Why Vassal?

What is Vassal?

Vassal Engine is a free to download, Java based engine that allows people to build, customize and more importantly play board games online.  You can find more information on the Vassal engine and its community here.

For the time being, Vassal will be where this game sits.  We have plans to make printing resources available, and high resolution artwork, but that takes time.


So Why Vassal?

• Vassal is free, free to develop, free to update, free to play
• Vassal enables us to continually revamp and update the game as we see fit
• Vassal provided the initial satisfaction of building a game, whose only cost was time, we like the game, and now we're simply sharing it for others.
• Vassal is easy to learn and simple to use, at least as simple as the designer makes it.  In this case, I've taught my 5 year old how to play on it, and he can figure it out... so you should too
• Online play was a key feature for us.  For example, we have testers in Canada, US and Saudi Arabia.  Meeting new players and having a similar experience to sitting around the table, is priceless and adds a lot to the Privateer experience that we wanted to capture.
• The Vassal Module contains all of the artwork for the game.  This is easy to access, and even printable.  While it isn't formated for print, it does work, and makes distributing and Modding the game very easy.  (change the extension to .zip and uncompress)