1 August 2024
Interesting Thursday. Played WOWS for a few hours. Focus was on completing the single Common Mission on offer - a dedicated throwback to the Transformers series they ran several months ago. Gave me a chance to run a few battleships I've not touched in a long while - Georgia, St. Vincent, Pommern, Yamato. Also ran Groningen on one mission task which required scoring 300 main battery hits. Achieved it in the one run. The rewards would be meaningful if I hadn't already completed the Transformers collection long ago. And for playing the mission, you get a Transformer flag. Really? Still, the credit recompense for getting the duplicate tokens allowed me to finally reach one hundred million credits. Just gathering resources for Christmas nowadays whenever I do log in and actually choose to play. Next update (in a couple of weeks) will feature a new Dockyard event of some paper ship. Not sure if I'm going to try for this one as it's another fantasy paper ship probably OP and/or with some gimmick feature. CV rework is considered convoluted and over-complicated; the request by the community to nerf the CVs is not being directly addressed so it is felt by the majority. One of the top comp players (from a EU clan that are in the top five globally) announced he was quitting doing YT streams on the game (and War Thunder). Expressed what many have already pointed out - the game is shite nowadays and WG is determined to run it into the ground with this incessant monetizing and paper fantasy OP vessels. But he did say he will still play competitive but no longer stream WOWS replays as, at least in comp play, they're good players and actually have a clue. I enjoy his observations: says it like it really is. Calls a spade a spade too. I like that forthrightness. Even in Co-Op where I loiter, there are some brain-dead amoeba passing themselves off as live players. No team play whatsoever. No support. Sail around without contributing to the match. Needlessly die within the first few minute. Ecetera, ecetera. Play Naval Battles (Clan thing only) and try to contribute where I can. In the last one I made the mistake of taking the Zara when I should have up-tiered to the Michelangelo. Kept missing out on making required target of 1400 Base XP on the remaining attempts. Might have had better chance with the uptier cruiser but forgot I had it. D'Oh!
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2 August 2024
Friday. Which means another round of Naval Battles (Clans) started today and will be running the entire weekend ending Monday arvo. Jumped into it this time in order to help out but also to collect my fifth year anniversary gifts as well as get in early while the bars are set low. Played Le Hardi but failed to get the required 800 Base XP mark (either Ranked or Random or Clan battle modes will work better than Co-Op). So switched to the Edinburgh and Atlanta for the cruiser benchmarks (300 Base XP each). Achieved that after a few attempts in Co-Op mode. Noticed that Base XP in Co-Op mode is not high so was surprised to find I was able to score at least 600 Base XP in a couple of games. Figured it had something to do with the kills: because I'm in a cruiser, killing a battleship or carrier helps. Engaging and sinking more ships, especially higher-tiered and higher-class ships is the goal therefore; in other words, play aggressively - difficult in Randoms but easier in Co-Op. Anyway, kept that little fact tucked away for future reference.
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3 August 2024
Checking out Wargames Vault, the US-based online store for all things wargaming and hobby-related at a reasonable price during the midnight hour/night owl session. Checked out some of the alternate ECW rulesets available alongside a few other things that also caught my eye.
Liking the paper structures models - medieval period gate structures and the like. Immense potential for assembly. Certainly would enhance any tabletop gaming experience. My previous efforts haven't been quite as successful but I haven't really applied myself so may still have another crack at it, especially as I need some medieval style gate structures for planned sieges and the like.
Seen an interesting county-based campaign system for the period that I may purchase to glean some ideas on conducting smaller-scale engagements in the ECW period. However, there is something already available through the TtS: For King and Parliament series. It's called the Siege of Norchester, a series of encounters set at a fictional Royalist-held town. I realise the core rules themselves have been around for a while (early 2010s) and the system is grid-based, which should prove interesting as well as helpful as I keep misplacing my measuring stick/tape measure! Anyway, I bought it as an option to Victory Without Quarter.
Also checked out some medieval naval warfare which, unsurprisingly, is fascinating and a magnet of attraction to me for some reason. Would love to buy more Langton minis from the Dutch wars period but unable to as I'm already financially committed elsewhere. Plus, I don't possess the necessary skills to assemble those exquisite models anyway so will have to look elsewhere.
A cheaper alternative would be paper models like my dreadnought WW1 sets for the Battle of Jutland that I purchased a few years back but not taken out to sea yet for my Admiral of the Fleet rules. Looking at the great medieval and early renaissance naval battles like Lepanto. Still have good memories of the Salamis solo refight with David Manley's Ancient naval ruleset.
Looking for an alternative to Lion Rampant but in 20mm scale. Think I may have found it with Chevauchee, Rules for battles with Medieval miniatures, a skirmish ruleset which I've just purchased.
Know absolutely nothing about this system except that it's skirmishing in 20mm. Should be an interesting read over the weekend. May even drag out some medievals and playtest a couple of skirmishes. Or raids as the title suggests. I might even run out my B&B figures using these rules. Should provide an interesting experimentation.
Okay, so I went a bit overboard and purchased another two ECW titles and a wargaming annual: This War Without an Enemy, a county-based campaign system, 6mm rules for gaming The Battle of Cropedy Bridge by Peter Riley, and The Wargamers Annual Vol 1 by Partizan Press and features such well-known luminaries from the UK wargaming scene. And includes articles from the late Stuart Asquith, one of my wargaming heroes.
I've always enjoyed and loved Annuals. Whether it was hobby or comics, they provided a wealth of information and entertainment lapped up and eagerly absorbed. Wealth and variety is what you got - value for money. Looking forward to reading the blocking LOS article and what it has to add to the ongoing debate about its value in wargaming and interpreting it as a functional value in rulesets. Or not.
There is even a battlefield visit to the site of the 1644 Battle of Tippermuir, part of the Montrose Rebellion of 1644-45. Nice! But of especial interest is Stuart Asquith's article on solo wargaming. Looking forward to reading that one.
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