I played Frozen Synapse a bit. I seem to remember there were some local multiplayer options?

Play by email would work ok for this kind of game. (But I don't think that was ever supported. Laser Squad Nemesis might have supported play-by-email, I'm not sure?)

LSN was play by email only. It probably made sense in 2002. They did add a web interface to get your new turns a few years later.

Plus you could spend a day setting up your turn in a rated game against a good opponent, so who cared how the turns arrived.

Frozen Synapse decided to go with a time limit for turns... same mistake as xcom 2.

The limited number of turns in Frozen Synapse make more sense than in XCom 2. Mostly because Frozen Synapse is actually a multiplayer game.

Also compare the 'turn limits' in Into the Breach that are very well done: you have to hold out for four turns in all missions.

I'm complaining about the time limit to send your turn in in multiplayer. I'm afraid I never played single player Frozen Synapse.

Laser Squad Nemesis (multiplayer, that game was never seriously single player) was so good that when I saw Frozen Synapse copied the simultaneous orders mechanic I jumped straight into the multiplayer and never looked back.

However instead of having 90 day games like in LSN you had like... 10 minutes per match? Felt too much like Starcraft.

I seemed to remember that you can set your own time limits on private games?

My memory is a bit hazy. I mostly played with a friend, and only a few times on random internet matches.