March 2025 - Part Three

14 March 2025

Late Medieval Balkans read

Finished Chapters Four and Five in one late night sitting. Found another interesting battle to game tabletop-wise. 

The Battle of Klokotnitsa was fought in 1230 and involved the forces from the 2nd Bulgarian Empire under Ivan Asen II and the Thessaloniki Empire under one of the several 'Byzantine' Emperors, Theodore Comemnus Ducas. The Bulgarians won a major victory and expanded their territory to include much of Macedonia, parts of Albania and of course Thessaly. And they now were a major player in the region, and a threat to both the Latins who held Constantinople and the rival Nicean Empirate in Anatolia. 

As I don't have the models, I'm looking at paper 2D models. Currently looking at options because I would like to get back into Lion Rampant some time this year. 

16 March 2025

World of Warships

Currently grinding the new Dutch light cruiser line using Michiel de Ruyter, the only Dutch special commander in the game (as far as I know). Finished the Jaarsveld yesterday, upgraded, and began grinding the M. van Coehoorn. Last ship in this line will be the Utrecht. 

Not sure about the release of the new Soviet subs. As one well known YT streamer pointed out, what's the obsession with submarines. Part of me doesn't understand either, but another part has a theory and it's not complimentary to the creators. 

19 March 2025

World of Warships

Decided to continue playing the experimental ships partly for rewards. Coal plus rewards for other events (Soviet subs reward tokens that can be exchanged for crates). Not going to fast track to the Oregon however. So it's the slow grind to accumulate the requisite Action reports. Each day it resets and the maximum obtainable is 45. But each ship has around eight modules costing 150 Action reports per module plus so many credits. The only way is to spend 10,000 doubloons (nearly AUD60). Will therefore take the slow grind approach. Already completed two mods. Six more to go.  

Managed to upgrade from the M. van Coehoorn to the Tier X Utrecht, plonked orange camo on it and ran it for a couple of games. Another tech tree line done.

Priority this year will be to upskill as many special commanders (Legendary and Seasoned) to 21 points. 

Foregoing going for the Gonzaga and the Monmouth. They simply cost too much dollars (in the hundreds now). There are other "new" ships being promoted but will most likely skip them if they're being made available like the aforementioned two ships.

Phone Games

I only have the one phone game - Triple Tile 3D. Found it on my wife's phone some time last year and was instantly hooked. I love it because it's a rapid hand eye coordination reaction game. Got up to level 1820 before I decided to install it on my phone after vigorous complaints over the hogging of her phone. Anyway, I noticed a few things about this addictive (for me at least) game:

• Upon completing the level in the time alloted, the remaining time left is converted to gold. However, it's misleading to believe the time remainder converts fairly. The gold converter cycles faster than the time remaining conversion rate. For example, you might complete a particular level with 2 minutes and 07 seconds remaining. Your gold earned is, say, 175. If you watch the conversion process, you'll notice the gold counter clicks over much slower than the time remaining reduces. Which is not that important if you have an abundant amount of boosters and gold accumulated. Just be aware though.
• Every ten levels completed rewards you with a new set of tiles which normally follow a theme like toys, hats, flags, plants, tools, fruits, etc. But this only seems to work up to just past level 2200. About here, the reward tile set starts to randomize in that you'll get repeats for a while. Then the odd new tile set. I suspect this might be a glitch or something because the new tile sets returns after a while. 
• The shortest alloted time limit is 4 minutes which isn't too bad while the longest can be near 8 minutes (enough time to make a coffee and still finish in time). Playing it though means total concentration and not allowing yourself to be distracted. That's where the boosters come in. 
• Of the boosters, there are four lots: two in the pre-game startup, and two in-game. The magnet one is meh in my opinion but handy for clearing a first few. Used with the time bonus booster which adds 1 minute to your time allocation, you can get a good starting run. Which can be useful especially if you're up against the dreaded 4 minute timer. Once you begin play, there are two more at the bottom of your screen. The left one randomly removes a 3-tile set (useful if you're having trouble finding or focusing and you delay longer than ten seconds). The right one is the freeze time, and is pretty handy and often used once I'm down to thirty seconds and still got loads to clear. Once these in-game boosters run out, you can pay using the gold you've earned to purchase more. Unfortunately, you can only purchase just three at a time, and you cannot buy repeatedly while you still have boosters. A pity. 
• The game periodically provides opportunities to earn more boosters and gold. There are twenty such opportunities. This is where you can start building a decent amount of gold and boosters. Temptation is to use boosters initially because you haven't got your "eye in", so to speak, and you're still adjusting to the pace of the timer. Don't worry. It soon improves. And it appears regularly: the timer will inform you when the next set will appear.
• Of the object sets in the random tile pile, some are easy to identify and some not so easy. The not so easy moments occur when colours are fairly similar between objects or the objects are very tiny, such as children's toys, or when come up against tiles that are similar in shape and colour like red flowers that are of two different types but look similar to the sweeping eye. 
• With practice you can easily finish the 4 minute timer in under 2 minutes if you focus. And learn to use all your fingers (like guitar finger picking). 
• Try to avoid clusters that are lodged side-on along the edge or close to the edge of your phone screen. The remedy is simply slide a finger down the side affected to release it. May have to do it several times to dislodge the offending tile. Tiles directly on top of one another can also be tough to dislodge, especially if it's the last tile set. But you'll find a way. It does claim to be randomly dropped but I've found that there are usually three fairly standard patterns: (1) grouped close together, (2) horizontally and/or vertically aligned along the entire length/breadth of the pile, and (3) one will be at the opposite end of the pile compared to the other two. Also, triplets are dropped at the same time so you will find them layered unless get spread wide during the drop. Once you get used to playing it, you will know instinctively these patterns.
• After you've completed a level, there is the screen that shows two sliding bars sliding back and forth. This is the claim window. Click the bottom one any time to advance your progress by five. It's an automatic increment. Thus five times twenty equals one hundred which represents one advancement level at the end of which you receive a new set (of eight new and different tiles - I think). In other words, you need to succeed twenty times in order to receive the new set of tiles. The top bar provides an opportunity to multiply your earning by whatever number you click on. Usually this is five (max) for me. But you have to wait a short time (usually thirty seconds) for an ad (or three) to play through before you can claim your multiplied earnings. Three hundred multiplied by five is a better reward by far so I sometimes click it. Of course, you have to be using either wi-fi or have data usage activated to make this happen. 
• There are 48 sets of triplet tiles to clear in each level.
• Somewhere between levels 2650 and 2700, the countdown (new tile sets) stops altogether. Instead, you keep getting the message "New pack is coming soon...?" instead each time you finish a cleared set. But when that's likely to happen is anyone's guess. Currently at level 2941, and there is no update on the new pack coming soon notification. So, it's possible to believe the app game is done which is what I suspect. Maybe it will happen once I crack the 3000 mark? Doubt it however. But one never knows...
• One more thing: do not use wi-fi connection as your playing time will be bombarded by ads. Also turn off data usage and you can have an ad-free time playing this game. Battery life? Played it solid for over two hours, and battery usage was around 30+%. Cheers. 

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21 March 2025

ECW: Baggage train and others

Resumed work on the baggage train along with some of the command elements.

A couple of the carts and in the background the donkey train.

Still to add the top part of the water barrel. Wheels painted up don't look so bad if you don't look too closely. Still too big but it's not going to matter anyway, so it'll do.

King Charles (on the grey), three aides (red cloaked) and one of the Royalist generals, Lord Astley, who commands the infantry overall. His son, Sir Bernard Astley who commands one of the tercios, was painted earlier.

Medieval Balkans

Finished Chapter 4 - The Latter Half of the Thirteenth Century. The author jumps from region to region which can prove disruptive especially when trying to absorb the wealth of information. Not complaining however because the historian/author tries to provide solid facts and/or reasoning behind the information provided. If he doesn't know or there is scant information, he says so. Which I like. Any speculation is grounded upon analysis of the most available reference material, the veracity and authenticity of which is reliant on the quality of the reference source cited.

It also pays to have a map of the area whilst reading to identify various locales mentioned. The book provides two maps: the first lists all the main towns and cities, while the second lists the political regions, geographical features including main and tributary rivers. This appendice is handy but suffers from the issue of being two pages in size meaning the spine gets in the way. One could easily photocopy the two halves, or else obtain another reference source map of the area such as an old German language area map from the late 19th or early 20th century. 

Chapter 4 mainly focused on the machinations of Bulgaria and the various Dalmatian coastal regions such as Hum and Dubrovnik. Slovenia, Serbia, Bosnia, and their endless upheavals and power plays raging back and forth between the major players of these regions as well as the continued interests by the Venetians, Byzantines (and the Genovese allies) as well as the ongoing incursions and raids by the local Mongols. 

As per usual, rulers and regions come, and go fairly quick. Local families rise to prominence, endure for several generations, and then as quickly as they rise they fade into obscurity. Towns change names and allegiance so often depending on whoever rules them. 

Starting a new century (the fourteenth) with Chapter Five. And settling on a suitable timeline to game.

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