A Cunning Plan

Not all that cunning, but it is a plan. Today is the Operation Husky Special in World of Tanks and yesterday, for the first time, I felt a bit of boredom creep into my gaming session. I actually stopped playing and -gasp- went outside and played with the dogs in the fresh air. I know, preposterous!

I've been laying off of Wurm and hitting WoT pretty hard so some burnout is expected. My plan is to well, have a plan. Working toward something gives me focus and to be honest, the massive amount of experience needed to cap out the various tank trees is daunting. I just can't focus on that because it seems a bit hopeless at times, especially when things aren't going right (like with my Tiger II). Perhaps its just my altoholism or maybe I'm just lazy....or easily bored- ya, lets go with that.

I've accumulated 150k spare experience so it's time to make a move! Due to the half price and double experience special, I'm going to re-by the T-34 (which I quit playing because I had a horrendous time with it but I'm sure this time will be different) and use it to get to the KV-13 medium tank. The KV-13 is a bridge to the Russian Heavies and after hearing about the KV 'grind' I think this is the way forward there. The KV-13 just looks like my type of tank- that's the only explanation I can give. Has anyone played this one?

I'm going to take advantage of the Husky Special to train up some crews as well so my full plan, unveiled here for you, my lucky readers (!) is this:

1. Spam T-34 and M4 Sherman battles for the double credits.
2. Move into the T-34-85 (Tier 6) before the special ends and upgrade the crew to 100% for half price.
3. Use my free experience to jump from my Tier 3 arty to the Tier 5 arty and train a new crew to 100% for half price.
4. Strip my Easy 8 of its modules and crew, purchase the T-30 (Tier 7 American Medium which I've already unlocked) and re-train the crew to 100%....... OR.......
5. Use the remaining free experience to jump to the T-29 (Tier 7) American Heavy, buy it, and re-train my T1 crew.

A lot of this will depend on how many credits I manage to accumulate tonight. I am still liking the SU-152 but I have another 30k or so of experience to go before I can get the ISU-152 and since I am having fun I'm not in a hurry. The problem with the single game mode offered by WoT (random battles) is that it does get super repetitive and I find changing tanks keeps it interesting and fun. I've all but given up on Clan Wars. The format sucks, the forced-time is late for me, and it always seems that everyone involved is stressed. It's depressing and I'd rather play when I want rather when they say I have to.

Why can't developers look at Guild Wars and see how to do these things? Team rankings, GVG (essentially clan-wars) when the teams want it, the ability to watch top-teams play (live and recorded), and various formats (gvg, team battles, random battles, and that other one I forgot). It's all been done for pity sake and it's not like Guild Wars is some kind of indie, unknown game! I can feel a rant bubbling at the surface, just dying to get out so I'm stopping now!

80,000 Leagues Under the Wurm: Concludes!

Frustration was running high on the heels of my double-death. I knew that to try to run back, grab my gear, and end up dying again would be too much to bear (ouch, pun intended). There would be rage, and it wouldn’t be pretty. I decided to abandon my adventure, and launched operation Clean Up to mitigate my losses. I decided to sail my Corbita back to where my body was, get my gear, and then abandon my sailboat and come home.

Reaching my body took a bit of time, but it wasn’t hard. I had been there before, of course. It took about half an hour (real time) to sail there. The trip there wasn’t the problem. The bears were the problem. Thirteen of them.

Yes, I did say 13 which is an absolutely ridiculous amount of anything to be corpse-camped by in Wurm. Most people complain of there not being enough animals and the irony that I’ve posted that very complaint wasn’t lost on me. Running (swimming) in to grab my corpse wasn’t going to work and the corbita isn’t very maneuverable. I dropped anchor, jumped in my sailboat used it to dash to my corpse. I grabbed the contents of my inventory, took a few bites from said hungry bears, and sailed quickly to freedom! They could bite my legs half off, but my boat would still go 17 km/hr and easily outrun them. Ha! Take that virtual bears.

 

I unloaded the contents of my sailboat into the corbita and I was off! I could have returned the way I came but that little part of me that likes to make everything a bit more difficult than it has to be intervened. I decided to continue north and take the canal’s home. I was close to the Massively Village and wanted to take a look at it.I explored Paris Island and killed some wildcats which made me feel infinitely better. I hate cats and since they are one of the easiest animals to kill (both in game and out) I skilled up, got some meat, and vented my frustration with the game.

Paris Island is quite nice. Had I discovered it before I would have quite liked to settle there. It’s remote but it has steppe, farm land, and stone aplenty. The sea is (obviously) right at hand, and the views are nice. I’m keeping this place in mind for a possible re-location should I feel the urge to start again.

When my explorations were over I set out toward the canals and made good time. I stopped only to cook and butcher anything I saw dead on shore. There was a few more hurdles in store, however, including running aground a few times which resulted in me spending around 30 minutes clicking ‘move’, and ‘push’ over and over.

With my final destination (almost) in sight I breathed easy. I was at the final canal that would take me back into Crystal Lake and a short, 5 minute sail home. At last! Having actually learned a lesson (or two) I asked in chat if I could just sail through with my big boat and wouldn’t you have guessed it, the answer was no. No. I had to pull my boat into the canal due to a terrain-related glitch.

The game had conspired to foil me again!. My strength wasn’t high enough to pull my boat. I would have to sail all the way back the way I came...against the wind. It would take hours. I had the quit button up so fast a sonic boom followed. I was actually about to rage-log: an honest to god rage log complete with a post in general chat that I was rage-quitting (not terribly mature, but there you go).

I was saved from my rage by the kindness of a stranger. He asked me to wait, and then offered to pull my boat through if I could trust him enough to turn it over to him. You can’t open, steal, or otherwise affect other peoples boats so he couldn’t pull it unless he was the owner.

This isn’t Eve Online where people are out to scam you but  I did have almost everything I owned in that boat. It only took me a minute to decide that I had too much to gain by saying yes. I had chatted with him previously (having moored my boat on an invisible sand-bar near his property an hour before) and the CM’s simply wouldn’t allow someone to get scammed like that. Had he tricked me I could have petitioned the dev’s and got my stuff back. Besides he seemed nice and I am a pretty good judge of character (virtual and real).

My worry wasn’t necessary, of course, because he did as he said he would. He took a half hour out of his life to help a stranger pull his boat through a canal. He had to unload a pile of rafts and gear, pull it into the cave, re-load it, then do it all again at the other end. It was a very, very nice thing to do and an example of why the community is so wonderful in Wurm.

I sailed into my home port short one sailboat, some skill points, and a lot of patience. I was staying put for the time being. There was plenty of work to do and I was happy to stay home and get it done. My adventures were done for now. I had managed to sail around half of Wurm and the other half could wait. I had an Aged Fat Horse to groom and a deed to develop.

A Bad Weekend

From the loss of Amy Winehouse (albeit self-inflicted) to the terrible tragedy in Oslo it hasn't been a great weekend for the world. My heart goes out to all the families and friends affected by these tragedies and I'd like everyone to take a moment to think about all the emergency service personnel who will be dealing with an operation terrible in its scope and affect. The sheer horror of having to collect, examine, photograph, transport, and think about so many victims is just simply too horrible to contemplate. Yet, not only do they have to contemplate it, they have to do it.

 

From the ambulance drivers who will be tasked with the grim duty of collecting and transporting the bodies of the victims to the police officers who will have to ensure every technicality is observed so the perpetrator can be brought to justice. It's a tough job and I certainly don't envy you today.

2000

I played my 2000th battle last night in World of Tanks. A bit of a milestone and one that I was quite chuffed with until I checked the stats of one of my new clan mates and saw that he had 6,600 battles fought. Can I just say: O.M.G. That's a hell of a lot of battles and since he had just joined the clan and was platooning for the first time they were all random battles. That's more patience than I know I have. I was ready to rage-log last night after a two-day losing streak that I couldn't seem to break.

After reading Tobol's interview regarding matchmaking and Zoso's post I feel a bit better knowing the odds are stacked against me. I'm also looking forward to the new game modes they have recently announced. Tier capped company/clan wars battles is something I've argued for before and would make the game much more enjoyable. I'm going to assume they read my post , agreed with what I said and decided to implement it as soon as they could!

My stats pretty decent, all things considering (those things being the other people in  my random groups) and I am happy with my kills ratio which is getting better as I go. I'm also a bit chuffed that I've managed to sneak into the top 6, 000- at least in base defense. Defense- defense- defense!

And now, since I am a 2000 man...how about a little Kiss?

The Greatest Show I Never Saw #4: Ivan Smagghe

My much cooler friend once told me that I was never to admit that I liked Techno. "We're connoisseurs of music" he would say, "but never admit you like Techno." I never really understood that, but like I said, he was much cooler than me so I just nodded and agreed. Techno does seem to appeal to a certain crowd (young, white males) and it is a very specific (nerdy) type of music.

The only techno set you'll ever need.

My first introduction to techno was Ivan Smagghe's Suck My Deck album which is the greatest techno album ever made. Ever. Eeeeeeevaaaaaaaarrrrrr. It is one of the only techno albums I can listen to all the way through and enjoy. I think it is fair to say that Smagghe is the master and although I haven't found anything by him that I like as much, I recognize that that is a great album.

I had a chance to see Smagghe play in Dublin's Bodytonic and I wasn't going to pass it up. I made arrangements to travel to Dublin for a boys night out only to find once I arrived that Smagghe had cancelled due to a family emergency. I was disappointed, but not completely gutted because I had actually seen him before. You may wonder why I'd bother to list this as one of the greatest shows that I didn't get to see if I had, in fact, already seen him. Good question.

You see, I 'saw' him, but it was on my stag night, in London, at Fabric. If you know Fabric, you'll know what I mean when I say the details are a little hazy. If not, just assume I was really drunk and can't remember much. Either way though I was in the room whilst he was playing I really wanted to see him at a smaller venue a little less, um, under the influence.

How can you reach for the lasers when you're too wasted to see them?

Here is some Ivan Smagghe for your Friday treat from the best of the best, Suck My Deck.

1. Méchaniques Remontées

2. The Rush (Sex with Machines) 

7. Dead Eyes Opened (Joakim Edit)

Like them and want more? Please buy the album from whatever source you can find. He isn't exactly a big-time artist- support independent music!

And for any die-hard techno fans out there, here is the Dublin set I missed- Smagghe came back a few months later and played that same club- damn him!

http://soundcloud.com/r_co/ivan-smagghe-michael-mayer-back-2-back-live-the-underground-dublin-ireland-05-12-2009 by R_co

Happy Friday everyone!

It's Hard Being Medium

Kermit sang about how hard it is to be green, and I was humming that to myself while playing in my M4A4E8 (Easy 8) Sherman tank the other night. I was having a heck of a good game and I suddenly realized that it was a lot of hard work. Medium tanks are the unsung heroes in World of Tanks in my opinion. Everyone fears and/or hates arty, shudders when a Maus (Tier 10 heavy) rounds the corner, and screams 'I found the Object (Tier 9 Tank Destroyer), nuke it!'.

Mediums don't get a lot of love unless you've played them and then you realize two things:

1. You have to know how to play them.
2. They can vicious when used in packs.

There is a bit of forgiveness with a heavy tank. You can pop out, take an arty shot and think: "Whoops, won't be doing that again." You can hide as a TD and snipe from a distance, and as for arty, well you're generally at the back and your only fear is counter-arty and light rushers. Medium tanks aren't very forgiving as they generally rely on speed and maneuverability to survive and succeed. They aren't spotters, exactly, as their speed doesn't equal that of the lights, and their armor definitely doesn't lend to behaving like a heavy tank.

You have to work at being a medium and each nation's tanks play quite differently. It rrequires good tactical awareness to survive and an understanding of your opponents weakness. I have found that my best (and most successful) battles are when I am in a platoon of medium clan-mates or (on those wonderful yet rare occasions) when you find a few mediums who know what they are doing in random battles. That loading tip that a medium pack of tanks can take down any opponent isn't kidding. They are formidable.

Getting good at them isn't easy and I really admire the guys who have a lot of kills with them. My best kill record is with the Ram II with 203 kills in 250 battles. My next favorite is the M4 Sherman (Tier 5) which is really quite good and gets some great match ups. I have now unlocked the Tier 7 T-20 American medium after playing through the much-balyhooed Easy 8. I have to say I was disappointed in the Easy 8 despite its popularity with players. It's fast, fairly maneuverable, has a high rate of fire, and okay armor but it just doesn't seem to shine. A lot of that could be the match maker pitting me against Tier 9 and 10's a good deal of the time.

I jumped into the Russian medium line at Tier 5 by using my free experience to unlock the T-34. I don't have my exact stats handy, but it wasn't pretty. Its armor is paper-thin and just doesn't suit my play style at all. My only experience with German mediums was the free one (Pz V/IV Tier 6) that came with the gold pre-order package and it is absolutely awful. There is nothing about that tank to recommend and I haven't seen one in any battles since a few weeks after launch. The VK3601 (H) is technically a medium but it plays so much like a heavy that it may as well be one.....and in fact I think the next patch is addressing that (it is the tank just before the Tiger I).

It's not easy being green, nor is it easy being a medium. It's especially not easy being a green, Easy 8, so next time you see a medium tank, give them some love, or better yet, team up with them and watch them shine!

80,000 What Now?

As She Who Will Be Named Later pointed out last night, by waving my very own copy of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea in my face, my Wurm series title makes no sense. I was, of course, trying to make a play on words of this famous adventure novel but blew it big time! It was an honest mistake as I was originally going to call the series Around The Wurm in 80 Days after his other famous novel but switched it. Oh well.

No adventure-filled post today due to the absolute and utterly unbearable heat over the last few days. It has been 32 Celsius here (94-ish Fahrenheit) but it has felt like 40. I understand wind chills (as I'm all too familiar with those) but is a humididex really necessary? In any case it has been hot and I don't have air conditioning. I managed to play for about an hour last night when I couldn't take it anymore. It was 36 Celsius in the computer room and I was literally sticking to my chair (ha! now you'll carry that image with you all day). I had to hide in the basement with the dogs to get some relief.

Ever the die-hard gamer I challenged She Who Will Be Named Later to a game of Yahtzee and was defeated soundly despite rolling both a large straight and a full house with one throw. She kicked ass on the top portion of the scoring and earned the bonus which put her over the top (ironic, isn't it). As I was wallowing in my defeat (I hate losing and couldn't even rage-log in this case) she closed in for the coup-de-grace.

"Oh look, its your copy of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea".

Damn it!

80,000 Leagues Under the Wurm: Death Becomes Me

I was at the halfway point of my travels when I realized that I was very near to Cherry Glade Farms. I had stuck mainly to the sea in my travels thus far as the coast was over populated with various animals that would easily kill me. Remember that phrase. It will feature heavily in this next segment.

The northeastern portion of Wurm is relatively uninhabited by players. Players hunt animals and the guards on their deed kill any who wander into the village. Take away those players and what you have left is a true frontier wilderness. I moored my boat near to a settlement with guards, and free of beasties, and headed inland.

Add "It's a good thing these stupid Trolls can't swim" to the famous last words category.

SU Feva!

Hot on the heals of my success (as defined by kills and bucket-fulls of fun) with the SU-152 comes another gem which is giving me infinite pleasure: the SU- 26 Self-Propelled-Gun (artillery). I originally started WoT as an artillery player (because, as an aside, I almost became an artillery officer once up on a time, but I digress) but couldn’t seem to find my groove with it in beta. I was frustrated by the quick deaths I would find at the hands of those menacing light tanks, and the lack of support by PUG groups in terms of my defense.

I had always wanted to get back into artillery and was playing the Tier II SU-5off and on since release in an attempt to max out my crew's skills. When I finally decided to move into the next tier artillery piece I couldn’t have imagined how much fun I was about to have!

A few people had mentioned in the forums that this little artillery piece was a lot of fun because its rotating turret meant quicker aiming at moving targets. They were right! I am doing extremely well with this tank and as it stands it is the only non-elite one in my garage to boast a higher kills-to-games-played ratio. It is death incarnate....from above.

This won't even be the last thing you see before dying because I'll be miles away.

 

The matchmaker is a funny thing. Because artillery pieces count as two tiers higher (as a 5) and the matchmaker can put you in with tanks two tiers higher (or more) I often find myself in with Tiger’s and Lowes (Tier 7-8). I still manage to get a good amount of credits and a few kills in these situations. The fast-firing rate of the 122mm Howitzer top gun (enhanced with an artillery rammer module for even greater speed) ensures I get a lot of shots in and even near misses still cause a bit of damage (due to the high explosive splash range). It has an extremely high angle of fire which lets it get shots on tanks in some very unexpected places (behind buildings and hills for instance) and that turret (unique as far as I know to SPG’s) is a god-send for fast reticule alignment (aiming).

My only complaint is one familiar to SPG drivers and that is that the experience awarded seems a bit low for the type of damage I am dealing out (not to mention the kills) and the amount of experience needed to progress to the higher tiers is insane. I have already attained elite status on this one but I’m going to stick with it just for the fun factor (and the kill totals look nice). I heard the next SPG in the line isn’t as good anyway and the tier 6 one after that needs something ridiculous like 180k experience to get in to. It takes a dedicated player to reach those top artillery pieces.

What about this doesn't scream 'FUN'? 107 kills in 76 games? That's ridiculous.

All in all I recommend giving it a go! It’s easy to reach in terms of experience, cheap to buy in terms of credits (and never loses ‘money’), and is guaranteed to provide you with hours of chuckles as tanks explode across the map. It’s especially satisfying to get “Top Gun” in an artillery piece. In that match I had five kills which included two point blank shots at light tanks who had engaged me at close range with malice in their hearts. Yes, I did indeed LOL. Quite a lot.

Now for a kick ass Fever remix by someone who will (soon) be featured on my new music series: Adam Freeland. The man's a genius. Period.

The Greatest Show I Never Saw #5: Lee Scratch Perry

Here we are at the start of the much-promised and highly anticipated (probably) music series which will take the place of Fortuitous Friday for a while. I guess it’s not all that different from the regular Friday offering in that it will have nothing to do about games and feature stories on my favorite subject: me! Mit Memories!

While I was living on a council estate in Athlone, Co. Weast Meath, Ireland, I was also taking up residence with She Who Will Be Named Later (much to the chagrin of Baby Jesus who was probably weeping holy tears at our sinful, out-of-wedlock existence) in Lismore, Co. Waterford (Up the Diese!). Bless her heart, she did come to visit me a couple times, but for the most part I traveled home on the weekends- the estate was grim.....very grim.

Looking back, maybe it should have been called Sufferer's Heights.

This trip (back to Lismore)  took up to, on some occasions, the better part of a day and at its worst was a 10-hour bus trip from hell involving numerous changes in various towns on the opposite side of the country I wanted to be in. I kid you not I once looked at a schedule that included an overnight stop and took 24 hours to complete! The Irish train/bus system can be a formidable opponent, but on the plus side you can drink your face off, so Huzzah! Well, Huzzah for me when I was doing it, but not Huzzah when the girl in front of me vomited and I had to smell it all the way from Cork City to Limerick City. Fair play to the driver, however, who cleaned it up without making a fuss.

The easiest way home from Athlone was to bus it to Dublin (the train took the same amount of time and was more expensive) and then to Waterford City, and then to Dungarvan.....and then take a local shuttle to Lismore. Not fun. On one of these trips home my two mates accompanied me as far as Dublin. They were going to see Lee Scratch Perry.

I have to admit I didn’t really know a lot of his music back then. I had barely listened to all of Arkology at this stage. Most of the songs I learned through my mate singing them while we wandered through the Irish countryside monitoring massive machines tearing up the landscape in advance of the road bypass (also known as archaeological testing). He’d put little twists on the lyrics to suit whatever we were doing which always made me smile.

I’m not sure what you call people like me, but this is a story you will become familiar with by the end of this series- it takes me ages to warm up to, or understand the dynamics of, new things, and music is no different. I will often hear something and put it away only to come back to it a year (or more) later and get into it in a big way. I started listening to, and liking, dub (ala Lee Scratch Perry) shortly after missing that show. It was an easy sell as I already liked reggae (ala Bob Marley) and it laid the foundation for my future love of dub-step.

 

In my rush to get home (to the missus, and my precious pubs) going to that show was never really an option. Now that I look back it would have been a good time, and I wish I had made the effort. Me and my two mates and Lee Scratch Perry. I can take solace from the fact that Lee was so stoned (or drunk, or just crazy) that he made absolutely no sense what-so-ever and the show pretty much sucked according to said mates.

So here we are, a couple videos by the star of the 5^th greatest show I never saw: Lee Scratch Perry.

Happy Friday everyone!

 First up, one of the better known ones (perhaps thanks to The Prodigy):

And my all-time favorite from Lee Scratch Perry:

80,000 Leagues Under the Wurm: Mit Breasts!

After finding such a rich haul of booty I did what any sensible adventurer would do: I went home. It seemed a little, well, easy, that on my first day out I hit the jackpot. I decided that a bigger adventure called for a bigger boat. I also needed to take care of some things back home but realized a lot of these mundane tasks could be attended to by someone other than me. The solution: roll an alt!

My Girl Friday (yes, terribly clever I agree)

80,000 Leagues Under the Wurm

The Adventure Begins!

Once I had attended to the security needs of my new horse (now Aged and Fat) I decided I would do some exploration. One of the things I like about Wurm is looking at what other people have created. How they have set up their deeds, and what things they like. It's the Sociologist in me I guess. That or I'm just a snoopy bugger.

I loaded up my sailboat and headed out. I had a lot of luck scavenging much needed supplies on the coast during my earlier travels so I stayed within sight of shore. Traveling by water was quicker and had the added advantage that if I got into a spot of trouble I could sail away fast! Most animals can't swim in Wurm with bears being a very noticeable exception to this rule (noticeable when one is chasing you all over creation, that's for sure).

The best way to look at a bear close up.....when guards have killed him for you!

I was somewhat familiar with this area as I had previously sailed this way and ultimately found the horse on Death Mountain (near Camp Crystal Lake at 47x, 36y) which isn't too far from home though at the time it seemed like it was the middle of nowhere. I followed the coast south, past Brash End and eventually spied Maple Island. I cut across the northern end of it and landed on the west coast. It was time to explore.

I wandered up a paved path and into what was obviously an abandoned settlement. There were no chests to look into however so I turned to go when I noticed the combat tab flashing. It would appear, from the reports, that I was being attacked.... by a goblin. I did what any brave adventurer would do and ran like hell. That goblin stayed on me like paint on a wall and did some pretty nasty damage (mostly to my ass I'm assuming due to his size). I managed to make it back to the safety of my boat and pushed off. I was lucky because if you take damage to the skill that allows you to captain your boat, your pretty much screwed. If you can't sail they will continue to wail on you while you sit prettily in your boat.

I had some cotton rags to wrap the wounds and I sailed away feeling quite smug. I had escaped that one fairly handily (minus the wounds). Things were looking good! I pushed south past Acme Harbor, and into Crystal Canal. This is one of those player-led projects that makes Wurm what it is. It must have taken considerable effort to dig this canal and makes sea-travel and exploration possible. Thanks!

Crystal Canal- dug out of the earth by players with too much time on their hands ;)

I didn't find any abandoned settlements to explore until I reached the south end of the map and headed east. Another large-scale payer undertaking, a colossus, stared out at me. I couldn't see any houses or signs of players so I put ashore to do some exploration. Only a couple walls remained of what looked to have once been a sizable settlement.....well, a couple walls and several chests loaded with treasure! Get in.

Stealing is, of course, forbidden on Freedom server so I won't tell you that I had some lock-picks handy for just such an occasion. I will instead tell you that these chests had decayed and the items were there for the taking. Every conceivable tool needed to do, well, anything in the game, was there and all of them were at least 60 (out of 100) in quality. Included in the haul was a complete set of chain link armor (vest, helm, arm, leg, hand, and feet) which is more protection than my newbie butt could have hoped for this early on in my Wurm-life.

The amount of, and quality of the tools was a real find and as for the chain armor, I had struck gold, as far as I was concerned! It was a great haul and a great end to the first segment of my adventure.

Fortuitous Friday: Power Troubles

A power outage last night prevented me from starting my planned music series. I phoned the special power outage hotline to see what was happening and this is the message I got:

Thank you for calling the Sask Power power outage hotline.
We are aware of a power outage in Regina City and rural. Technicians have been dispatched to find the source of the outage. A current estimated time of power restoration is not available. If you have any information regarding the cause of the power outage, please call....

What? If I have information? That's why the hell I was calling you! Official cause, in the end, was an animal wandering into some transformer thingy.

In any case the power was out for a couple hours and so you 'll have to settle for a half-assed music-related post. Blaq got me thinking about and listening to Dub-Step today so I'd simply like to add this to the day's musical pot:

Dear Mythic: Go Fuck Yourself

Just when I thought Mythic and my once-favorite game Warhammer had lost the power to affect me, this ridiculous, childish, bullshit rears its ugly head. You've invited a few select bloggers to tell them you're big news? Holy Christ almighty, are we in 4th grade? All the popular kids get to hear the whisper but the rest of the world is unworthy? In the words of Bart Simpson: Get Bent.

I'm so annoyed, frustrated, and angry I want to sub so I can un-sub to show them how stupid they are. How do you run a business like this? Secrets, innuendo's and soon-to-come promises? Is that in the corporate model? You're running a game, not inventing the cure for cancer or securing national interests.

Moreover, shame on all of you for letting them treat you, the paying customer, like this. I know I have insulted some of my readers here, but come on- how much abuse do you have to take before you walk away from such appalling customer service? Oh, what's that, a dead rat on my pizza? Oh darn, I really like this pizza- guess I'll just eat around the rat. Stop paying them until they do something nice for you. It's how the free-market works.

I sincerely hope Mythic fails as a company and you, dear reader, can be my witness that I will never, ever play anything branded by them again.

Aged Fat Horse

While it may not be clever, it certainly fits, so after finally meeting the newest member of our pet family (I hope that makes you sick inside to read because it makes me sick to write it.... I hate that 'my pet is like my child' bullshit.....but I digress, and here in the introduction of all places.... it's bad blog form like this that keeps me from being a guest writer on proper blogs like Bio Break....damn you Syp!) I have decided that Missy (the horse we recently purchases in case you can't remember) will henceforth be known as "Aged Fat Horse".

She's around 21 years old- exact dating is complicated by the fact she's lost her birth certificate (stupid nag) and She Who Will Be Named Later insists I can't cut off a leg to do dendrochronology. It would

a) be bad for the horse, and
b) not work because she's not a tree.

Bloody wife... such a little Miss Know-It-All.

The facts, however, are indisputable. Due to the advancement of time she is, in fact, old, and due a slight leg injury she has not been working for a couple months. This means she is aged, and she has gotten fat on the bounty of the Saskatchewan prairie (mmmmmmm...dandelions...maybe she's French). Now, by work I mean prancing, or as the professionals insists on calling it: dressage. Being from the praries I don't think it's proper work unless she's pulling a plow or carrying a North West Mounted Policeman on her back and helping to tame the land's native savages (yes, I said it, but only in a historical, backward looking way, like how it's okay to see the "N" word in Huckleberry Fin because it's how it was back then).

In any case I met her on Saturday and the name just fit. I now have both a virtual aged fat horse and a real Aged Fat Horse. I am starting to collect a pile of animals in Wurm and have roped (literally) two more stray dogs to add to my dog-pen and the current one is about to have a puppy. Mmmmm...puppies. I am starting to wonder if I am trying to re-created my Wurm life in life, or my life life in Wurm. Either way, the boundaries are getting blurred. Just last night I was shopping for some second hand SU-152's to help with my morning commute. No, you're right, that's ludicrous! Obviously a M43AE8 would be better due to the speed and maneuverability. *Honk, honk* Easy 8, coming through!

What the hell is this? Why no gaming post?

Too busy playing to be honest. I have a series of Wurm posts I want to get up but I've been having to log in to play (buying horses, feeding dogs, etc) and I've been running through a pile of new tanks in WoT to keep things interesting (Hetzer is definitely gonna Hetz by god) including Russian artillery which I just find funny....ooops, sorry about that I've seem to have dropped a massive bomb on the top of your tank and now you're dead. Ganked! Somehow it seems fitting.

Damage Dealing Death Machine..... aka SU-152

I'm sure after reading through numerous posts (yes, I know you've read them all) with me crying, complaining, and generally boo-hooing about the SU-100 you were expecting more of the same when it was discovered that I was pushing on to the SU-152. Luckily for you (who must be tired of all that) the SU-152 is a very, very..... very different tank (destroyer).

Death Dealing Damage Machine...or maybe S(o-long) U(r dead when this) 152 (caliber gun blasts you)?

The Mew of the Tiger

I know what you're thinking, and you're right. It should be the Roar of the Tiger. Trust me, no one is more disappointed than me... well, likely there are a lot of people as disappointed. I previously wrote about the Tiger and why I wanted it. I'm not a big history buff but the Tiger featured in popular media/lore and I remember being taken with it as a kid during my 'war phase'. I'm assuming here that every little boy goes through a 'war phase' in which all things war are so very interesting.

All I can say is 'Meh'.

 

I really want to like the Tiger and it's not that I dislike it it's just so very underwhelming. It has good armor, good hit points (the most of any heavy in its tier) and a very accurate gun (the 88 is legendary) with good penetration. It even feels quite speedy and agile for a heavy tank (though I've driven very few). All of that and it still just doesn't play very well. I find that it is often in battles where it is the 'middle' tier tank and that frequently means you're facing the biggest tanks the game has to offer. The final frustrating straw is the fact it more often than not loses money. Even a victory doesn't yield a lot of credits.

I've been talking with some clan mates and the consensus is the same. I have been consoled that the King Tiger (the next in the German Heavy line) is a much, much better tank so I will continue to push on hopefully get a tiger that roars!