Over at BGG a couple of people have started doing play by forum matches. After watching a game play out, I joined in and played a match against Junlins, and it turned out to be a lot of fun. We used graphics to visualize the moves in the game and it really wasn't much different from playing an actual table game. Sure, it doesn't look anywhere near as cool, and has a different energy, but you get to focus more on strategy, taking as long as you feel like on each move.
Here's the play-by-play GIF of our last match. I played the axis:
I'd suggest to anyone wanting a little action on the side to try it out!