Vassal Engine

The Vassal Engine is a game engine for building and playing online adaptations of board games, tabletop games and card games. It allows users to play in real time over a live Internet connection, and also by email (PbeM). It runs on all platforms, and is free, open-source software.[1][2] For example, there is a Star Wars Miniatures module, where players can play with up to three others in a digital replica of the table-top game.

Vassal Engine
Developer(s)The Vassal Team.
Initial release2002 (2002)
Stable release
3.7.2 / October 8, 2023 (2023-10-08)
Repository
Written inJava
Operating systemAny
PlatformCross-platform
Available inMultilingual (English and 6 other languages)
TypeGame engine
LicenseGNU LGPLv2+
Websitevassalengine.org

It is written in Java and the source code is available from GitHub under the LGPL open source license.[3]

History

Vassal began as VASL (Virtual Advanced Squad Leader), an application for playing Advanced Squad Leader.[4]

Available modules

Vassal modules exist for over 1000 games, some of which are listed here. A more comprehensive, but not exhaustive, list of modules exists on the Vassal module site list.

Tabletops

Boardgames

Card games

In September 2008, Games Workshop issued a cease-and-desist order regarding V40k to Tim Davis, the V40k module maintainer at that time.[11] The module is still played.

Games Workshop has also issued a cease-and-desist order regarding Space Hulk.

Similar projects

Similar engines for making board games include ZunTzu[12] and Boardgame.io.[13]

References
  1. Geryk, Bruce (August 2007). Green, Jeff (ed.). "Line of Attack: Your monthly guide to hard-core wargaming" (Print Magazine). Games for Windows. Ziff Davis Media (9): 92. Retrieved 3 August 2021.
  2. Ardwulf's Lair (7 October 2015). Exploring the Vassal Engine for Online Boardgaming and Wargaming. Retrieved 22 Jul 2021.
  3. "Official Vassal Website". Archived from the original on 2021-07-22. Retrieved 2006-08-18.
  4. R.Flaibani (14 December 2010). "The Master and His Vassal". Archived from the original on 31 March 2015. Retrieved 20 April 2015.
  5. "VASSAL". Archived from the original on 2017-06-20. Retrieved 2017-09-10.
  6. "Warmachine&Hordes Vassal Module Download". Archived from the original on 2021-07-22. Retrieved 2012-05-21.
  7. "Download Source for Battlefleet Gothic Module". Archived from the original on 2011-05-20. Retrieved 2008-05-08.
  8. "Module Shadows over Camelot Download". Archived from the original on 2012-02-22. Retrieved 2008-05-08.
  9. Playing Cards
  10. Module Site
  11. "GW V40k Legal Action". Archived from the original on 2021-04-01. Retrieved 2008-12-30.
  12. "ZunTzu - the Online Boardgaming Platform". Archived from the original on 2019-01-26. Retrieved 2019-01-17.
  13. "Boardgame.io - Open-Source Game Engine for Turn-Based Games". Archived from the original on 2021-02-14. Retrieved 2021-07-22.
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