The Toothpick's Blog » Life

Hearts of Iron

Kevin — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 06:23:40 +0000

Some of the people who read this (by the way, who exactly is that?) might have heard me talk about Hearts of Iron. If you have, you know that it’s more of an obsession than a game.

On the surface it looks, feels, and plays a lot like Risk. But comparing Hearts of Iron to Risk is like comparing Halo 3 to the original Pong.

In this and all future screenshots, click on the picture to view a larger version.

That’s just the top bar. Yea. I’m not explaining the game in any more detail than that, cause it’d just take way too long…

Ok, so lets walk through a game! In this, I’m playing as the USNA (blue) in the scenario “The Abyss,” and I’ve declared war on The Confederates (black).

The Confederate’s Capital is Mexico City (it’s the one in the middle, surrounded by blue). I’ve landed troops in the surrounding provinces, and thus cut off all supply lines (they all stem from the capital). Now every one of their divisions is out of supply, making it easy to defeat them.

I’ve taken most of the southwest, and I’m starting to advance into the southeast.

I’ve taken the entire south except for one province. That gets taken soon.

I take Mexico City (allowing supply chains to resume. whoops), and push south into northern South America.

And there you have it. I’ve conquered the entire continent of North America, and some northern South America, and annexed The Confederates. Notice the date: It took just a little over 2 years.

Again, that’s barely scratching the surface. In this case, I didn’t have any allies to compete with (yes, I compete with my allies), so I was able to take the entire country. In other cases, such as the one below, you’ll see that that’s usually not the case.

Now, that doesn’t come with a before picture, but just pretend there is. APR (orange) originally extended from Cape Town (South Africa) to the Ottoman Empire (light green) border (there are still some APR controlled provinces there), and north to Roma (green) (again, still one province there), then west to the Atlantic, where it bordered Bourbon (gray) to the north. So, basically, everything there that is now brown (Republic of China), blue (USNA), off-white (Australasia), and light blue (I think that’s Sweden), and some parts of the gray (Bourbon), was once orange (APR). By the way, the big message window? A peace offer made by APR, offering some large amount of territory in exchange for me backing off. Well, sorry, I already had most of the country…

And another desperate offer, when all they actually still controlled was their capital (so they wouldn’t be in supply). Which is about to be taken. “Decline.”

So yea. After that, I declared war on Prussia and let my allies in Europe (mostly the Cossacks and Sweden, and a couple provinces for Bourbon) fall in on it. The Cossacks took most of the country. As the leader of the Axis (a required alliance even if the timeline’s been screwed with), they didn’t want to let the alliance die, so they allied with the Empire of Russia near the end of the war. The Russians started chipping away at the Cossacks, so they rushed back to defend the eastern border. Meanwhile, I went north, around Sweden, and landed in northern Russia. I surrounded Moscow, the capital, and next went south, then east to capture most of western Russia (the Chinese got eastern Russia). After that, I declared war on the Empire of Persia, and took almost the entire country (the Cossacks got a couple territories. Now, I’m preparing to invade the European Soviets (Stalinist Britain), Roma (Stalinist Italy), and PRRS (Stalinist Japan) (their all allied). And the people in South America (also Stalinist, I forget their name) might join them. So, a war on four different fronts. This should be interesting :).

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The Farmers Invitational

Kevin — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 01:22:36 +0000

I don’t really feel like a huge post right now.

The Frosh/Soph course was 2 miles. I finished 97th out of 193. My time was 13:32.57 (I’m not positive about the milliseconds, but I’m pretty sure). I think I finished ahead of everybody in JVB that ran Frosh/Soph. That’s really all that matters, except that I started a little fast and my quads started hurting early. But I kept up the pace, so that doesn’t really matter either.

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First Race

Kevin — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 06:49:24 +0000

I’ve got my first race next Saturday. The 15th. Farmer’s invitational, at Hayward High School. The Frosh/Soph Guys race is a 10:00. We’ve all got to be at PHS by 7:30. Fun fun fun… And, we get to wear our short shorts! >.<.

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August 31st, 2007

Kevin — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 02:43:40 +0000

This post has no specific topic.

School started. A while ago. My schedule:

Biology with Willats
Spanish II with Leskowski
Computer Programing TA for Mattix / Modern World History with Cowherd
Algebra II with Hayden
English 3-4 with Hill
Modern World History with Cowherd / Social Psych with Blanpied
LC with McCarthy

I’m not going to talk about them. If you want to know, ask me. I won’t finish this blog if I start talking about everything…

Cross country is… alright, I guess. Things hurt from time to time, but I’ll live… Fuck, the freshmen are annoying. There’s this one dumbass punk wannabe that’s just so annoying… He won’t stop talking to us, even though there are plenty of freshmen on the team, and he seems incapable of saying anything intelligent. I was asking Stephen what he thought the middle school XC team was doing (they were like… hopping 5-10 yards down the football field, not staying in any sort of recognizable formation [aka they're line kept braking apart]. he said he had no idea), and the freshman kid is just like “Well, you know, when you run, it hurts. So maybe they’re just trying to get used to pain, so they can go faster!” (It looked like they weren’t close to breaking a sweat). The he continued. “So, like if you stab your hand with a knife, you’ll be able to run faster!” Stephen and I just kinda looked at him. I was like “you know, that’s really not a good idea…”, and Stephen says “Actually, it’s a great idea! Go try it!” Anyway. He’s a pain in the ass. I’m sure he’s just trying to fit in or something, but… cmon… go fit in with other freshmen or something.

Florida was fun. Pictures!

Mine:

Troop 4 – Florida Sea Base Trip

BTW, I did a lot of cool things with that. You can view a map of the pictures, and you can view them in Google Earth.

Amos’s:

http://picasaweb.google.com/grace.namaste/SeabaseTripAugust2007 (I can’t imbed it…)

God damit Amos… I put up 83 pictures, so he puts up 92. Granted, he did take like 600 to my 285… whatever.

http://picasaweb.google.com/grace.namaste/SeabaseTripAugust2007/photo#5104294802603934914

xD I look weird in that…

I might do some sort of post with stories and stuff. Maybe.

Waterworld on Sunday! Elaine and Justine want to strap sandwiches to me and have me wear a baggy shirt, so it just looks like I’m fat or something. It’s mainly Justine though. Thomas doesn’t care xP. Donno if that’s going to happen xD.

Owell, I’ll write more at some other point in time, I guess.

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Florida!

Kevin — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 21:22:16 +0000

I’m leaving for Florida on Sunday. Oh and guess when the plane leaves!!! 6:40!!! AM!!!!! :( . So that means I’ve got to be there by 5:30, leave at 4:30, wake up at 3:30… You get the picture. I’m just not going to bed that night…

Have you ever witnessed a large number of adults try to plan an incredibly simple event before? In the past 48 hours, I’ve seen 32 emails from almost every adult in the troop. And finally, I think we’re getting somewhere on whether to carpool or take BART back from SFO at 6 PM. -_-. I’ve literally got about 5-10 different emails debating which BART line the Rockridge and Lake Merrit stations are on.

Oh yea! I’m going sailing, BTW. With my scout troop. 16 scouts (Troop 4 scouts ;) ), 2 adults (Mr. Kelly and my dad), and 4 sea base scouts (no idea how old they are). Sailing from just outside Miami to Key West and back. I can’t wait :) . Of course, we get back the 20th. So we all miss walk-through registration… Oh well. I’ll have fun.

Oh, one more thing. The email count is up to 33, with an email from Linli Lee (holy crap…), saying her son and 3 other scouts are going to just bypass the carpool we just set up. wtf…

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Advanced Global Personality Test Results

Kevin — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 03:43:59 +0000

Stability results were medium which suggests you are moderately relaxed, calm, secure, and optimistic.

Orderliness results were low which suggests you are overly flexible, improvised, and fun seeking at the expense too often of reliability, work ethic, and long term accomplishment.

Extraversion results were low which suggests you are very reclusive, quiet, unassertive, and secretive.

trait snapshot:

introverted, secretive, messy, depressed, does not like leadership, somewhat nihilistic, observer, does not make friends easily, unassertive, feels invisible, feels undesirable, hates large parties, does not like to stand out, leisurely, suspicious, submissive, abstract, unpredictable, intellectual, likes rain, likes the unknown, negative, weird, not a risk taker, unadventurous, avoidant, strange

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Camp Oljato

Kevin — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 00:09:37 +0000

I’m now almost all packed, and am looking at which merit badges to work on. I’m trying to get Star done, and all I need are three more Eagle required badges. Oljato offers exactly three required badges that I don’t have: Camping, Citizenship in the Nation, and Swimming.

Camping… eh. Shouldn’t be that bad. There are prerequisites though, that you need to do before you can get the badge at Oljato (you can’t do them there). 5e, show your camping stuff to your scoutmaster, etc. I’ll do that tomorrow morning at 6:40 AM (ish) (that’s when I’m leaving). 7c, which, according to BoyScoutTrail.com (a boy scout website), doesn’t even exist. Not really sure what to do about that… 8c, “Prepare a camp menu.” Not sure why we can’t do that there… and 9. Oh. Wow. Fuck.

Show experience in camping by doing the following:

Camp out a total of at least 20 days and 20 nights. The 20 days and 20 nights must be at a designated Scouting activity or event. Sleep each night under the sky or in a tent you have pitched. You may use a week of long-term camp toward this requirement. If the camp provides a tent that has already been pitched, you need not pitch your own tent.
On any of these camping experiences, you must do TWO of the following, only with proper preparation and under qualified supervision:

Hike up a mountain, gaining at least 1,000 vertical feet.
Backpack, snowshoe, or cross-country ski for at least four miles.
Take a bike trip of at least 15 miles or at least four hours.
Plan and carry out a float trip of at least four hours.
Plan and carry out an overnight snow camping experience.
Rappel down a rappel route of 30 feet or more.

Perform a conservation project approved by the landowner or land managing agency.

Wow… I’m kinda screwed there… Well, I can always just do that after Oljato… Wait. I can count Oljato. I’ve been twice, that’s 12, and then… this is 18. And… Snow Camping! that’s 20! I think. W/e, I’ll figure it out.

Citizenship in the Nation. One prerequisite, 2 (b, c, or d. I’m doing d now ["Choose a national monument that interests you. Using books, brochures, the Internet (with your parent's permission), and other resources, find out more about the monument. Tell your counselor what you learned, and explain why the monument is important to this country's citizens." And yes, I have my parent's permission to use the Internet... god...])

Swimming. You know what? NO. I am not getting in that fucking water. It’s about 85-90 degrees out, and yet the lake is still between 40 and 50. Sorry, but I’m just too much of a pansy to do that (Jacob and Justine are going to laugh at me when they read that…)

So yea. I think I might do Communications instead of Swimming. At home. Cit in the Nation is 2nd period, and Camping is during free time. Swimming is first, so that’s another reason I don’t want to take it… Anyway, if I just take Cit in the Nation, I’ll have 1st and 3rd free, plus free time (the time I’m not using for camping). Which means more time for fun! I might do climbing, just for the hell of it…

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School is out!

Kevin — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 17:25:05 +0000

It is. It doesn’t really feel like it though… Well, kinda does. But whatever. It is. Which is why I’ve started playing Rainbow Six Vegas. Dam that game’s fun…

Fuck. I still haven’t gone back to Deviant Art yet. I’ve been kinda putting it off… cause there’s going to be so much to do. I’m sure I’ve got tons of stuff to catch up on at WL, if the sarge hasn’t kicked me out yet =/.

Running. Started running again yesterday… Dam I’m out of shape… but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been, I guess.

Cub Scout Day Camp. Incredibly fun. I’m an assistant den chief, so I just sit down and watch the kids being dealt with by some other person who’s running a station or something. Owen (the den chief) just kinda leaves sometimes, so i’ve got to take care of them. 11:45-5… :(

I might start Drivers Ed at some point. Soon. I hope. :D.

Anyway, Oljato (scout camp) next week, then free time :D. Maybe I’ll work on my website a bit more (which, by the way, got a logo), and explore Linux (I’ve got it installed on another machine, and whenever I try to run Firefox, it tells me I’m missing a library that is most defiantly there, with a link to it in multiple bin folders. -_-). I guess that’s all for now :D.

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Non-tech stuff

Kevin — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 21:59:32 +0000

I just realized that I can use this blog for things other than geeky tech stuff. So I’ll start by talking about finals!

First period: Computer Programming. Mr. Mattix has been gone for a long time, so he made the final optional. So I spent the period doing geeky tech stuff! I have no life :(.
Second period: Spanish. Well, I knew half of it! =/.
Third period: Science. We were allowed a 8.5×11 double sided sheet of typed notes. So, being myself, I was too lazy to do it… I’m sure I missed a couple of things… But not too many :P.
Fourth period: PE. It’s going to be the softball world series, so there’s not much to talk about…
Fifth period: Support (LC). Enough said. I’ll probably just do math or something…
Sixth period. English. With Black. So, portfolio sharing ( :( ), finishing Romeo and Juliet ( :| ), and the Romeo and Juliet movie ( :) ).
Seventh period: Math. I’ve got some missing assignments to finish, and my notebook to work on… :(.

What else goes on in my life? I got a 6:49 on the mile! Cross Country training does do something for you! I found my Nike+ receiver, so I can use that for running now.

Well, other than that, I really have no life… =/

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