We Interrupt Scheduled Programming...

to bring out a late development.

As hinted at in the previous post, today's post was meant to run out a battle report from the Salem Church game with the Rejects' game from ten days ago.  Instead, I squeezed in a Zoom tutorial today between last Sunday's game with Matt and tomorrow's game.  Today's post highlights this Zoom tutorial.  This last-minute development brings the count to three Salem Church battles this week, alone.  

Andy (Muskets & Magnification blog) mentioned that he had been going through my back catalog with a particular focus on remote gaming.  The idea of playing a remote game over Zoom appealed to him and he wondered how I did it.  After exchanging a few emails, we set Friday for a test session.  In this session I hoped to share how to set up and use Zoom to log into and play a game remotely.  Since Salem Church is still out on table, I suggested that once we get the technology working, we give the game a try.  My expectation was that we might only go through a few activations to demonstrate the functionality.  We ended up playing two full turns.

Armies arrayed for battle.

Once we had Zoom working and switching cameras mastered, we dug into the demo with Andy leading the Federal Army.  Now, Andy was using his phone so views from the webcam were small.  Quite small.  Nevertheless, Andy took to playing both over Zoom and to the rules quickly with dice being thrown on both sides of the Atlantic.

Sedgwick opened the battle by ordering divisional artillery forward to pound the Rebel positions around Salem Church.  One of Wilcox's regiments was destroyed supporting Confederate guns in the woods.  Then, the Federal army advanced toward Salem Church with the Orange Plank Road as its axis. 

Federal artillery opens up.

Sedgwick on the move!

The Rebels respond by placing Semmes' Brigade on Reserve in the center and then advancing Kershaw and Wofford on the Rebel Right.  If the Rebels can turn the Federal Left, perhaps, the Union general advance will pause.

Rebels respond...

by advancing Kershaw and Wofford.

Wofford screams through the woods to hit elements of Bartlett's Brigade.  Casualties to Bartlett are heavy.  One regiment is destroyed having been pushed back, caught in retreat, and scattered.  A second regiment falls back upon supports after having been handled very roughly.  The situation is not looking good for Bartlett especially seeing a Rebel regiment on his flank.  As Bartlett reforms, Brooke turns his divisional artillery onto the flanking Rebels who are now in open ground.  Within minutes of success, those Rebels are pounded by artillery fire.  For now, the Rebels stand their ground! 

Wofford attacks and drives back the enemy.

Federal artillery pound the flanking Rebels!

With pressure mounting upon Bartlett, he orders his brigade back but not before Kershaw crashes into a Federal regiment caught in the open.  Coming out on the short end of the close combat, Bartlett's men are driven back.  A second round of artillery fire from Brooke's guns destroys the Rebels on the flank.  The Federal Left holds!

Kershaw attacks!

Seeing Bartlett falling back and Kershaw moving up, Brown counterattacks from Williams' farm.  Seeing initial success, Brown is ultimately driven back when he, himself, is counterattacked.  On the Federal Right, Wheaton moves his brigade up into the woods toward Golin Run. 

Brown driven back!

Well, after completing two full turns, we decided that this was a good introduction to both Zoom and playing a game over Zoom.  Although Andy was confined to watching the battle unfold on his phone screen, I think this exercise was a success.  Encouragingly, Andy claims that he would like to try this again despite his dice letting him down on more than one occasion.  Hooray!  Another possible conversion into remote gaming!

Thanks, Andy, for a very enjoyable session!  That was good fun!  Until we meet on the remote battlefield again.

Oh, and I still have two Salem Church battle reports to write but I did finish up basing five units this afternoon.