Fighting Formations and VASSAL

Well I had been putting it off long enough what with my miniature gaming and all but this weekend on Sunday I finally pulled out Fighting Formations. Out of curiosity I also installed VASSAL and then 4 hours later my entire day was gone.

What happened is in the chat room I managed to find a nice wargamer named Shaun from England that had no issue with creating a new game and teaching me how to use VASSAL as well as the basics to the game. Next thing I know we are on turn 3 of scenario zero and I am playing the game quite smoothly.

I was most impressed with the VASSAL engine and how it handled the game. Once I got the hang of it and stopped accidentally dragging counters everywhere I was rolling dice, flipping activated units and placing hit markers with efficiency.

One interesting thing about Fighting Formations is the use of the Order Matrix which becomes a game in of itself. Stealing those low order cubes to rob your opponent of cheap moves or shots is also a bizarre metagame that I will have to get used to. I rarely played any cards in my game instead choosing to discard assets to get extra firepower on my STUG III shots which paid off as I toasted a good amount of T-34's. I still need to learn to place my command markers a little better and get the flow of assaulting or advancing down.

All in all a blast and a game I will come back to a bunch I think. Way more fulfilling than any other wargame I have played recently.

Some screenshots: