FRIDAY on my mind

airboy · June 26, 2020, 03:14:24 PM

If you ever go to London you can take a train to Bovington. You have to walk a mile or so - so bring an umbrella. You will see turrentless modern brit tanks driving around for training.

I've been to four tank museums, and the one in Bovington is the best of the best. Expect to spend a full day. Leave your spouse in London if she does not share your love of fighting vehicles.

airboy · June 26, 2020, 03:15:41 PM

I'm finally heading home. Plan to get out Pacific Tide, reread the rules, and play a game while writing up a turn-by-turn AAR to slow me down enough to think through my moves.

Gusington · June 26, 2020, 03:24:21 PM

When I was in London I had to choose between the National Army Museum and Bovington, I chose the former. The Wife actually went with me to the Imperial War Museum on that same trip. When we head back I'll go to Bovington, maybe with my younger daughter who is into vehicles.

IICptMillerII · June 26, 2020, 04:46:43 PM

I'm a bit all over the place this weekend.

Lots of Combat Mission testing out some new goodies coming everyones way soon^TM. In particular the new tweaks to the TacAI. In my most humble opinion, it is a drastic improvement, and makes fighting out battles tougher yet more fun. Its great stuff.

I've been playing some casual Wargame: Airland Battle with friends and I expect that to continue. W:ALB is my favorite Wargame title by far, and I'm a huge nerd when it comes to Cold War scenario's. I have an embarrassing number of hours in the game on Steam, and for me it is still going strong.

I also picked up Hardspace: Shipbreaker which I am enjoying a lot. Its a fun change of pace from my usual wargame-focused gaming. In a similar vein, I'm a fan of theHunter: Call of the Wild and their Rocky Mountain DLC just came out, which was an instant purchase for me, and not just because I am very familiar with the real world animals and location its based on.

I'll likely pick up a few things during the Steam Summer Sale, but I haven't yet really gone through my wishlist to see what is discounted and what I want to consider buying this time around. Whatever the case it will likely be impulsive.

Hope everyone is able to enjoy their weekends and relax/decompress a bit. Heaven knows I need to!

Sir Slash · June 26, 2020, 10:21:36 PM

Great CptMiller. Tougher?! The game kicks my ass now. What's next? Kicks my ass AND drink all my Chocolate Milk? :hide:

Jarhead0331 · June 26, 2020, 11:50:10 PM

Quote from: Sir Slash on June 26, 2020, 10:21:36 PM
Great CptMiller. Tougher?! The game kicks my ass now. What's next? Kicks my ass AND drink all my Chocolate Milk? :hide:

...sleeps with your wife and the dog.

Gusington · June 27, 2020, 11:41:45 AM

Don't touch my damned chocolate milk.

Sir Slash · June 27, 2020, 11:45:41 AM

Or my dog! I mean... Wife and dog. Dammit! >:(

Gusington · June 27, 2020, 11:48:11 AM

Pfft today you can have The Wife.

IICptMillerII · June 27, 2020, 02:51:24 PM

Haha you guys are great.

I'll elaborate a bit on the 'tougher' part. Its definitely tougher in a good way. Infantry are not as brittle anymore, and are much more likely to stand in place and fight. This means that even poorly trained soldiers, if in a good defensive position, will give you a headache. You have to be more persistent in your urging them to vacate their positions. The result is more realistic firefights and more effective defensive positions. You really have to uproot the enemy now, not just mass enough firepower against them to shoot them off their position. An example for WWII is hedgerow fighting. Now, you will really get a feel for how difficult it was to attack through hedgerow country. German defenders dug in like ticks will be very hard to dislodge, as they were in reality. For the modern titles, this means that even Syrian conscripts can give you a hard time if they are in a good defensive position in urban terrain, and will make Syrian infantry as a whole a bit less of a pushover.
Plus, the irritating "flee towards the enemy bug," particularly apparent in hedgerow fighting, has been completely fixed, among some other small issues across the various titles. Its all great stuff!

I forgot to mention that I downloaded the demo for Regiments and intend on giving it a bit of a shakedown this weekend. I haven't played it yet so take this with a healthy pinch of salt, but there is something about the game that doesn't completely grab me. I think it might be the art style of the weapon effects, that just looks really cartoonish to me. I want to like the game, as I really want more games set during the Cold War, but there is just something about it that doesn't instantly grab me. Hoping this is just bad perception on my part and when I finally do play it I'll change my tune.

jamus34 · June 27, 2020, 04:11:02 PM

It's almost all Shadow Empire & Monster Train for me.

MetalDog · June 27, 2020, 08:10:27 PM

Don't forget to duel in the Arena! The new Core 2021 set just released and there are fat daily bonuses to be had! Go to the Store and type in the code Playm21 gets you three free Core 2021 boosters.

jamus34 · June 28, 2020, 11:30:30 AM

Quote from: MetalDog on June 27, 2020, 08:10:27 PM
Don't forget to duel in the Arena! The new Core 2021 set just released and there are fat daily bonuses to be had! Go to the Store and type in the code Playm21 gets you three free Core 2021 boosters.

Yup, already got them. I checked codes and turns out I missed the Ikoria freebees too so I grabbed them.

When Core21 dropped I bought 2 packs as I had some gold laying around. Managed to get one of the new Lilianna planeswalkers on it. Score! Now I have to figure out how to build a deck around it.

I also managed to get to platinum on the constructed deck using my cycle deck.

MetalDog · June 28, 2020, 12:37:20 PM

I've been stuck on Platinum for the last couple of months. Friday I built a Green/White mutate deck with 2 each of Cubwarden, Migratory something or other, Gemrazer, King Caesar, and Auspicious Starrix. It has got me to Platinum Tier 1, but, there is only a day or two left in the Season. So, I need to grind out a few more and maybe coast. See what the Season rewards are from Diamond.

jamus34 · June 28, 2020, 01:42:02 PM

Quote from: MetalDog on June 28, 2020, 12:37:20 PM
I've been stuck on Platinum for the last couple of months. Friday I built a Green/White mutate deck with 2 each of Cubwarden, Migratory something or other, Gemrazer, King Caesar, and Auspicious Starrix. It has got me to Platinum Tier 1, but, there is only a day or two left in the Season. So, I need to grind out a few more and maybe coast. See what the Season rewards are from Diamond.

I'm content with Platinum ending this season. I'll use the packs I get along with accumulated wilds and see what I can build for the next.