World of Warships
Finished the last mission task in the Dockyard event today and collected the last 250 steel available. Played Jean Bart which has proven itself a good ship to use in Asymmetrics.
Tomorrow I will finish the last level in the Event Pass and collect the final reward, the Tier VI European (Greek) battleship Chios. Will play the specific missions for the three ships collected thus far in the Early Access - Tavuz, Tegetthoff, Chios. Plan to use the European tokens earned to purchase resources. Once done, I will ignore the other Early Access ships (which will cost money anyway) and await the release of this line out of Early Access two or three Updates later for free to grind.
As for the Commonwealth Unique commander - Collins - as mentioned previously, I will wait for the release of the crates into the Armoury later this year and complete the collection spending coal. Already have a few collection tiles as rewards for various events this Update but not spending money for him at all.
That's how it rolls with this game. And that's how to play for free (basically) WG's game.
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As indicated in the post above, I played all three new Early Access European battleships obtained recently today. Here's my assessment so far:
- Yavus. Tier IV. Obtained for free from the Recurring Random Bundles in the Armoury as soon as the new Update was released. First ship obtained on my first attempt. Slow. Hits with the power of the German Moltke battlecruiser class from whence it originated. Has torps (four single launchers) and speed boost (only lasts for 90 seconds). Torps located amidships are paired so two can be loosed in one set. Midships turrets are in alternating alignments unlike the standard configuration. Never really encountered it within the game and it does take some getting used to. No gimmick aside from the additon of the torpedoes; at Tier IV that's uncommon so you get an advantage for sure. Against higher tiers though, this ship plays like a Tier IV and can be easily sunk.
- Tegetthoff. Tier V. Obtained as part of the current Event Pass. Interesting ship. Has the same speed boost as Yavuz well as torps that give good coverage front (handy) and side. You can even surprise an enemy pursuing you by letting loose with single firing torps as you're running away because the side angle extend back to around 40 degrees(?) from midships. Handy trick. Double main batteries bow and stern so all-round coverage. Can kite with a bite. Again the gimmick is the addition of torpedoes at Tier V.
- Chios. Tier VII. Final reward from the current Event Pass. Simply a Mackensen clone that's been up-tiered from Tier VI to Tier VII. Also given 10+ km torpedoes as well as speed boost that looks to be the trait for this new battleship line. Some changes to the secondaries as well (now 100mm instead of the usual 80mm). AP deals around 11,000 damage per shell. Good at citadel-ing enemy cruisers as well as targeting superstructure damage on battleships. Solid performer thus far so I'm finding. Not so great against top tiered ships though. But it's to be expected.
Just noticed there is a possible fourth ship to be had for free, the Tier VIII Enigheten. It's part of the sequential bundle package that also includes the Tier IX Gustave Den Store and Tier X Thor. Total cost is 750 European tokens to reach this ship. If you're wanting to include the Tier IX ship, it'll cost around 1800+ tokens in total. European tokens can be earned by playing the set missions for the above three ships. Or by purchasing tokens in the Armoury for doubloons. Or you pay for a quantity in the paid version of the recurring random bundles.
The Tier VI Laudon can be had as part of a separate random bundle package (2000 doubloons per bundle).
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Completed the Tegetthoff specific missions yesterday. Today it was the Yavuz. Just the Chios missions to go. Hoping to complete it before Update 15.1 rolls around.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles event being rolled out again. WG does this annually. This year is no different. Same stuff being offered with a price increase. No ships being offered. No. Just characters, from what I quickly saw. Definitely steering clear of this money sinkhole. Definitely not worth it.
Lunar tokens event. Basically you're placed in a group of either 25 or 50 players. Based on your performance in-game, irrespective of what battle mode you're playing, the outcomes go towards the group ranking system. The reward, for now, are tokens and the HIV crates (lol). HIV being the Honour, Integrity, Virtue collection crates, or Unique Commander Collins. Later these seemingly worthless tokens can be exchanged for CAMO or other items when Update 15.1 is operational. But no ships. One more thing: everyone in the group gets something. Hoping to grab a good ranking so I can earn some more European tokens.
Santa crates end tomorrow. Never got one of those really powerful ships - Bremen or Hawaii. Got the Aki and Le Havre though which is fair enough compensation for trying I guess.
The remaining European battleships are available for acquisition but for cash either directly (Thor) or indirectly (Laudon, Enigheten, Gustave Den Store). Still going to wait their release from Early Access in Update 15.2 (March).
While playing the Yavuz in Co-Op today I was situated on the left flank where we dealt to the threat (lone enemy DD). Anyway, the rest of that enemy flank was making for the middle so I steered Yavuz toward that area, lined up a Myogi and began to whittle it down with AP fire. Launched torps at it once I got close enough. What I didn't know at the time but only saw too late was another set of torps making a beeline for the Japanese battleship. Mine hit first. And thus I claimed the kill.
Suddenly Yavuz was being pummelled by friendly fire from a Phoenix to my starboard stern. Looked at the map, the Phoenix was running away from the fight. I immediately assumed my ship was the target for the pointless friendly fire because there was no enemy BOT ships in immediate proximity, i.e. I wasn't being threatened or attacked. Barrage continued for several salvos. I couldn't figure out why the Phoenix was doing this stupid act so I calmly commented in chat, "Frustration is common in this game." Thinking that it would defuse the situation. The firing on my ship stopped after that for a few moments, an apology appeared in chat explaining away the actions of a few moments ago. So I replied, "Mistakes are made, dude!" The emphasis on the "dude!" being don't sweat it. Move on. Player however continued to rant and rattle for a bit longer hoping for engagement in chat. But I wasn't playing that game. So I reported him/her/it/they/them, and continued on my merry way.
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So, a funny thing happened on the way to the Forum...
Was grinding out the penultimate mission specific task for Chios (earn 6000 BASE XP) in Asymmetrics because it was going real slow in Co-Op. Anyway, in one Asymmetric game I was one of two surviving team mates: the other ship was a Scharnhorst '43. We had a tough ask though: knock out seven remaining enemy ships. I decided to plant myself next to an island on the right flank and just use my guns. The Scharnie was stationed over on the left and doing ok for itself.
I was doing ok managing to protect myself whilst dealing damage to the enemy. But then I got impatient and moved out from my spot. Immediately got focus fired from a Kongo, Chungking, Montecuccoli and a couple of others whose names I forget. Of course I died not too long after exposing myself.
Thought my remaining teammate would handle the remaining four because he was doing excellent work managing to rack up five kills by the time I died.
We had the clock on our side and we were accumulating points faster than the other side. But then after knocking off more two ships, teammate decided to park between two islands and remained static. Initially thought that odd but continued to watch thinking he was up to something to help win the game. But after a few moments realizing he was doing nought, I decided to quit the game and try to join a new game before I fell asleep. Then I got the message upon quitting: Early Termination...only BOTS remain...
Huh? BOTS?
Checked back into the game. Player was still active. Quit the game again. Same message....only BOTS are left playing...
A bit gobsmacked to say the least. Ok, so here's the actual proof there are BOT players in the game. Damn!
Other than that incident, it was a pleasant enough experience although five Defeats in a row in Asymmetric with Chios forced a radical change of tactics. Although it has torps and decent enough AP, it's no brawler unless the odds are heavily in your team's favour. And she's no YOLO master, unlike the Paolo Emilio.
Seen a WOWS YT streamer tonight post a video lauding free ships about to happen in Update 15.1. They were crowing about all the new ships they were gunning for, in particular the top-priced premium steel ship R. Lauria. So I went to WG's devblog site to check out the kerfuffle for myself. Remembered they had made an upgrade on the website. What I was able to glean from reading the devblog.
It also cleared up why I was playing for Lunar tokens in the first place. And there was a Leaderboard for the event. Apparently the Lunar tokens will be the currency for the new Lunar New Year event being rolled out in Update 15.1 (February). And the Lauria is one of the several rewards only this time it's being renamed Tempesta Nera.
As per usual WG confuse the issue by over complicating the event. Basically you pick a faction - good or bad - based on the backstory (which isn't too bad). Play the series of missions for that faction. Once completed you get access to the rewards - several ships depending on which prize you go for. Obviously the more complicated the missions, the more "valued" the reward.
You gain Lunar tokens several ways with the main ones:
- Playing the current Lunar Trials in the current Update (15.0). As briefly explained previously, you're lumped into a grouping of 25 or 50 and play your heart out FOR BASE XP. This determines your ranking on the leaderboard for your group. Where you placed after determines your rewards in Lunar tokens. Note: Every member of the groups a reward. Of course, the higher up you place, the greater the rewards.
- Logging in daily during Update 15.1. Other rewards are gifted free as well.
- Playing the event-specific missions where you can earn up to 40,000 Lunar tokens in total. What the cost for the ships though is not disclosed in the Devblog.
- Acquiring for free through random bundles made available in the Armoury. Small amount however.
You can freely chop and transfer between the two factions (there are sub groups within those factions). First time it is done for FREE. Second and subsequent floppings cost COAL. When you do switch (traitor!) any progress remains so that when you switch again, you can pick up where you left off. How convenient. There are other associated but minor details regarding the event that's not worth repeating. Check out the
devblog page for yourself if interested.
So...am I interested in the upcoming Lunar New Year event? Yes, now I am especially if it's a chance to finally grab a clone of R. Lauria.
Update 15.1 will also see the return of the "popular" Unbreakable Front. Improved so it states. Never played the battle mode hence why I put the quotation marks.
Also on the winds of change will definitely be a favourite of mine and a battle mode I am more than familiar with, Operations. Getting a long overdue makeover. Will certainly play a few games when it's released.
To round out the changes, there is mention of the recalibrating moves in Brawls. To briefly sum up, there will now be three Brawls. First one is basically a torp fest where armaments effectiveness will be reduced except for torps which will reload faster and cause greater damage. Your speed improves (to dodge those torps) as compensation. So, as they claim, torp away.
The second one applies specifically to health pools. You restore your health pool the more damage you do to your opponent. Weird but okay.
Meanwhile the third Brawl will be the standard familiar unchanged version. Whatever that is. Haven't touched Brawls in a very long while ever since they first introduced it and long before it became part of the permanent battle mode line up in Update 13.6 (July 2024).
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Starcom Nexus
After so much game time doing it, I realised it made no sense after all doing the grid searching pattern. Made no sense in that any further exploratory discoveries would have found by now. Plus anything hidden would been of minor significance such as finding the planet with geese or the lost island. The focus now should be paying closer attention to the unfinished quests.
Problem is that when given choices on first encountering, whatever is chosen determines subsequent narratives. And if it leads to a dead end, then you're stuffed. But you don't know the future so you respond at the time of the encounter. Example: Araona Home Nest world. Cannot enter. Openly hostile towards our ship because we failed to answer their questions correctly. Plus I inadvertently destroyed the Nest World orbiting battle station after it tried to fry me with its laser batteries. Same situation in being denied access to the Provisional capital home world of the Araona Dispersed Fleet (another sub faction) although they still treat us as neutral. Cannot convince both factions that we're not Phage with whom they were engaged in a long war.
Tonight I managed to research the Sentinel Keys (after obtaining all nine of them) and was therefore able to stop the Sentinel robots from continuing with their open hostility towards us based on our transgressing their Directives 2 and 3. Learned who issued the original directives. Now if only I could make the Araonas stop mistaking us for the Phage.
Meanwhile am slowly going through the remaining active quests. About five left.
Upgraded to the Dreadnought class tonight. Modified it by adding the Axial Ultragun and the Havoc flak batteries (for mining, of course) fore and aft. Might be time to rename her from Jetson to Steel Elefant. Or Grey Bloater.
Next ship class left to upgrade to is the last and most powerful Starcom ship class, the Leviathan class. There are no blueprints available in-game so this will be made-up entirely. Do I go Star Wars Deathstar globular or 40K Gloriana-class gothic-style battleship or something altogether equally made up and ludicrous? Have to wait and see.
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Tonight was an early session. In it, I had returned to Station Kite. Awaiting me as I popped out of the Nexus Gateway was a small fleet of now-friendly Sentinel ships. And one of them was huge. It dwarfed my Behemoth class vessel. It even dwarfed Station Kite.
No luck convincing the Aroana Nest World that I am not the Phage. In the meantime I am slowly gathering Research points so I can unravel the CMB transmissions.
As for solving the Temple of the Fallen Gods riddle, I have no clue whatsoever where to begin my search. Planets surveyed cannot be re-surveyed which is a bummer.
I may reluctantly have to start a new game. Advantage of knowing what I now know will help I suppose but nothing like mystery to pique the interest, as they say.
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Jigsaw
Finally finished this I started a week ago. Initially it was straightforward doing the tree, the foreground and the water. But then the sky presented more of a challenge throughout. Was hoping to finish in one sitting but that went out the door fairly fast. No worries however. In the end, I just took my time.
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