If anyone is interesting in joining up and schedule some Vassal Games join Blood of Kittens Vassal group by clicking on the following link.
https://bloodofkittens.com/groups/vassal-for-bok/
You will need to register with Blood of Kittens if you want to join the group FYI. Anyway on to AbusePuppy’s Tutorial!
Okay, so VASSAL: it’s a pretty good way to get some games in if you aren’t always able to get out of the house at the right hours to get down to the game store. However, the interface can be a little confusing to start out with, which pushes a lot of folks away from it. TT has asked me to do a little tutorial for folks, being as how I just recently worked up the energy to jump through the appropriate hoops and learn Vassal myself.
The first thing to understand is that Vassal is not actually a 40K engine- it’s designed to work with a variety of game systems, including Fantasy and Warmachine, so in order to play 40K you’ll need to do a little bit more than just download the program straight. Not much more, though- it’s actually a quite simple process.
First off, visit http://www.vassalengine.org/ to get a copy of the basic Vassal engine (wow!) and install it. Then, go to http://www.vassal40k.info/ and download the latest version of the 40K module. Unzip the 40K module into your Vassal directory (that is, wherever you installed it at.)
Now, you can run Vassal and you should get something that looks more or less like this:
This is the base Vassal game. If you don’t see the 40K expansion there already, simply go to File -> Open Module and select it manually from the directory. It should pop up a window like this, and will probably ask you to setup a username/password. This can be changed later, so don’t worry too much about it.
Offline games are good for messing around with the controls and getting a feel for everything, but let’s go ahead and start an online game so we know how to connect. It will likely take a few seconds as you log into the server, and once that’s done, you’ll be looking at the following. (Note that I’ve fiddled with window positions a bit; we’ll talk about things like that in a second.)
One common problem is “there’s no one around.” If you don’t see the names on the right-hand side, you either accidentally started in offline mode or are set up for peer-to-peer play, not server. P2P is useful if one or both of you is having trouble connecting to the server, but mostly it should be avoided. Fixing this is rather easy once you know what the problem is- simply go to File -> Preferences and open the “Server” tab, which will give you an option to switch things.
If you find yourself unable to connect, your you may need to open a port on your firewall. Doing so is more complicated than I want to go into here, but there are guides abundantly available on how to do so.
So you want to do a game. One way is to start one yourself, which is actually rather easy. First, go to the Active Games window, which should have a small form over it where you can type something. Enter a name you want for the game and hit enter; it will form a room for you. Double click the room to enter it. (You can do this with any room, unless they are locked, in order to see who is inside and more. More on that later.) Next, go to File->Start New Game and pick 6×4 (since that’s the standard size of a 40K board) and whatever terrain type you like. That should kick up this little box:
…From which you should select Player 1 (since you want to be part of the game and able to control units, etc). And voila, you are running a Vassal game.
What’s that, you say? Nothing is there! Vassal is somewhat odd in the way it uses windows and tabs, defaulting most of them to be closed. I won’t say it isn’t awkward, but it’s how the program works. First off, you’ll notice a Map tab that will bring up the map you selected (of whatever size and type) as well as a number of markers hanging off to the edge- things like the scatter die, blast templates, markers for unit statuses, etc; all of these can also be found in the Models tab.
It also has the Line of Sight and Range lines, which you can use to help clarify/check things. A recurrent bug is that leaving either of these threads “active” for too long will crash the game, so after measuring it is a good idea to click somewhere off the board to insure that the thread is gone and won’t bring your match to an unfortunate end. Lastly, there are markers to indicate activity- which unit is shooting, which is the target, whether units have gone to ground, etc.
This is where you find your models. From here, you can select the various factions and units (which covers most all of the units in the game at this time) as well as terrain, markers and templates, and various other useful things. Important ones include the scatter die and deployment zones.
One trick with the scatter die- it’s not hard to figure out how to roll it, but it’s also worth noting that you can give it (like any other unit) an area circle, which, coincidentally match up awfully well with the small and large blast templates, making the placement, roll, and determining of who’s in the area rather easy.
Terrain can be an awkward part of the game, but generally setting it up should be a mutually agreed process between you and your opponent- this is one of the reasons joining a random game with someone you don’t know can be difficult sometimes. Pieces can be dragged to the map and moved/rotated just like any other model, using ctr + arrow keys. Note that once you “let go” of a terrain piece (have it no longer selected, as indicated by the yellow border) it is no longer manipulable, to avoid doing things like moving the trees during a game. However, you can shift+click it to re-select them and alter things if you change your mind at a later point.
Even more so than in a regular game it is important to discuss with your opponent what each piece of terrain represents in Vassal- vertical LOS is completely nonpresent, so you will need to make clear whether a particular piece is large enough to provide cover to vehicles/MCs/other large models. Also determining what is impassable and what is area terrain, etc, is a very good idea- a lot of the terrain pieces are slightly odd, so never assume you and your opponent view them the same way. It is often a good idea to mark them for what they are (we’ll discuss how to do this in the unit section, below.)
Let’s get back to that models tab, though.
Aside from picking your army, you can also chose your faction- for some armies, this is very relevant, especially Space Marines. Ultramarines players will find no Stormraven model in this listing, oddly enough, but some other units are also unavailable. Hive Fleet Leviathan apparently does not make use of Tyrannofexes- in fact, only Behemoth does, something I found rather odd. However, most everything has a representation in the game.
Now that you’re ready to start building an army, click the Player 1 tab in the main window (assuming you decided to start as Player 1); this is where you can drop the models for your army prior to deployment; it’s basically a “workspace” for you. Vassal does not calculate points costs in any way, so it is up to you and your opponent to make sure everything is legit in that regard. It does, however, allow you to represent the options on a model. Ctrl with the open/close brackets (the ‘[‘ and ‘]’ symbols) will be the most common option, but each unit tends to have a few unique selections of its own with the ctrl+number keys and such. Right-clicking a unit will allow you to pick these options manually, and also gives you a wealth of other actions.
Cloning, deleting, and killing a unit are going to be things you do often- it’s well worth remembering the shortcuts for these; range circles are also very helpful in determining the 1″ bubble around units, 2″ coherency, auras and charge ranges, etc. Note that if you select multiple units at once by clicking and dragging, you can clone several members of a squad (or open range circles for them all, etc), very useful if your army list contains several similar/identical units. You can likewise move units en masse by using the movement commands and change their base colors to differentiate your units from each other (using Toggle Slottabase.) When units are on the board, Vassal kindly displays a “path” that they have followed, giving you an easy way to tell how far everything has gone. Last but not least, you’ll note that there is a Unit Information option that allows you to type whatever you feel relevant there is a separate Wounds option for tracking injuries as well.
Let’s go back to that main window now that we have a better feel for the units and map.
Aside from the models tab we have open (which can be closed once the game gets going, if you need space) and the server controls (likewise), we have a pretty standard-looking chat interface window and a bunch of controls up at the top. The chat window is just that- you can type into it and folks can see things. It’s a decent way to communicate, but relying entirely on text tends to be a bit too slow for my tastes, so having Skype, Ventrilo, etc, available for hands-free communication is very handy and makes things quicker and easier.
Most of the tabs are specialized rolling interfaces the to-hit/wound, saves, and to-hit/penetrate are all rather self-explanatory. One useful tidbit, though: often you will have a set number of hits you want to input (such as from a blast/template weapon, etc)- you can still do this with the hit/wound button by simply having 1+ be the number to hit, which will cause all of the dice to hit successfully. The vehicle damage and deep strike mishap tabs are likewise specialized interfaces.
One tab I glossed over is Dice; this allows you to simply roll a set number of dice, anything from a single die to any reasonable number, with selections for the most common numbers; usually this will be for things like reserves, psychic hood, or other unusual things. These have shortcuts in the form of the F1 to F7 keys, with F1 being rolling a single die (the most commonly needed occurrence), F2 being rolling two dice (which gives separate results), etc. F6 is roll two dice and add them together (such as for scatter) and F7 is a d3.
The Turn tab isn’t always used, but can be helpful; it pops up a small window that you can advance through each player’s respective phases and turn sequences, so that you don’t get completely lost. Unlike just keeping a simple die on the table, you will never accidentally pick it up and use it to shoot at the enemy with, but it can easy to forget to change.
Lastly on our tabs is the slightly misleading Army Lists tab. This has several sections to it: first off, the Scenario section, which often goes unused, since most just play the basic missions. However, it can easily be converted to hold whatever information you deem relevant. Secondly, the Public window is basically another of the same thing; any information you want visible to your opponent (and spectators) can be placed here. Private, as the name implies, is only visible to the player who typed it; this is mostly helpful if you want to put reminders to yourself and such. Finally, the Delayed section is for information that needs to be chosen secretly and then revealed at some later point, such as Ymgarl Genestealers, special scenario choices, army lists if you are doing them that way, etc.
The method for doing so is somewhat tricky, though. You will need to click the New button, which brings up a window. Type whatever title and info you want into that window and hit ‘OK’. Then, before leaving the Delayed window and with the file created, click Save, down at the bottom; if you don’t, it will vanish immediately. Once you have done so, you can navigate back to the tab at any future point and select the information you want to make public and click the Reveal button, which will then make it visible to your opponent and any observers.
Vassal also has a variety of other capabilities; it can log games, and there are some roundabout ways to save armies, etc, as well as locking games/rooms in the server. However, this should cover the majority of the things you need to know to play a game. I suggest spending a little time with an offline game to familiarize yourself with things before playing your first game- it is definitely awkward initially and you will find things go slowly, but with a bit of practice you can play at about the same speed as you would a normal game.
Tasty, Fluger, and possibly some of the other BoK and 3++ folks are looking to form some sort of consistent Vassal night to get games in, if anyone is interested. I am often on during the late-night Pacific U.S. times; certainly, I’m sure we can find a time that works for enough people to make things worthwhile and set up a regular chance to do things. It could be a good way to share and demonstrate ideas for armies and for everyone involved to get in some extra tournament practice which, to be honest, you can never have enough of.