Tonight's battle was American Civil War using Camp Cromwell Action Rules.
Chris' Rebs v. Jim & Mark's Union.
The Tasmanian C19 lock down rules allow me to have one visitor at a time for "social support" & as my wargames table is over 1.5m wide I can host one-on-one wargames. Tonight Mark participated by video link as we experimented with both WhatsApp on smart phones & Zoom on tablet & PC.
The objective is the village in the foreground.
The Rebs have a column on the left hand road. A cavalry brigade leads 2 infantry brigades.
The Union have a cavalry brigade on the near right & a column of 2 infantry brigades on the right hand road.
The Union plan was to grab the village with the cavalry. After they got the 1st move & used it to rush their cavalry towards the village, the Rebs decided to try to win by breaking the Union army & started to deploy to their left.
The Union cavalry are occupying the railway station & whorehouse with their horse guns deployed between them. Some of the Reb cavalry failed command & are being enfiladed by the Union guns. At this time
we are using WhatsApp with my smartphone on a tripod to communicate with
Mark. I have set it so Mark's feed is the small insert & the wargames scene is the full screen pic so I could see what I was showing him better.
The infantry have deployed. One of the Reb cavalry units has been destroyed by the Union guns, another forced to retreat.
The Reb infantry is moving up to attack, but the Union artillery is shooting well & making them pay.
The Union are getting the best out of the firefight along the railway line. Their dismounted cavalry have been got out of the whorehouse & station & are advancing on the Reb's right flank.
We are now trying Zoom on my tablet to Mark's PC.
Both flanks of the Reb line are getting overlapped.
The Rebs launched a last desperate charge at the Union centre. They broke the 2 units near the bridge, but their left has crumbled & they fail their Army Break Test. The Union hold the village & win both ways.
The experiment of involving Mark by video link was promising. Both WhatsApp & Zoom worked fine. The main issue is maximising the involvement of the remote players. Next week we want to have remote players on both sides with them being the CIC's with Chris & I being mainly cameramen & plastic pushers. We think it will work best to have two separate links with two cameras - one for each side so they can have separate councils of war - by whispering, slipping into the other room, or maybe by showing each other notes on the video link. It is possible to have multiple remote players on both sides, but we haven't tested using multi-person conference calls yet. Our intention is to try 2 a side next week & work from there.
Chris' Rebs v. Jim & Mark's Union.
The Tasmanian C19 lock down rules allow me to have one visitor at a time for "social support" & as my wargames table is over 1.5m wide I can host one-on-one wargames. Tonight Mark participated by video link as we experimented with both WhatsApp on smart phones & Zoom on tablet & PC.
The Rebs have a column on the left hand road. A cavalry brigade leads 2 infantry brigades.
The Union have a cavalry brigade on the near right & a column of 2 infantry brigades on the right hand road.
The experiment of involving Mark by video link was promising. Both WhatsApp & Zoom worked fine. The main issue is maximising the involvement of the remote players. Next week we want to have remote players on both sides with them being the CIC's with Chris & I being mainly cameramen & plastic pushers. We think it will work best to have two separate links with two cameras - one for each side so they can have separate councils of war - by whispering, slipping into the other room, or maybe by showing each other notes on the video link. It is possible to have multiple remote players on both sides, but we haven't tested using multi-person conference calls yet. Our intention is to try 2 a side next week & work from there.
1 comment:
Interesting "vidoe game" experimentation!
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