August Digest #5

World of Warships

Chose the simple expediency at the start of the week of playing just five ships, all part of my Commander upskill long-term grind. Kamikaze (proxy for Kitakaze), Cossack, Leipzig (proxying for Preussen), Narai (one of the Rong brothers), De Grasse (for Jean Bart). 

Doing this satisfied the Holiday tokens mission (play five games to collect 1200 tokens) requirement. And plonked blue economic bonuses to grab the daily three coal loot crates. 

In and out!

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Today is Friday. Got another Pan-Am new destroyer, Tier VII Marcelo Dias from the Event Pass. Swapped out the commander that came with the ship and transferred in an Event commander, Jose Padilla Lopez, who is a 10-pt captain. Which is more preferable as a 0-pt commander. 

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Upskilled the three 19-pt commanders to 20-pt today. Disrupted game due to some software update. Fortunately it happened while I was in port and not in-game. 

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Issue with gaming PC. Forced to jump on to my backup. Had to update the game as a result. Took many hours. When I finally jumped into the game (early hours of next day) I managed to play five games on five tech tree line DDs (with no commanders) in order to grab the doubloons. Then logged out.

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Had to reset my gaming PC (clean reboot). As a result had to once again upload WOWS. Again, it took several hours. But finally logged into the game for the doubloons. 

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Continuing the five-game grind for the Holiday tokens. Interesting change as it's been a long while with some of these ships. Today it was the last of the tech tree Tier V destroyers line with one premium thrown in - Visby, Muavanet, Kalmar, Antioquoia. 

Tomorrow it's the start of the Tier VI tech tree line - Fubuki, Hatsuharu, Farragut, Gnevny, Gaede. Should be fun.

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Iron Nest

Two missions completed tonight (Monday). High Tide is a beach landing defence with a weak infantry force. Reinforcements arrive soon enough but ideally you want to be knocking the enemy BEFORE they land and debus. 

Managed to knock out the enemy HQ landing craft. But it was a frenetic firefight. Did enough to complete the task but struggled with hitting the enemy landing craft. Once they divested their forces, it became a lot less frantic. But if not for the friendly reinforcements, we would have been overrun. 

Next mission was Blind Fire. Basically, knock out four AA batteries blind fire. No aerial photo-recon possible, even post-fire. But you have spotters who can report. Some miscalculation involved before I could report success. Now on to the next mission, Phantom Battery.

Projecting ahead, I reckon the developers will expand campaigns into Europe. Or even North Africa. At least that's the wishful thinking. 

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Tuesday saw me attempt Phantom Battery. With much dread. And it was justified as I struggled initially to organise myself with the time pressure. Moreover it was prioritising what actually needed doing to deal with the countdown.

(1) Survive. Make your Emergency Move as soon as possible once you get Iron Nest operational again. 

(2) Confirm new location. Triangulate with just TWO Position Reports, both within the same grid as your gun. Being in the same grid means you are easily locatable with friendlies in close proximity.

(3) Get info from your Spotters as quickly as possible. Once the Phantom Battery is confirmed spotted and reported back, make another Emergency Move to pause Counter Battery timer so you can load the required ammo.

(4) Once in new location and verified, quickly load the AP and double gun fire at the target. May have to repeat to make sure. 

It doesn't matter how well you fared in the end, just that the mission was successful. Now on to the last mission. 

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SurrounDead

Don't forget to resave your current save with a name so it's not overwritten as I just discovered today (Wednesday). Started two new games and suddenly realised I hadn't changed the save settings to save my old current saveslot which I had been playing for months and almost completed. So, everything's gone. Everything I had worked long for. Gone. 

Typical Homer J moment. 

Anyway, started three new characters, one on Nightmare setting, one on Hardened. And one on Standard. Died not soon after spawning in Hardened when I couldn't orient myself and chose to simply take on the zombie spawns with a knife.

Had better luck in Nightmare when I made it to the Valley Safe Zone more or less after orienting myself and choosing to evade the many zombies this time. But don't fancy my chances with just a knife and no food, water, or money. 

Currently surviving in Standard mode at my "old haunt" base after spawning in the area. Dealing with the Primary Infestation not far from my base but skint on ammo. Managed to knock off the Zombie boss by using a nearby friendly group as bait. 

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Continued today (Thursday) with my new character. Slow at first getting established but trotting along nicely. Managed to kill off the Primary Infestation I was tackling yesterday. But had to repeat killing the Zombie boss. Scored some handy weapons. And even collected a second car - a Utility - just down the road from my base. I was heading to the Valley Safe Zone to sell off loot in the yellow Sedan I found yesterday when I was approaching the Primary Infestation farm house. Incidentally, it's visible from my base so it's real close. 

Also learned a new trick for using metal fencing as a gate. 

I've placed a crafted metal fencing as a barrier gate outside the front entrance. Good thing as it saves on materials needed to craft those swinging gates as with my previous character. All you do is interact (F key) by selecting it to move (as shown above). 

Once highlighted, move through (as shown above) and right click to restore the fence in its original position (as shown below). 

Voila! Instant gate! Cheap and effective. Stops the zombies that spawn periodically in this location from entering your base. 

For now, I'm in the early days of establishing myself. I'm past the immediate survival stage for now. Priority is setting up all the crafting benches (just one more table to go - the Weapons and Equipment bench). Need to establish a well too.

Also searching loot crates for useful weapons, better gear, tools and resources, plenty of ammo of all types, medicine, and food and water. And build up plenty of reserves and resources to prosper rather than survive from day to day. 

Took out the Zombie boss at Whitewood which is close to Valley Safe Zone. Yet to tackle the Primary Infestation there. Not enough ammo at the moment to confront it for now. The weapons I currently have aren't powerful enough. Grenades and molotovs - lots of both - would be most welcomed.

I may relocate to the warehouse behind Whitewood because of its close proximity to Valley Safe Zone. But I am thinking of establishing several regional/local bases instead. 

Take a deep breath....!

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Moved to the warehouse behind Whitewood. Dealt to several Zombie bosses in the session - the one at Whitewood and Pacific Mall and the Gun Store between Whitewood and Pacific Mall. 

Also picked up a third car - a Charger just outside of Pacific Mall. 

Collecting legendary weapons quicker this time round. Scored the Colonel's Revenge (5.56), Valkyrie (5.56), Lechie (.300 Winchester), Crusher (7.62) and the Rocket Launcher (66mm) - from crates and Zombie boss kills. All scored in today's sesh. Productive day after the first few days just surviving and establishing myself.

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Last night I continued to improve on my relocation to the warehouse behind Whitewood. Cutting down trees, smashing rocks, looting crates, dealing to bandits. Typical day in Zombie land. Going to keep my first location as either an overnight stopover or a forward base of operations. Considering doing that for the north, west and south.

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Should have seen it coming. Doing a clean reset meant my current saves in SurrounDead are gone. All that's been done above is kaput. Every single one. Gone! 

But my Steam Achievements in the game are all I have left to prove I've done time. Done all except one - the "Redacted" achievement. So now I have a mission for this current return to the game. Once done, I assign this game to the library of forgotten games.

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