Marshall and I played Germantown by text the other day. He was the nominal ref, and we played a gentleman’s game. It was double blind, we only knew what we could see. We would text each other a pic of our moves when we attacked somewhere. If we discovered our troops would have run into other troops elsewhere, we backed up. It can work playing this way, if you want it to.
I didn’t know it, but he had decided to bring on a smaller force, allowing him to threaten colonial positions elsewhere in the theater. Rather than defeat me, all he had to do was hold the road while his other forces wreaked havoc elsewhere. He just wanted to try an “Austerlitz” kind of victory condition.
I ended up playing overly cautious because I couldn’t figure out where the rest of his army was, I could have mopped up the floor with his troops and dined in Philadelphia that night had I known the size of actual force!
Playing by text can work. I find it slow and exhausting, but fun. My suggestion is to try a small battle. I do not enjoy virtual meetings and thankfully am rarely required to participate. If you have no problems with virtual meetings, then PBT will probably be a satisfactory option.
Pub Battles: Home Brew 