A useful tool (especially in deterministic type boards) would be the ability to launch the game and play everyone's turns to try out ideas/mechanics. 

Or show someone a particular tactic by launching the game from turn X, playing out a suggestion or change to what someone else did, and then sharing the link with them or with team-mates.

Or just to play a game against your self(ves).  Silly? Maybe, but being able to play all sides could teach you about a game's mechanics, or just to do something between waiting for turns or kill some time at work.

IF you could launch a game from a particular turn once completed you could include cards.  If you were launching from a current ongoing game you would of course need to hide the cards of the opponents (make them all wild or something so you can try out what their turn might be like with a trade-in).

I think this would be awesome -- but possibly difficult to animate.  Additionally, a suggestion to this suggestion --- allow rewinding of play and launching from any point.

(I would LOVE this feature for strategies on the Go Board.)

..it would also be a great feature for designers who want to test play their own boards.  That has of course been discussed before, but I like your extension of the idea.

+1

This would be nice, but how hard is it to setup a second account, and open a second browser, and switch back and force between windows?  (not hard).

You can already restart a game from a specific turn.  From the game view page (i.e. http://www.wargear.net/games/view/NNNNNNN), just click 'view log', look to the far right column ('R'), and click an icon in that column to replay from there.

Ozyman wrote:

This would be nice, but how hard is it to setup a second account, and open a second browser, and switch back and force between windows?  (not hard).

Actually, some of the designers here have done this ..with tom's blessing, but the use of multiple accounts has been otherwise discouraged.  That said, when it comes to private games, I see no foul, and you are right, pretty much everything we have mentioned can be accomplished this way.

But to test a position by terminating games from a certain move and then restarting them on the previous move is cumbersome.  It would be much more efficient on the system (and easier) if you could just slide the history timer to the desired move and press a "play from here" button without starting a new game each time.  Imagine waiting for a specific result with the dice, and having to start 4 or 5 new games from the same position until that happens.

The ideal would be to be able to populate the board with the units and postions you want and then start from there - sort of like an optional board set up.  There are some computer games I have played that allow this.

Ozyman wrote:

This would be nice, but how hard is it to setup a second account, and open a second browser, and switch back and force between windows?  (not hard).

You can already restart a game from a specific turn.  From the game view page (i.e. http://www.wargear.net/games/view/NNNNNNN), just click 'view log', look to the far right column ('R'), and click an icon in that column to replay from there.

1) I don't really like anything that makes someone start another account.

2) It is cumbersome -- and lacks some of the functionality of what I suggested (rewind especially in deterministic games with 1v1 dice so you can try different strategies).  Stopping and restarting a game from a certain turn and inviting the alternate account over for each iteration IS cumbersome, especially if you want to try different paths a number of turns out.

SquintGnome wrote:

The ideal would be to be able to populate the board with the units and postions you want and then start from there - sort of like an optional board set up.  There are some computer games I have played that allow this.

In a way, designers already have this ability, they can just create a scenario with a custom set-up.

I think, unfortunately, that implementing it along side a "Time Machine" feature as described sounds tricky, but there's no doubt it would be a great feature.

I've always liked this idea. Aids learning any board, aids post-game analysis, strategy discussions, dev testing and so forth.

+ a bazillion

+1