Yeah, I couldn't just leave it alone

So, with the final Mission, consisting of lighting twenty ships on fire to go, I had to come back and tie up this loose end.

Seeing this uncompleted task kinda bothered me, okay, maybe more than just a little. My plan was simple enough, like before, just bounce back and forth between the Arkansas Beta and Ishizuchi.

A few high and low points along the way. Seems I did rather well on the losing end of some battles.

Another ship that has caught my eye in my travels, the tier IV Russian Battleship, Imperator Nikolai I. I believe it was offered a short while ago, part of a bundle deal from the Giftshop. Hard to say when it might appear through the ingame store.

With the tier II German Cruiser, Emden, acquired, it was time to take it out for it's maiden voyage....

First, my son wanted to get some game time with his dear old dad, so I figured, why the heck not! The Emden performed much as I expected for a ship from the same era as the Albany and St. Louis. Even with the fact it was a PvE battle, I was still working the ship over, maneuvering into position, firing the guns for maximum effect. Not a sweatless venture.

Was it worth it? Check this out for yourself http://worldofwarships.com/en/news/common/shipsmas-miracle/ and give it a try.

The dealing of the damage

So, when I logged in this morning, I was greeted with two things. First, another micro-update, bringing my client up to 0.5.2.1, which did....things, The second thing was the addition of the Emden to the German tech tree, for those who don't have the time or patience to complete the Mission.

I, for one, will continue to stick to my guns about purchasing lower tiered assets and the Emden is no different. I have set the bar down to tier IV, but I won't go any lower, no matter the hype around these premium ships.

After sixteen battles, bouncing back and forth between my Arkansas Beta and newly purchased tier IV Japanese Battleship, Ishizuchi, I ended the second part of the Mission requirements....

....on a high note, amassing the 300,000 damage needed to advance to the next stage.

Torching twenty ships? Going to be a hot time on the ocean, perhaps, even tonight!   

Back, for a limited engagement

Time, once again, to dip my feet into the virtual waters. However, there is an incentive that I have been waiting a while for; A Mission!

Don't mind the screenshots, they were taken out of order. But, the gist of this Mission is this, sink, wreck and torch. Part 1 consists of sinking 10 ships, using anything tier IV and above.. Part 2, do 3000,000 damage, using anything tier IV and above. Finally, part 3 is catching 20 ships on fire, using anything tier IV and above. Okay, what do I have that could put the most amount of ships on the bottom in the shortest possible time?

Time for my tier IV Arkansas Beta to earn more of her keep. And, for the first battle out....

....I was rather impressed, since all of the battles have to take part in straight PvP, no bots allowed. Now, I did rotate my tier V Soviet ships, Murmansk and Gremyashchy into the mix, it was the Arkansas that started it....

....and finished it. Which got me to thinking, I was having a lot of fun with my Beta reward ship and based on some good times I remembered from a while back....

....I bought a tier IV Japanese Battleship, Ishizuchi of my own. My son doesn't know yet, but I hope he approves. So, with 10 ships sunk, time to move onto the next part of the Mission, breaking in my new purchase....

Perhaps, it's time to take a more serious look at Battleships, especially with me at the helm.

While I was gone....

Going backwards to the last post I made here, this is what I missed out on over the previous five months....

July, the launch of some new Community Contests on the forums and update 0.4.0.4.

August, TwitchCon, update 0.4.0.5, WarGaming's 17th Anniversary, with players receiving the tier III American Cruiser, U.S.S. Albany (yeah, missed that one, fun ship back in Beta), GamesCon and PaxPrime.

September, update 0.4.1, the first X2 weekends, game goes Live, Tirpitz introduced and update 0.5.0.1.

October, update 0.5.0.2, Ranked Battles introduced, Soviet Destroyers and German Cruisers now ingame, Phantom Fortress event, the strangely painted premium Japanese Destroyer, IJN Fujin....

....is available for a limited time, during the Haunted Hornet event. I even got a few games in during this period....

November, update 0.5.1, Veteran's Day, update 0.5.1.1, Thanksgiving and Ranked Battles Season 2.

Granted, I didn't cover everything that happened in minute detail in my absence, but needless to say, I missed a few things between then and now.

Some of the reasons I haven't been around much, playing sporadically here and there is that real life activities consumed most of my time, not allowing me to partake in virtual adventures. But, I did find time to slip the odd game in, across most of the WarGaming titles, just Ships took a bit of a back seat to Planes and Tanks.

I didn't abandon Ships altogether now, I still kept an eye out for special things I thought would come in handy, especially after my communications vacuum surrounding the Albany-not-in-my-harbor incident.

In mid-November, I caught wind of this, now closed, giveaway http://na.alienwarearena.com/giveaways/world-of-warships-bonus-code-invite-code-key-giveaway collected my prizes and blasted a few battles off in PvE mode....

Now, with the month of December underway, I keep an eye on the Ships forums and Portal, waiting to see if there is anything to entice me to put in more time on the waves. Right now, despite some new nations and their ships added to the game, I am not very much in a grinding mood. I have been somewhat content to just login, here and there, collecting on some of my ship's Dailies.

Now, if a decent Mission were to show up, similar to what Tanks and Planes has offered in the past (and rumors abound, could be again this Holiday Season), I might just make the extra effort to set sail for that loot.

Until then, I will just causally patrol the waters, searching....waiting....

Ships can be fun, for some of the family, part 2.

Although I am not much of a Battleship player, nor is going up any of the current BB lines part of my plan, I am having a blast (no pun intended, okay, may be a little) with my Arkansas Beta. My son, who developed a liking to Japanese Battleships, namely the Yamato, played a little of them before the Open Beta phase. Sadly, he chose not to get in the required battles to pick up an Arkansas of his own.

Today, I asked him if he wanted to play a few round of World of Warships with me. Much to his surprise, he found a premium tier IV Japanese Battleship, the Ishizuchi, that I gifted to him in his port. The excitement he gave off over this will be one of those happy memories I will cherish for a long time to come. So, we Divisioned up and I clicked the Co-op mode....

Despite the enemy teams being made up of just bots in this optional gameplay, I had this feeling this certain group was going to be some very stiff opposition.

Okay, he might not have had a stellar first battle with his new ship, but at least there was effort seen on his part. I loaded up for our second and last sortie....

Whoa, "Top of the food chain", very nice. Now, to just to make that work to our advantage.

While I did not do nearly as well this time around, my boy surprised me with his performance.

Now, before somebody comes charging, laying claims that Co-op Battles are "easy mode", I would say no, to a degree. For newer players, for those returning to the game after a period of time and/or breaking in a new ship, either a tech tree or premium version, this mode will offer challenges. The AI controlled opponents can be somewhat predictable, but the human team can still dish out surprises, some not as pleasant as others.

Besides all of that, I had a good time playing with my son on the virtual seas. I hope he did too.

New premium ships! When? I have no idea.

I just stumbled across this thread from the European World of Warships forums http://forum.worldofwarships.eu/index.php?/topic/17669-new-ships-in-wows-diana-marblehead-tachibana-and-mikasa/ and things have piqued my interest for the future.

First, the Russian/Soviet Cruiser Diana. I am kinda meh about this ship, since the previous version of this class, the tier III Aurora, is already ingame and has been for a long time now. I wouldn't expect to be much of a difference between the two ships in terms of performance and characteristics, unless the new one is down-tiered, for some reason.

The Marblehead CL-12 was a real life Omaha Class cruiser, so I am expecting this ship to be in line with the tech tree version and Soviet Lend-Lease version, the Murmansk. An American premium tier V Cruiser would be very tempting for me.

Right now and for as long I have been with the game, the Umikaze was and has been the Japanese Destroyer at tier II. However, back in the early Alpha days, this spot was occupied by the Tachibana. A tier II premium Destroyer? Sounds like a new player promotion/Holiday gift ship to me.

The Japanese Battleship Mikasa is not only an infamous landmark in Japan, but a ship with a most interesting history. Learn more about her here http://worldofwarships.eu/en/news/common/Inside-ships-Mikasa/

So, out of these four ships and if they were available to be purchased right now, I mean today, there is only one that interests me. The Marblehead would come in the tier and class I would snap up in a heartbeat. Although I am having fun with my Arkansas-Beta Battleship, purchasing another, especially a lower tiered one, isn't part of my plans. The Diana? Same story there, along with the Tachibana.

However, I have this funny feeling about those last two, perhaps the "Ship's Santa" might put one of those under my tree, some year.

They may not be in the store, but I found them ingame.

A short while ago now, WarGaming made the announcement that both upper tier premium ships, the American Atlanta and the Japanese Atago would be removed from both the ingame store and not be available through the Gift Shop. Needless to say, some folks were not happy about this move.

So, what exactly are people missing out on, in the short term....

Using my pre-order, premium tier VII Sims as a comparison, here are the numbers. I would seem my only advantages over both ships is speed and maneuverability. Now, if I could only master those traits, with that ship.

Here are a couple of "beauty" shots of both ships, top is the Atlanta and the bottom, Atago.

The battle itself was an interesting experience. I didn't do too bad, before I was sunk....

....but, I really need to work on not being the first to die on my team.