Could Someone Give me Advise Transitioning to Digital Wargaming Platforms

[elijaah]

Hello there,

I have been a longtime fan of tabletop wargaming, but lately; I have been considering making the leap into digital wargaming platforms. The convenience and accessibility they offer seem appealing; especially for solo play and connecting with others online.

I am particularly interested in understanding the landscape of digital wargaming platforms available today. Are there any standout platforms known for their user-friendly interfaces or robust community features? I am looking for something that can recreate the depth and strategy of tabletop wargames while offering the advantages of digital gameplay.

Additionally, I would love to hear about your experiences transitioning from traditional tabletop wargaming to digital platforms. What challenges did you encounter, and what surprised you the most about the digital gaming experience?

Also; I have gone through this post; https://www.armchairdragoons.com/articles/analysis/wargaming-evolved-well-always-have-hexes- which definitely helped me out a lot.

Lastly; if there are any specific games or platforms you would recommend for someone new to digital wargaming; I would greatly appreciate your suggestions.

Thank you in advance for your insights and recommendations.




admin edit to remove spam link, and we'll see if you're serious about the replies that you get

[bayonetbrant]

the first one to check out is rally-the-troops-com which allows free browser-based online play for a bunch of games, with new ones being added regularly, though not a ton of classic H&C style games

also, you have to play against a real person, as there's no AI/bots built into RTT


Beyond that, your 2 main platforms are

Tabletop Simulator - small cost, but a HUGE array of games available.  All it does is put your pieces on a virtual tabletop though, so you are responsible for your own rules enforcement

VASSAL - started out as Virtual ASL (VASL) and has since grown into a really big library of games.  The baseline VASSAL engine is free, as are most of the modules for it.  It also does most rules enforcement for you.  But it can be technically finicky and b/c it's open source there's no dedicated professional support team for it.

[Advocator (Scott)]

I'll add www.boardgamearena.com since it does have Talon, Space Empires 4X, and Unconditional Surrender on it. The recent additions of SE4X and Talon have me hopeful more things will end up on BGA. And it's generally a very solid interface with a lot of games to choose from.

As Brant mentioned, Rally The Troops is another good site to check out. I've only poked around on it a little bit, but it seems really solid.

I've used both Tabletop Simulator and Vassal. I cut my teeth during covid using Vassal, so it's my preferred way of playing. I'm sure if I had done so with TTS that would be my preference. Regardless, both offer a wide variety of games that you can play. TTS is a bit more of a physics engine, whereas Vassal is a bit more of just an interface for playing games. My experience with both has been it depends on the module. With enough know how, whoever created the module can do different amounts of scripting. I believe TTS is more powerful there.

I play a lot of Combat Commander via Vassal and it's module is pretty good (I say that as the person who has kind of taken to maintaining the module to whatever degree I can--if I knew how to program I would work on adding more and better features to it, alas that's beyond my abilities). By far the most impressive Vassal module I've used is the one for Pax Pamir 2nd.  I only played a few things via TTS. The scripting there was pretty impressive for War Room.

For both TTS and Vassal, though, in my experience it falls on the players to make sure rules are being followed. BGA and RTT have rule enforcement built into them.

I know Vassal has the ability to save and email games, if PBEM is your preferred format. I think TTS can do that but I'm not 100% sure.

Finally, depending on the game(s) you're interested in, there are some with dedicated communities. I play a lot of Combat Commander because I'm part of the ladder tournament group. I know of other groups for Command and Colors, Last Hundred Yards, Fighting Formations, and Wing Leader. I'm sure there are more.

[TTC]

the first one to check out is rally-the-troops-com which allows free browser-based online play for a bunch of games, with new ones being added regularly, though not a ton of classic H&C style games

also, you have to play against a real person, as there's no AI/bots built into RTT


Beyond that, your 2 main platforms are

Tabletop Simulator - small cost, but a HUGE array of games available.  All it does is put your pieces on a virtual tabletop though, so you are responsible for your own rules enforcement

VASSAL - started out as Virtual ASL (VASL) and has since grown into a really big library of games.  The baseline VASSAL engine is free, as are most of the modules for it.  It also does most rules enforcement for you.  But it can be technically finicky and b/c it's open source there's no dedicated professional support team for it.

I'll just add that most game companies require you to own the physical copy (or one player if you're playing with others) to play their game on VASSAL or TTS.

While there's no real enforcement, it's the honest thing to do - and in the long run, could end up really hurting the niche wargaming industry if everyone just started playing for free on VASSAL or TTS.

(RtT is a different story, though. The companies have licensed the site to implement their games - and the site is free.)

[Advocator (Scott)]

That is true. And some games would be tricky to play without having access to the physical components. For example, while there are pre-defined setups for all the scenarios for combat commander in the module/extensions, none of the scenarios themselves are in the module. Without those, you don't have the rules for setup, etc. But even if you could play without, the right thing to do is make sure someone has a physical copy. Like my yet-to-be-played physical copy of Combat Commander 

[rickbill]

All great info shared by folks before me.  So, some of the stuff I am sharing may be repeats.  I thought I would share a couple of things I have found ...


There is a geeklist on BGG ... https://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/285039/digital-wargames


there is also more info at a website I try to maintain called ... virtualwargamer.org


Some new stuff to me ...

Camelot Games Company website does some retro stuff ... they also have a link to a site called owlbear.rodeo


with a tutorial video for setting up and playing panzer leader on owlbear.rodeo