December Digest #6

World of Warships

Played just the San Martin and Valparaiso today. Interestingly, I ran the vessel with a Red Ship XP economic bonus in my first game. When I checked the coal crate requirement immediately after the game, I found I shy 750 XP from getting all three coal crates. That meant I had earned 36,250 XP just in that one game of Asymmetrics! 

Valparaiso was played was just to earn its free 200% economic bonuses. 

As per the last post, I took the bait and ended up buying the sequential bundle of crates. Twelve out of the fourteen on offer. I was hoping for a ship drop but it did not happen. Slightly disappointed. This meant no compensation. Expected. But I did get enough resources (the "OR" part) which is nothing to complain about.

I also learned that I may be able to acquire another steel ship with the resources I have and what I can potentially earn over the next few weeks. Limited choice to the cheapest one on offer which is the Tier IX French premium cruiser Le Havre costing 25,000 steel. Awaiting further developments.

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Field of Glory 2: Medieval

Game 4 of the campaign ended in my first defeat of the campaign. French mounted knights were too many and their large number of crossbow units proved an effective counter to my combination MAA and longbows behind hastily set up entrenchments. 

Started on the defensive and waited for the French advance. Once contact was made, we were able to hold firm against the first wave of attacks. But then the French knights began to make their numbers felt as they were able to move to key pinch points with ease, ably supported by crossbowmen. I had nothing really to counter such moves because most of my force was heavily engaged while my reserves (four units of knights) were already in the thick of it.

Losses quickly mounted as my line began to buckle and break. I committed ad hoc units that I could spare but they proved ineffective. My centre began to fracture and small gaps appeared as units began to break and rout. Or become embroiled in frantic melees. Those gaps widened and were soon fully exploited by the French knights who streamed through and began laying havoc into my poor foot. 

Meanwhile both my flanks, while pressed hard, were able to hold their position the centre simply folded as my losses proved too great.

Score one for the French. 

I lost both guns, a large number of longbowmen and dismounted men-at-arms. While half my small cavalry force survived they were too busy chasing enemy routed to realise their aid was urgently needed elsewhere.

The defeat was a real kick in the guts. Up until then, it seemed the English were having it easy with their three early victories. 

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World of Warships

Interesting Sunday session. 

Firstly bought 40 Gift crates for the resources. Faint hope that a random ship drop might occur but it was not to be. Then clocked into Asymmetrics for my usual San Martin commander skill upgrade grind.

Was reminded by a disgruntled teammate on the Shatter map that defending the base is important. I had spawned in our base but chose to join one of the flank sides. Unfortunately my teammates died very fast. Lost our Yamamoto on the right first, followed by the Pommern who had sailed into the middle. I was on the left supporting a Navarin and Kitakaze. Without any opposition therefore the enemy team made for our base. I got caught up pursuing a Kansas that was retiring. My remaining teammates quickly realised our base was undefended and raced back to prevent this. But they got zapped by the enemy. This left me all alone and too far away to prevent the enemy capping our base. That's when I got lambasted by the Kitakaze player in chat. And to make it worse, the Kansas I had been chasing recovered enough to zap me out of existence. It was a bitter defeat for sure. Not really. Just another day in the office.

Ended up playing the San Martin just the four times. Two defeats followed by two wins. That's when I decided to spend Elite Commander XP to upskill the remaining shortfall for my commander to 21 points.  

With him done there are now just a few more to go from my grinding list from a few months ago. Toss up between running my captain on Defence (assigned ship is Goliath) or Z-39 (Elbing). Both are on 18-points. I am running them on lower tiered ships because of cost. But I may decide to switch them back to their original ships just to see how they fare. Now that I have a large pool of suitable economic bonuses (green, blue, and red) I can now afford the cost of running a Tier X ship in-game. 

I decided a change was needed after upskilling the San Martin skipper. So I finished off the short session playing "the Brick" - Vermont. It's a favourite of a well-known Finnish YT WOWS streamer. And it's easy to see why. Its guns slap mighty. Deleted a Schlieffen and Libertad in the two games I played without too much trouble. Also wiped out an enemy carrier in one salvo (it was nearly full health) which is always pleasing from a surface ship player's POV. Remembered to stay angled in. Used AP to good effect. 

Paid for the thirteenth Sequential bundle. The two Mega crates yielded no ship but I welcomed the resources rewards nevertheless.

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Field of Glory II: Medieval

After the defeat in Game 4 I was given the opportunity to replay for a victory. This I did with the same force and deployment. This time I made full use of the terrain proper by placing some of my longbows under cover and behind temporary fortifications. This was on the right where they had a large forest for cover. 

On my more open left my dismounted MAA were intermingled with my archers giving them some boost defensively. I had a second defensive behind that front line to act as reserve because I expected the enemy to attack it in strength. The cavalry I kept some distance back with the bombard near the pond/lake.

The enemy began with their entire force advancing to contact. Their main line consisting of both crossbows supporting dismounted men-at-arms advanced on my left as expected. Meanwhile a large infantry force congregated in the centre awaiting developments from both flank attacks planned.

Initially I had pushed my archers forward to harass the French advance. Whittle them down as much as possible, maybe even break them. But rather than keep them forward I had them fall back continuing to pelt the enemy with arrows from a distance until they rejoined the defensive line.  

My line in the open held as the French advance made contact. I would counterattack but never pursue if they routed an enemy force; I just let them fall back and simply waited. Whenever a breach appeared or one of my units was forced back, I quickly plugged the gap with units from my second line. This strategy seemed to work because my line held and soon the enemy's losses began to climb. 

Meanwhile over at the forest, my combined force of archers and dismounted MAA weathered the mounted knights assaults pretty well. I even counterattacked with the MAA who were positioned further back whenever the enemy knights threatened to outflank and overwhelm my archers valiantly holding their position. 

The victory in Game 4 replay happened pretty quickly compared to my earlier losing game. It came as a surprise when it happened as I was expecting another long slog.

With that win, Game 5 transferred to the south of France where a Franco-Navarese force and a Free Company force led by a Gascon faced off against one another. I had the option to deploy by calling up reinforcements or sending a flanking force. I chose the former option because I've already tried the flanking one in Game 3 where it proved useless. 

This time I increased my mounted knight force. Which paid dividends. Again the French deployed with a slightly larger mounted force. I also had two bombards facing the enemy's two light guns. The bombards I kept together but back a bit. They had a unit of crossbows in support. I was not expecting them to be mobile but their artillery fire and the crossbow bolts were highly effective to their front. 

I chose to stay with the basic foot ratio of 2 dismounted MAA units to 5 longbows units (or thereabouts) as a grouping. As a result I was able to field three such units. And finally there was my expanded mounted knights force. 

For the first time I went on the offensive and simply advanced my entire force towards the Navarese who reciprocated. We met in the middle, so to speak. And from there on, it was just a matter of who would win the ensuing close quarter fight. As the image above and below shows, it was a free-for-all affair. No real organised melee. I was fortunate enough with my deployment to field a decent advantage against my opponent. 

The battle was quick. The enemy lost heavily at the contacts and it wasn't too long before they gave up.

My losses were light - only 9%. The winning mark is normally 40% in breaking an opponent. The Franco-Navarese lost 48%. 

The next battle (Game 6) sees the scene transferring to Brittany where the English-sponsored candidate is facing off against the French-nominated candidate for control of the Dukedom. 

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World of Warships

Finally reached my year-long goal of 700 ships today with the acquisition of the T10 Aki, the Yamato clone. Would have acquired the Le Havre too but mistakenly exchanged the Voyage tokens I had for doubloons instead of steel. Oh well...at least I got a good haul of resources. 

It was the turn of the Defence for my commander upskill grind. He's currently on 18 points. Decided to refamiliarise myself with this vessel by playing Co-Op first. Not really fruitful or beneficial as I had to contend with eleven others. Just going to have to jump into the deep end and sink or swim. 

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