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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