Great Job on this. Fantastic work.

For those of you on the fence about playing vassal, you should look into this and give it a try. So much easier to install and get started now. Much more user friendly now.

What is Vassal exactly? Is it Star Wars Miniatures Game for PC? I was looking at this earlier and I couldn't figure out what this is used for, but it sounds like a turn based parable of our beloved table top game.

I've downloaded Vassal, but it seems a bit complicated to use. Are there any step by step instructions on how to get going with it?

Vassal is a generic boadgame game system. There's lots of games on there. Its open source and works on most systems. There's a big X-Wing community that regularly plays on vassal. It's lets you meet and play against players from all over the world. It's really a great place to improve your game against some of the best players out there. If you want to know more or how to get it set up let me know, I would be happy to help you get hooked up.

What is Vassal exactly? Is it Star Wars Miniatures Game for PC? I was looking at this earlier and I couldn't figure out what this is used for, but it sounds like a turn based parable of our beloved table top game.

Vassal is a board gaming engine. Many different board games can be played on it online. X-Wing is one of the many and quite a lot of people on the forums here use it to test out squads/play tournaments without the barrier of physically being in one place/having all the ships and upgrades required.

Now don't get me wrong, the physical miniatures, cards, tokens and all are awesome and are a huge reason I like this game. I also like the interaction of sitting across a table playing a game against someone. Sometimes you just can't go to every tournament/know other players that live far away and this is why I enjoy X-Wing on Vassal.

There's an excellent guide with pictures if reading is your prefered thing here: http://www.afewmaneuvers.com/_/afm-articles/x-wing/another-guide-to-playing-x-wing-on-vassal-r118

It was written for 4.5.1 (2 major updates ago) but it should be mostly still valid. If anything, you'll notice that some stuff is even easier with 5.0.0, first of which, the number of files that are needed to get this running.

Make sure you get Vassal 3.2.11 (current version) and all 4 v5.0.0 x-wing vassal modules (1 main module + 3 map packs) and you'll be good to go. Make use of the 'Quick Ref' button in the main window once you're logged in to get some really helpful pointers (shortcuts that did not exist at the time of the above guide linked)

I've downloaded Vassal, but it seems a bit complicated to use. Are there any step by step instructions on how to get going with it?

There are but they are a little out of date now that you have the new module. here's the basic steps

1. Decide where you download the new 5.0.0 main module file. Vassal doesn’t have specified folder for all its files. It just loads where you tell it where your files are.
2. Create a folder in that same place you chose for the main module. Its name will mimick the name of the main module, followed with _ext tacked at the end
3. Download all the map .vmdx extension files (from 5.0.0) in that new subfolder you just made.
4. open vassal, go in file menu, choose open module, click on your main module file.
5. Now your all set, and all the map files will be open to you as well.

If you already have Vassal installed, do you need to upgrade to the new version? I have it, and have put together some squads (thanks to the videos that I believe you were involved in), but have not actually played yet.

Installing the new vassal program version over old versions is pretty painless. I say do it.

If you already have Vassal installed, do you need to upgrade to the new version? I have it, and have put together some squads (thanks to the videos that I believe you were involved in), but have not actually played yet.

Yes I did some of those video's, but I think it might be time to update them. I would update your vassal, as Mu0n said it's pretty painless.