You don’t strictly have to do it by email, but I like to do so, for reasons I’ll explain later:
Open up a Word Document or whatever, just something you can type a lot of stuff (not X or Twitter, actually, don’t do this on social media, should be self evident, but just in case you didn’t catch it).
Find a high resolution photo of the game map (choose the game you want).
Know the rules very deeply about that game you chose.
Have a virtual dice (this forum’s dicebot is recommended, for reasons I’ll explain later).
So you basically take the starting setup and paste it into the Word Document.
You “play” the game by changing each territory’s number of units to account for movement (you need to create new paragraphs if you move units into territories that didn’t originally have units). You also have to change the IPC levels of each nation and control of each territory accordingly. Use the map for reference.
And that’s it. Simple to do, extremely hard to explain.
Here’s an example (with annotations in bold) (this is for a game I created house rules for, but this system works with any game):
Turn order:
UK
US
ANZAC [should be pretty self evident what this is] [While not required, I like to put territories controlled by the power that starts first at the beginning, and then show territories controlled by the power that starts second next, etc.]
Round 1: [indicates the round you’re on]
Eastern United States [the territory]: 1 infantry, 3 mechanised infantry, minor industrial complex, air base, naval base [units in the territory, and the amount of each] B occupied [owner of the territory]
Sea zone 101: 1 cruiser B
Sea zone 106: 1 destroyer, 1 transport B
Quebec: 1 strategic bomber, 3 infantry, 2 artillery, 3 fighters, minor industrial complex B
Scotland: air base B
United Kingdom: 4 infantry, 1 mechanised infantry, 2 artillery, 1 fighter, 1 tank, major industrial complex, air base, naval base B
Sea zone 109: 3 transports, 1 battleship, 1 cruiser, 1 destroyer B
Sea zone 35: 1 damaged battleship B
Sea zone 102: 1 battleship, 1 cruiser B
Sea zone 43: 1 transport (carrying 1 infantry, 1 artillery), 1 cruiser, 1 destroyer B
India: 7 infantry, major industrial complex, air base, naval base B
Borneo: 1 fighter, 1 tactical bomber B
Sea zone 92: 1 aircraft carrier (with 1 tactical bomber), 1 cruiser, 1 destroyer, 1 transport (carrying 1 infantry, 1 tank) B
Egypt: 2 infantry, 2 artillery, 1 mechanised infantry, naval base B controlled, 2 infantry N
Union of South Africa: minor industrial complex, naval base B
Rhodesia: 2 infantry B
Gibraltar: naval base B
Kenya: 1 fighter B
Malaya: naval base B controlled, 1 infantry N
Shan State: 3 infantry B
No units in sea zone 110, Alexandria, sea zone 39, Burma, sea zone 35, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, sea zone 98, Ontario, and sea zone 111.
UK Europe 114 IPCs [IPC count, and I personally like to use this as a way to separate territories controlled by different powers, in turn order]
UK Pacific 34 IPCs
Sea zone 30: 1 aircraft carrier (with 1 fighter, 1 tactical bomber), 1 cruiser, 1 destroyer, 1 battleship, 1 transport A
Johnston Island: 1 infantry, 1 artillery A
Sea zone 47: 1 cruiser N
Sea zone 54: 1 submarine A
New Britain: 2 infantry A occupied
Western Canada: 1 infantry A occupied
Ontario: 1 tank, 1 mechanised infantry A occupied
Central United States: 2 AAA, 2 fighters, major industrial complex A
Hawaiian Islands: air base, naval base A
Western United States: major industrial complex, air base, naval base A
No units in sea zone 10, Alberta Saskatchewan Manitoba, and sea zone 26.
US 81 IPCs
New Guinea: 1 fighter N
Sea zone 63: 1 transport N
New Zealand: 2 fighters, 2 infantry, 1 AAA, air base, naval base N
New South Wales: 1 infantry, 1 AAA, naval base, minor industrial complex N
Queensland: 2 infantry, 1 artillery, air base, naval base N
No units in sea zone 62.
ANZAC 20 IPCs
Example ends here.
Now why do I like emails and the dicebot?
You can keep track of prior turns.
I used to just use it on the notes app on the Ipad, but I found that there’s no record in case I forgot or didn’t remember something.
Using emails, sending each round after it was complete, made it much easier to keep track of the flow of the game and remember it.
Using the dicebot on this forum you can also keep track of dice rolls in case you forgot something for any reason.
Let me know if you have any questions!
P Panther moved this topic from Blogs on
I have moved this topic here, as it reads to be about an alternative way to play and keep track of a game progress. So it is about “sofware, tools and aides” and matches here.
However it reads very complicated and time consuming to me. Lot of stuff to identify, to think about and to remember. It sounds like manually writing protocols.
Also I don’t understand what you need emails for. Are you sending the document(s) and the receiver needs to identify the changes? Why not just make the document available via Google Docs or OneDrive or on a similar platform - and directly mark the changes (introducing even another step, then)?
Also why should this be superior to TripleA’s game history that keeps track of everything?
I came up with this before I used TripleA. TripleA is still vastly superior, but I wanted to share this anyway. It’s still somewhat useful for playing house rules that you cannot otherwise edit easily on TripleA.
As I said, you send the emails to yourself to keep track of it.
As for why do I not do Google Docs instead, I just didn’t do it and didn’t think of it.
I only used the Notes app on the Ipad, which doesn’t really work, and emails.
So perhaps Microsoft Word might be better.
It is very complicated. I do not recommend playing Global 1940 using this. Anything less complicated is manageable, but best to stick with the more simple side.
Thanks for moving it.
