December Digest #8

World of Warships

Ran ships which have no XP earned. Some included ships with new skippers transferred in. A fair few are premiums that are either from Santa crates or earned previously but never played until now - Shinonome B, S-1, Deutschland, Graf Spee, Arkhangelsk, Scheer, Royal Sovereign, Gambia, Mainz B, Graf Zeppelin, Champagne, Suzuya, Musashi, Cambridge, Neustrashimy, Kozma Minin, Manteuffel, F. Gonzaga, Los Andes, Taihang, Lepanto, Jager, Le Havre. The last is my latest acquisition - a Steel Fleet ship.

More tomorrow...

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World of Warships

Played Kushiro, Aki, Hakuryu, Khabarovsk, Smolensk, Andalucia, Valparaiso, Sibir, Hildenbrand, Inchoen, Ragnar, La Pampa. Also acquired the halfway reward for Chapter 2, Event Pass: Tier VII Pan-Asian cruiser Lanzhou. 

May run all the carriers and subs in my port fleet tomorrow just for a change of pace.

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World of Warships - Christmas Eve 2025

Today (Christmas Eve) played Mecklenburg, Irian, Flint, Devastation, Jean Bart, Prins van Oranje, Lanzhou, Satsuma. Nearly all have a Seasoned commander as skipper. Except for the two superships, the others are premiums. 

Nearly everyone who have them are raving about how powerful Hawaii and Bremen are. It might matter to me if I had either one but I don't so I really don't care how well they outperform others of their ilk.  Am I likely to get lucky in getting one before this Update ends? No. I have more chance winning the lottery, to be honest. So I'm going to buy a ticket instead. 

Merry Christmas and a safe New Year.

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World of Warships - Christmas Day 2025

A repeat of yesterday's grind with some modifications. Same ships. Multiple grinds. Upskilled them to the next level. Will continue to repeat this process till the end of the month/year.

Noticed something odd the other day. Was checking the drop rate on Santa Gift crates. It was around 80+. But the following day, after earning over fourteen Gift crates, the count had reset to 100. Odd so I thought but then I dismissed it as a glitch. Not worth raising the issue because I'm never going to grab another 100 Gift crates anyway between now and the end of the Update. 

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World of Warships

Boxing Day edition and a long grind to finish the next Dockyard event mission. Played the usual suspects: Mecklenburg, Irian, Flint, Devastation, Jean Bart, Prins van Oranje, Satsuma, Okhotnik, Z-39, Valparaiso.

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World of Warships

Enjoyable grind today. Played Satsuma exclusively for the Voyage tokens and daily coal crates. Ended up earning the Event Pass rewards too which was a bonus.

Best game in Satsuma. Even though it was Co-Op and only I was playing, I had fun dodging the other superships out to get me on the Shatter map. Ended with a good win after it looked like we were going to lose because the Bots had decimated the rest of my team and had capped twice already. 

Bot teammates chose to die quickly leaving me to salvage something in a super slow supership. Not easy but used the islands to good advantage. Spawned in the middle and stayed around there. Took out four enemy ships to win the game. 

Satsuma's 510mm guns smack hard. Took just two salvoes to destroy a Novosibirsk. Made sure to stay bow in as I played cat-and-mouse with a Devastation and Patrie. Took out the enemy CV United States which was niggling me with its dive bombers and torpedo bombers as I weaved in and out using the island cover to max advantage. 

I was most worried facing the Patrie which was slightly healthier than me. But one of my Bot teammates helped out by sinking it before dying. I would have struggled taking it Eagle and Devastation on simultaneously. 

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Super Jigsaw Puzzle - Cities

After the grind, jumped into relax mode and spent a pleasant afternoon playing Super Crossword Puzzle: Cities. Interesting game that I've had for a number of years but haven't touched yet...until last night. Not my usual kind of game for sure. Began playing it last night. Started out with the simple 20 and 40 pieces set. After "practising" I then switched up to the 200 piece jigsaw before finally settling on the 400 piece game. 

Spent a few relaxing hours today doing St Petersburg. Really relaxing for some reason. And I don't mind the time spent. 

If you like to relax in a methodical sort of way, I can recommend this. Actually calming. The game has a place below the image board for all the pieces (found out about it half way through today's puzzle). Seven trays in total. One tray for the different tile grouping (sky, water, buildings, etc.) that can be switched by clicking on the appropriate tray. Keeps the clutter down as well as organised 

After several easy hours, I had completed it. Already did New York last night. Now on the hunt for other similar games on Steam. Want the really big ones - the 1000 tiles. Or more. 

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Modelling - Planning Ahead

Planning to revisit an unfinished modelling project - the Peterbilt 1/25 model truck. Intention is to paint the original decal design. Then I want to display it on a dioramic stand. Plan on taking my time with the paint job and display stand. First major painting and modelling task for 2026. 

Found the original post. Did not realise it's over four years old. The colour scheme and design will be more or less similar to the original test design shown below. The challenge, however, will be hand painting the lovely lady on the cab back. It's the kind of mad challenge I just enjoy because it takes me out of my tiny comfort zone. And one can always improve on one's skills with such challenges. 

Of course there will be other challenges associated with this project such as creating the backdrop for this rig to be displayed. I've always had the image fixed in my mind. Creating it though will definitely be a real challenge given I'm no good at such things to begin with. Especially not having the tools, skills or equipment to tackle such a project will prove a handicap but not entirely obstruct efforts. But life's been very droll of late, and 2026 will be a new year.

Not going to change the plan all that much because the aim is to build and paint the rig. The challenge therefore will be the display part of this new project. 

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Chris Rea

Learned he has just passed away. One of my many favourites from the 80s. On the Beach, Josephine, Driving Home for Christmas, Let's Dance, Fool if you think it's over, Road to Hell, I can hear your heartbeat...and so on. Rest easy, mate...

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