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. 

Some pools are worth not swimming in.

With World of Warships making the quiet transition from Closed Beta to the Open Beta phase, I have noticed the changes to the North American forums during this time period. Sadly, they are becoming a replicant of the World of Tanks forums, in my eyes.

Before, the was a strong sense of community, people sharing their thoughts and concerns about the game, exchanging words in heated, passionate debates and the usual mindless memes and off-topic pictures to lighten the mood. A very Jovial atmosphere that I took a very limited part off.

The thing is, I had this feeling things were going to go downhill.

Now, as more and more people not only enter the game, they have made their presence known on the forums. Some of these people have and will use "logic" to support absurd statements, throw around stats to cause harm and unrest and recreate most of the reasons why I left the Tanks forums so long ago.

Other catch phrases I will be looking for is "grow a thicker skin", "git gud", "don't tell me how to play my ships" and a host of many others that will be regurgitated from players who use the anonymity of the internet to post things they wouldn't never dare say in a real life crowd, or even a small group.

The old, worn out line of "welcome to the internet" to excuse away this type of behavior doesn't wash with me at all, nor does it sit well with others. Granted, not everyone has the capacity to exercise good manners or even a hint of discretion  when chatting in game or posting on the forums and I have accepted this from long ago.

At any rate, it is still sad to see something I feared come to pass, and wonder just how far it will drag things down.

Ships can be fun, for some of the family.

So, my son decided he wanted to play World of Warships with me. It has been a few months since we last played together, so I thought I would have a little fun with him in a Co-op Battle, or two. The first one went well in my favor, not so much in his. The screenshots of those results are mysteriously missing....

After just a few battles with my tier IV Arkansas dragging him into battles that he just wasn't really ready for, I broke down and spent some free experience and picked up a tier III American Cruiser, St. Louis. After that, the goodtimes (mostly for me, to begin with) started. Honestly, I lost track of just how many times we put to sea together, but I wouldn't have traded this for anything else.

Short and sweet was my tale, however, I can't wait for him to ask me to do it again.

A lucky play, that didn't go unnoticed.

From the first few games I played it, I knew the Gremyashchy was going to be my "perfect" ship. Granted, I will have good days and bad, wins, defeats and draws, but the ship itself, as depicted in World of Warships, is everything I want from the gaming experience.

It's fast, highly maneuverable, equipped with guns that can dish it out and a hull that can take it in return. Now, if only I could get the same kind of experience from my tier VII Sims.

So, to the battle in question. I never really had much of a plan, more or less, just played it out as things unfolded. The only real, conscience choice I made was make an attempt to capture/reset the D point....

....and after taking heavy damage and the loss of two main guns, I wound up driving in circles, blasting what I could, using the terrain for cover.

Part of how I contributed to my team's victory was by staying alive and on the move, keeping a close eye of any landfall hangups that would have slowed me down. Luck played a huge part in this engagement too, since the enemy team who did fire at me, never collected their "lucky roll of the dice" and finished me off. I let out big sighs of relief as shells either fell short or flew over my head. The Gremy continues to payoff, in so many ways.

So, instead of creating a story out of this sortie, I have chosen to upload the replay file. To view it, be sure you have an up-to-date World of Warships client. Download the replay from here http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id=09202845566746193893 and when the transfer is complete, right click the file, select "Open with" and choose World of Warships Beta as the program. Another option is create a shortcut to your WoldOfWarships.exe and drag the replay to it (it will open the file in the program).