13 October 2024

Space Marines 2

Began transforming my Ultramarine into an Omega marine. Slow process. Still unable to kill the Hive Tyrant playing solo. Come close at times but ran out of lives and the will to try again.

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World of Warships

Got hoha (haw-hah, slang for fed up/pissed off/bored) with the grind today, especially the Event Pass, and spent dubs to finish it. Only 3 more levels to go but I couldn't be blowed focusing on them for the next week or so. The "special" premium crate in the penultimate level was a joke - a measley eight Blue economic bonuses. Meanwhile, the final rewards themselves were beyond a joke - a permanent black, red, yellow camo each for P. Rupprecht and Schlieffen. Really? No ship?

The session itself was quick fun; just three games in the FR25. Log in, log out. My kind of sesh. The more I play FR25, the more I'm convinced it served as the prototype for the Paolo Emilio. Similar one-trick pony style of play - sneak in, loose off torps, vamoose or go dark. Anyway, I finally got my revenge on the Ipiranga in the last game but had to close in all the while taking serious damage from those nasty Pan-American secondaries in order to exact my revenge. Take that, you latino snake! 😁 

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English Civil War - Waller's Foote

Spent some quiet time painting up Waller's command stand. Not much as such but it's a pleasant diversion from the grind PC gaming these days. 

Glued those still loose to base. Will experiment with flocking tomorrow after glue has dried and set properly: using PVA instead of the usual superglue. PVA should be fine because it will be layered over with flocking and more PVA. 

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Paintings

Finally decided to get off my slack arse and do some paintings. First sketched a few subjects that I will painting fully just to get an idea, and also to resurrect what passes for skill. This first piece is taken from a photo and meant as a Christmas gift. Using acrylic pad paper for my sketch - getting the outline that will be coloured in using acrylics over next few days. Depending on which pieces please me, will decide which get moved to a larger final canvas. Cheers.

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Suss is suss

Online PC Games

World of Warships

Yeah, as someone else pointed out (YT streamer) last night, something odd is up with this Leyte Gulf event. Someone must have been willing to spend the money on the Admiral pack though because in my last game for the day, there was a Tennessee on our team. 

First Mission chain completed. Expect the subsequent mission chains to get increasingly difficult. It would be a WG thing, especially when they're not forthcoming about the subsequent mission chains. What are you hiding, WG?

Five of the mission chains pertain to the "free" Tennessee, the last mission chain is specifically for those wanting the "free" Enterprise. Becoming worried now.

Completing a mission within the mission chain rewards with a Leyte crate; in the first mission chain completing the first missions rewards with two crates while it's only a single crate for the subsequent missions. Opening them however is a bust because you only get a small amount of economic bonuses. In the images above, this was the last mission reward - five credit boosters. Underwhelming for the effort.

It occurred to me while gaming the FR25 that it might be the prototype to the highly popular and highly dangerous (in skilled hands) Tier IX Italian premium destroyer Paolo Emilio. Which explains why the latter is only available through the Research Bureau. Sadly, I'm gunning for the Vamp Deuce (Vampire II) instead which is Tier X. Maybe Christmas will be generous. No hurry anyway.

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A Glimmer of Light perhaps?

Returned to Space Marines 2 thinking the server maintenance was well and truly done. Not so. Glitch saw me booted from the game due to this server maintenance error. Anyway, relogged back in and everything seemed fine thereafter so picked a mission. Vox Liberatis. First attempt ended in failure as was the next attempt. Third time lucky?

Levelling up weapons provides access to better versions. 

Omega Marines. Chosen this chapter of Unknown origins because (1) there is no Retributors which is Syama Pedersen's homebrew chapter that featured in his five-part animation masterpiece Astartes, and (2) because I like the split colours, and (3) none of the others (apart from the Salamanders) really stand out to me, and (4) I prefer to go different out of curiosity and personal like.

Already spent any Requisition points that's leftover customizing toward this goal. Paid for the left pauldron and Nuln Oil so far. 3 more items to go to complete the set and I can outfil my first customized eunuch. 

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Weekly Digest #4

7 October 2024

World of Warships

Just over half an hour's worth of time wasted. Nice hot spring day so good time to wash both cars once I finished the grind. Nothing like some physical exertion after sitting down for too long.

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Space Marines 2: Operation Reliquary

Grinding through the Tactical Marine class in Operations PvE solo. Still on Mission 1 because I've failed to complete it multiple times. Slow learner and probably useless. Odd thing I noticed though is that whenever I logged into Mission 1 it would somehow default between either Inferno (Tyranids) or Reliquary (Thousand Sons). Glitch perhaps? Must be because that's what has happened the several times I've logged in to play the Mission. 

Tonight it was the Thousand Sons version where I eventually got to the cathedral and managed to access the location of the Helldrake. Invoking the rites puzzle (set of 3 random icons) was figured out after the cycle kept repeating after multiple activations and nothing happening apart from occasional blasts from the Helldrake and constant Thousand Sons materializing. Checked later the 40K guides and it confirmed what I soon realised. 

Image above is from my latest defeat. Scene is in the cathedral were we're trying to kill the Helldrake by invoking the correct rites of initiation. Showing it because for me this is one of the best combo to take on this mission - Bulwark and Vanguard. Both are excellent at mid- to close-range combat. When whoever it is plants the standard banner, it allows you to recoup lost HP. And they're also useful distractions while you run around trying to activate the correct sequence of initiation. 

Finding an alternate power source off a dead servitor and then escorting the servo-skull in the catacombs is probably the most intense combat zone where you are constantly assailed from the enemy materialising constantly; all are intent on disrupting as much as destroying your mission. These range from Tzeentch minions (shield and shieldless), corrupted human militia/guardmen with lasrifles through to the big boys - the Thousand Sons marines with flamers as well as bolters, and the occasional pesky Terminator. And then there's the floating sorcerer. But it's the Helldrake that is the big boss. 

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8 October 2024

World of Warship

New Update features the eightieth Anniversary of the Battle of Leyte Gulf (Oct 23-26 1944). The main prize is the long-awaited Tier VIII US battleship Tennessee. Also on offer are other ships as well as the very rare US carrier Enterprise. But my sights are set on the Tennessee. 

Was planning to simply grind Yamamoto all the way to the necessary 500,000 XP (20-pt). But instead I decided to spend Elite Cmdr XP to complete the grind. 

Tomorrow it will be the turn of Sansonetti (Italian Unique commander) to commence his grind. At least he will have the choice of two premium Italian destroyers - Tier VI Leone and Tier VIII FR25 - to run. Will alternate depending on the ship's performance.

Space Marines 2: Operation Inferno

Still having to deal with the glitch when selecting missions in Operations. Thought I had picked Mission 1 (as shown below) which is the Inferno one. But somehow I ended up playing another which today included the Fall of Atreus mission and then the Ballistic Engine mission. Completed both after several attempts. Currently back at Inferno; Tyranids are more numerous than previously too.  

Tactical marine are the most generic and vanilla of the classes. And the one I've started with for becoming familiar with opponents and game controls. The standard loadouts aren't that varying. Levelling up improves quality of both weaponry and armour and enables customizations.  

English Civil War

Gave the minis a black wash to help with detailing later on. Lots of colour changes to be made.

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9 October 2024

World of Warship

The Italian Tier VI premium destroyer Leone is underwhelming. Great smoke but torps are average to mediocre; it releases a total salvo of four in two twin tubes. One torp does around 14,000+ damage. Its guns are better than average for a DD however but they're nothing to rave about. 

Will opt to run the Tier VIII FR25 tomorrow because its Ship XP is low which means it's only been played a few times unlike the Leone which has clocked over 11K of Ship XP. Hopefully I will enjoy better results.

Space Marines 2: Operation Inferno and then Decapitation

Good to see a win on the Inferno mission...finally!

Did it with the "killa krew" above which was a bit of a surprise. One sniper and one devastator (or heavy as it's known in-game). And me as your vanilla Tactical noob contributor. 

Chose Decapitation as my next mission because, as one reviewer put it when I sought information on the various Operations missions, it's good for gaining rewards quickly. It's basically a race to set the bombs to blow the bridge. Try and ignore the numerous threats in your way or else bowl on through if they come in a vast wave. Don't get tied down dealing to the hordes as you race to your next assembly point. Plant the charges and then await the Hive Tyrant and horde to cross the bridge.

Once the bridge is destroyed then the next part of the mission kicks in: hunt down the Hive Tyrant and execute it. However, dealing to the Hive Tyrant is neither easy nor straightforward. The sneaky git rejuvenates just as it's on its last legs as I soon found out in my first attempt in the arena. A check of the guide afterwards informed me that you have to kill it TWICE. Hot damn!

Best support? At least one of the close-quarter dudes - a Bulwark, Vanguard, or Assault. Playing Tactical, your choice of weapons is important if somewhat hamstrung, especially when starting out. Plasma rifle? The guide suggests using melta bombs which does heavy damage. I get the idea but executing its placement is a different matter altogether. Yet to locate resups in the Arena although I never bothered looking first time as I was often the target of the sneaky git.

Still getting glitches when first choosing a Mission upon log in. But I ignore it and play whatever's there or else press the "U" key to reject and restart. 

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10 October 2024

World of Warships

Playing FR25 today with Sansonetti. Slow start that quickly became fun. Ship has 7 km torp range in two triple tubes with quick reloading (compared to Leone). It has short duration smoke that's handy if things get hot (escape). Hiding behind cover like islands makes perfect sense. It's really works well as an ambush specialist. It has SAP instead AP but its HE is good enough to use most times. Managed to burn down a few low-health big ships like Mackensen, Derfflinger, Fuso, and Nagato. Even took down a Mainz after copping two torps from it. 

Once Sansonetti is up to 20-pt I will then switch to upskilling Honore, a French commander with special skills that I seem to have forgotten about. He is currently sitting at 12-pts. That achievement is not likely to bear fruition at least until late November or early December.

Battle of Leyte Gulf event officially began today. Looking at what's on offer in the Armory, I was interested by the premium crates sequential bundle obtainable only for Leyte Gulf tokens. What surprised and interested me is that these one-off crates offers you a free premium ship. I've outlined those I still lack in my port in red.

Of the number of Tier VI ships on the list available I am missing only the Arizona. Visited the actual physical memorial at Pearl Harbor back in 2005. Quite eerie yet peaceful. 

Of the three Tier IX ships made available, the Karl XIV Johan interests me enough to want because it's a decent ship and would be the only European battleship (for now). The Marco Polo has always been available for coal in the Armoury but one I've always skipped it for some reason. The third ship (not shown) is the Guiseppe Verdi. Don't know much of her but she's reasonably decent, at least compared to the Marco Polo so I've learned since.

Tier VIII has the most ships out of the Tiers that are still available but there are few that really interest me. I can wait until Christmas anyway. Whatever comes my way should I end up spending tokens for the crate however won't be refused to my port although I hearing mooring costs are rising. Of particular interest for me would be the Anhalt and Fenyang. Submarines and carriers don't interest me at all.

The Tier VII ships list is not shown because I already have all the ships being offered.

As mentioned above these containers are part of a sequential bundle starting at Tier VI and ends at Tier IX. Only one container per Tier is for sale. Cost of a Tier VI is 50 Leyte tokens while a Tier IX costs 150 Leyte tokens. The premium container bundle is only four crates. Only way to earn Leyte tokens is to take part in the Leyte Gulf series of missions. Off memory, I believe there's six missions involved. 

The first phase involves five distinct tasks (or missions). Completing a single task rewards you with one token. As there are five task, that means five tokens. Completing all five rewards another ten tokens. This makes a grand total of fifteen tokens for finishing the first step if my calculations are correct (never are so they're sure to be some amendment later on). Note to self: hoard all tokens earned. Do not spend on credits, event commanders, or economic bonuses. 

Yeah, it looks to be another long grind but it is definitely worth it for at the end of the rainbow is the new US Tier VIII premium battleship, the Tennessee. FOR FREE!

They're also making available the very rare US Tier VIII carrier, the Enterprise. Which now makes it not so unobtainium-like. More like common-rare. Also FOR FREE! Mind you, you can actually buy the Tennessee for cash in the Armoury through its Admiral pack. Yeah, no.

Total cost in Leyte tokens for the four crate sequential bundle? 270 tokens. Is it possible? Most likely but you'll probably have to purchase with doubloons some premium crates where a few Leyte tokens reside. I will wait and see what the first two missions yield by way of tokens. It also depends on how much I really want Karl XIV Johan. Suspect the mission chains will become increasingly difficult; and with WG being secretive about these future mission chains (what's involved, as in a preview), getting the prize may be impossible forcing one to spend dollars to buy her instead. 

Priority though remains the Tennesee for free. And definitely the Arizona with tokens. All else will be a wait-and-see approach. 

Jumped back on later in the day to sort out something with the Seasoned commanders (Honore and Dunkirk and co.) and decided to continue on from the morning session, this time playing both FR25 and the French Tier VII premium battleship Flandre. Reason? To advance myself further along the Leyte Gulf first mission. Finished the short session part way through the fourth mission which is earn spotting damage for the team. 

Previous past voyages with the Flandre weren't overly impressive and I soon forgot about her, especially when you have the likes of Jean Bart and Bourgogne. But today, it seemed to perform pretty well when I plonked Honore on her. Certainly stood up to the numerous times she came up against Ipiranga in the games faced. Lots of Ipiranga during this particular session.

Ipiranga's secondaries are developing a pretty fiercesome reputation although the Flandre's own secondaries are nothing to sneeze at either. While Flandre is a fast battleship she is not as maneouvrable as the Ipiranga, and one has to get close enough to make sure of torp hits in a DD because those South Americans are as slippery as a conga eel. And don't forget to angle right otherwise your HP will diminish faster than hope for world peace in one's lifetime.

Learned that with the FR25 it pays to steer well clear of Ipiranga's long range secondaries (9km). But she is sinkable if you can get close enough or surprise her by ambush. I think that was my problem yesterday in the Leone: even though she has 12km torps, I launched them too early and from far away making it easy for the enemy to dodge. Especially one as slithery as the Ipiranga. The much laughter of the enemy crew as they fingered and jeered at my Italian salami sailing harmlessly past was most frustrating to say the least.

Half a weekly digest #3

2 October 2024

World of Warships

Same old routine. In-and-out is the best way to describe this morning's session.

Terraformers

Afterwards, the fun level returned as I logged in for this new game. Enjoyed learning how to play this simple and engaging game. Terraforming is quite involved, so I am learning, and the key seems to be keeping the colonists happy and supporting if you want to succeed. As a psuedo-explorer, such details don't interest me however as much as finding new resources so I lucked out once I reached a certain Mastery level. Will try again tomorrow. 

Sam Mustafa

The new wargame rules Eisenhower is now available through online or hard copy. Received notification today. Print-on-demand available through Amazon and not through the Honour website. Sam's stuff is fair dinkum from a tabletop wargames rules perspective so I will be purchasing a PDF copy as soon as I can. It's promoting itself as fast-playing corps level, and covers the whole Second World War timeline. Room to create your own ficitional campaign if historical reenactment is not your thing or if you're looking for something different. Can start 1-v-1 and expand up to club (multiplayer) extravaganzas. 

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3 October 2024

World of Warships

New Event Pass began today. It features a ship reward alright but it's at the start of the second access level (paywall) rather than situated as the end reward as in previous iterations of Battle Pass events. I was just going to play the first (free) level only but then I had the dubs to spare so paid for the second access level. Already have the K. Schonberg which meant I received the credit for the ship instead which is standard practice in this game. It's also the same situation with the various emblems/patches you receive at random from the daily loot boxes. You get 15,000 (or is it 1,500?) credits per emblem/patch. I cannot recall what the compensation is for a ship already in your port. Something like a few million credits; I will have to check. 

Several new event releases in the Armoury as well. The new (OP and gimmicky) Tier X German hybrid cruiser/carrier Hildebrand is part of this month's theme celebrating both German and Soviet naval power. As I've never heard of the new carrier historically-speaking, I thought to investigate just what it costs to obtain her. As with previous ships, WG offers the prize on offer for some paltry sum - in this instance, it's 1 in-game credit -  but you first have to pay your way through several levels of access. These differ from ship to ship and depends on the ship itself or how much WG are promoting this particular vessel. With the Hildebrand, you have to pass through ten (10) pay levels: first one starts at 250 dubs (or AUD1.50) and each pay level increments until you reach the penultimate level which costs 10,125 dubs (or AUD60.75). Then, you get to spend you pfennig. In total, you end up spending 19,125 doubloons or AUD114.75 for the privilege of then spending one credit to obtain the ship. 

Hard pass for me. And it's been that way for a while now. I'd rather save my dubs for the Christmas Santa event. I should add that each pay level rewards you with a German crate - standard or premium (depending on what pay level you're at). Opening one offers a chance at the Hildebrand. However the odds are stacked against you: at best 2% chance of a win. Are you prepared to gamble?

Rumour has it the Black Friday list of ships released recently on WG's devblog is not worth participating as there won't be any rare or unobtainable ships. Ships like the original Massachusetts (not the current iteration which had its credit-earning power severely nerfed) or Kamikaze (and all its variants) will never see light of day in Black Friday as someone pointed out recently in review. And neither will the Smolensk B which is earmarked for the auction instead. Really? Who's going to pay multi-millions of credit for...wait, I forgot. Us whales and potatos will fork out however many millions of credits for her. My apologies.

Not really interested in the Smolensk to begin with: I don't always appreciate the hype at times but that's just me I guess. However, if it comes my way come Christmas time then I'm not going to refuse. It can join all the other port princesses like Nevsky and Stalingrad.

The next mission in the Exploration to the North Pole series also kicked off today. Just a few missions saw that target knocked over quickly. Next one in twenty-eight days. The final one won't happen until early December.I should have earned the requisite 10,000 tokens qualifying me for the rewards on offer - one Tier X vessel, one Tier X ship camo, and six Santa Gift crates. Missions aren't too hard to achieve in Co-Op anyway so looking forward to seeing what Tier X ship will be made available. Bet it's one I've already got. 

I don't mind grinding this kind of event because at least it keeps me engaged and interested (most of the time) enough to bother playing in the first place!

Terraformers

Return to fun time. Play through the "tutorial". Now going through the Mastery levels. Doing the Weekly challenges progress through the levels as you do.

Learning as I go and unlocking new leader characters. Some are real useful like the explorer and miner. The recycler and the nationalist are interesting. The nerdy ones - the IT geek and the technologist (the other nerd) - are also quite handy. But others aren't appealing although I don't really know to how play them yet nor attempted them. And other remain locked (like those shown below). 

Each leader brings a specific set of skills with 'perks' as I call them. For example, the female urban planner (whose name I forget) provides three housing structures free of charge per turn. At first I did not realise how to utilise her research "gifts" until I realised you can trade in those three structures (one skyscraper and two space modules) and reclaim their research value (a single blue science beaker symbol per structure). In other words, I found a free way to boost my resource assets courtesy of her "gifts". That applies to every leader although each brings something different and unique to their skills set. In another example, the Asian dude in the smart business suit, brings his industrial lobbying skills to the table by providing you with a small quantity of certain resources.  

Any researched structure cannot be activated until you have the required resources to do so. For instances, the basic space module accomodation costs 30 food and 10 water resources. The landing pad which adds a trade route costs four titanium. 

In several The Red Planet Awaits scenarios played, there were a few leaders I gravitated towards because of their usefulness - the Asian business dude, the female Urban Planner, the Namibian farmer, the two Foster (explorer grandfather and then miner grandson), the Indian recycler, and a couple of others; all were my go-to at first. But now I am also learning about the other ones like the "pro-lifers" (geneticists, the animal husbandry, the botanists) and figuring out how they work and how to make them work in my game play. No doubt as you continue to advance up the levels you get to unlock even more leaders (as shown above). I s

Sometimes you'll get the Martian Mafia entering the scene. They are simply there to steal your resources. They target two specific resources within a set time (usually eight turns). If you have resources the end of the counts down, they are lost, which can prove demoralising such as the time when I had over fifty-plus quantities of titrium and only eight turns to offload them or lose them all. But you can counter their efforts by building a Secret Service building (which costs 8 Power and 8 Silicates). Doing so stops this particular attempt by the crooks; but don't forget they get four chomps at the cake. Also only one SS building per city/colony is allowed; either you get rid of your resources in time or else found another city/colony quick. 

Currently still at the noob (single digit) level. Started playing The Red Planet Awaits scenario. Played it several times managed to advance to Level 6 before switching over to the Per Aspera Ad Astra mode and began playing the Weekly Challenge, also at Level 6. A bit more challenging, and maybe I should have started again at Level 1. At the moment, I think I am nearing Level 9. Each success unlocked new opportunities and leaders. I have not yet tested myself in the other three levels - Red, Green, and Blue.

Expectations by the Mars colonists rise as you advance your colony through resource gathering, building structures, developing technologies and production as well as trading. Keeping them happy is important. But not as important as the mission goal. Keep focused on that goal. Which requires a bit of balancing to get right. Playing Per Aspera Ad Astra I forgot a few times that the main goal is completing Space Projects. Missed out a couple of times because I simply forgot and got too engrossed in exploring or expanding the colony. Achieved success as well but it was more failures than victories.  

The terraforming part I am still coming to grips with. For now, I've been focusing and concentrating on other areas of game play to bother with terraforming apart from getting bacteria happening. The plants and animal life I know are there because you sometimes get them crop up whenever a new turn begins. But with each game experience a little bit of knowledge and understanding seeps through. Not too worried yet. I will get there eventually. 

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4 October 2024

World of Warships

Usual grind with Yamamoto and Yahagi. 

Terraformers

Played some more this evening. Failed to make it to the end of the Red Planet mission. Populace satisfaction rating began to decline and incremented by 8 (played the Difficult level). The goodwill built up took a beating and by around Turn 62, it declined into the negative. Mission over. Nevertheless, I'm loving it. My kind of game is this, more so than the others I've played recently. 

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5 October 2024

World of Warships

Spent about an hour playing and checking things. The reward for this Update's Event Pass is Permanent Camo (red, gold, black) for the Schlieffen. WG is being miserly with its rewards this time round. Still, the phases leading up to the final reward offer worthwhile assets - free XP, steel, coal, etc. 

Update 13.9 is coming soon. Return of Shuflle mode with various playerbase favourites - Airship Escort for one - will likely enjoy large participation. I think WG have not yet figured how to put such popular mode behind paywall yet without further alienating its more experienced playerbase. Game's already dead anyway. 

English Civil War

Finished painting properly all the bases of those units assembled. Doing this means I can begin the final detailing and go over mistakes or any changes made. 

The unit to the right of Fairfax's Foote in the photo below are dismounted dragoons. They can double up as firelocks if needed. A garage gaming group who uses VwQ rules deploys its dismounted dragoons to represent BOTH mounted and dismounted which I found an odd house rule. Perhaps they lacked both mounted and dismouted figures to properly simulate the various actions of a dragoon unit. Or they were simply streamlining the process. Who knows? 

Just the remaining outstanding cavalry (mentioned in previous posts) left to complete; and unlikely to finish soon until I post a makeup order to the UK retailer. 

Misplaced the artillery guns. Put them somewhere and now I can't find them.

Even though Skippon's regiment (facing Fairfax's Foote) are known and shown to have carried green standards with yellow discs, I've gone instead with an alternate version that uses red as the field colour. Reason? To better able - for me personally - to distinguish tabletop units by showing each unit with a distinctive colour. A little aid with identifying alongside the names. 

Fairfax (above photo) rides the white/grey horse. I've simply employed personalities (described in a much earlier post) as representing the various wings of the New Model. And drafted in a spare Parliament general as a third wing commander as well as spare commander in case someone karks it in-game. 

Just for a change I've gone with raw umber for the bases instead of the common grass green. I can add lighter colours - greens and beige - as seen on one of the wing commanders (test piece).

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6 October 2024

World of Warships

Sorely tempted to start my own WOWS clan. Already have the name for the tag should I proceed. But then the only benefit for me would be access to clan bonuses on resources like coal and steel. Oil is a commodity only ever useful for building clan base assets. Apart from that, there is no other benefit as I prefer to play casual and solo: competitive play is not my thing. Therefore I would be wasting 1,000 doubloons for nothing apart from a few minor benefits and ease the grind.

English Civil War

Warm day meant not able to do any painting in the new workshop because of the heat; ended up waiting until early evening. Chose Pilkington's Foote unit as it's the closest unit to completion. Started with the pikemen. Photo below is a before-and-after presentation. 

Some layering and adding some detail - ribbons on socks. Needing wash and then flocking but this will be done last of all. For tomorrow it's the turn of the musketeers where I'll be correcting the awful looking trouser colours and adding buff coats for all of them. I have painted the Apostles on the shooting figures blue as was commonly understood. May vary the colouring with the musketeers from the other Foote units. Cheers.

Scourge of War: Gettysburg

Latest iteration was released last month and made available through Steam. Paid for it because I do love my American Civil War, and Gettysburg is one battle I would really love to play through from whoa to go! And keen to give it a try even though I think this is different from the usual download-and-play game. 

Much like SoW Remastered (the Waterloo edition). Game is more a mod, so the developer stated in the Manual. Spent the few minutes familiarising myself with the tutorial before logging out. Game deserves full attention which I'm not prepared to give it right now. 

Space Marines 2

So, jumped back into the fray after trying out SoW: Gettysburg. Tried first mission in solo Ops this time round. Previously I had played mission 3. Came close to successfully completing the mission, but no prizes as I got confused during gameplay while searching for an alternate power source from the deceased servitors. Found one in one circular space but got caught up fighting the hordes of minions and Thousand Sons marines (including the powerful Terminators) that I forgot to return to the station next level up. From whence I'd originally came. Best combination too in this failure - me, a Bulwark marine, and an Assault marine with my favourite close quarter combat weapon, the Storm hammer.  

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1 October 2024

New Month

World of Warships

Some days I hate playing this game simply because it's a grind and raises the stress level. But you take the bad with the good, as you do in life.  One more day of the Event Pass to go after today which means two free crates left to go. After that new stuff being foisted upon us (ugh!). Roll on Christmas.

Just a reminder to myself: for all the money spent on this game over the past five years, nothing belongs to me. It's the nature of electronic games, and therefore gambling per se, these days: you pay for the privilege, for the access; but in the end the product does not belong to you. Unlike actual physical products like boardgames or tabletop miniatures. How attached therefore are we to our minis and boardgames when the lure of online gaming becomes more intrusive and prevalent these days?   

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Space Marines 2

Finished the single-player Campaign. The ending did not surprise me but the praise for Titus by Lord Calgar made the eyes misty somewhat. Testosterone gaming is good sometimes. 

Will attempt Operations next but not today.

EDIT: Correction. See below after Black Myth Wukong.

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Black Myth Wukong

Visuals are simply stunning for me. Love playing this just for the meditation spots. Still treading my way through Chapter One. A game like this is meant to be savoured not rushed through. Which is a shame when one has to battle when it's much more preferable (for me at least) to simply explore this visual smorgasbord of landscape.

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Space Marines 2 (continuation)

Jumped back into the game because I was curious about earning Achievements. Naturally, that led to my rejoining the game this arvo and playing Operations solo. I confess that the truism is accurate: you do advance through your mistakes. Chose the 3rd mission - the transition from eliminating Tyranids to executing Chaos Space Marines and their lackeys  - as a plain Tactical marine. Interesting progression. Bolter rifles are indeed weak as many have pointed out already. I think the emphasis is more on close quarter combat than the standard blat-them-from-afar situations with ranged weapons, but I am no doubt wrong in my assessment. Which seems odd given the potency of these weapons and whoever's wielding them. And a Tactical marine the basic loadout is good for nothing, to be honest. But you need to build up your XP (where have I heard that before?) in order to access and customise your loadout, especially on the armour.

Fortunately I saved no screenshots because I forgot in my excited enthusiasm. But be assured; it was a productive session nonetheless despite defeat after defeat after defeat after defeat after defeat...! 

One step forward, two steps back as they say.

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Crusader Kings II

Apart from the tiny writing making viewing difficult, it looks intriguing. I know it's the follow up to the successful first version which I have never played but seen from afar. The major appeal for me is the time period - anything medieval is a winner as far as I'm concerned. And the starting tutorial is set on the Iberian Peninsular so that's another plus for me. Will see how far I get once I've read through the various elements of the game play.

 

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Solaris

A space conquest game that has been sitting in my online Steam library for a year or so. On logging in though soon learned that it doesn't cater to solo play, but then maybe I was put off by the need to log in even though I was already playing it through Steam. 

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Terraformers

Had the prologue version (Terraformers: First steps on Mars) for a while now. Finally jumped into it tonight and enjoyed it enough to pay for the full game. 

In the same vein as Surviving Mars but with differences. It also reminds me of The Planet Crafter only in a dissimilar way. I do like my exploration games so I am discovering; it's always been about the journey not the destination with me. Somehow there is a bit of a let down when you get to the end because there won't be a continuation and there is that natural feeling of depression. But you are soon buoyed by the understanding that the end is always the start of a new journey. So I kid myself. Cheers.  

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30 September 2024

30 September 2024

World of Warships

Sama-sama sesh with Yugari and Yamamoto. 3 more days of the free Event pass bonus rewards. 

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Space Marines 2

Up to the part where the trio have to return to the surface of Demerium, the death planet, after dealing to the Hellbrute and witnessing Morias Leuze's death and Imurah stealing the artifact. Those sneaky sons of Sneech (misspelling deliberate). Learned that I'm awful with jump packs but perseverance and not a little luck managed to get me through enough to end up in this current stage of the solo game. Liking the storm hammer out of the close quarter weapons so far. The power sword is okay, and you can't go wrong with the chainsword but I am liking the hammer a lot. Smack, smack, bam! 

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Weekly Digest

23 September 2024

World of Warships

Yahagi is a Tier V premium cruiser available from the Armoury for doubloons (off memory I think). I ran it this morning with Isoroku Yamamoto, my Unique Japanese commander, as its skipper. Yamamoto is at 19-point at the moment. I am opting to upskill my high-skilled commanders using any premium ships because it doesn't cost anything upon transferring in, i.e., no need to spend resources to retrain. 

Anyway, Yahagi is a light cruiser with 12km torps. Decent enough guns (on very low health, kiting away from a full-strength Italian cruiser Trento and ended up killing with four successive Citadels using AP). More suited to staying under cover and blatting away when the opportunity presents itself; its long-range torps are meh but serviceable in denying area...well sorta. In a fight with a DD up close however, you had better sink the DD quickly otherwise you will end up dead. I forgot that at times. 

Spent most of my Free XP and Elite Cmdr XP already this month to upskill commanders and upgrade ships so I will spend the months leading up to the Christmas Santa crates event rebuilding resources.

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English Civil War - Morning

Trying a different approach to previous times whenever painting horses. It is based on ideas and skills researched over time. This time round I'm using Raw Umber as the basecoat. Did not finish the job on Ireton's Horse as I had visitors all day not long after. Intending to vary the coat colours.

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Online PC Gaming: Black Myth Wukong

Staying up late to download and install Black Myth Wukong as it's a large file (over 118 GB). Taking several hours. Started earlier this evening; it's now half past midnight and there's still an hour to go. And that's just the download; the install is still to go. I should mention that Black Myth Wukong is not my normal style of game so I really don't know what to expect.

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24 September 2024

World of Warships

Continuing from yesterday's session by playing Yamamoto on Yahagi. Ran it thrice in order to complete the requisite Event Pass conditions and earn two bonus crates. Nine days left on that event so at least eighteen more bonus crates - signals and economic bonuses (greys). All free; just play. 

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English Civil War

Finished basecoating Ireton's Horse using the second successive basecoat, Burnt Umber, for skin tone on certain mounts. Experimented first with one of horses painted yesterday (red circle in photo below) by highlighting the skin tone of the mount using Burnt Umber. Interesting result. Compared to Raw Umber, which has a darker tone, adding Burnt Umber didn't really add much. I may lighten the tone in further applications. 

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25 September 2024

World of Warships

Repeat cycle with Yamamoto on Yahagi. Getting familiar with its usefulness in kiting away which prolongs its lifespan that little bit long. Yahagi is definitely not a brawler and should never really YOLO into a melee unless seeking an early return to port. 

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English Civil War

Continued with plan to implement experimental ideas. A bit frustrating as I still have no idea if it's going to work. 

Second basecoat is 50/50 Burnt Umber. Overlay is upon the skin.  

Time to turn attention to the rider, especially the buff coat. First, basecoated the coat and other parts with Burnt Sienna. Other "brown" parts will contrast in Burnt Umber.

The rest of this figures group. The officer is a Cuirassier figure and attired differently. Not sure how he's supposed to look so am guessing the painted area. Can always overpaint later on once I am more familiar with the requirement. Happy to paint the boots, pistol holsters and cape in the same basecoat colour. 

Arquebusier or carabinier (this example belonogs to Vermuyden's Horse). Going for consistency with the basecoating. Not bothered by the paint spreading on to other areas as it will be corrected and overpainted in the detailing stage.

Harnessing using Burnt Sienna as the contrasting colour. May lighten it further still.

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Painting Opportunity

Got an opportunity to produce a couple of animal portraits on commission. Should be an interesting venture. Buyer paying so that's cool. 

Also inspired extra painting tasks - a couple for the wife as Chrissie presents to her son and his partner. Animal portraits as well as something promised to my son. 

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26 September 2024

World of Warships - Early morning

Session was a little longer today because it was the return of TMNT (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) event, an annual gimmick designed to loosen purse strings. Ignored the obvious cash lures and played the Common mission instead with the TMNT theme - the reward being a choice between TMNT or TMNT Nemeses camo. Chose the Nemeses camo. 

At the same time, advanced Yamamoto further along his promotion (upskill) climb. 

Prior to logging out, checked out some of the existing cash lure events. In one, I saw that under Rare reward, they list camos. Really? Camos offer nothing to game play these days: they make your ship look pretty (according to taste) unlike previously when camo was tied to earning resource rewards - economic bonuses, signals, free XP, and so on. When WG removed that incentive several years ago, camos suddenly became worthless eye candy and many outright sold off their camo in exchange for credits. Myself included. It's not uncommon these days to see many playing without camo simply because they add nothing other than visual appeal. So to label camo as a rare bonus is hyperbolic twaddle.

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English Civil War - New Model: Ireton's and Whalley's Horse

Very snail-pace progress of test figurines one from the heavy cavalry (Ireton) - top - and one from the carabiniers (Whalley) - bottom. New colours to the mix: Indian Yellow: admixed 50/50 with Burnt Sienna to layer the buff coat. Yellow Ochre next to represent the buff coat. Next colour will be highlight (yet to be determined) then several layers of a dark wash. And then Black for the front breast plate. Just trying to decide what colour I will settle on for the saddle cloth/blanket and whether consistent. 

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Space Marines 2 - Afternoon

Finally began playing Warhammer 40K: Space Marines 2 today. A couple of in-game screenshots.

Enjoying it so far. Observations: when swarmed it's easy to forget which key to press but will adjust. Should I change the key settings? Nope. I'll just adapt.

Played 2.5 hours today. Would have continued but decided to log out before starting the Magos rescue mission. I can continue later on tonight but it depends on how I'm feeling as I nowadays as I tend to grow tired very easily.

Next up will be Black Myth Wukong. Maybe tomorrow...maybe whenever.

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27 September 2024

World of Warships - Early Morning

Ongoing grind in Yahagi with Yamamoto. Slow work but it's a quick in-and-out session that frees up time for other activities like working on my English Civil War lists. 

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English Civil War - Afternoon

Continuing with the two test figures for the New Model army cavalry. Further research has provided me with some clues on how to determine what goes where and who is what. As you may already know, I'm not English. The period I know little to nothing about apart from old memories of histories and old movies. So I'm pretty much going in blind, as opposed to the Borodino project where I had some idea and there is a wealth of information on formation, histories, uniforms and flags. The English Civil War period is pretty much lacking a fair bit on details, especially on uniform timelines. 

Anyway, enough excuses...

Ironside (heavy cavalry) test figure. Coloured in shirt and metal bits. Orange sash. It's coming along according to how I envisage it. 

Carabinier test figure. Same process as for the Ironsides figure. I realise now that I can probably mix my carabiniers up with any dragoon figures (hat) I have spare to break up the uniformity.

Rearranged the three units collected. The shuffling produced this outcome...

Based on what I read in the MAA New Model Army book, when they formed the New Model army, Cromwell's Ironsides (thirteen companies strong) was split up with the majority forming Ireton's and Whalley's Horse. Because I am classing them heavy cavalry that means three figures to the stand and four stand unit. I think the above unit is Ireton's while the bottim figures are Whalley's.

Due to the reshuffling, I am now shy several figures/mounts for all the newly reformed units so will have to make a third order purchase. Shame that Hinchliffe range does not include a specific stand-alone standard bearer figure.

First Carabinier unit. Most probable it will be Vermuyden's Horse. Not sure if it was a Carabinier or Ironside horse unit historically and not too fussed as I don't want all Ironsides in the New Model army (thinking ahead to the solo campaigning part).

Second Carabinier unit which remains unidentified for now. Because they're Carabinier (or Harquebusier) the unit fields four stand of two figures per stands. I am presuming they're lighter than heavy hence the two-figure-per-stand classification.

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28 September 2024

World of Warships - Early morning

Continued the routine quick session with Yamamoto and Yahagi. 

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English Civil War - Throughout the day

Happy with how the test figure has turned out - colour-wise - I decided to paint the entire group on my workbench. Then the detailing can begin. 

Decided that the second unnamed Carabinier unit is now Graves' Horse which was historically at Naseby.

Pulled out the rest of the New Model list for review and as a reminder of what's still left to go in the way of assembly. Aside from the artillery which is also being reshuffled and needing assembly, there are now five Foot units - Waller, Skippon, Montagu, Pickering, Fairfax, five Horse units - Butler, Whalley, Ireton, Vermuyden, Graves, and one Dragoon unit - Okey (both mounted and dismounted). I am projecting that I will likely expand the list next year once I've started my solo campaigning. 

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Space Marines 2 - Evening

The rescue Magos Nozick mission played out. Because I've been gorging myself on all YT streaming of the SM2 gameplay, I know what to expect. But it doesn't spoil the fun nevertheless when it's you actually playing because it's so immersive. Tonight I began the Magos whatshisname rescue mission. Got stuck on the jump pack part (learning how to use it) so logged out. Knowing when to use the pyroblaster was also a pretty funny cockup on my part. Still liking the gameplay. 

Black Myth Wukong

Like I've stated multiple times previously, this is normally not the type of game I prefer. However, I've always enjoyed the Monkey television series of the late 70s so was curious to give it a whirl, so to speak. So far am enjoying it. Started playing Chapter 1 which is the Forest of Wolves one. Facing off against the Bullguard is proving tricky. However, many side ventures like spotting a creature that dived off a waterfall into a pool with a cave or coming across a frog creature that if killed emits poison that depletes your health. Or the bird-like creature guarding a spark that's hard to kill. 

Assessment? Was not expecting to like it but I do...very much. The visuals are gorgeous. From the opening scene with the fight in heaven to starting Chapter 1, everything about this is so engaging, not to mention just how beautiful everything is. So immersive. The creatures and characters so far are amazingly detailed. You cannot help but be drawn in: you want to know more. I am beginning to see why this game is acclaimed by many. I actually prefer this to Space Marines 2, to be honest.

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29 September 2024

World of Warships - Morning

Yada yada yada. Not a particular good session in the Yahagi. Got cocky thinking I'm some shit hot player but in truth I'm just hot shit messing up the game!! Hopefully the rest of the day pans out much better than this inauspicious start to what is a beautiful Sunday spring morning.

Unrelated to this morning's session but while playing it suddenly occured to me that this will be my final year of playing WOWS as a daily routine. Been doing so, with the few exceptional days off, since early 2020. That's over four years straight now, and I am suddenly tired. Fortunately I have kept a diary of progress over these playing years. I still remember when resuming after a hiatus between 2019 and 2020, I had the sum total of twenty-three ships. Now I have five hundred and fifty. My goal is to reach six hundred or over by the end of the Santa crate event. I am on track.

WG keeps pumping out new ships and tech tree lines that somehow have no more appeal. The recent Pan-American battleship line with their OP ships is prime example of why the game has begun to lose my interest and continued involvement. As a collector of anything though, this decision comes as sad news, but from the gamer's perspective, I have loads of other untried games and limited time left to actually play and enjoy them. Playing Space Marines 2 and Black Myth Wukong have reminded me that I should value my time instead of wasting it on WOWS.  

Every Update foists new gimmicks and events. They keep trying to make you believe the value is in their camo/skins when it's actually the ships that interest me. The latest TNT event is proof of how ridiculous the prices are for camo/skin. While WG's Art Department has continued to be the hero of this business organisation, the pricing is now above that of ships. And I was happy to fork out money for ships but not camo - no matter gloriously beautiful they look. And from a historical buff's perspective, these new lines/ships are just pure fantasy with many just paper designs or wishful thinking that never saw actual light of day. And many of these paper designs are more powerful than their historical counterpart which hurts me as a military history buff. 

The constant promotion of CVs and submarines over surface ships despite the overall clamour to remove them and/or nerf them to more realistic levels has me skeptical WG really care. I know they don't so I will be moving on. So, in advance, thanks for the memories, WG. 

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English Civil War - Day

A bit more painting...as much as I can bear. Short session therefore. Mostly basecoating the buff coats and colouring in the breast and back plates. There is something to be said for natural lighting when painting. Just loving the new workshop at the back of the renovated old garage. Lots of natural light, spacious, and quiet.

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PC Online Gaming - Evening

Played games on my other Steam account starting with Stardew Valley. Replayed the tutes for Command Modern Operations because I've already forgotten how to play it. Then ended the night with a quick foray in Black Myth Wukong.

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