Playing around with screenshot software

Evil Japanese clan takes on the might of the Shimazu who are happily in the little castle

The AI is pretty smart - attacking all at once from multiple angles

Enemy bowmen stopping for a quick shot

I had some cavalry and matchlock infantry to the side of the castle. They ended up accidently taking on more than they could handle

Baddies just about to storm the walls

Some baddies routed along the base of the castle walls- heading down to the beach.

From a higher angle

My troops defending the castle walls- bow troops don't make very good defenders

Luckily in come my Ashiguru spearmen

Baddies rout down the wall as fast as their short Japanese legs can carry them

I downloaded some software to do ingame screenshots. The results are very pleasing...

Inconsequential blogging

Tuesday morning and having my coffee and toast before walking down to work. The dust cloud has lifted and Ginny can fly out now. I am on the verge of capturung Kyoto (my first act will be to pass the Kyoto Protocol about 450 years earlier - to nip global warming in the bud).
Haven't done any painting for a while... Erin went away to have her baby so we hired a new teacher to replace her - and I changed my schedule to teach Elementary  in the afternoons.

ShogunTotal War 2

Never having played Shogun Total War 1 ( I came in with Rome Total War and survived through the debacle of Empire to the cool but limited scope of Napoleon TW) I wasn't that quick to rush in and buy STW2. Playing for domination of Japan in the 16th century just didn't grip me as much as marching across 19th century Europe.  Having played the game for a couple of weeks I am impressed with the battle AI and the general strategic AI but there are still major issues.  If I ever take Kyoto I don't think that STW2 will ever become a game that I will ever become addicted to. I notice that there is a multiplayer component that I have not got into yet but aI am not sure how much interest multiplayer will have for me. I prefer multilayer shoot 'em up games like Left for Dead 2 or Modern Warfare. All in all the game is pretty slick but battling is Asia in the days of the Shogun is just not as interesting as doing the same in Europe. I would like a huge expansion of Medieval Total War to include the sweep of Empire and the individual countries of Europe and Japan/Mongols and China with the AI of STW2 - is that too much to ask for Creative Workshops? I see massive expansion packs!

Chilean Volcano

Ginny is off to China next week and as things are going now that frigging volcano in Chine could mean that she either won't get out from the country or might not get back in after the marketing trip. Extra nights in Hong Kong could welll be very expensive for the school!

Quiet on the blogging front...

I upgraded my computer last week but I didn't do it very well - or the guys in the shop didn't set the process up very well.
 Anyway the story goes that I was a little worried that I was getting to the end of the spave on my hard drive. It was only a 500 gig grive and I was up to 90% disc space used.  I decided to go the whole hog and revamp the entire operating system while I was down at the shop so...
32 bit -----64bit
500gig-----1 Terabyte
Dual Core-------Quad Core
Windows Vista Home Premium------Windows 7 Home Premium.
At the same time I wandered down to EB Games and bought an off-the-shelf copy of Shogun Total War 2.
I was told that the new setup would allow me to play this rather graphics intensive game well and keep me ahead of the curve for gaming for the next couple of years. Anyway I said that I wanted the stuff installed and up and running by Saturday at 4.30 (since I arrived at 10.30 am this was going to he a mission for the techie in the shop to get everything to me by the end of trading) When I came back to the store the dude said that he had done everything but the software. All he said that I needed to do was install Windows 7. I have done this before so I took the box home to start immediately.  The problem was that I ended up installing 7 and wiping out my Vista and all of the programmes that I had on it!!!! I was left with a new machine and none of the really quite expensive extras like QuickTime Pro and my Microsoft stuff.  Anyway to cut a long story short I was able to get back my saved data but I have to reinstall all of the programmes again so that I can transfer the data folders into them. That means that a lot of the stuff still isn't back where it should be. On a brighter note, Shogun runs well and I am enjoying the game.

Distinctions for Both Girls!!

Victoria got her Grade Three and Josephine her Grade Five - both with distinction! Yey for the girls!

Wedding Anniversary

We celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary last night witha trip out to an Indian restaurant and a trip to see Pirates of the Caribbean in 3D. The story line was as thin as paper - and the continuity and dialogue pretty shocking. The two girls really enjoyed it however. The Indian restaurant food was really yummy and most of us experimented with some pretty exotic sounding dishes. It was so good that both girls ate everything.  During the movie we were all so full that we didn't even indulge in the snack bar.
The girls had their music exams yesterday as well. Josie did her Grade 5 RSCM and Victoria did Grade 3.  Victoria is optimistic that she got distinction while Josie thinks she might get a merit.

Must dash off to school now...