Sunday 5 April 2020

Rescue/capture the Hobbits : Lockdown gaming using Zoom

Following the success of the semi solo ACW game I decided to hit the technology and attempt a live/remote game. My wife has been using Zoom (free app if you only have two people) for some exercise classes and this seemed a simple and easy platform. (Paul has blogged a picture of the battle from his viewpoint/armchair over on his Nord Blog listed to the right, so check it out )

So I set up a small LOTR game.
Here is the setup, running zoom on my iPad. I have a house full of drum stands which with an attachment make excellent stands for iPad, the idea was to get the position as close to a normal standing playing position. The trick is getting it so that as much as possible of the table is on screen with out being too far away. The report back was it was ok and I had tested previously on my miles iPad anyway. It’s not perfect but having the oppositions face on the screen does make it feel like a two person game. The max size I think you can get on screen with this set up is 4x4. We kept the rules simple Lion Rampant you obviously need to avoid lots of line of sight blocking terrain. I have heard or read of people with multiple cameras etc which would undoubtedly make it better. But this set up was effectively free and gave a very reasonable and fun game. I am going to try another game in a couple of days πŸ‘

.....and so to the action
Objective of the battle was to seek out and capture or rescue two Hobbits these were hiding at one of four locations with the exact location not know to either party
The hiding locations are marked by the green tokens
But the troll with its wild charge is too angry to even hunt for the hobbit charging instead forward
Two units of infantry fighting outside the temple structure, the rules required at least one turn to hunt
The troll has been finished off and everybody near the temple are battered from the fight
Ha the berserkers find Sam in the pigsty....and start to take him off for evil treatment
Shortly after the Uruk hai locate Frodo in the bushes.....the game is up ?
Whilst it was clear Sam was lost.......useless fat hobbit anyway ! A tremendous fight took place over Frodo as befits his status as the ring bearer 
Eventually with their baseline in sight the last two Uruk hai were caught and put to death....Frodo is rescued but of course the ring is now on its way to The white city messing up most of Tolkien’s trilogy.πŸ˜€

So a fun game played during lockdown the tech worked pretty wellπŸ‘
Out of interest I went to town sat lunchtime to buy porridge amongst other essentials, it was warm and pretty scary to see a usually busy town centre on a Saturday lunchtime completely deserted 😒
Next up some social isolation on my bike.......I started to feel slightly guilty as I am lucky enough to live near to places so beautiful
and finally as I was putting the ACW away I treated myself to setting up my AWI british. A reasonable brigade in the bag, very happy with the results so far...

Hope you are all keeping well and getting some hobby time inπŸ‘

19 comments:

  1. Matt! You are a drummer too? We have another activity in common. Lovely landscape photos. I have yet to venture outdoors on the bike. Hopefully soon but there is fresh snow on the ground this Sunday morning.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My percussion days are pretty much over although I did play when I was younger, but my son took on the family tradition so much of the kit around the house is actually his. We are just turning to spring here but it’s not unknown to have a sting in the tail. Keep going on the turbo to build that strength πŸ‘

      Delete
  2. Another cool battle and nice it of innovation

    ReplyDelete
  3. A bit of fatism crept in there I fear...
    Passing over the Hobbity thing, good to see your out and about stuff, but more so the AWI collection growing steadily. Keep well!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks David perhaps I should have made it clear I was quoting Gollum from the film.....but moving yes happy with the AWI progress at the moment next unit on the way and they are metal !

      Delete
  4. Nice exploration of technology. I hadn’t even heard of zoom until recently (another isolation post!), pretty amazing for free!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Seemed to work reasonably well and provided some gaming diversion for a couple of hoursπŸ‘

      Delete
  5. Nice report, glad you enjoyed it seeing as you did all the work, I just sat there rolling dice and blocking the sound.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Good looking game and sounds like it went well,nice countryside and your AWI project is motoring along!
    Best Iain

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Iain I could make so much more progress if I didn’t have to go to work in the dinning room !

      Delete
  7. So pleased you are finding solutions to make the isolation more tolerable. I had a dabble with the zoom the other day, definitely worth persevering with.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Work hasn’t really slowed for me so my problem as always is not having enough time...

      Delete
  8. Poor Sam!
    At my first glance I thought the tech set up was kinda intense with the screen so high, but as you described it it seemed pretty easy and reasonable. A cool experiment with social media. πŸ˜€

    ReplyDelete
  9. Very creative and great gaming, Matt! Inspiring stuff.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Great stuff Matt, you might never need a physical opponent ever again :-)
    Cheers
    Stu

    ReplyDelete
  11. You learn something new every day, mention zoom to me and I think ice lollies and Fat Larry's BandπŸ™‚

    ReplyDelete