it's just sad to have all this minis and doesn't use it. 😔

There is something to be said about using coordinates. Here are my suggestions to consider:
1) Make sure both players have the same playmat or measured out space.
2) If you have a way of making out each centimeter, this will help.
3) For each ship: relay the front two corners of the base for the most accurate placement.
4) For squadrons: Either limit movement to your grid, or you will need to relay coordinates for the 12 o'clock and 3 o'clock positions.
5) Set (0,0) as the left corner for player 1's setup edge.
6) Obstacles are trickier, pick 2 points for placement.
7) Anytime a ship moves, you will need to update your points.

Good luck Let us know how well that works.

1) In my mind this will need a new playmat, the same for both player.

2) It will need a grid with a system which allow to easily read the coordinate (maybe duplictate the axes in the grid).

3) I did just that

4) See below, that to my opinion the main issue of this system

5) Yep all players have to share the same "point of origin" (is that the correct expression ?)

6) Yep same thin g

7) That can be calculate (but it needs some hardwork to enter all the possibilities).

Ok, so I buy some graph papers to see if I can easily create a coordinates system with the idea that when all this changes are done, you don't have to go with the same trouble again and you can directly play
- For the ship, it doesn't seem difficult if we have all the calcul of the movements done by the computer. The fact that the ships's bases are transparents are really helpfull, it doesn't need any change. See example here .
- For the squadron it will need some adjustement, the base is big and round therefore the position isn't precise. You can either try to cut the base with a cutter (but you'll need a good blade), or paint four orthogonal dots. See examples here and here . When this is done, it's easier to put it precisely.
- For the obstacles, you'll have to mark them on the thickness/side on particulars spots that will determine their position. See example here . The only thing is to share the same spots.

So far the positioning seems to me not so difficult (but it's not the same thing to look for coordinates on a big playmat), it's mostly the squadrons which are bothering me. Depending on the list, they can be a lot of them, so it will take a lot of time to move them, and looking for coordinates when there is a lot of minis in a small space or on an obstacle doesn't appeal me a lot 😄 Maybe when you have such configuration, as there is a lot of landmark and the grid of the playmat, a photo will be enough.

I don't think I will go further in this little project because it will need work (at least you need a common interface where you have all the object's actual position). So unless if there is people interesting to help me, I will let this idea there.

If one person can set up a camera facing above the game and that person can field all the models. The other play just needs the cards in front of them. Then the player with everything on the table would have to do all the measuring for the remote player.

11 hours ago, Rune Taq said:

If one person can set up a camera facing above the game and that person can field all the models. The other play just needs the cards in front of them. Then the player with everything on the table would have to do all the measuring for the remote player.

Yes but this isn't the solution I'm looking for here. I'd rather check coordinates than looking on a screen my fleet moving. I can see how it solves in a certain way the lack of precision, but I'm not sure how it keep the game enjoyable for everyone, in comparaison with Vassal or TTS for example.

I read the thread title and was like "huh, a game mode for 'beyond visual range' would be cool kinda!"

Reminded me of a 40k legend where for a an event that was played simultaneously* around the world, and with one of the weapons in the game having it's range rule jokingly* written as 'infinite', some guys in one country called up a game store on another continent and were like "hey, pick a table for the event". Other side was like "uh why?" And the first were like "someone here just launched a doom missile at it!". As legend had it they actually randomly picked a table and resolved the attack through the judges of the two stores over the phone, determining the attack legal. 😂 Don't remember all the details.

I suppose you could have a game mode where the table was split lengthwise, and you only measured to say the edge or something. As long as you could measure to the 'enemy edge', then figure a way to resolve it on the other side.

3 hours ago, ForceSensitive said:

I read the thread title and was like "huh, a game mode for 'beyond visual range' would be cool kinda!"

Reminded me of a 40k legend where for a an event that was played simultaneously* around the world, and with one of the weapons in the game having it's range rule jokingly* written as 'infinite', some guys in one country called up a game store on another continent and were like "hey, pick a table for the event". Other side was like "uh why?" And the first were like "someone here just launched a doom missile at it!". As legend had it they actually randomly picked a table and resolved the attack through the judges of the two stores over the phone, determining the attack legal. 😂 Don't remember all the details.

That's the spirit but with Purrgil 😂