It is a free gaming platform that is used for multiple games and wargames. There are over 2000 modules according to Vassal webpage listing of modules. What is most interesting for WM&H players, there is also a module for Warmachine and Hordes.
Why would you ever want to play on Vassal? It has graphics like games 10 years back and regular game takes longer than on the tabletop. Well, if you have a thriving and varied meta and a lot of time on your hands, you probably do not need vassal, if you do not however, read on.
A small collection of Macintosh games I found in a folder on my vintage Mac! Includes: BlackJack Connect Four Forty Thieves 2.1 Hearts 1.6 MacChess 2.0 Macman Pro Reversi Missile Mac Mombasa 1.1 Backgammon MineSweeper 1.3 MacClub Games Compilation ( 1 reviews ) Topics: Mac Games, Macintosh, Apple Mac. The Missing Plug-in prompt may also display if you have an outdated version of the plug-in, allowing you to update your Mac with the latest version. To view the content, you will need to install the missing plug-in. Below we show you how to install missing plug-in with Mac OS X.
Vassal is great for people, who have a small meta, and want to try their lists vs various factions in international meta. Also, if your local game store has a meetings on days where you already have other obligations, or you work until late, you can play on vassal at any hour, and you will probably find some opponents because all time zones play on the same server! You have international friends you want to play against, or you moved to a different city and want to play your old opponents? You can do this on Vassal.
Garmin Support Center is where you will find answers to frequently asked questions and resources to help with all of your Garmin products.
In my case, it is both, my meta is relatively small, and I only can play once a week or two, so my only choice to have more games is Vassal.
Also, there is one more great use of Vassal, that I sometimes do, testing the unpacking, positioning etc. Lately, I used Vassal ie. to see how far would a single Gatorman Witch Doctor reach with his command while unpacking my 20 posse Maelok army with his death ride ability. One it was faster than using models, and second, the idea came to me while waiting for my car being checked at garage, and I had my laptop with me and no models. 😉
LOS Warmachine and Hordes podcast made a whole cast dedicated to Vassal, so you can listen to that if you want some additional information: https://www.loswarmachine.com/line-of-sight-podcast/2017/12/7/line-of-sight-episode-24-using-vassal
So in order to play on Vassal, you will need to install the engine and install it. Currently Windows, Linux, Mac OS X. After you download and run Vassal engine, download and open the module. You are now ready to start!
Vassal Download
Warmachine Module Download
So you have installed Vassal, started the engine and started the module. You can now choose to play offline, load a game or look for a game online. Well, in case you are not testing anything yourself, you will probably choose look for a game online. As you can expect, you will need internet connection for that.
Some users put their army in their name and I’m a big proponent of that. It makes life easier if you are looking to test your army in a certain matchup, if you know what everyone is playing will make things this easier. You can later change it in file/ preferences / personal.
So you got in Vassal, on the right you will find the players currently online and active games. You can search for an opponent in two ways. Either press now blue exclamation mark “!” above active games window, it will mark you as a player searching for a game, or you can ask players now online if they have time for a game. You do this by right clicking the name and sending a private message to a player.
If this fails, you can try messaging Discord Channel or WMH VASSAL Matchmaking FB Group for an opponent. Usually, if you are determined, you will be find a game within short time.
Discord channel: https://discordapp.com/channels/122763196493725696/122763196493725696
Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/589392647912336/
All right, now you have found an opponent and he will probably help you out with finding out how Vassal works. But in case you are both fairly new, read on. You need to create a new game in Active Games window, just type the room name you want it to have. Your opponent will have to join after you have loaded empty or premade map so you have no issues with synchronization.
Vassal Setting up a Room
The fastest way, is to load a premade map. They are set up according to current SR rules and get updated occasionally. If something is not right with the map, you can modify it or make a new one from scratch.
If you load an empty 4×4 map, you will need to put in terrain. You click “setup/terrain” and pull and drop terrain you like on the table. You can rotate the terrain by right clicking the terrain and choosing right option. Once you choose something else, you can select the terrain pieces by pressing shift + left mouse click.
Once you have terrain set up, it is time to set up thee scenario. The game has a scenario generator. So you click on the right year to generate a scenario, and then choose the scenario and it will be set automatically.
Vassal Terrain tab
Vassal choosing scenario
So once the scenario and terrain are set, you can start pulling your models to the table. You access them from setup / models menu. You just drag / drop models and their damage grids. Usually warcasters/warlocks and warbeasts/warjacks have damage grids, where as multi-wound infantry has damage marked directly on the model.
For clean table, you can put damage grids into damage tab, where it can be accessed easily at any time and pulled back to the table if needed.
If you do not like pulling models each time you play, you can save your army, and load it later just before the game. Some experienced vassal users are so fast in pulling their models they do not need this functionality, but for an average user it is very convenient.
So, first how do you save an army? Here it is in few easy steps:
1. You need to pull all the models and damage grids you will need.
2. Once all the models are pulled, you mark them by left clicking and pulling the rectangle over them.
3. Now all the models are marked, go to menu, click file/begin logfile
4. Choose a name and clicks save. Enter decription
5. Now logfile will save your moves, so only thing you do ic press CTRL+C
6. And you go back to menu and click file/end logfile
Now your army is saved and you can load it any time in few easy steps:
- Go to file / load continuation
- Choose your army you have previously saved.
- Press the triangle in left corner, your army should show up and choose no on the prompt to begin new log file.
Whether you pulled your models or loaded them, you are now ready to play.
Vassal saving army
Like with any app, learning the keyboard shortcuts will be a great boost to speed and ease of play. There is a document that will help you with this. After a while, all these will come to you naturally. Also, most options used in the game, can be accessed by right clicking on the object and choosing the right option from the menu.
Cheat sheet: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eYVUIqWVfTPRUBEFbCaB6912HD07HluO/view
You move your models with arrows, up moves model forward, down arrow moves model backward. Left and right arrows turn the model by 10 degrees, if you press CTRL and arrow, you will turn slower in rate 5 degrees per each press. Each press of up/down arrow will move you by 1”. If you go through difficult terrain, you can use CTRL to go by 0,5” with each arrow press.
There are measuring tapes in vassal, but they work really awkward. You need to choose the measuring tape, left click from where you measure and drag and hold the left mouse button until you reach you measuring end, then you need to release and click somewhere in empty field to keep measurement on the table. There is luckily easier way of doing things than that.
Pressing numbers 1-9 will give you measurement from a selected model to 1-9”, shift+0-9 a measurement from a selected model 10-19” and finally ALT+0-9 will show 20-29. With +/- you can add deduct from that measurement aura 1” or if you press shift 0,5”.
With that, and easy movement you are mostly covered in terms of measuring.
Vassal is equipped in internal dice generator, so you just press what number of dice you want to roll and the result will show up on the dialogue screen. You also have column/tough/deviation buttons.
Vassal making dice rolls
Co there is built in chat / dialogue screen where both players can communicate. This is used by many players as it is convenient. I use it very often, because I usually play late where my kids are asleep, so talking is mostly out of the question.
You can also communicate by Discord, Skype call or any other way of voice communication preferred by the players. Discord and Skype are the two most popular methods I can think of.
The engine has a number of “quality of life” improvements, that will allow you to speed up the gameplay. I list below the ones I usually use.
Marking auras
You can put an aura around each model to mark a model you mean ie make attack with or make attack to. You can use R-ed, T-ael, Y-ellow and G-reen. You can reset the aura with O-ff or reset all auras with button Reset Auras.
Back/Undo button
In left top corner holds undo button, that will help you go back as many moves as you need.
Toggle artwork
Sometimes models artwork stands in the way of measurements, you can then use the “[“ and “]” buttons to turn it off.
Toggle unit / model base colour
When you have multiple of the same unit it can be useful to have their bases of various colours. You can then use shift + “[“ and “]” to toggle the bases colour.
Charge lanes
When you try to find out the charge lane for a model, you can use ALT + H function, the charge lane will be shown.
Counters and game Markers
If you go to Setup / Counters, you will find many useful tokens/aoe’s etc that can help you track the game state. If you pull a token out, you can label it with an effect with CTRL + L. Also if the effect needs to be tracking number like following the soul count you can turn on the number on the counter with “N” and increase/decrease count with “B” and “M”.
Descriptions
Instead of counters, you can add a fast description on the model with CTRL + E. This is faster than counters and moves with the model but sometimes obscures part of the board so you need to choose yourself.
Focus / fury / Wounds
Each model has a number on them, you can turn on the number on the counter with “N” and increase/decrease count with “B” and “M”. Warlocks, warcasters, warbeasts and warjacks have their foc/fury stats marked this way. Other models have their wounds marked.
Damage grid
You mark damage on damage grids by left clicking on the boxes, simple and easy.
One thing it is difficult to use on vassal is clock, as it would probably lead to a win of person who is faster with vassal engine not in the game. You will get faster with your gameplay anyway thanks to a reps you will have, but vassal is best for testing moves and game play not speed of play.
As with any game with any social game, you need to know how to behave. Almost all people I met on vassal are nice and friendly with just few exceptions over the past years, so do not be the exception.
All games on vassal are considered to be friendly game, so there is no need to be tense or nervous. As with most of friendly games, you can ask for takebacks or you can agree with your opponent how you approach this at the beginning of the game. Most of the players want to get better by playing on vassal, so they want to play against opponents at their best.
So don’t be rude, don’t throw a fit if your dice don’t go your way, do not disconnect right away if something goes wrong. This is extremely rude, and I avoid people who behave this childish way. If you make a mistake, ask your opponent nicely if you can change it, most of the opponents will see no issue in a takeback.
From time to time, there will be some issues with the system. I have not encountered vassal actually crushing ever, but some issues like lack of synchronization or being disconnected might occur.
So two arrows above the active games, show if you are connected. If all of the sudden you write and nobody answers, just check there is maybe you did not lost a connection. It happens very rarely and when it happened it was usually problem with my wi-fi or laptop.
Vassal Active Games Missing Mac Os
Be sure you are synchronized with your opponent. Sometimes if you enter the room before the map is set, or the engine fails to load something, you will see different map than your opponent or will not see the models. Once I have played half of the battle with me and my opponents seeing different maps. It can be easily fixed by choosing your opponent name, right clicking and choosing synchronize. It happens very rarely but it is good to know how to fix it in case you do not see your opponent army or see different map.
Vassal disconected signal
As the game develops, the new version of module will show up from time to time. In between, module developers may add Extenssions to the current module containing ie. new models, new scenarios etc. To load the module, you need to put the extension in the Vassal Folder, in folder named like your module with “_ext” at the end.
Ie. if you have module WMH5, you should put the extension file in folder VASSAL/WMH5_ext/
Thanks for reading the article. If you have any comment, what should be added to this document, just let me know, and I will happily do it. I would like this article to be up to date and useful for new Vassal players as long as possible.
If you notice errors or missing sprites/art, please let John know at warmahordes.vassal@gmail.com so he can fix it with next release.
Vassal Active Games Missing Mac Catalina
If you like Vassal, and spend time using it, pleease consider donating to Vassal so they will keep the lights on. http://www.vassalengine.org/
As their developars say: “Vassal is free, but development and hosting are not. If you enjoy using Vassal, please consider helping us with these costs.”