Wargaming goes digital!

After an initial confusion caused by the word “gay-ming”, Chris ‘the Tornado’ Jackson has consented to allow us tabletop gamers into the hi-tec world of Internet gaming……

Having Fun on line! But, not that sort of fun!!! 

Well its almost a year since life as we know it (Jim) has changed beyond all recognition and I don’t know about you but Im just about fed up with it. I’m missing playing games in real life and having that banter that you only get face to face. Oh!!! Hang on a minute, what theres a way to almost have exactly the same enjoyment but on line!! Tell me more!!! 

Yep, you can play games with friends and have as much banter as in real life, on line!!!! How? I hear you say! Well hopefully this article will help you do just that and instead of Lockdown giving you a headache it’ll be your partner doing it as they will be moaning about how much time you’re spending with your mates playing games on line. Now that will be as close to reality as you can get lol😊 

Clearly, most of you will be missing playing with your little men (Miiiiike…. put him down) so the first thing I will address is just that. 

Playing L’art de la Guerre, Field of Glory, etc, etc. 

If you sign up to Steam – https://store.steampowered.com/ you can do just that!!! This is free to join but you will have to pay for a tool on steam called Tabletop Simulator – Tabletop Simulator to play the above games.  

Unfortunately, this was on offer at half price until recently but even at £14.99 it’s a bargain.

Once you have paid this ONE OFF payment you have access to lots of Table Top games that we all played in real life. Not ONLY that but you get access to other stuff as well but I will deal with this a bit later on. 

Here is a speeded up video of a game posted by Tim (themadaxeman) Porter to give you some idea of what its like. 

There is a support group on Facebook called L’Art de la Guerre play with Tabletop Simulator  and I am sure that anyone on the group will give you help on how to set up a game. Also talking of support there is a Discord group that you can also use to get help and this is what we use to talk to each other via a mic and headphone while playing the game. Click the below link 

Discord Group 

That’s about all you need to get on line for wargames! 

Board Games Galore or how 007 occupies himself in Lockdown ?

Now for the more cultured wargamer that likes to challenge themselves mentally there are numerous ways to play board games on line. 

!) Steam/Tabletop Simulator 

The Steam server – https://store.steampowered.com/ allows you to buy various games to play and that’s all well and good but if you haveTabletop Simulator this gives you acces to litterally THOUSANDS of games that you can play for FREE. Many of the games are either board game wargames or tacticle games that will fullfil your need for speed (not that sort of speed). There are also many stratergy games that will test the brightest minds to the full or there are many just fun (not that sort of fun) games that you will have a laugh with your mates playing. 

Discord is used to talk while playing the game. 

Rating: 10/10 

2) Board Game Arena 

This server – http://www.boardgamearena.com also allows you to play many games for free as it doesn’t cost anything to register BUT if you want to play some of the more popular games you will need to become a Gold Member which costs 2 Euros/month for a year or 4 Euros/month on a monthly basis. Again, very cheap for what it gives you access to. 

Again Discord is used to talk while playing the game. 

Rating: 9/10 

3) Yucata 

This is a far simpler server – http://www.yukata.de that doesn’t have the same amount of popular games on but again its free to register and all the games are free. One of the benefits of this server is that it may not have the big games on there but it does have some GREAT games on there that aren’t on the other servers. 

Discord is also used to talk while playing the game. 

Rating: 8/10 

4) Tabletopia 

This server – http://www.tabletopia.com is the most expensive of them all. It is free to register and you can play a lot of games for free but to play the Primum games you either have to pay $4.99/month for Silver Membership or $9.99/month for Gold Membership which as I said is the most expensive of all the servers. 

Again Discord is used to talk while playing the game. 

Rating: 6/10 

Playing on line games isn’t for some people I know but I think it’s the closest we’ve got to the real thing until we can sort out this pain in the arse (not that sort of pain in the arse) virus!!! I love playing on line, even if it isn’t quite as good as the real thing, because you interact with your opponent(s) and it keeps your brain ticking over all while you’re having a great laugh. What’s not to like about that!!!!! 

 

Happy gaming folks!!! 

Chris Jackson

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