Trying It On

Hurrah for the denizens of the blogosphere. Thanks to four brave volunteers I have now experienced a 4 player + moderator, 3 time zone, coast to coast, miniature wargame and not only learned a few things but enjoyed it.

The view from the other side, pulled back to show the whole table.
(Screenshots courtesy of Murdock: see murdocksmarauders.blogspot.com)

We used Skype for this game and as the listings on the virtual Huzzah registration site lists Skype as the medium and 2 people have already signed up,  I am going to stick with it until then. A quick chat with Rob over Discord seemed to have better video so that will be something to investigate later.

Zoomed in a little closer, a little later in the game. 

There were a few technical glitches and a learning curve on my end as well as one brain failure on my part which ended the game abruptly when my phone/camera ran out of juice because I had forgotten to plug it in as planned. But we still managed a 3 hour, 4 player game which felt a lot like a normal convention game apart from the occasional request to zoom in or out or pan across to a different part of the table .

And even closer as the game entered its final phase.

Quite apart from the remote aspects, due to other demands on my time, I had only managed to design the scenario earlier that afternoon and finish a solo play test an hour before the live version and was starting to feel.....fatigued and a bit brain dead by the last hour but I've gotten used to that over the last few years. Resting up before the next game is now on the toodoo list. The scenario seemed to work well though with multiple possible approaches to the tactical problems and each of the games coming to a conclusion at the last moment. I think I should, perhaps, write up a generic version to make available here.

Well, one week to the next test game. I don't want to mess with the table so it'll be a week for some painting I think.

Speaking of next week, there is still one slot open for the Saturday game if some brave soul wants to volunteer.