Wargames and Writings and Other Ramblings: April Digest #2

World of Warships

New events commenced today. Two of significant importance - the ZH-1 Dockyard event, and the double Event Pass. Of the two, the former will be the focus for me because it's a new ship that looks interesting.

With the Event Pass, only one ship is being offered (Level 2 unlocked though) for both events. I've already got the Ise so I am not interested in the latter event apart from collecting those useful resources. The final rewards are pathetic to be honest: permanent camo does absolutely nothing but WG seem to think it's of great value and are really trying to con-vince players of this.

From the Nian Paradox event just ended, I managed to score several event commanders plus the following ships - Tempesta Nera, Kiberpankov, and Posterior Prior.

Daily logging in to the usual disruption of getting disconnected from the game. Lasts for a short while. I just persevere: log out, restart, get kicked off, log out, restart, get kicked out, etc. Does not happen with any other game. Just WOWS. Verify game file integrity via Steam. All okay. Rebooted internet connection. All fine. This temporary disruption only lasts for a short while. Update my game driver as well, which explains why I have not seen the usual disconnect and then when I reconnect, notification to create a new WOWS account. That's something, but still doesn't explain why I am having this problem. Running out of likely causes however.

In-game, I've dismissed some more Tier IX captains and used the accumulated ECXP to elevate two more higher skilled commanders: one to 19 point and one to 18 point. Just got the major nations to go - Japan, USA, USSR, Germany, UKL, France, and Italy. Then it's just the Tier X commanders left to go; and there won't be many because most of my 21 point commanders reside here.

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Today I dismissed those Tier IX Italian captains no longer needed.

Paid for both packages in the Dockyard event (2 and 6 phases). Convenient because it saves on grind. Plus the rewards are useful.

Finished the Fortitude Marathon event today. Crates for the most part yielded common Economic bonuses. Only the final three yielded resources of quantity and worth.

Another new Common Mission event began today but it is not active for some reason. No explanation although it, on the surface, looks worthless. 12 Green Economic bonuses in total are the rewards spread over three mission tasks.

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Seems the new Common Mission has been removed. Mistake perhaps by WG in releasing it?

Dismissed those French Tier IX captains that needed dismissing.

Uneventful grinding session.

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It was the turn of the English Tier IX captains for dismissal. Another satisfyingly uneventful grind.

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Retro Rewind Video Store - Demo version

Got all nostalgic when I saw this demo game on Steam the other day. Looked to be fun. Something normal and ordinary yet engaging for once. No effing zombies. No effing monsters/creatures. Just a normal slice of life that is no more.

Started playing it tonight. Level 7 is the limit (Harvest Festival day). Will I buy the game? Dunno. Yet.

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Played again today. Building up store credit so that when I do eventually buy the game, I will have a sizeable amount of finance behind me to make some improvements to the store. One important purchase though will be more porn from the back alley shady trader (every Tuesday and Thursday around 9pm). Seems it sells quite well. Lol.

Not expecting this to be a long game. Pity. Would like to see if it moves into the DVD/Blu Ray age before finally selling out and the store becoming a Radiology clinic.

Some of the customers got feisty when confronted with Late Fees. A few swore never to return after paying. A couple got angry and stormed out of the store, one even tossing her slushy onto the floor. Generally though most customers played the game and paid up. A couple gave excuses but owned up and accepted their fate.

A glitch sometimes happens when returning change to the customer. SPACEBAR closes the till but sometimes all that happens is your character jumping in the air. Reposition oneself at the till and try again. Keep doing so until it closes.

Shelving and videos can be stored out back on the counter top out back until needed.

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Childhood Memories

Nearly sixty years now since last I tasted these with fondness. Strong memories of Panikeke and Mum making them. Made some tonight for the first time since childhood. So excited. Variation to the recipe I grew up with but it worked out nonetheless. Sweeter and different (added mashed bananas and vanilla extract) than the plain mildly sweet ones of my youth. Had to restrain myself from pigging out as I was making them. Made a large batch. Plenty leftover, enough for breakfast. Excellent with strawberry jam hot. Wife tried them and was complimentary to my face. But then she disappeared to the bathroom shortly after. Lol.

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Little Wars TV

Little Wars TV is a You Tube channel of dedicated US mature-aged gamers devoted to covering the (mainly) US tabletop wargaming scene. Decent enough channel so I thought at the time (couple of years ago) that I immediately subscribed. They have just released a video after several months absence. Interesting concept they're promoting - a free wargames library. Website due soon. Link to the YT video explaining their goal.

Sites that listed as free wargame websites tended to be few and often proved to be dead-ends. Links were broken or dead. Often the rules were found elsewhere released by another online entity who either required you to sign up to their mailing list or had put the ruleset behind a pay wall.

Free rulesets like Canvas Eagle by Eric Hotz, a Canadian, I happened upon by accident. I was originally pursuing gaming mats that he also retailed at the time when I saw the link to his Blue Max/Canvas Eagles site.

Another accidental find is a strange one to me because I could not believe they existed as they did. The Perfect Captain was a group of North American rules creators who flourished and were most active in the early 2000s. They produced a library of free wargame rules that were complete, well-researched, period/era specific, and, above all, playable. The curiosity for me was that the production quality and presentation of their rules. I founnd their site by chance when I stumbled upon one of their rulesets being discussed by a blogger of the time. One thing led to another, and I ended up striking gold.

Unfortunately you can no longer download these once free and abundant rulesets even though their website still displays their wares.

My 15mm Ancient Greek/Spartan army, for example, was assembled for Hoplomachia, the Peloponnesian Wars ruleset. The appeal for me has been that the rules are period-specific. For example, the opening moves in the game require the Spartans to perform an animal sacrifice, and sing a paeon as they advance to battle. Details like that add colour to an otherwise bland wargame. I loved it. And I loved hand-painting the individual shields of the hoplites.

Russian Civil War anyone? Then Red Actions or Beyond The River Don will suit your needs with its modular map building. This enables one to construct a simple campaign with connections between maps that are game table size dependent on current tabletop outcome. My White Russian 20mm army is still seeking revenge on the Bolsheviks for blunting their winter advance. Perhaps the Czech Legion might prove helpful. We shall see.

The main attraction of The Perfect Captain rulesets is they cover the periods I find personally interesting and worthy of wanting to wargame - the War of 1812, the entire Crusades, the English Civil War, the War of the Roses, the Peloponnesian Wars, the Russian Civil War, the wars of religion in Europe.

But I've also had far many more misses than struck gold moments. More often than not these other free wargame rules barely measured up in terms of quality and completeness. Some were just bad.

Anyway I am looking forward to this new venture with an awakening of enthusiasm and excitement. Maybe I will find some "new ones" to fill my own library.

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English Civil War: Slow Painting Progress

Returned to figure painting tonight. Realised I really don't have a painting formula, at least one that always works. It's all fly by the seat of my pants most times. Which probably would partly explain why I exercise a serious lack of motivation, interest and enthusiasm these days. By having a set painting formula, I can just switch off and automatically paint away.