Vassal card draw craziness

Hi, I hope this is the right place to put this message. I played some 60 vassal games now with a friend using the latest two versions of Vassal and the 3.41 and 3.42 modules. We ended up not playing any more because the card drafting was getting ridiculous. Almost all games we draw 3 the same cards out of the 90 card deck in the first draw, tactical cards of which there are only 3 (or 4) in the 90 cards deck. Now the problem is this happens almost every game and distracts too much and is not much fun sometimes, if one starts with two or three of the same strong cards in his hand. Is there a solution for this that I don't know of? I see that a lot of games are played online, also in tournaments and I have heard about this issue before, so maybe there is a way around this that makes online playing carefree until Covid is beaten. Any input is welcome and I don't try to trash the module, it's just an issue that annoys too much (for me and my opponent). We both don't care losing or winning but we like the game to be as it should be. Help me Obiwan Napoleonic, you are my only hope!

not sure I can overcome this problem, but some guidelines to try and help resolve known issues;
1. Both join and select sides BEFORE you create the card decks. Resolves some ownership issues
2. Shuffle the decks before you draw

There is a kind of natural period at the outset when you play or husband the good cards you have. If you don't save the good cards, and play them early, then you tend to get a mid-game drought period of ordinary cards.

Somehow I get a handful of Probe cards every game.. so maybe you guys are getting the good cards I SHOULD be getting?

We do the first, always choosing a side and joining before choosing the card decks. Maybe we have to try the shuffling because I think we don't do that. The draw results are normally very annoying mostly because it's not like the luck or bad luck in face to face games. We have the almost only probes situation as well some games. We tried a couple of times to make notes, also on the dice rolls. There is something reoccurring there as well, so bad that we can actually guess the third roll results before rolling the dice. Thanks for your input.

On an off topic side note I want to say I love your early war scenarios for The Great War. I tried them a couple of times 2/3 weeks ago and was surprised at how well they worked. A big thanks for your effort and for sharing them.

Ernst wrote: We do the first, always choosing a side and joining before choosing the card decks. Maybe we have to try the shuffling because I think we don't do that. The draw results are normally very annoying mostly because it's not like the luck or bad luck in face to face games. We have the almost only probes situation as well some games. We tried a couple of times to make notes, also on the dice rolls. There is something reoccurring there as well, so bad that we can actually guess the third roll results before rolling the dice. Thanks for your input.

maybe try running a logfile, so you can record what is happening. VASSAL dice is something I've long been suspicious of, but every test shows the right distribution of total results. My suspicions rest around the number of times dice appear in pairs (two SWORDS, two CAVALRY etc.)

On an off topic side note I want to say I love your early war scenarios for The Great War. I tried them a couple of times 2/3 weeks ago and was surprised at how well they worked. A big thanks for your effort and for sharing them.

thanks.. I have meant to go back and fix up Le Cateau using Field guns instead of mortars, but the net effect is minimal.
With the French infantry now, the Marne is a real option.