Going Virtual: Gaming During COVID and Beyond

By Mitch Reed

We may hate to admit it but gaming is a social hobby, we may build and paint our models in isolation, but the reason why we do this is to meet up with fellow gamers and play the games we love. In the last few months, a pandemic has taken away our social outlet with conventions being canceled and gaming stores closed to gaming. Even as we slowly recover and open up our nations many gamers may be rightfully apprehensive to return to the table. So, we may be faced with a long period where we are deprived of the social aspect of our hobby. I, for one, really miss seeing and playing across the table from my fellow gamers. I never realized how important that aspect of the hobby was to me until the lockdown. Even though I was also in an odd position where my painting mojo evaporated at the end of last year, I have been forcing myself to paint my ships from Oak and Iron. While I was painting, I did not have a sense of urgency, with no event driving me to complete my models the lack of motivation and loss of mojo made me desire to game more. So, I looked for alternatives and found a few PC based “sandboxes” that I hoped could fill the void in my life.

Before I get into any details, I want to share some facts I have discovered in my decades of gaming and my seven years of covering the hobby for blogs and magazines. Forget about the genre of games (historical vice fantasy) and think about the factions of our hobby. You have board gamers, miniature gamers, RPG gamers, and video gamers and while they are in the same family, they are more distant cousins as opposed to siblings.

In my case, I play board, video, and miniature games and for the most part, I do this with three separate social groups. While many gamers love the WWII tactical edge of the game, few play a game like (which covers the same ground in a board game format), or Squad Battles from , which also focuses on the tactical edge of combat in a PC game.
While some gamers play in multiple formats I have found few others who do with the same level of enthusiasm. While I cannot speak for the community, I can tell you that each medium of gaming scratches a different itch for me.

For video and RPG gamers I feel very little has changed in their lives. Video gamers probably did not notice the lockdown at all and many RPG gamers use online platforms to run their quests. So, the real hardship of the lockdown was felt by the board and miniature gamers, more so than the aforementioned distant cousins of gaming.

Vassal Engine
Since 2003 the free has been bringing gamers together virtually to play their games. On their website Vassal states that they are “a game engine for building and playing online adaptations of board games and card games. Play live on the Internet or by email. Vassal runs on all platforms, and is free, open-source software.”

Vassal is a 2D top down view of over a 1000 board and miniatures games like and and has been very popular amongst gamers. Despite this popularity I never got into using Vassal, as I stated above, I like the social aspect of the hobby. However, over the recent weeks I have been digging into the game engine not only to play for fun but to use to run a distributed wargame with my day job.

The Vassal Engine provides you with the map and counters/cards/etc at a minimum with some games having basic macros to make die rolls with a CRT. What the engine does not do is replace the game outright, you still need the rules and the charts that come with the physical game. You also need to know how to play the game since Vassal does not have AI and nothing in the game is automated.

Tabletop Simulator
(TTS) has been around since 2015 on the Steam Engine and I picked it up last year for possible use with my paying job. I never used the game much until a few months ago when I saw screen grabs of people playing miniature games that I also played. I was hooked and felt that this program may fill the void in my gaming life. Our resident master painter Paolo wrote an article that tell you all you need to know about TTS and can be found here.

As the lockdown gripped the world out friends at were busy shipping their new game Oak and Iron. So the guys at Firelock developed a mod for Oak and Iron.

I asked lead designer Mike Tunez why he did this:

“COVID came slamming down on just as the game was finally getting to people, so we didn’t want to let that excitement die. Since people couldn’t get together to play their new game in person, they could at least do so virtually.”

Does the TTS mod generate excitement for the game?

“I think it did,” Mike added. “Despite us not having anyone with programming knowledge to make it run as smooth as we’d like, people took to it right away. As of today, 1,247 people have downloaded the mod. We also have around 50 people actively participating in our online campaign that is taking place right now on TTS.”

So gamers like me were able to play with all the different factions in the game and it games me insight into what type of a force I plan to play when face to face gaming returns. It also helped me learn the rules of Oak and Iron, meet fellow gamers that I will meet in person at future events, and most of all it was a blast to play this game in any manner.

Another aspect TTS allowed me to do is to help playtest an upcoming module for the game . Doug from the excellent has been working on this new addition and took me through a playtest. Having playtested many games in person, the virtual play test lacked for nothing. The use of TTS enabled Doug’s team to include players from places such as the UK. Even without a lockdown, this was real-time playability for table-top minis playtests was not possible before.

The Lead Pursuit guys are also holding an event online via TTS that was scheduled for Adpeptacon which was canceled.

You can also use the TTS to learn a new game. My game with Paolo fulfilled a desire to one day learn and play the system and after our game I purchased the rule book and I am now looking for an army to buy and play with. The NDNG crew also used the modules to teach our Matt Varnish how to play the game. He was always interested in BA, but without a local gaming scene, or a friend into the game, how can he go and learn how to play it? How would he figure out what army suited his playing style the best? What TTS allowed him to do is to learn the game and start to figure out what forces he will buy in the future.

Even for the experienced Bolt Action gamer I had things to learn and discover. I wanted to pick up a second army list, I was between Germans or Italians, so now I can play both virtually and use that experience to formulate what list I will collect, paint and play with.

Is this good for the hobby?
As I have been gaming on Vassal and TTS and posting the pictures on social media, I faced some backlash from the community. Many felt playing an online version of a miniatures game hurts the game in the long run. From speaking to many developers, they felt the opposite was true. First of all, we really cannot game face-to-face right now, and who knows when the store/convention scene will be back to the pre-pandemic numbers. So what are we supposed to do?

Painting only goes so far in keeping the excitement going for our hobby. Playing the game online, however, grows excitement and help build a community that will end up supporting the game.

As I said earlier about distant cousins, I do not feel that these online engines will replace in-person gaming. The different mediums scratch different itches and many miniatures gamers are just not tech-savvy enough to easily learn how to play virtually. Also, the social aspect of the hobby just can’t be replaced by these platforms and talking to opponents via Discord or Zoom.

I asked Jon Russell, from how platforms like TTS and Vassal helps to grow excitement and expand the community?

“TTS/Vassal keeps us in the hobby and helps grow the hobby during COVID,” Jon said.
You might believe that platforms like TTS or Vassal hurt sales of physical products.
Not at all in-fact just the opposite.

For the Oak and Iron campaign, I talked my WWPD brother Eric into playing. Now he is hooked and will end up buying the game and has talked the game up to the gamers who play at his local gaming store.

So once restrictions end you will see a bunch of guys heading to their LGS to buy and then play new games, or expand their armies/factions to include ones they’ve tried via online platforms. The fact that board games have thrived with Vassal is proof that these platforms help grow gaming.

The average gamer, even with an active LGS community, may play a particular game once or twice a month, some gamers only play at conventions a few times a year. How do you get this player into the game passionately other than casually? Playing against other players virtually will help them become more skilled at playing the game and will grow their interest in playing.

Mike Tunez states it best:

“I definitely think it helps. I think TTS is an alternative platform for most people. People who play tabletop games typically enjoy the face to face interaction and collecting the nice toys, so the person who will only play the free online version is definitely in the minority. I think most people will use it to either A) try the game out before buying it, b) be able to play during lockdown, or C) to play against friends that they have either online-only or that live far away. In general, I think most people that enjoy the game will buy it. I know I have bought a few games that I’ve tried on TTS during the lockdown!”

Mike alludes to a sales aspect one should consider is that it allows veteran gamers like myself to explore new lists and armies so I best decide what I should purchase next. I have developed a huge list of models I plan to buy once I can go back to my LGS. From talking to others, I am not alone in this thinking, the more I play a game the more I buy for a game is true mindset for many of us.

Post-Pandemic Utility
Some may think that once we return to normal that these platforms will go away. I feel that this is a very false assumption Gaming has to start leveraging new technology in order to grow. In the past when asked by a developer on what they can do to make their games different, I always said that they needed to keep the gamer interested in the game while not playing.

In the past this may have been done via list making, or arguing online about the rules. This was never enough. After a tournament I want to tweak my list and play again using lessons learned as soon as I got home. I want to play with my opponents list to see why it beat me so badly. In the past I had no outlet for this. I would have to wait for another event or try to talk someone into play me at an LGS.

Now we can use these platforms to play our past opponents again, within days of an event.
I have also advocated for the use of apps in tabletop gaming since everyone has a smartphone. I look at a game like which requires you to use an app to play the game. In U-Boot the app acts as the “AI” since the game is played cooperatively. I think this a great direction for our hobby and I wish other developers would think outside of the box.

Another aspect that should stick around is play testing via online platforms. I am a fan of deep and lengthy play testing; however, getting a small group together and finding a secluded place to play is not easy to do, and takes up time since you have to teach the game for each play test.

It also prevents group think in play testing, a group of gamers who play all the time learn all the same bad habits and misinterpretation of the rules from each other. When I played Flames of War via TTS with Mark Goddard (from the amazing Breakthrough Assault website), I mentioned to him a few times during our game that in my local group, we interpreted some of the rules differently than how Mark did.

Another issue with playtesting is usually revealed when a game finally hits the market. Often, some of the things I felt were obvious about the mechanics of the game, other gamers did not understand in the same way, if at all. Virtual playtesting with a wide group of gamers is so much more efficient and should lead to more polished games hitting the market.

Doug from the Lead Pursuit Podcast really amplifies this point;

“Tools like TTS allow us to quickly revise and test rules with a larger number of playtesters in a short amount of time. By shortening the revision cycle you spend less time rebuilding other associated rules when playtest review indicates a change in a core concept is required. Additionally, the ability to mix and match among playtesters gives you a better perspective on if a game design issue is based solely on play style or even play tester personality.”

Final Thoughts

There is a real possibility that we may not see any major events or local stores open for gaming for a number of months from now. Based on the average age and health of our community this may not be a bad thing.

When gaming returns, however, I worry about what it will look like. I hope that my local stores stay in business. I also hope that developers can stay solvent to continue with their production plans.

A lot of this depends on us and how we gamers respond to the current situation. Many in our community may find themselves out of work for a longer-term than expected. Many gamers may not have the cash to return to the hobby for a while. Some may have found other ways to spend their gaming time, and stick with it after life returns to normal.

Instead of abandoning our gaming hobby, I and many others have used distributed gaming on platforms like Vassal and TTS to keep our gaming passion alive. It may just be the trick that helps our hobby survive.

After this social distancing period ends, I hope that game companies look at how virtual versions of their products can be leveraged to improve the experience for the community. I strongly feel that the company which embraces this change will be well-positioned in both popularity and income.