June Digest #4

Blog site

So, it seems like this blogsite is no longer viewable for free. You need a Gmail account to access and view my posts.

Old Skool

As cool and simplifying modern technology is, there's nothing like actually building something from scratch. 3D printers nowadays only require the design file and, voila, you have a miniature. And you've got it for a fraction of the cost of a commercially-available kind. You lose nothing on exquisite detail, (depending on the type of file) and you can print as many as you want. Hallelujah to that! 

World of Warships

Changes to the Armoury happening soon. Ship rotation will be a thing from Update 14.6. Not concerning for me at the moment. 

The Legacy event is interesting for beside the new ships on offer, the amount of resources such as Free XP and coal is also pretty high and therefore enticing. Pity it costs you a pretty penny. Weighing up the worthiness of the enticement, ie can I spare a penny or not?

The Narvik to Dunkirk ended recently with a fizzle; the reward for the effort proved to be a single ship.

The Summer Festival event replacing it is a non-event insofar as the enticements also cost another pretty penny. The ships on offer - at least as far as I'm concerned - are in the Tier VIII bracket. But it's such a long way away being in the thousand token range. 

The daily tokens on offer amount to forty-five in total while the weekly one adds another one hundred. But I'm not going to spend any money to buy more tokens, so I will go as far as I can before the event ends in about two and a half weeks. 

For now, I am continuing to grind my way slowly through a selection of certains captains requiring upskilling. Of these, just two more Legendary commanders left to go - Lisboa and Swirski; a trio of Seasoned commanders - von Jutland, George Doe, Charles-Henri Honore, and the remainder of this select group include specific nationalities who are backups - Pereira (Pan-American #2), Druzhinin (Russian #2), de Ruyter (Dutch #2). There still remain plenty of others requiring upskilling.

As always, I plonk these captains on premiums, irrespective of class type, and grind away. Some from this group are fun to play like the Atlantico (Lisboa), the Monaghan (Doe), and the Kirov (Druzhinin). I say that because I like to play aggressively and am happy to YOLO into a fight, and the above ships suit that style of play. 

However, others require playing more passively, ie hanging back, firing from range and preferably under cover. This applies to the light cruisers in this group such as the Kikjduin (de Ruyter), Elli (Swirski), Dupliex (Honore), and Leipzig (von Jutland). 

The Jurua (Pereira) comes second to the Monaghan but handles itself well enough if you play to her strengths. Her single firing torps are handy and are an advantage against multiple enemy ships in a close range fight whereas the Monaghan's torps fire as a salvo set, and only from one side. So you're stuffed if they miss. Of course this is offset by her long-time US smoke. 

Boardgames

So I went into my studio earlier today searching for my sets of coloured pencils for sketching. Came across these two unopened boardgames during the rummaging.

This box set of Arkham Horror is the 2005 edition. Bought after having fun with my copy of Eldritch Horror (2013) which I had bought first. This can be solo played too. 

Bought Runewars: Miniatures Game on a whim around the same time of purchasing Arkham Horror. Not sure the reasons I gave myself, perhaps it was the fact it came with minis. I have since learned you need two core sets to fill out all the stands. Which is a bummer. Unsure whether to proceed or put it up for sale. There are expansions (new factions, etc) but it sounds too much like another wargaming project when I already have a multitude on my tabletop to-play list. 

Planning on continuing my current fascination for the Vietnam War period by playing a solo game of Phantom Leader (either 2010 or 2013) by DVG. Will check it out. 

Addendum: A quick online search tonight has yielded that FFG (Fantasy Flight Games) no longer print this game nor its various expansions. That's like nine years ago! However one place still selling the whole kit and kaboodle is Amazon although it's the first place I sighted. No doubt eBay and other online resellers will have elements of this game for sale.  

I know nothing about Arkham Horror but I understand it's still alive and still churning expansions. There is even a website devoted to the game so that's handy for newbies such as myself. 

As for Phantom Leader, I pulled out the game and spent much of tonight simply sorting out the numerous pilot cards for one of the two Cuba Missile Crisis missions. Certain Vietnam War planes were disqualified because they never existed. This limiting of planes is proving interesting. Shame there is no B-52 nor U-2 card in the game. More than likely I will go with one plane each from the available remaining pool just to see how they would fare individually in such a situation as this. More to follow then. 

Art

So, after procrastinating forever I finally got back into doing art stuff. For my first return after years, I chose an image sent to me last weekend. Had the idea of what I wanted done in my head but realising it proved another matter altogether. 

Idea, like I said, is there but execution was both poorly done and incorrect. I will attempt again anew. But with this effort, I can complete it by painting over the pencilled in image using acrylic. Or I can resume using art markers as I've started with part of the archer's cap. 

Cheers.

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