Play by Email/Forum for A&A Minis, How To?

[djensen]

The quote below from Lotus in another thread got me thinking: how would Play By Email or Play By Forum Axis & Allies Minis games work?

The dice part would be easier than Axis & Allies but what about the map representation? Unfortunately, Avalon Hill (WotC) didn’t number the hexes.

I’ll think on this some more and post again later.

Off topic for a second, but you know what would really be cool? An online live dice roller so people could play this table-top game long distance. Kind of like the old postal space battles a friend of mine used to play. When I trade posts on this stuff I wind up wanting to play the people I post with…so few people play this game… :-(

[djensen]

Okay, I know there is interest in doing this.

First task: how to deal with notation for the position and facing of units. How do we name the hexes? How do we represent facing?

[DFlynSqrl]

Well, the nice thing is that all the maps are already label Dog 1, Bravo 2, etc…

So, the first part of the notation for a hex could be something like D1 (Dog 1), B2 (Bravo 2)…

We could start with a standard then on numbering the hexes 001, 002, etc.  Maybe say that the corner of the map that has it’s name Dog 1, etc… the first valid hex on the top row is always 001 (meaning no half hexes).

Since we have a tendency to flip the maps around the hex numbers won’t always be facing the same way as the other on the map, but still saying your M2 Flamethrower moved to D1-024 (Dog 1 Hex 024) should be easy enough to figure out.

Then for facing we could always assume that we write the hex number at the top of the hex so that could always be position 1 for facing.  Then we could just number going clockwise at that point.
                                                1
                                              ___

6  /  024    \2

5  \            /3
                                              ___                                   
                                                4

(Sorry for the crude hex… I’m at work…)

So, the M2 Flamethrower moves into this hex and is facing the bottom of this hex (4).  D1-024-4  (Map Dog 1, Hex 024, Facing 4).

Anyway, that would be my guess how to do it.  I’ve never played a play-by-mail game so maybe there is an actual standard for this, but this seems like it would be easy enough to me.

[Lotus]

I guess my challenge would be getting used to those maps again.

I was thinking of lettered columns and numbered rows, like battleship. Use the facing as described above. Counting movements should not be a prob. I think a code chart for unit shorthand would be wise too, to speed the play.