Better Lucky than Good – VASSAL Module

If you’re looking for a way to play Chain of Command, What a Tanker!, Battlegroup, Nuts! etc., look no further. This module for the popular VASSAL program will allow you and a friend to play games online. Here’s a link to the module:

  • Better Lucky than Good v1.0 (83.6Mb) *
  • Better Lucky than Good v1.1 (~84Mb) *
    • Added some more Vehicles and Guns to British and Germans
    • New Deployment Lines (in Models > Deployment)
    • New “White Border” (in Terrain > Ground) for quickly cleaning up the Map edges
    • A couple of new Maps added (in the Scenarios folder)
  • Better Lucky than Good v1.1.1 (~84Mb) *
    • Target/Scatter Die added
    • Some new Maps added (in the Scenarios folder)
  • Early War French (~350kb) *
    • Add this file (do not unzip) to the BLtG_ext folder of v1.1.1 of the module.
  • Larger Boards (~5.5Mb) *
    • Add this file (do not unzip) to the BLtG_ext folder of v1.1.1 of the module.
    • Adds 8′ x 6′ grass, desert and snow boards for larger games.
    • Start new game offline > Choose Other Board Size > Select Table > Pick the size/style.

Installation instructions

  1. Install VASSAL from here. There are versions for Windows, Mac OSX and Linux.
  2. Download the Better Lucky than Good module (.zip) archive from the link above.
  3. Unzip the archive to a location you’ll remember.
  4. Launch VASSAL.
  5. ‘Open’ the BLtGv1.x.vmod file in VASSAL from the location you unzipped it to. It’ll take a little while to load the assets. This may take a couple of minutes the first time.

Note: you may be asked to give your name and give a password the first time you launch the module. When playing online your name will appear as whatever you enter, but just enter anything you like (it’s not important; I’ve never been asked for the password again)!

Setting up a game

  1. Launch Better Lucky than Good from the Module Library in VASSAL by double-clicking on it.
  2. Choose ‘Start new game offline’.
  3. Choose ‘Map 1 (Western Europe)’ and then ‘Player 1’.

You should end up with something like this:

You’ll find models and counters are in the Models section. Just drag them to the Map. Right-click on a model to see what options there are for moving it, etc. There are keyboard shortcuts for most things!

Bringing your game online

Click the double-arrow button on the top left. This will open the online games dialog on the top right. Click the other double-arrow button in that dialog. Create a new game/room by entering a name and hitting the Enter key.

If your opponent selects the ‘Look for new game online’ option (instead of Step 2 above) they can double-click the name of the game/room you’ve created and the map (and all model movements, dice rolls etc.) should automatically synchronised. VASSAL has a basic text chat built in, but I usually have a voice chat running with my opponent.


I hope that’s all clear! I’ll do a video about these features and some of the more advanced features soon…

Until next time,

Owen

* Big thanks all of the other asset creators that allow their images to be reused. Specifically I’d like to thank Suki. I used some of the vehicles he/she created. Check out their other historics modules here.