January 2026 Digest #1

World of Warships

Slept through much of last night's new year's eve celebration due to being dog tired for some reason. Perhaps a lurking lurgy that won't die a 2025 death. Anyway, happy festivus for 2026. 

With that out of the way, doing a slow grind to complete the final two phases in order to claim the Dockyard Event reward - the Tier IX French premium battleship Roussillon - and complete the last of 2025 obligations. No rush (as in complete all the mission tasks in one day as I would normally do) to finish this event now.

Looking to enjoying my freedom from the "salt mines" hereafter. Lol. 

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Slowly going through the various mission task in order to complete the Dockyard Event and grab the last ship for 2025 - Roussillon. 

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Today I had a good day of grinding. Finished the Dockyard Event and earned this...

Played this ship twice. Ran her with Philippe Auboyneau. Worth it? Not qualified to state yeah or nay with any conviction or authority. 

First game I sailed into a melee storm and got taken out by a Hipper that refused to die and which took all my focus to the detriment of what was happening around me. Disappointed because I expected more from the guns. Either that or else Hipper is stronger than I initially thought. 

Second game, I had better luck but all I kept thinking during play was the recollection by someone commenting on the value of this ship that this reward was a Tier VIII Alsace hull with different guns. Thing is I can't remember who or what this ship dealt to in this second game. All I can recall is that it was a better performance than the first effort. 

And 2025 is now done.

Mainz is a really good ship. Played its cruiser's mission in no time at all (Dockyard Event) which was great whereas previously it would always take a while. And thus I finished the Dockyard Event fasyer than usual and thus able to collect the reward (image above). 

I am liking it as a cruiser a lot since acquiring it in the Christmas drop. In fact, it's now my favourite cruiser. Good accurate guns. Great HP - firestarter. AP also good - easily citadels broadsided cruisers and even battleships. Torps are a joy. Emboldens one to sail right up to a full health battleship, loose off two runs of torpedoes, and watch the ship die. Plus you still have the second set on the opposite side. 

Did not bother with the three rentals and the space-age missile warfare battle mode. Not my thing unless they create a separate game mode like Asymmetric and restrict it to those super ships being constantly dealt to us. I'd rather play Eagle Leader by DVG (boardgame) nowadys to be honest. Much more entertaining game and without the bs.

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Jigsaw Puzzles

Part way through an 800-piece puzzle started the other day. Taking longer than originally envisaged. 

A good thing about this game is that any tile will lock in place if placed correctly. Sometimes it's incidental as can be seen below by the various isolated pieces scattered throughout. Other times it's a calculated guess (as with the figures on the bridge or seated at the pond or the tree branches against the sky drop). 

This particular image puzzle is interesting and challenging because of the many subtle colour shifts. 

Easy to get sidetracked/distracted by the many options popping up. Focus can, and does, wander at times and it requires effort to stay focused on the task. 

This is where I am at after two intense and long day sessions.

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Finally finished after another three days at it. Challenging throughout because of the colours and the tile size. And the brilliant colours of the final puzzle image as shown below are muted during play (as seen in the previous post above) which can be misleading. Example the bright purple on the left side of the stone bridge is not that bright when searching for the correct tile. But despite this minor problem, I managed to muddle my way through. 

Also had another problem completing the puzzle. Game said I hadn't placed all the tiles even though visually this was a contradiction. Somehow sorted it out after returning and checking that every tile had been properly placed. Had this problem before on a smaller 200 tile puzzle I had to restart. At the time, I hadn't figured out the problem. But persevered this time. And got the acknowledgement I was after. 

Now I have enough accumulated game points to access the 1500 tile puzzles. Scoring is based on the number of puzzles completed and their value. So a 40 tile puzzle is worth 40 points, and so on. 

But first I am going to do one more 800 puzzle which I started at the same time I did the above jigsaw. This time it's seems a little easier...I hope. 

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Miles

Stepson and his girlfriend visited for the new year. While here they took snaps of our latest family addition and hilariously dressed him up using an AI app. 

Meet Miles Brando, auditioning for the lead role in the remake of the 1954 classic On The Waterfront.

He's also auditioning for the Michael J. Fox role when they finally remake the 1987 hit comedy The Secret of My Success. His stage name for this audition is Miles J. Woof.