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WiF is unashamedly IGOUGO and thats OK by me... but it is also easily divided into the two camps of Axis and Allies. In a multiplayer game we have three players for the Axis and three for the Allies but there is really only two phases... one Axis and one Allied. So I guess the PBEM sequence would require Adolf to do his move and send it to Benito who does his move and sends it to Tojo who does his move which completes the Axis move so Tojo and sends it to Franklin who does his move who ...

"Hang on!" yells Yosef. "I want to see the completed Turn before the Imperialists do anything. Mail it to me first!".

Winston shakes his head sadly. "Can't do that Yosef, you'll screw up the turn order."

Meanwhile in Berlin Adolf is chewing carpet..."Dumpkopf! What do you mean we can't see what the Japanese did in their Turn... I need to know whether they sent aircraft to protect our subs in the Bay of Bengal like they promised!"

Goering is squirming in his seat. "Well mein Adolf... they say they did, but we won't get to see the Turn file until after the verdamned Britischers and Amerikans have had their turn so they may have shot down the Japanese planes before we see them."

Adolf pauses to remove some wool from between his teeth.

"Well next turn make sure we see the Axis Turn file after the Japanese do their moves and BEFORE it goes the Allies in case I want to make changes."

Goering turns a paler shade of gray.

"Unfortunately the Japanese refuse this request mein Fuhrer. They say that the Turn sequence doesn't allow this."

"Gott in Himmel!" exclaims Adolf. "For once I agree with Yosef. The Turn sequence is impossible."

But I've probably got it wrong somewhere... surely there is an elegant way to provide simultaneous updates to all players on the same side and to allow them to submit simultaneous orders.

My idea for a solution to this problem would involve the logging of each piece's start position and state as well as its post-move position in the PBEM attachment.

Basically, when each player has finished making his moves, the log of all moves he made is mailed out to the other players currently allied with him (but not to all players). When all of the allied players have made their suggested moves, the players can then argue via e-mail about what changes they need to make to their moves. Finally, each player can then change his moves (using the move log to record the starting position and determine possible alternative moves) and send the final moves to all players.

In a face-to-face game of WiF, the players on each side would be able to discuss their moves; this simply approximates that via e-mail.

Maybe this would add a fair bit of time to a PBEM game (which is likely to be very lengthy anyway), as well as a few kb to the attachment size, but that's the price you pay for not having a live LAN/internet connection.