More and more applications are popping up that allow you to get your gaming fix on-line. I will list the ones i have come across and give some thoughts on them.
Play By E-mail
I wonder if anyone still plays chess by post anymore? well at it simplest playing by e-mail mirrors this tried and tested method of distance gaming. There are some big draw backs to this however. How could you play a card game? well there are ways! read on.
ACTS (Automated Card tracking system)
http://acts.warhorsesim.com/index.asp
ACTS allows you to play games which have a card based system, including Hammer of the Scots and Twilight Struggle. It facilitates the card play and dice rolling but doesn't handle the board.
When Craig and I tried a game of TS using this, we quickly found that is caused confusion when we both ended up with different board positions on the spreadsheet we had been using to track the game. Worth a try but I think that is falls short of a complete solution for distance gaming.
VASSAL
http://vassalengine.org/community/index.php
This is a smart program which allows live play and play by e-mail. The program was originality designed to allow people to play complex war games, specificity Advanced Squad leader (If you think you have seen a complex game this resets the bar!)
But has evolved to include lots of games including:
- Carcassone
- Car Wars
- Hammer of the Scots
- Memoir 44
- Pandemic
- Twilight Struggle (Pictured)
Live Play looks very promising (I haven't had a chance to try yet)
All sounds great doesn't it, however before you dash off and download (tho i would love you to) i should warn you that the interface isn't very user-friendly and there is a fairly limited player base. That said, i would love to get some Twilight struggle going!
Brettspielwelt http://www.brettspielwelt.de
Tonnes of euro gaming goodness going here including:
- Carcassone
- Lost citys
- Manhatten
- Niagra
- Citadels
- San Juan
- Settlers of catan
Here, I believe, lies the future of on-line gaming. If you ignore all the zombie's vs vampire i have super poked your chocolate hatching Christmas tree nonsense. There is some excellent gaming going on. you can find:
- Chess
- Scrabble, with an official version available now that the Hasbros lawyers have had their ways with scrabulus.
- Connect 4
- Poker
- Go
- Backgammon
- Diplomacy
- Guillotine
- Werewolf :-)
It is mostly traditional gaming fare at the moment but I don't think i will be long before we see some more euro games like Settlers of Catan or Carcassone, well I have my fingers crossed.
Until then there are some other sites worth mentioning which carry a few more games
- http://www.daysofwonder.com/ for Ticket to ride
- http://www.boardgamegeek.com/ for Tigris and Euphrates
- x-box live has Carcassone and Settlers i am told
- http://www.cosmicencounter.com/ for cosmic encounter (pay to play with extra aliens)
EDIT
10/2/09 found a Settlers of Catan app on face book! Result
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