by Dangulica
After my initial thought of recreating the Vassal module for PBEM (project abandoned), i took a closer look at the existing module (by mkiefte) and came up with this guideline. I tested it for a few games and didn't encounter any problems (yet)So, few things about playing TS with Vassal and ACTS. (since the Vassal module is heavily automated, few adjustments are required to play PBEM).
Card play and dice rolls are made in ACTS and the Vassal module is used to track the board.
1. Must be played in Vassal version 3.1.20 (or lower). It doesn't work properly in 3.2.x. It's best if both players use the same version. You can have both installed in the same time (3.1.x and 3.2.x).
2. Don't draw cards in Vassal at the start of the game. From the 2nd turn onward, Vassal auto deals cards. You must drag&drop them back to the DRAW PILE (not to discard pile) so they are available to select later on.
3. Just select the cards 1 by 1 and drag&drop them to your player hand as they are played in ACTS. This is to prevent one player from figuring out the other player's hand, since you can browse the draw, discard and removed cards piles. So basically select 1 card, play it, advance turn marker. And repeat.
4. For the automated turn marker to advance, you need to keep at least 1 cards in hand at all times (if you have no cards in hand, the auto advance turn marker skips your turn, since you don't have any cards to play). So at the start of the game, select just your headline card, play it and then select another one to keep in hand. From the first action round onwards, select just 1 card and play it, and then make sure to have at least one card in hand. (preferably from the removed pile (since they're out of the game), if that's not available the discard pile will do). And repeat for every action round.
5. When playing the card as event, it will be resolved automatically. That's fine most of the time, but if the event requires dice rolls (Wars, OG, etc) then you must adjust the influence and board markers manually, using the effects of the roll in ACTS (and ignore the roll in Vassal).
6. When playing the card as operations, do just that. Then adjust influence manually based on ACTS. Do not do coups or realignments in Vassal, cause it will auto roll the die and that needs to be redone.
7. For coups and realignments made in ACTS, adjust manually in Vassal the DefCon and/or Military OPS markers.
8. The same for Space Race, it needs to be redone if the dice roll in ACTS yields a different effect. But you can adjust and flip the Space Race markers manually, so that's OK.
Basically, except for the AR and Turn marker which you can't manipulate in Vassal, everything else can be adjusted to fit the ACTS situation.
Comments/ideas to improve this guideline are welcome.