Miniature wargames, play by post?

[Ichneumon]

This might be a strange question and honestly I have never heard of it being done, but are miniature wargames being played on forums too, like how people play rpgs like D&D? And if not, why?

Obviously using maps is problematic with play by post gaming and that's just what minaiturw wargames require even more than regular pen and paper rpgs, but can it be done?


I ask this more out of curiosity than something else, I don't have much experience myself with wargames, just thought it was an interesting idea.

[Cristo Meyers]

I suppose that with some 1 inch square graph paper, a grid system, and plenty of pictures you could do it, but it just wouldn't really be worth the trouble. Line of Sight rules for various games alone would be a headache.

Depending on which game you want to play, you're better off looking up Vassal.

[Enguhl]

Perhaps using maptools or the like instead of a play-by-post would work better.

[Astrella]

Vassal might be an answer, depending on whether they support the game in question. (For example, no GW games are supported on Vassal.)

The advantage for Vassal is, that you've got supported terrain, dice rollers, tokens, models and all available.

On forums would be rather difficult I imagine for anything not using a fixed grid for gameplay. Something like Bloodbowl I could see being done, but a real wargame would be better done via Vassal.

[Winterwind]

Depends greatly on whether it was a wargame using a grid (be it squares or hexagons) for its battlefield, like, say, BattleTech, or a wargame using nothing but actual distances and measuring everything, like either of the Warhammer games. The former would be perfectly viable (though for BattleTech specifically, there exist easier solutions, like MegaMek), the latter exceedingly difficult and probably not worth the effort.

[Gruffard]

To further expand on Winterwind's post. A lot of wargames don't require formations either, so you an make all different sorts of model line ups. And Template would be another one of those not that hard but more hassle then worth it to figure out. Without a program to support it placing templates would be annoying.

That and dice rolling is a lot different then classic RPG, for most RPG you roll your stuff. In a wargame, you roll craps loads of dice for an entire unit, half get to reroll because of X, The commander needs different target numbers. Oh and the fact that 1/3 of them are fighting this guy instead of that guys makes more hurt my head rolling. With most forum rolling programs thats like 6 posts to get your rolls done, then wait for the other guys 4 posts of rolls then your few extra, per unit, per phase, per turn.

[IonDragon]

Having to make multiple posts for rolling doesn't seem like that big of a deal. If it starts to clutter the game, you make a thread to keep you die rolls separate, then edit in the results. I think the biggest problem is keeping straight where everyone is. Using a grid, you can get an Alphabetical line, and a Numerical line, put in where everyone is at using letter codes, and have a master list. You just keep on updating the grid with who is where and reposting it as needed, or just keep it in post one.

This would be increasingly difficult as units suffer damage, and it would mean moving each unit individually every turn by painstakingly updating it's current position on the 'map'. Terrain, elevation, and LOS only complicate matters. Even without those issues, I think keeping track of positions is the worst part, definitely not worth the work even if I were into wargames.

[Small Grey Cat]

I don't know how helpful this might be, but I've used a vector graphics program called Inkscape to 'play' tabletop wargames before. I'll draw or copy a map and create scaled objects to represent figures and rulers. Because the objects can be moved and rotated independantly of each other, it makes an almost perfect simulation, although it is entirely manual and takes time to play with. LOS was kinda arbitrary as I recall though (the players were all in the same room and could debate it as it happened.)

It would be more like play-by-email, but passing a map file back and forth, accompanying it with any die rolls or other info, should get the job done. It would be time-intensive but it should work.