Clash of Clans: Building further - 2 months of an Alt.

Haven't checked in for a while, continuing to build and get stronger!

Like most people I go through phases where I am more interested in playing certain games, watching movies or TV shows, reading, etc. However, Clash of Clans has had the ability to stay at the forfront of my entertainment attention for quite some time - I haven't checked in on here in almost a month (sorry about that) but I have continued to keep both my main and alternate Clash of Clans accounts up to date - and our clan is currently enjoying a Clan War winning streak of 12!

First up is the Alternate account. Last we checked in we had just moved up to Level 7, but now we are knee deep. I'm conentrating on getting my Elixer collectors and Gold Mines up to max right now but have tried to not neglect my offense or defense in the process. I have fully maxed the Army Camps and all of the Barracks are 1 level below max (Healer level, I'll do Dragon level on each before moving to TH Level 8) I've also gotten almost all of the Research in the Lab done for this level (Barb, Arch, Giant, Goblin, Balloon, Wizard, Healer and Shock Spell - doing Heal spell now and then just need to finish Rage spell). On the defensive side I've maxed the Wizard towers and am currently maxing the last 2 mortars. I also have one Air Defense max and the other 1 level below, all the Archers and Cannons are one level below max and I've built both Teslas and upgrade 1 to level 2. I built the Dark Elixer storage and have acrued some Dark but not enough to build the Barbarian King just yet - hopefully I will by early December. 

Over on the main base we're getting quite strong for TH Level 8. On the Offense we've maxed Army Camps, 3/4 Barracks 1/2 Dark Barracks (the remaining Barrack and Dark Barracks are maxing now) and we've done Barbarian, Armcher, Giant, Wizard, Shock Spell and Rage Spell to level 5, Dragons and Healers to level 3, PEEKA to level 2 and am currently working on Heal Spell level 5. Goblins and Wall Breakers are on level 4 and Balloons are level 3 (I rarely use them). Defensively I have maxed Mortars (all 4) Wizard Towers, Air Defenses and Cannons. All the Archer Towers are one level below max (9) and I have all three Hidden Teslas upgrading to level 4 & 5. My Barbarian King is at LEVEL 9! I'm anxiously awaiting being able to move him up to Level 10 for his ability to get upgraded. Shortly after I will probably start thinking about moving up to Town Hall Level 9!

Star Wars Commander: Back on the Wagon

It's been a while, our Rebel and Empire bases continue to grow!

I haven't been playing much of Star Wars: Commander lately, as I've had so many other games to play (and will have many more later today) but I did notice the Galactic War: Tournament 1 they have going on so I popped back on to see if I could rack up some points and get some rewards.

On the rebel side we are working on maxing out the Level 6 Headquarters base. I build most of the new stuff in the top right (and I'm thinking about restructuring the base entirely but haven't gotten around to it). I've been concentrating on trying to get all of my gold and alloy collectors up to Level 6 then I'll swing back through the new stuff and upgrade them to level 5 and then work on getting everything up to level 6.

On the Empire side I just moved up to Headquarters Level 6 and have just about got all the new collectors, turrets and other stuff built. I'm lagging behind my Rebel base still but quickly catching up thanks to the 3rd Droid (and easier raiding for some reason).

I have Starships on both bases now (more on the Empire base, but they unlocked earlier there) which makes raiding more fun. I'll try to update this each week again to keep up with our progress.

Clash of Clans: Halloween 2014 Update

Clash of Clans got an update for Halloween

If you haven't logged into your Clash of Clans account in a while, you should know that they have released their Halloween update (as of the 22nd). It includes (among other things) a Halloween restyle of several of the sprites and effects (pumpkins, spooky spells, etc.) along with some gameplay tweeks and improvements.

The new Skeleton Trap

The update also introduced a new set of traps for anyone Level 8 and up. The Skeleton Trap is hidden when deployed and produces a number of Skeletons (like the Skeletons the Witch deploys) that can either attack ground troops or use balloons to attack air troops (one or the other). It's cheap to build and can be upgraded to Level 2 (on Town Hall Level 8) and Level 3 (on Town Hall Level 9) - I wonder if they'll eventually add a Level 4 at Town Hall 10 but not right now (although they can build more of them)

Also Level 8+ gets ANOTHER MORTAR!!! I assume they are trying to encourage the new Lava Hound and other air troops by making ground only defenses stronger - get to building

Also Loot Bonuses are bigger now after battles, doesn't help much in Silver/Gold, but Crystal III went from 21,000 Gold/Elixer & 50 Dark Elixer to 35,000 Gold/Elixer and 100 Dark Elixer - raiding is awesome right now (when I can find a good one, the update brought more activity and more raiders snatching up the good raids!)

Sneak peak for my weekly update, I slightly reorganized my main account to accommodate the new Mortar and my Barbarian King is moving up to Level 7! My clan mates have asked me when I plan to move to Townhall Lvel 9, but I don't want to rush it. My Alt. Account doesn't get any of the new stuff yet, but it is getting stronger on Level 7, hopefully I'll have all my newish stuff up to snuff soon so I can start unlocking stuff like Dragons, Barb King, etc. - fun times! 

Office Update Info:

http://forum.supercell.net/showthread.php/427896-Update-22-10-Halloween

Second Playthrough | Early 1995 - NES pickups

I got the NES WAY late so the order I started picking up games was odd.

I started picking up NES games in early 1995 (Jan/Feb/March) with my allowance. Luckily I could find them fairly easily for low prices (as the system had been out for 9 years by that time, and discontinued I believe).

1. Kid Icarus

I had played Kid Icarus on the Game Boy and even though that was a few years newer than the NES game, the limitations of the Game Boy itself (especially graphically) made this game feel quite similar - they even both had password save systems so I didn't feel any loss there. I'm not sure if it was my varying ability between consoles or if they had tonned down the Game Boy version, but this game was significantly harder for me than the Game Boy game.

2. Battletoads

I recently popped Battletoads in and replayed it, it wasn't easy but the different perspectives (like when the boss robot is shooting at you and you have to throw the stuff back at the camera) along with pretty good graphics for the time and fast fun gameplay - I can see why this was an awesome game and would make Nintendo want to acquire Rare. I did some reading and apparently Rare made Battletoads to compete (and play off of) the popularity of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles at the time (TMNT IV: Turtles in Time for SNES, go play it now- awesome game!).

3. Zoda's Revenge: Star Tropics II

I recently went back to play Zoda's Revenge (Star Tropics II) for this blog post and was lost as hell (once I got past the intro chapter basically) and was having trouble just figuring out how to not die while exploring around. I eventually read online and figured a few things out and started to have some fun - didn't play it too much though as it didn't really catch me. I can see why they haven't made a sequel - I seem to remember the first being better though, maybe I have rose-colored glasses for it for some reason.

Further Reading:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kid_Icarus

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battletoads

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoda's_Revenge:_StarTropics_II

Star Wars Commander: Week 6

Continuing to build both bases on Headquarters Level 5

This was our Empire base last time.

This was our Rebel base last time.

We've just about built all the new stuff for Headquarters Level 5 on the Empire base, including: 2 Shield Generators, a Starship Command, 2 Burst Turrets, 2 Resource Collectors and 10 new wall pieces. We still need to build the second Factory and reorganize the base with the new toys! Also I'm excited to start using the Starship Command and start to research level 5 troops!

Back on the rebel base we are getting closer and closer to upgrading everything to Level 5, we have all of the resource collectors, transports and factories maxed, and we are upgrading our last storage and barracks to max. We also have all of the research done in the Research Facility and have upgraded the Hero Command and Squad Complex. The main things we have to work on now are turrets and walls so I need plenty of Ally - I will likely raid for this some time this week to keep my workers building!

Clash of Clans: Building an Alt. Week 7

Finally moved up to Town Hall Level 7!

This was our base last time, with moving up a Town Hall Level we've had some major changes!

Our New Town Hall Level 7 Base!

We have built several new additions, including: an additional Barracks, Army Camp, Mortar, Air Defense, Archer Tower, 2 Cannons, 50 Walls, a Dark Elixer Container and a Hidden Tesla! I also upgraded my Laboratory and am working on unlocking some Level 4 troops!

Right now I am concentrating on getting those new items upgraded to the same level as the old ones, then I will work on upgrading everything to the new maxes for our level. Also I'm hoping to start acruing some Dark Elixer soon (just got the container finished, only have like 50 so far) because at 10,000 I can build the Barbarian King, we also have the ability to build the first Dark Barracks at this level, but I don't use Dark Troops that much (rather save my Dark Elixer for my hero). I also have one more Hidden Tesla I can build (and of course both can be upgraded to Level 3! that's going to take a lot of gold). I also need to upgrade my storages for gold and elixer so I can raid without worrying about filling them up.

Level 7 is one of the funnest I've been through so far, being level 8 on my main account I miss being in 7. It's relatively easy to find lucrative raids, there are a bunch of things to upgrade and new things being unlocked (like the Dark Elixer & Barbarian King, Dragons, Rage Spell, etc.)

A quick look at my main account.

Back on my main account, I slowly trying to upgrade things - we have won 3 wars in a row so that's been nice but things are getting really expensive. I'm having a hard time finding the time to raid enough to keep all 5 workers busy. I hope to get about 360,000 Gold and 200,000 Elixer during the football games this afternoon so I can start another air defense to level 6 (to max it for my level and because it takes 8 days so I don't have to worry about that builder for a while) and my last barracks to level 9 (Dragon Level) - but then I have another builder who will be done with the Dark Elixer Container by morning and my lab will be free (and another builder) by tomorrow evening! So basically I need 3.5 million Gold and 2.5 million elixer by tomorrow night (which is no really feasible) so I'm going to have a builder down for a while unless I can find extra time to raid. Not the biggest deal but I do like to keep them all working if I can (and the lab).

Second Playthrough | Christmas 1994 - NES Time!

This was under the tree for me on Christmas morning!

Unforunately I no longer have the box (for the console or games) this is a picture from Nintendoage.com

The NES was over 8 years old when I got it Christmas morning 1994. I'm not sure why my parents didn't get the redesigned NES (unless that had already been discontinued by the time) but I'm sure the NES's ~$50 price tag for that holiday season was the reason it was appealing to them as a gift for me. I of course had no idea, nor would I have cared that it was old - that just meant there were more games out for it!

1. Super Mario Bros. 3

The first up was Super Mario Bros. 3 - the game came packaged in with the console (it had 'Challenge Set Not For Resale' on the box, but the cart was the same as other SMB3 carts inside). This was an awesome experience for me. I had played both Mario Game Boy games (and Donkey Kong where you play as Mario) but this was on the TV and in color! I had a blast and can still remember distinctly where and how to get all three whistles! The Raccoon tail (Tanookie suit is I think its official name) is the second best Mario power-up in my opinion next to the Super Cape. I would later play the first and second mario games (and of course the later Mario games on many different consoles) and Super Mario World would eventually find its place as my favorite, but SMB3 is still a close second and holds a special place in my heart.

2. The Legend of Zelda

Zelda was another game I had recently played the Game Boy version of before moving back to the NES/TV and getting the grander - albeit older experience. Having played another Zelda I knew some of what was going on, but even then I was amazed at how little the game led you and just expected you to figure out. I have played many Zelda games since (Link to the Past is still my favorite) but I think its interesting that the first few that I played either didn't have the triforce (Link's Awakening) or it was in 8 pieces instead of 3 (kinda, 3 main pieces but 8 fragments) (Original), also no master sword in either game. This is the game that started probably the most epic gaming series of all time - if you somehow haven't played it I highly recommend it.

3. Kirby's Adventure

Kirby was a revelation for me on the NES, I didn't play it much initially (what with Mario and Zelda I had very little time) but when I finally got around to popping it in the NES I was quite excited. I very much enjoyed Kirby's Dreamland on the Game Boy, and while this followed a lot of the same gameplay mechanics (while improving on them) it was also in color and had saves! It also introduced Kirby's ability to swallow enemies (instead of only being able to spit them out) and in the process gaining some power or ability from the enemy. While it was overshadowed by my other games I had great fun playing Kirby's Adventure and it holds up better than a lot of NES games.

Further Reading:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Mario_Bros._3

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Legend_of_Zelda_(video_game)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirby's_Adventure