Forged in Fire covers the 1862 peninsula campaign during the American Civil War. It was designed by Mike and Grant Wylie and Matt Burchfield, and it was published in 2006 by Worthington Games. Please visit the Worthington website at http://www.worthingtongames.com/. This Vassal mod was created by Stan Hilinski in October 2006.
If you right-click on any unit or marker, you will get a menu just for that piece. Some markers can be flipped over to a reverse side.
In most block games, your blocks are standing on edge, and only you can see their faces. In a Vassal module, they are facedown when on edge and faceup when they are exposed. When you start a game, Vassal does not automatically assign units to you or your opponent. Instead, you take ownership when you turn blocks facedown. Ownership is linked to your Vassal password, so choose a password (file/edit_preferences) before you begin. Then turn all your blocks facedown by pressing a button either on the buttonbar or an order of battle window depending on the game. You will always be able to see the faces of blocks you own even when facedown. Do not turn down your opponent's pieces because you will then own them too.
By default, when you flip a piece facedown, your opponent will be able to still move it, but he will not be able to turn it faceup because you own it. This is fine in real-time play, but it can be a burden in email play. You may allow your opponent to turn your blocks faceup by selecting File/Edit_Preferences/General and checking the box "Opponents can unmask my pieces." Both players should do this. It does compromise security, but it is very convenient when playing by email.
If you play by email, each turn you create a log, which is a snapshot of the current game plus each move you make that turn. You email your log to your opponent as an attachment. When you receive a log, you load into into Vassal (File/Load Game), and then you step through your opponent's moves. You then turn on your log (File/Begin Logfile) and do your turn. When finished, you save your log to email to your opponent (File/End Logfile).
When you start a new game, the first thing you must do is to choose a password and then press the Flip USA or Flip CSA button on the right side of the toolbar. This turns your units face down, and you will see them with a dark border, but your opponent will see solid-color squares. Your button will only flip down your faceup blocks, so you can use it at any time on the main map.
The division name is not printed on each unit. However, if you hold the cursor over a unit, its name with its parent corps abbreviation does appear in the popup window.
Each player has a private window to which eliminated units are sent. Players may use the windows to secretly shuffle blocks, which is especially helpful to the CSA player with his decoys. Reinforcements are located in holding boxes. In some scenarios, players may place some units in multiple locations. For setup, some units are at each of these locations, and it is up to the players to rearrange their placement as they choose.
The "tombstone" button opens a window for units not part of the scenario. It has no important game function.
To run a battle, move the battle marker from the battleboard to the town, and move all units to the battle board. Don't forget to turn them faceup! Your faceup units will have no border instead of a dark one. The battleboard has markers to track battle progress.
The four red dots may be used to temporarily mark hits.
You can clone each one (right-click command) to make more.
Use the target to indicate the current firing unit.