Gaming - ZoomHammer Trials - Playing in Lock-Down

Gaming - ZoomHammer Trials - Playing Warhammer in Lockdown

Orders noted Sir. Advance on me men!

   Recently, we've been trying out playing some Warhammer Fantasy Battles during the lock-down by using Zoom. We've imaginatively labelled this Zoomhammer and are playing 2000 point, winner stays on battle-line games. I've set up my games table and use my phone for a 'live' camera feed. (I use a couple of elastic bands to secure it to an adjustable lamp on my painting desk, but I may invest in a better / dedicated camera and stand in the future). Zoom also allows those not playing to join as spectators - hey, you never know, they might well have run out of boxed sets to watch!

Gildoren's "+1 to hit - Painting Lamp of Hoeth" doubles as a floodlight and camera boom.

   I'm playing High Elves (shocking!), the Fat Dwarf is using the Dark Elves (well he bloody would wouldnt he?!), the Tabletop Hobbit is giving the Warriors of Chaos a run out and our friend, who we will refer to as 'KURT HELLISMUND' (fine name for a man with an illustrious career in swiftly losing from a winning position and suddenly or swiftly dying tragically in front of his "loyal" men of the Empire), is trying out the Orcs and Goblins. The Tomb Kings are also available if anyone fancies a change.

Yes I have ALL the Armies! MWAHAHAHA

   Luckily, I have all these armies based here in Aberdeenshire Scotland so everyone can play via Zoom even though they are in London, Dundee and indeed The USA respectively.

   We make up our armies beforehand, usually via Battlescribe and, if I'm not playing, the guys send me the lists and I'll get their units set up on movement trays. I also set up the terrain for each battle trying to keep it fair so that there is not an obviously better side of the table. I like to make them thematic as well so will use terrain pieces like the Goblin Village and Altar of Khaine. (I may switch to Tomb Kings just to be able to put the Temple of Souls on the board!). 

   It's a good idea to print out your army list so as to have the stats and rules handy. In addition to that pencil and paper are also handy for noting stuff like spells and other odds and ends.

Battlelines are Drawn as the Tomb Kings repel a Dark Elf raiders force.

   Deployment can be tackled in a couple of different ways. Alternating units is pretty simple and showing unit position is easier with camera in hand so you can give a 360 degree view of the battlefield.

   We also had one player deploys his entire army then the other player does the same. This requires some screening of the first deployed army and I used some RPG screens and some large boxes to hide the units. This isnt necessary in Zoomhammer, and we didnt do it for the following games, but it adds a bit of spice, and limits the screen time for deployment for each player.

As the GM I can measure the distance between the Black Guard and Savage Orcs here before a test for frenzy and a charge.

   I, essentially acting as the GM, move the units as directed by the players but also give information as to distances to enemy units or to significant terrain.

   Everyone has their own dice and the rolls can be shown via camera. One problem we discovered was that the scatter die needs to be rolled not only by the player but also by me. The player needs to roll it to see if it's a HIT. But if it's a scatter then I need to re-roll my scatter die near the appropriate unit and use normal scatter arrows or the small arrow on the hit faces to determine the direction of scatter.

   Apart from that everything else is fairly easy and just a case of getting used to Zoom and it's capabilities. If you are playing via Zoom, it may be worth your time to upgrade Zoom as the 40 min limit is quite annoying - always seems to happen that it drops when a pivotal leadership check is about to happen! There are other platforms however and we may well invest in these.

   Highlighting the camera stream is good - this means you all see a larger picture and its therefore easier to see. I also try to take the camera off its 'stand' after each turn and do a 360 flyby around the table. This often clears up any positional questions the players have and saves me having to describe positional information in detail later, breaking the flow of the game.

   We've had a couple of battles now and I reckon it's getting a bit slicker each time we do it. It's a good way to get some Warhammer going and we have discussed using Zoom to try other games like 40K, Kill Team and Space Hulk!!! 

We hope you are finding ways to get your gaming on during Lockdown!

The Fat Dwarf, Gildoren and Tabletop Hobbit

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