VALOR Engine (for VASSAL games)

VALOR Engine — classic board wargames, playable on your PC

VALOR turns classic hex-and-counter wargames into computer games. The map, the counters, the rules and the combat tables are all built in. You move your units, the computer applies the rules, rolls the dice and keeps score. Play against a computer opponent, against a friend on the same PC, or watch two computer players fight it out.

No rulebook lookups in the middle of a turn. Legal moves light up on the map, and the built-in Rules panel explains any rule with its rulebook reference.

Get it

• Quiver Launcher: find VALOR Engine (for VASSAL games) in the catalog and click install: https://quiverlauncher.com/apps/valor-engine-for-vassal-games
• Direct download (Windows): get the latest zip from the Releases page, unzip it, and double-click Legality Engine for VASSAL.exe.
• In your browser, nothing to install: https://master.vassal-test.pages.dev

Watch it play: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Afomvk0LjU8

First run: bring your own game module

VALOR ships no game art. Each game uses the free VASSAL module for that game, which you download yourself from the VASSAL library. You do this once per game.

1. Start the app. Every game shows Needs your module.
2. Pick a game. Its card shows the exact module file it needs and a link to the library page.
3. Download that .vmod file from the link.
4. Back in the app, choose the file you downloaded.
5. The card turns Ready. Click it and play.

The games

Game	Publisher	What it is	Module page
Afrika Korps	Avalon Hill, 1964	The full North Africa campaign: supply, fortresses, Rommel	library
Blue & Gray: Chickamauga	SPI, 1975	The classic Civil War battle, all 15 turns	library
Westwall: Arnhem	SPI, 1976	Operation Market-Garden: airborne drops, bridges, engineers	library
Tobruk	Avalon Hill, 1975	Tank-against-tank firefights in the desert	library
Austerlitz	GMT, 2000	Napoleon's greatest victory: command chits, cavalry charges	library
The Siege of Jerusalem	Avalon Hill, 1989	The Roman assault of AD 70: siege towers, rams, ladders	library
Napoleon at Waterloo (2nd Edition)	Stephen Oliver's edition of the SPI classic	The famous introductory wargame	library

The exact file name for each game is shown in the app and listed in RELEASE_README.md.

What you get in every game

• The whole game, with the rules built in. Movement, combat, supply, reinforcements and victory conditions are all handled for you.
• A computer opponent. Each seat can be you or the computer, in any combination. Several games also have a stronger, trained opponent.
• Honest dice. The computer rolls every die and keeps a complete record of the game, so both sides play by the same rules.
• A Rules panel. Searchable rules summary, full credits for the original designers and module makers, and notes on known errors in the printed game.
• Undo. Take back a mistake.

Windows will probably warn you the first time

The app is not code-signed, so Windows may show "Windows protected your PC". Click More info, then Run anyway. If your antivirus quarantines the file, restore it or add an exception. If you are not comfortable doing that, use the browser version instead.

Problems or ideas?

Open an issue: https://github.com/DrEvil-TitaniumHelix/vsav-engine/issues

Tell us the version number shown at the bottom of the game menu and what you were doing when it went wrong.

Want your favorite game added?

See ENCODING_GUIDE.md for how a game gets encoded, or open an issue and name the game.

For developers

How the engine works, how to run from source and how to run the test suite: DEVELOPERS.md.

Credits

By DrEvil / Titanium Helix. Code is MIT licensed.

VALOR exists because the VASSAL community spent thirty years digitizing these games. Each game's Rules panel credits the original designers, the publisher and the people who made its VASSAL module.

• Fabian Schaffert (devmapal) contributed area-map support.

Legal

All games are © their respective rights holders. This project ships none of their material: no maps, no counters, no rulebooks. You supply your own module. Not affiliated with or endorsed by VASSAL or any game publisher.