First Zoom game.....and a belated Merry Christmas!

As trailed by Jonathan on Palouse Wargaming Journal, I hosted my first Zoom game this evening with Jon taking on the role of the Americans and Steve W the part of the British.

All was set for a 5pm start (GMT). I set the table up this morning and tested the visuals. All working. One laptop to host from, a linked large screen with inbuilt camera for the view from the American side and another laptop as one of the 'participants' to take video from behind the British lines. I even tested a phone as a mobile camera. So 5PM came and I logged in. Jon joined shortly after and....we couldn't hear each other. Schoolboy error. I hadn't set the meeting up with audio! In my defence I've only used Zoom as a guest and work remote meetings are with a different system and everything is automatically set-up. Still, live and learn. We actually managed to get a new meetings started at 5:30 and finished not long after 9.

The Scenario

The game chosen was set in the the American War of Independence, with an imaginary setting. The British had got intelligence that a nearby town had a stock of shoes awaiting the Continental Army to collect them. A blow could be struck against the rebels by seizing the shoes. And the town. The colonials wouldn't be able to march far in bare feet! As far as the British knew a small force of militia and riflemen guarded the approach to the town. Two brigades were despatched by Cornwallis - one made up of 1 light and 2 line British battalions; 1 was a small Hessian brigade of 1 line and 1 grenadier battalion. The British had 15 turns to exit the road at the top of the board. Unbeknownst to the British, a brigade of Continentals (3 battalions) had already reached the town and were able to join the battle after hearing reports of battle.

The game map. 4 feet by 4 feet. Most is self-explanatory except the black line is a fence, and the stream can be crossed (1 turn plus a disorder point).

The Game

The onus was on the King's men to attack, which they duly did with two battalions either side of the road and the lights and a light gun behind. Subsequently the Hessians entered on the road. On the American side, until firing broke out along the fence line no attempt could be made to bring the Continentals on board. This took a couple of attempts. Here are the few shots I remembered to take of the action.

The British have stormed over the fence to the left of the picture and chased the Militia off (right). The beads represent 'Disruption Points'. Each point penalises firing and melee and once a unit gets 5, additional points cause casualties (i.e. removal of bases).

The Continentals begin to arrive!

Meanwhile the riflemen have lined the stream as a second line behind the militia.

After a further assault the militia are driven across the stream with heavy losses, but the rifles begin to take a heavy toll of the British line in the form of Disruption Points. Troops can rally off these, but they have to remain inactive. As fast as the British rallied them off the riflemen added them back on again.

DP note the white beads) build up on the Brits). Meanwhile one unit of Continentals are lining the stream and begin a fairly ineffective fire on the British and Hessians. At this stage I thought the Brits stood no chance.

But I reckoned without the stout Germans and the aggression of the British commander (Steve). They stormed across the stream and push both he Continentals and the rifles back. In fact the Continentals got shredded over the course off a couple of turns.

By the end of 15 turns, the Americans had only two stable units remaining. The Brits had four, albeit slightly attrited numbers wise. The Americans had prevented the British from seizing the town before they could spirit the shoes away. But it had come at a very heavy cost. Questions would be asked in the Continental Congress about the loss of so many expensively trained and equipped troops! Overall, we agreed the honours were even.

The Rules

The chosen set were Loose Files and American Scramble by Andy Callan. If I were to characterise them, I would say they focus on 'battle management' by the opposing commanders. They are meant for small scale actions with say 6-9 battalion sized units as side. The challenge is to decide when to halt and rally and when to push on. All sorts of actions cause Disruption Points. Crossing obstacles, being shot at, close combat*, being interpenetrated by friendly troops , seeing friends rout and even wheeling! If you can have units sufficiently spaced out so that you can leapfrog rallying units, you can keep the pressure on. Easier said than done! Especially with limited Command Points (a brigade commander of general can only do so much).

* actually close range shooting plus the threat of bayonets.

The rules do have a number of holes which leave things open to interpretation. The players accepted my rulings on these without demure, but I will review these decision points again. I'm hoping that the relatively recently published "Live Free or Die" rules (which are based on LFAS) have tightened up these looser points.

On the positive side Jon and Steve found the rules easy to pick up, despite never having played them before. I was a little rusty, not having played them for a year or more, and Jon kept me honest with some good catches on points I missed! Both guys had an enjoyable time, I think it's fair to say. We got through 15 turns in three and a half hours, which is not bad for a ruleset new to the players.

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So in conclusion a reasonably successful first attempt at hosting. I will definitely do it again, and the guys are up for another game next week. Question is, which period and which rules?

A very belated Merry Christmas to one and all! I hope Santa brought you what you wanted. And thanks to all you bloggers, readers, commenters and friends for helping 2022 go much better than it otherwise would have!