August digest #2

World of Warships

As arduous and tedious the grind may be, I will hold off on a final decision to fork out the 17,500 doubloons for both discounted phases bundles for the Dockyard Event. 

There are seven weekly missions in total with this Dockyard event. Already completed two phases of the first week's mission set. Should finish another two tomorrow leaving me just two to grind  through to next Wednesday.

The first of the new Operation missions began today. Arctic Convoy consists of twelve stages with a 10-point commander as final reward. Advancing through the stages costs stars earned (usually six per stage). Victory or Defeat is really irrelevant as it's the stars that matter most: get enough to complete the stage and advance on to the next one. Once you've completed all twelve stages, if you want to continue playing, there is a bonus round where the prize are couple of signal crates. 

The next phase - Tokyo Express - begins next week. Managed to finish the Arctic Convoy stage pretty quickly (almost too easily I think but maybe it's because I was playing with those who understood the mission brief). And now I can return to my regular commander upskill grind. 

A new collection is also unlocked that is running in conjunction with these new Operation missions. The new collection consists of sixteen tiles divided up into four pages. These tiles are earned as rewards through playing the Operations missions. Completing a page of four tiles rewards with one free Premium day. Completing the collection rewards you with three Premium days. Wow!

Also got my 500 Voyager and 2 GQ Johnny tokens for today's participation as mentioned in the News notification and WOWS Development blog. Going to hold on to the Voyager tokens earned for now because I'm unsure whether to go for all-doubloons or all-steel or a combination of both. Liking the latter idea at the moment but it depends on what tickles my fancy down the track. 

Another new Event Pass began today. Only one ship reward (have it already so expecting a massive credit compensation) is being offered at the mid-point of the event. Sadly there is no ship as the final reward, a trend I hope doesn't become the norm but this is WG after all. Will likely unlock the second level in a few days because I'm happy to spend and collect the extra steel and Elite Commander XP on offer for now. Every little bit helps this particular small-time gambler. 

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After the hectic action of the start of Update 14.7 yesterday, it's back to the usual grinding routine although I did include added battleships in order to complete the last task in the Dockyard Event first week's missions. 

Did decide to buy the 2 phases bundle pack for 5,000 dubs. It was kind of forced on me because the event rules stipulate that you cannot acquire the final reward (Laffey) without paying for two phases with doubloons. In fact, it's any two phases. Figured therefore to do it by buying the discounted bundle instead of spending 6,000 normally (one phase costs 3,000 dubs). A saving of 1,000 dubs is worth it for this skintflint.

Not now going with the six phase bundle; why throw 12,500 dubs away needlessly when you can hoard for other spending opportunities? Happy to grind the remaining six weeks. Having done multiple all-nighters and sometimes even all-nighters and most of the next day over the past six years, I am now accustomed to such long grinding sessions.   

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Today (Sunday), for a lark and as a bonus from today's short grind, I took the San Diego out for a quick run to blow off any cobwebs. No desire other than to re-familiarise myself with this ship ever since I got her in December 2022 as part of the Santa crates. She has a bit of mileage on her since that time, 88,000 plus ship XP. She also happens to be one of the reward for one of the events (compensation is several thousand dubs if you already have her) active throughout this current Update.

In the games I forgot how squishy she is. First game ran into the Duncan. It had fired its torp; too late to evade, I took it. And died. Kaboom.

After that episode I decided to play her cautiously, ie hiding behind island and spamming when I could. She's got hydro, firing boost, AA, torps, and air strike. But at only around 27,000 HP she is very vulnerable. HE is really SAP. Got lots of guns - ten - so her firepower is nothing to sneeze at. But the 11,000 dubs as compensation will come in handy down the track. 

Ended up splurging (reluctantly) buying ten War is Ended premium crates and then traded in Victory tokens (from the premium crates) for another seven normal War is Ended crates. 

Boosted my Free XP stash so that now I can reset a line via the Research Bureau (will be my first time ever). And the Elite Cmdr XP got some healthy infusion. Loads of Blues and Greens economic bonuses. And permanent camo. I guess the prize though was obtaining the Tier VII Royal Sovereign. Saw a couple earlier in the Arctic Convoy Operations.  

Ship-wise, looking at the Svea as potentially my next steel ship. Just need another 6000 Voyage tokens. Also contemplating spending credits to obtain the two Russian superships Ushakov and Novosibirsk as well as the Italian supercruiser Piemonte. Maybe even the European Dalarma. But I await the outcome of my first Research Bureau line reset. 

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Vietnam War slow-grow campaign

Still working on rewriting out an abridged version of the core ruleset. Hope to have something more condensed by the end of this weekend. I'll need a couple of extra days to do the proofing, editing and then final print out. A further incentive (for me) will be updating the current card set (version 2). Size and material are the main reasons why. 

Once satisfied, only then will I return to finish off the first scenario. 

All the while, and at the same time, I am continually generating news ideas and scenarios for this campaign. Already planning to involve my small riverine fleet in the next mission. It will likely involve dropping off an advance party ahead of a main follow up force and seeing what happens.  

The troops aboard the Tango boats will either be US or ARVN Marines. Leaning towards playing US because of their strong firepower and greater support available. But I won't rule out playing the ARVN as I don't want to ignore them or treat them as subordinate to the other Free World nations. 

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Star Wars: X Wing

A gaming buddy texted me for a game this weekend. His choice and call. My place and toys. Have not touched or played this game in a very very long time. Had to rely much on the Force for motivation although the hot chocolate maybe helped with the memory jogging. Anyway, this is how it went. 

We chose to play it simple. First game was three on three: TIE (me) vs X-wing (opponent).

My two best (higher skilled) pilots took on the lone X-wing ace while my remaining pilot tackled the two Rebellion rookies. Things didn't go as well as intended as the X-wings proved more sturdy under fire. Plus the dice rolls favoured my opponent. Although I have to admit my opponent's superior playing tactics helped him win the first game. My lone TIE fighter tried his best but was unable to defeat the remaining two X-Wings. 

Game 2 saw us swap ships and replay same mission, such as it was. My X-Wings this time chose to fly in formation. Got a lucky start when one of the TIE fighters chose to use the obstacle field as a way to sneak around. Unfortunately he snuck right into my firing LOS and died.

The remaining two TIE fighters chose to barrel roll their way around the formation flying. It was a moderately successful tactic but the rookies weren't buying it as they stayed tight throughout. However their flight leader somehow chose to ignore his own instruction and soon became isolated which suited the remaining TIE ace who took multiple opportunities to whittle down the X wing defences until it exploded. 

But in that moment of success for the Imperium, the rookies struck for the Rebellion and exacted fatal retribution on the TIE fighter. 

Honours even therefore. Fun afternoon. Thanks to my opponent for showing up and providing a break from solo wargaming.

Next meetup (whenever that might be) will be a game of Eldritch Horror. Can we co-op our way to success and defeat the Old Gods? Or will Time run out and we perish in a nightmare hell of our own devising?

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