October Digest #4

Speculating Spittle

I am wondering just how much of a contribution the original creator of Astartes is actually making on this upcoming Astartes 2 series debuting December 2026. I hear the director involved with the Secret Level Episode 5 has been given control of the whole process. Which makes me quietly confident that we can expect a continuation in the same vein as Episode 5. And the quality and attention to detail will be as expected. The teaser trailer recently released seem to confirm that expectation.

No doubt the early months of 2027 will provide proof that will please a great many Astartes and 40K fans as well as bring in new adherents.

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World of Warships

SEA account (16 Oct)
Finished the Pacific Front card game today. And scored 3,750,000 credit compensation for already having Monaghan. Will continue to play not for the economic bonus crate but for the rewards earned from playing the three operations. Which isn't saying much but it's better than nothing I suppose.  

NA Account (16 Oct)
Same situation as with the Asia server earlier today in that I also finished the Pacific Front card game. Took Monaghan out. Just two forward single guns but they do damage - both HE and AP. And the two five-torp spreads amidships complement the gun damage very nicely. 

Also, a new round of clan Naval Battles began tonight. 

Basically this event pits your clan against another. See who earns the most Base XP after a set time will be declared winner. A bar is initially set which increases once the bar has been reached. And this continues for as long as someone raises the bar. Every clan member is eligible to participate. You get 12 initial attempts. There are certain ships that reward with bonus attempts. 

The reward for participants is oil which is needed to improve clan facilities and structures as well as increase clan resource bonuses. Such as coal: for example with this clan (so far) every 400 earned in-game rewards you with an extra 28. Which comes in handy when starting out and slowly building up your fleet. 

Anyway. to thank the clan for the membership I chose to contribute. Which also conveniently fits in with my daily grind schedule. Managed to score 7 stars from 8 attempts. 

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World of Warships

SEA Account
Continuing to play the Pacific Front card game. Just realised the surplus Fleet Supplies tokens earned (total shown in top left corner of image below) can be used to buy both mods and units. 

To be honest, I had always ignored them because I was able to negotiate completing the operations without using their buying power.

What I've since learned is that you can only buy them in lots of ten at any one time. Which is slow but repeat buying soon builds up your stock.

Note that this only applies to the grey mods, not the green ones which are earned as rewards. So I spent my fleet supplies tokens surplus (lots and lots) on grey flag ones which duplicate your win against an enemy unit. Which makes it easier to complete the ship/unit destruction goal. 

As for the Seafarer tokens, I went looking for more information and found this:

Bit unsure how accurate this is as the first common mission yielded only ten Seafarer tokens. Not the twenty advertised here. But the fact that one of the weekly rewards will be one of the event characters means I can spend the tokens earned (via the Asia account) on something else.

NA Account
Following the lead of the Asia account foray in the Pacific Front card game. Nothing unusual tonight. 

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World of Warships

SEA Account (Sun)
Is it worth continuing to play the Pacific Front card game? Only if bored beyond receiving the reward ship. Enjoyable enough distraction from the usual commander upskill grind. 

Above shows what I spend Fleet Supplies tokens upon. Just three examples. The shield and gunnery training buffs are useful as much as the flag ones. 

Like I said, the flag buff comes in handy when you have a large enemy kill requirement. Example above shows four wins plus three bonus wins makes a total of seven wins this round. 

It is fortunate for me that I ignored these Fleet Supplies tokens altogether during my run to the ship reward. Got so caught up in the game itself that I didn't really need them anyway. Now I have a surplus of over three thousand to spend on. Which really does help with operation completion. 

Pacific Front card game. Often you will find yourself up against enemy units with a much higher HP.  This is quite common in the very last entry point of an Operation. Never fear. Sort through your cards for matchup. Select one to start with; no mind if your match initially shows a loss or low victory. Plonk grey and/or green boosters on them to bump up your odds of victory. If still no clear advantage, simply shuffle the card combinations around to find the best victory conditions. May have to mix and match several times. Eventually you come up with the best-fit combo (I try for the maximum of 100% victory). 

Then battle. 

I have always tackled the toughest Operation first since this event began. I like going from hard to easy. Sort of like sliding down a slope. Which is the reverse order of play for most people (you know, go from easy to hard to extreme). 

With each entry point (or zone of battles), I usually go for the entry point that is the most difficult within that zone of battles. Of course, if there is only one, that's the one you end up playing. Reason being is you get to use your best cards while they're still "fresh", so to speak. Remember: after use a unit card will lose a certain amount of HP. And after three uses, a card is removed because its HP is said to have fully expired. 

Certain entries have fixed local or global conditions. Completing and beating those affect future entries, and often will remove those future conditions (or nerfs against you) and thus improve your chances for victory. 

NA Account (Sun)
Upgraded more ships from the new tech lines tonight. But now I am resource-poor. No problems however. Will recover soon enough. 

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October Digest #3

World of Warships

What the heck is Blue Archive. If you're a weeb, you would know. Seen the event advertised but happily passed it by. Funny looking camo is sure to attract entranced buyers though. 

To break the monotony of the grind, I've found that jumping into the card game Pacific Front has become a pleasant albeit temporary distraction. 

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Bledisloe Cup 2026

Just heard the news of the Wallabies loss over the weekend. For the life of me (which isn't saying much) I simply cannot fathom how the Wallabies could lose when it seemed they were on a roll. 

I mean, the Saffas had it over the All Blacks during the recent Greatest Rivalry tour. Then the Wallabies do a job on Saffa over in Perth. But then the Aussies get steam rolled by the ABs at Eden Park. What a crazy game is world rugby. Plays havoc with one's sensibilities sometimes. 

Totally Kiwi to the core when it comes to rugby loyalties. But I will support both Wallabies and ABs when it's us against the rest of the rugby playing world. Especially against the Northern Hemisphere teams. 

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World of Warships

NA Account
After a lengthy all day and night grind I finally earned the Marlborough B. Played it in one game. Still much the same as I remember it. 

Also joined a clan after repeatedly turning down clan invites ever since signing on to the NA server. Not really a clan person but I liked how a player was promoting his clan as "playing for fun not work" in chat. Appealed to me, especially the casual part. Will try it for a week.

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King of the Sea XIX 

KOTS 19 began this weekend. Saw a qualifying match as broadcast by two YT WOWS streamers. Unfortunately the broadcast was irritatingly bad for their first time as they kept moving all over the place. Disjointed. Flitting quickly from one place to the next. Never staying in one spot long enough to see what was going on. They may be great players but shit presenters. Would rather watch paint dry to be honest. Hope their next broadcast is an improvement.

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World of Warships

SEA Account
Fun part is sometime getting two bites at the cherry. As with this Pacific Front card game. Logged in and was completing the current operation when it suddenly got updated. 

Above was the current operation being played. Then...

Was part way through when it suddenly updated. No mind. Opportunity to progress faster towards the reward goal by playing two operations instead of one. 

NA Account
Had a chat with the clan leader tonight after completing the Pacific Front operation. Introduced myself and he welcomed me on board. He's okay with my being a casual member although I said I will happily join in clan events if asked. 

After that, I played my usual five ships to earn the Holiday Convoy tokens. Session tonight proved to be quite productive. 

Unlocked the second level of Event Pass and scored the Tier 6 British premium Warspite. 

Also earned enough ship XP to upgrade to the following news ships. All Tier 6s: Fubuki, Gokase, Fuso, Alme. Cochrane, Nurnberg. With the last one, was torn between this and Deutschland. In the end went with Nurnberg.  

Impressed with and having fun in the Tier V Konigsberg. Good all-round cruiser for me, among the top five Tier 5 played thus far. So far I've only played Agano, Omaha, Emerald, Hawkins, Montecuccoli, La Argentina. Of these others, Omaha, Emerald, La Argentina are also good all-rounders that I would not hesitate to take into battle. 

With Konigsberg her AP is excellent against ships that expose broadside. Even whittled down battleships suffer especially when you target their superstructure. She has more than enough torps to deal good damage with enemy threats on either side so that's a plus. Maneouvres okay but can get stuck within clusters of islands; much better in open water. 

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KOTS XIX

Briefly saw the same duo doing the podcast tonight hoping for some improvement. But, again, I was disappointed because it's much the same - lots of jerky camera movements that was hard to figure out who what and where. Both casters know (and play) the game intimately but sheesh, they're terrible at this podcasting. 

I much prefer SeaRaptor and Lord_Zath who at least allowed the audience time to figure where everything is and what's happening. But I don't know if they're still doing the business - at least on YT. Pity. 

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World of Warships

NA account (Wed 14 Oct)
Uncharted Seas began tonight (Wednesday) on the NA Server. Or tomorrow (Thursday) on the Asia server. 

Splurge if you have the cash. Otherwise, move on. 

I've gone for the play-for-free 70 Seafarer token bundle because you can earn the tokens through playing a weekly mission. Completed the first one tonight and got 10 such tokens which I spent on the first two bundles - 3 premium days and a permanent camo. 

The ultimate prize is a Tier VII ship crate containing over 30-plus premium ships. Worth the effort I suppose. Of course, you can fast-track to your desire by spending money to purchase the tokens quicker if you don't feel like playing. 

Or you can gamble for one of the Beyond Known Waters sequential bundle offering varying quantities of said tokens. 

I estimate that I probably have two, maybe three, more days of playing the Pacific Front card game for the Tier 6 US premium destroyer Monaghan.  Not exactly hard. And I've seen a couple of Monaghans in the game tonight so obviously others have completed the card game. 

SEA account (15 Oct)
Contrast between both accounts is never more evident than today. Noticed that since I have all the Tier VII premium ships from the 70 Seafarer token bundle I'm switching direction and now saving up for one of the 10-pt commanders. Doctor whatever-his-name-is. 

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NA account (15 Oct)
Forgot about the clan bonuses, clan naval battles, and clan battles. Still got a few more days left to decide if I will stay or leave. Likely will stay and at least contribute once to Naval Battles - to keep the clan happy. 

Acquired the remaining Tier 1s to now complete the whole Tech tree lineup. So Russia, France, Europe, Netherlands, Commonwealth, and Spain are now represented. Quickly played each Tier 1 once in order to advance to Tier 2 which is where I'm at with these nations. Will return to them after I've upgraded the lines I'm concentrating on at the moment to Tier 5 level. That's Japan, USA, UK, Italy, Pan-Asian, Pan-America. 

Hosho turned out to be a shit ship when I played it tonight. I played it awfully bad. How bad? Bad enough to permanently ship me ashore as base janitor for life! 

My excuse for tonight's abysmal performance is I don't know much about which CV mods to take given I tend to ignore CVs (and subs) altogether. Took me several games to figure out I'm useless on her despite "best efforts". 

My performances on Langley, Rhein, Hermes improved faring way better than my horrendous Hosho outing. 

Have yet to acquire Komsomolets.

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October Digest #2

World of Warships

The news article excerpts posted in October Digest #1 contained a fair amount of information and nearly all enticements. For me, the only enticements I'm interested in is not contained in that info dump. Hanging out instead for the ongoing Holiday Convoy tokens doubloon exchange and the 4 Supercrates rewards.

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WOWS servers routinely go down for maintenance prior to every Update. Tried to find out how long after being unable to log in to the NA server earlier tonight (Wed 7 Oct). I usually log in between 9pm and 10pm. 

Asked the question online and got a reply that seemed reasonable from an answer found through a facebook page. Extrapolated from that answer which was based on an earlier Update this year. All speculation for now.  

NA server - 5 hours from 7pm to midnight. Why so long I wonder?
EU server - 3 hours from noon (tomorrow) till 3 pm 
ASIA server - 3 hours from 5am to 8am

Proof that this might be probably was when I logged in after midnight tonight. And got in! 

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NA account (Wed 7 Oct)
The Pacific Squadron missions are like the previous card missions (Dunkirk for example) WG have foisted upon the player base. Did the first EASY Operation with the NA account that resulted in sinking the Myoko. Wasn't all that impressed as I forgot how much waffle goes into making this sort of event "engaging". 

Actively committed to the Marlborough B dockyard event now by purchasing the 5-phase Starter pack. For better or worse as they say when making a long-term commitment.

SEA account (Thur 8 Oct)
Grabbed the remaining three Pan-American destroyers today now that they're out of Early Access. Total cost came to over half a million Free XP and nearly thirty-nine and a half million credits. Happy to do that as I wasn't interested in grinding for them anyway. 

After my usual grinding of my three 20-pt commanders (on Narai, Leipzig and De Grasse), I jumped on 20 de Julio to see what it had to offer. Ok. Interesting outing. In my only game with it, I ended up in a cap facing off against a Republique and Vermont steaming down on me. 

Earlier I and the friendly Black B had successfully taken out the destroyer and cruiser escort. But then my ally died leaving all alone to face off against the two enemy BBs with no other friendly ship in close support. The others were on the other flank unable to help except provide the occasional long-range firing. 

Anyway, I got lucky and survived using my speed and island cover to steer clear of those big guns. First the Republique died as it was less than half health and I used my fast reloading funny bunny to burn her down. But the Vermont was a different prospect as it was still full health and looked very annoyed with me. So I ran and hid around the island while waiting for my torps to reload. 

By then the others were steaming to assist. In the end, however, I farmed "The Brick" (as she's sometimes known in the game) down to help us win out.  

Quick impressions: Torps are weaker compared to other Tier X torp destroyers. It has a funny button for increased fire rate which came in handy whittling down an enemy's health pool. There's another automatically activated AP shell button that operates once you reach the limit (like other similar such buttons) but I didn't pay too much attention to its function and/or capabilities because I was distracted with staying alive against the Vermont. 

Ordinarily I would have died much sooner (against live players), but it was a BOT Vermont and Republique. So I stood a small chance of surviving by being the sneaky DD that I was playing although I kited away and avoided being one-shotted. 

Will unlock the second level of the Event Pass just to get the credit compensation for having the Warspite. Need the credit boost after the big spend on those three Pan-American destroyers.

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NA Account (Thur 8 Oct)
I realised I don't have Monaghan. D'oh! So I jumped into the Pacific Front event with enthusiasm. Woo!

Took me a few moments to get the gist of this card game (when it don't stick, it don't stick). Here's what the memory jogger reminded me:

1) Use your cards to find the best combination to win. Some cards in your fleet offer buffs and debuffs; use these to improve your chances to win. Once settled with the winning combo, then press battle. 

2) Use the enemy unit's HP to determine which of your fleet's cards to line up against. This is to maximise your fleet cards potencies. And pretty important because the closer you get to your objective, the more dangerous the enemy becomes. So save your best units for the end mission phase (if you can). And that means looking at all the entry points of a particular phase to identify which are the more difficult ones. I usually play those first up while I still have full health on my ship cards.

3) 100% victory is a guaranteed win. So go for that as much as you can. Anything less is okay as long as it doesn't drop to less than 65%. If so, use buffs/modifiers to boost your chances if you have them. Focus is a good one. And don't forget to find the best card combos before battling. 

4) Knocking off the primary objective means moving on to the next operation. If you fail however you can repeat until you get it right. Which means that all progress up to that stage is lost which is why restart is not the preferred option because you haven't thought this through properly. 

5) Simply ignore matchups that you will lose. As long you commit one winning card in any phase, you are good to go. Exception will be the final mission objective which must be completed in order to complete the whole mission. 

Once I overcame this massive Homer J brain freeze moment and realised I'm starting all over again with this NA account, I also decided to buy the second Dockyard package so I can finish the event sooner and fast track receiving the Marlborough B given the event has only 19 more days to go. Yeah, I know I made a vow to spend once an Update. Unfortunately plans change. Like my mind. 

As I said before, I have the original Marlborough on my other WOWS account. Back then t was tough to play because of its numerous failings (high citadel, weak guns with poor gun angles, poor armour to name but three). Maybe they've improved it with this version. That's the scuttlebutt. Who knows. 

Not complaining however as it will be my first Tier 9 ship. Already have my first Tier 10 in the Tempesta Nera. And I will eventually have my first Tier 8 with the Holiday Convoy premium Bismarck '41 once I've earned enough Holiday Convoy tokens..    

Eventually I will unlock the second level to the current Event Pass because therein awaits the Tier 6 UK premium battleship Warspite as mid-event reward. Loads of "new ships" to look forward to over the next few weeks. 

Am I having fun though? Is my original aim showing true since starting this second WOWS account? In part, yes. I will form an opinion once I reach one hundred ships. I've currently played eighty-two although my port fleet is thirty-two sold off all my Tier 1s and 2s as well as much of my Tier 3s. Aim will be to starting collecting exclusively from Tier 5 up. 

Then, and it's a big then, I will start playing Randoms in 2027. Just to see how far I can go.   

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SEA Account (Fri 9 Oct)
Played the Pacific Fleet card game first up. Got as far as I could before switching over to the usual Holiday Convoy token grind using my 20 point captains. Then logged out. 

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SEA Account (Sat 10 Oct)
Played and completed the next daily-updated Pacific Front campaign today. Here's how I fared.

First Operation "UNIFORM" rewards. Difficulty: medium.

Second Operation "TERRATHREE" rewards. Difficulty: medium.

Third and final Operation "MAIN FORCE". Difficulty: normal (between medium and hard) 

Got all the Fleet ships bar one now so no more "new" units. 

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October Digest #1

World of Warships

Logged into the NA account last (Wed) and saw the Sail Around the World with Emden event just dropped. Figured why not. Won't say no to the free ship. 

The German Unity event also dropped. Among the Unity package are a couple of other ships being offered singly, both Tier VIII - Schill and Wiesbaden. There is a third, Z-35 which is offered along with the two as part of a sequential bundle package. 

The three ships are unobtainable on this account for me but I DO have all three on my SEA account. 

To unlock the free gift Emden I first had to complete three mission task. And was able to do so playing the Tier V Konigsberg. It is really nice to play this ship after grinding the lower tier vessels although the lower-tiered battleships - Konig and Kaiser - play well enough. Especially when they one-shot ships foolish enough to present open broadsides - cruisers, even other battleships.  

In my time playing this game, I have heard of but never seen these two unobtainables - DD 214 and Arkansas B on the SEA server - ever. Both ships are unavailable for sale. But tonight, I saw and played with them. My collector heart sighed. 

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Saw a YT streamer earlier today (Friday) go through the current Research Bureau ship listing for 2026. And it was pretty much similar to my own conclusions. Some stinkers that I was aware of, but his insights on a few others surprised me. 

Only ship I'm interested in therefore is Vampire II. Primarily because it's a Commonwealth vessel, and has links to Australia. Possibly Irresistible. Also another Commonwealth ship. 

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What to expect in the next Update. Dropped today (Tuesday 6 Oct) on SEA server. 

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Kriegsspiel

Just saw Little TV's 2026 International Kriegsspiel Cup highlights after grinding Clemson for Nicholas in WOWS tonight (Fri/Sat 2/3 Oct). Part I showed two rounds with eight team competing. 

Part II will show the grand final between Little TV, two-time winners, and the other team (I forget the name). I wonder who will win?! 

Interesting to say the least. The game, not the event. 

It's more or less the original wargaming which has always fascinated me. I joined a global PBEM game several years back through facebook that unfortunately fell through for whatever reason. 

I may look deeper into Kriegsspiel now that I know where to look. Need a change from the usual same-old same-old that's become quite stale - very stale. A new interest that's definitely worth investigating. 

While wargamers can be welcoming, they can be quite cliquey. I'm not expecting too much as I'm only going to be making enquiries. It depends on how much I want to learn about the game. And I really want to learn as much as possible. 

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Steam games

Now you cannot preview R-rated games on Steam without first supplying a credit card.

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September Digest #6

World of Warships

NA Account (Thu/Fri)
Interesting session for part way through I got distracted by Akira Kurosawa's epic masterpiece The Seven Samurai. Happened to switch tv channels and there it was. Even though the movie was halfway through, I couldn't stop watching it till the very end. Game simply had to wait, and I didn't mind at all. 

After that pleasant interlude, I resumed playing. Ended up playing nearly twenty games, some more than once. Boosted both Italian and Pan-Asian tech tree lines by adding new ships - Longjiang, Nino Bixio, Phra Ruang, Taranto, Curtatone, N. Sauro. Not much to say except to say I cannot wait to upgrade to the mid-tiers (Tiers VII and VIII). 

SEA Account (Fri)
Played just three ships today. And of these I played Perth the most, in Operations, in order to fast track ship XP earnings for the usual daily coal loot crates. To my surprise I had fun playing her. The new and upgraded Operations missions were also interesting adding variety and novelty. 

Relogged in tonight to check something unrelated out and learned this is now happening.

You can find it in the Update History section of your main port screen.

Progress is revealed when you click on the icon. Total of twenty games. Rewards are four Supercrates. 

Should be more; at least ten or twenty! It's little surprise side events like these with generous rewards that will bring please us and likely bring back the player base of yore in numbers that will deflect the general opinion that the game is dying. But they generally say that about most games given people's attention span tends to be short anyway. 

Reward will be automatically credited when Update 15.9 kicks in next month (they state 8 October). This was a total surprise to me and quite unexpected. No indication concerning that this was happening unless one took time to read the reams and mire that is the WG devblog (you know, TLDR).

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NA Account (Sun/Mon)

Two reasons for creating this second account. One was accidental. The second reason was "to see how the other half lives", so to speak. And to have some fun as opposed to the heavy grind associated with my other account. 

Started to see myself repeating what I'm doing with my SEA account in that everything was both a worry and a grind. So I did something about it tonight. 

Sold off just under half the ships in my port fleet of fifty-six ships. Basically got rid of the ones I've already played and I am unlikely to replay. Kept a few that I enjoyed and would like to continue playing some time in the future. 

This sell off freed up valuable port slots as well as earned some credit back. Kept the few upgrades I'd deployed on certain ships. I was able to upgrade a couple of lines with new ships, at least six more Tier 4 and 5. 

Goal for the rest of this year will be to upgrade all the tech tree lines I'm currently playing (seven) to Tier 5. Which is an exceedingly generous amount of time for achieving given a couple of lines are already there. 

Wanting this second account to be a fun chilled one, a proper alternative to my SEA account. 

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NA Account (Mon/Tue)
Change up after grinding the new ships at Tier 5. Upgraded and acquired Acasta, Emerald, Hawkins, Iron Duke, Tiger, Shenyang, Guissano, Turbine to the port fleet. But also sold off all my Tier 2 ships, a fair amount of the Tier 3 ships (with a few exceptions). There are others but I need doubloons so I can demount their upgrades and redeploy them on future ships. Then I can sell them off. 

Decided to end out the session playing my only Tier 10 ship, the premium Tempesta Nera. Just for laughs. Ended up also playing it to complete the credit mission in the Dockyard Event. And score the three Dockyard tokens on offer. Which I traded in for some necessary free XP, elite commander XP, and coal. 

Last mission was rewarding. One-shotted the carrier United States. It went from full health to sunk in one broadside salvo from the Tempesta. As one player commented, "Dang!"

It's times like this that makes playing the game "fun" and "worthwhile". But such moments are extremely rare. And to be treasured when they occur. 

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NA Account (Tue/Wed)
Started grinding the German tech tree line last night. Reached Konigsberg for cruisers. Shy one Tier for destroyers. Not touched the carriers yet. Or battleships. 

Played with no commander all the way through till Konigsberg. Such a difference once this ship; felt "normal" once I recruited a commander and played her. 

German destroyers come in all configurations. Slow torps on the G-101 caught me out the couple of times I played her. Tried my usual yolo confrontation style and got punished. V-170 with its twin splayed setup and slighter faster speed fared no better. Didn't matter; I was in a hurry to reach T-22. But ran out of desire.

Limited in Free XP as I've been using what I have to fast track last night's grind. Would play a ship once or twice, then spend Free XP to upgrade. Fortunately the ship XP requirement in these lower tiers is low. Will try again later on today to complete the destroyer and battleship lines.

Only seven more days for the Festive token exchange. Aiming for a Supercrate. But more likely will settle for just economic bonuses and/or sigs as rewards.

Ships acquired: Dresden, Kolberg, Karlsruhe, V-25, G-101, V-170, Konigsberg. 

SEA Account (Wed)
In seven years of playing this game, there have been numerous ships that I have hated, despised, disliked, could not understand, or simply played badly enough to embarrass me calling myself a sentient being. Eventually though that unpleasant memory has faded from my consciousness as life moves on. Forgive and forget. Yada yada. 

The more reasoned me might (eventually) come to terms that I simply lack the patience or skill to make good on my targeted vitriol. Which, of course, says more about my skill level than the vessel itself. All that claptrap. 

Anyway, it's been a very long time since I have utterly hated a particular ship. The more I play this ship, the more I am convinced this POS is current contender for most crap ship ever - the Tier VII Pan-American Early Access destroyer Marcilio Dias. Out of seven hundred and thirty two ships, that's saying a lot. 

Nothing about this rubbish pixel works for me. Ever. Despite my "best" efforts.

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Cinematic Trailers

Saw a YT streamer react to the recently released Starcraft trailer in the weekend. To be honest, I did not think much of it. Loud and overhyped. Too much bombastic noise. As the reactor herself mentioned several times, she kept getting "Starship Trooper vibes". 

The trailer depicts the career of a new recruit from induction through to training before graduation as soldier fodder. And the closer to his graduation he gets, the louder the propaganda becomes until the day of reckoning. Then reality hits. Only his name tag remains to record that he ever existed. But, more importantly, indoctrination always comes at a price. Don't buy into the hype that Big Brother foists upon you. 

What made me smile was one commenter pointing out, the only steady seemingly safe career in that effed up world is that of equipment maintenance technician - the individual cleaning out and repairing the armoured suits. For the next sucker. 

Perhaps the more relevant career is weapons technician because the character died due to weapon malfunction.

On Syama Pedersen's Digital Bones YT site, I saw that he had just released the teaser trailer to Astartes II that's been circulating for about a week now. There is a lot of excitement and hype surrounding this upcoming release, more so since he's been involved with it. Shows how much impact the guy has had on the 40K world, especially in regards to how he portrays the Grimdark universe. 

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Sports

Well done the Wallabies for smacking the Springboks in Perth. And with a depleted side too. Impressive courage and spirit shown by Australia. I think they've got a winner in their coach, Les Kiss. And their rebuild is coming along really well. 

It seems the Wallabies are the bogeymen for the rampant World Cup winners and #1 side in the world. As it should be. The Rugby World Cup next year is looking to be an interesting one for sure.

Congrats also to the Brisbane Lions for winning the AFL Grand Final over Freo on Saturday. Three-peat. Again. Wow. Just wow. 

And what a win for the Newcastle Knights over Penrith last night in the NRL semi final. From wooden spooners last year to Grand Finalists this year. What a turnaround. I wouldn't like to bet on who's gonna win this weekend though. I can barely win a Division 9 in Lotto. 

Did I watch any of these games? Of course not. But well done to Australian sports. Glorious weekend. Praise to the winners. Commiserations to the losers. 

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