Mamoulian War

More DS2 again This time, just some small time grinding and then to finish up the session, another encounter with Royal Rat Authority. And this time it was a successful one. It was big help, that I had a chance to purchase full Forlorn Armour Set, which has a nice upgrade for Poison Resistance compared to my old gear. This helped a lot. But TBH I still have not a clue, how have I survived the fight The 4 adds jumped all around the place, and the boss hits like a truck. I almost got obliterated by a gang bang right in the beginning, but somehow, I cleared all the adds, and later had a chance to pop an Estus. This pretty much saved my attempt. On the other hand the boss has very low HP compared to most, which I have fought, so even though he hit hard, I was able to get him down in few minutes. The biggest problem in the fight, was that if I locked him, the Lance always missed, and when I fought him without locking in, my clumsiness has shown in full glory Still down on first try in this session and on third in total. Unfortunately, during the grinding session, I accumulated 5 more wipes Deathcounter 150.

Because, there is absolutely nothing flammable inside the cooling tower, unless you bring it there by hands and fire it up yourself. It is just extremely big concrete cup for cooling the water. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooling_tower#/media/File:Inside_of_a_Natural_Draft_Cooling_Tower_3.jpg Most likely some drunken RU soldier dropped their cigarette into the pile of tires

Few units (no clue how many soldiers) have been moved from Kharkiv and Doneck regions already. And IIRC the soldiers from Kharkiv direction have been hunted down while travelling in a column. There are more and more videos of RU soldiers surrendering, allegedly slowly getting towards first thousand. So the most probable situation is, that some commanders in Kursk are again lying through their teeth, that they can still manage it, and the higher command does not move enough soldiers up north yet. UA maintains absolute “radio silence” so we can only guess what news from RU side is truth and what is made more shiny than in reality

So far the worst "day" in DS2 23 wipes at Dragon Shrine and Giant Memories I have forgotten about the difficulty spike between Dragon Aerie and Dragon Shrine, so I have changed my covenant to Company of Champions, and the got repeatedly obliterated by the second Dragonkeeper Guard with mace. I was simply not able to avoid his attacks, and he hit like a truck on steroids for my current level. So I had to shamelessly change the covenant back to something, which I can survive, and moved slowly up the stairs. Noticing, that if I summon phantom/shade, all mobs in the next room will run towards you and attack you. Which pulled like 12 or so mobs at once on the final stairs. I never run so fast towards the bonfire After that "incident" I run back to the Ancient Dragon, and talked to him for the Ashen Mist Heart, skipping the fight for now. Probably until I clear all DLCs. After that, I went into the Giant Memories, and man-o-man... I did sucked a lot at the first one. I missed few jumps, then I was pierced by archers, which I have not noticed, and then I got destroyed by mob firing the ballista, which cost me around 60k Souls Ok. I tried to refocus a little bit on what am I doing, and then with just a few more hickups, I arrived at the Giant Lord fight and won on the first attempt with the help of Bernhart of Jugo, for his questline. I have also picked up the Drangleic Helm, and finalized the armour set. Now, I am just thinking about where to go. Either moving to the first DLC, or Darklurker, or grind a little bit for the covenants. Deathcounter: 145

A summary of current situation in Kursk from PoV of one Z-blogger.

Two more bosses down in Dark Souls 2: SotFS. Both on second try. Velstadt and Guardian Dragon. The Undear Crypt changed just a little bit to vanilla, so I had not much trouble, even at the graveyard part with Pharos Lockstone room, where there are a lot of tombstones, which summon caster mobs. They definitely made that room easier in the SotFS. The other change, which was for a change more challenging, are 11 red phantoms, which are being summoned after the "candle-maiden" statue is being lit. This was a trouble, but in the end I was able to survive them as well, and slowly moved to the bossfight. Velstadt is much easier, while having summoned phantoms for help, but despite that, I died once, as I became to greedy at the end, and he just hit me with one of his wide reach swings On the second try, I misstimed one move against him as well, and nearly died again at the end of the fight, but luckily, I had enough HP to absorb that hit On the other hand, Aldia's Keep has become much much difficult area, as you can get one of the keys only after defeating 4 Forlorn red phantoms, which have very large HP pool and love to outroll you as soon as your backstab animation starts So I had to train a little bit how to properly fight them, which cost me few wipes, due to my clumsiness and less than stellar patience The second change was the gauntlet before the boss fog gate, this was made a little bit easier than in vanilla version. I was able to get through it with now again acquired patience from the phantom fights So no wipe for in there The locked Aldia's lab was fine as well, although it was a little bit more packed compared to vanilla, IIRC. Then I have decided to go and visit the boss, but, as always, I have forgotten, that there are two Ogres guarding two gates, so I went there like for a promenade, which promptly ended my suffering . This of course led to 59000 souls lost, as I was to annoyed, that after almost perfect run through the gauntlet, I got asskicked due to my memory not serving well So I made another clear, went to summon a phantom close-by, and entered the boss arena. This was my first ever melee attempt on this boss. And it needed much much more patience, than with a caster. So I needed a little bit more practice, to re-learn his moves. Still at 30% or so of his HP, he still managed to surprise me, and due to me messing up one roll, I got caught into his volley of fire, while landed on the floor, which ended my first attempt. Another gauntlet clearing was in order... *sighs* Now I went for the boss much better prepared for all of his moves, so I started of, with launching all of my lightning bolts at him, and then, slowly starting to run around him and hitting him again, and again, and again, and again, while trying to avoid all of his fire moves. This time, no major mistake happened on my side, so after a few minutes, I got a fresh Guardian Dragon Soul, and entered Dragon Aerie, after 11 wipes in total. Deathcounter 122. For now

Hmm, at the time, they had like 1/10th of their current drone fleet, less trained new recruits, and no F-16s. Even although it seems F-16s are not much of an power in this offensive move, I would asume, that it would end much worse for UA than today. Russia maybe had even more soldiers at borders at that time, as Avdiivka was still holding, and Russia was not outstretched in Donbass. And they definitely had few thousands of artilleries more to move around the frontline. Russia is lately losing 40 artilleries per day on average, so in a year, that’s more than 10k pieces in a year, which is significant firepower, which could end up any UA attempt in hours. Looks like all of the Russian Freedom Legion incursions were just a reconaissance for this large operation. There is absolute silence on UA side, all info is now only fromwhining on Russian Telegram, somwe will not see if this operation will be success or failure for few weeks minimum. The pace of breakthrough is for now, according to Russians, on par with Kharkiv Counter-Offensive in 2022.

Well, as these are mostly conscripts, they are most likely ethnic Russian who have been “parked” at places deemed most safe, and not from the ethnic minorities, about which no one cares in Russia, so their price might be much much higher on the PoW “market”. And there is a chance that this might spark some kind of ire among the more wealthy and more influential We’ll see in few days/weeks. Oh and this popped up, while browsing lates news I love Ukrainian sense of humor even in such a hard times.

Rumours are rumours, sometimes bull****, sometimes true. The video of 40+ is from single event. These events are ongoing for two days. And as the borders in Kursk were guarded by 18-19 years old fresh conscripts, with zero combat experience, and as TikTok warriors have ran away faster than Flash, it is quite plausible, that there are many more than just 40 of them edit: There are already two of such videos, confirming minimum of 80 PoWs taken.

Seems like the concern of the US is just Russian disinfo again. From what I understand, what US guys really said (Kirby IIRC), is that the usage of US stuff on a Russian soil inside a perimeter is still valid. They did not breach more than 100kms. Yet The rumours says, that UA has already taken more than 300 PoWs in two days of the Special Military Operation to protect Ukrainian speaking minorities living in Russia.

Which rules you talk about? Do you think, the Azawad people do not deserve the liberation of their nation from oppresive junta governent Mali as much Palestinian people from Israel government? The Touaregs at least did not go and murdered thousand of civilians in a single day like Hamas did, but gone directly against the terorrists, who murdered the people of their own

Botswana ratified the peace summint memorandum a day after “Mali diplomatic incident” . Seems like it affects the “Global South” as much as bombing children hospitals afects Nestle doing business in Russia and the Kursk, well, this is becoming very juicy. Russian milbloggers have confirmed operational encirclement of Sudzha, which means approx 15 kms in a day, or in other numbers, 2 months and 20k of casualties of Russian Advance in Pokrovsk Direction, after the fall of Avdiivka

Oh noes, war criminals who have on their hands countless of civilian casualties have been eliminated in a country, which provides them safe harbour, and using them for killing civilians at home as well. What a disgraceful violation of the “world order” that Putin talking so much about

Well, there’s not much choice really. AMD. Especially with the information, that Nvidia had to delay their next chipset introduction due to the design flaws. Although this impacts enterprise customers, there are more and more rumours emerging about the delay pf RTX 50**s as well.

A little bit more into the Shrine of Amana again. I am spending now a little bit less time, as I would like to, but having a shoulder injury makes it very painful, whenever I sit and play behind my PS for more than 1 and half hour. Anyway, Looking Glass Knight has been defeated. Not much trouble, as I have called two summons just for the laugh I did not wanted to spent to much time with the fight, knowing, what awaits me next… Shrine of Amana… As I have mentioned before, to my surprise, the areas up to the second bonfire have been “blessed” by much better mob placing, than in Vanilla, so it was not as painful, as I have expected. Of course, I’ve made few stupid moves, so my Deathcounter has increased again, but it was much, much better experience this time around. The issue for me was the third part, before Demon of Song, I have destroyed my equipment few times in the mist from the giant “Sponge Bob”, and then I have spent few times clearing the area, out of the cave, as I forgot, that there is a red phantom invader, and I wanted my Awestone a lot, so I had to change the covenant just for this fight. Of course, I have died in this area as well, so I had to repeat it again and slowly with a crossbow. I have not found a 100% safe way to clear the mobs with melee, like the previous area, so it took a lot of time to get to Demon of Song. I went back to call phantom for the fight, and went through the fog. Took me three tries, as a felt to tired from my pain, but I wanted to get the giant toad at all costs. Of course two more tries meant two more clearings of the pond mobs, so it took me a lot of time to start a new fight. But my goal was fulfilled. With deathcounter stopping at 109 wipes.

Well, I have half of the shrine already behind me, and From definitely placed the caster mobs in much more annoying way. I have not needed to use the Crossbow that much, as in Vanilla, just on very few mobs, I was able to melee down most of them with no issue. In Vanilla, I simply had no chance to get through the area without spending to much time sniping them.

Little bit more of DS2 again. First in line was Duke's Dear Freja. For some reason, despite Tseldora being pretty annoying place to run around, and you have to Homeward a lot if you want all the loot. Especially the easter egg Pickaxe , I had zero wipes while traversing to her. Summoned two summons and had a chill fight The next one was Lost Sinner. And again, despite not in love, with the exploding mobs, I have managed to survive the walk to her up including the fight with her with no wipes. Again, no wipes, but before the end of the game session, I have decided to fight with Vengarl at his new position. I have lacked Fragrant Branch of Yore up until now. Of course before landing at his place, I had two comedy wipes again, due to me missing the landing point on a bridge to him Both bosses on first try. With summons, but that's OK for now. Plan is to have a little bit more challenge at NG+ The third one was the Dragonrider duo. The fight was again pretty fine with the summon helping out, but the road through Drangleic Castle was pain in the ass I have been surprised few times, with few changes from vanilla. The mob placing is completely different, so I did not knew, what awaits me. That's why I ended up with 8 asskicks before finishing the session. I have also tried to get the complete Ruin armour set, before venturing forth, but after 5 or 6 rounds with Ruin Sentinels, I am still missing the chest piece. But this one actually helped me a little bit with leveling up. 101 wipes. Next in line, Looking Glass Knight and Shrine of Amana... And I have found myself to put the next session off few times, as I hate this area as much as a flatearther, hates a geography book.

They are not attacking Algeria, they are attacking "the Western conservative values". It has absolutely nothing to do, that she is Algerian, it has everything to do, to further divide the people in the EU. Especially in the Eastern European member states, where this has turned into abomination feeding on hate, misogynia and LGBTI+ hate. Which further fuels Russian hybrid war goals...

Next two bosses in DS2 defeated. Old Iron King and Congregation (yes i know, I know ) Pretty straightforward this time, although, as always, I have messed up few times Both Iron Keep and first half of Brightstone Cave Tseldora, were more like training in patience than anything else, as the mobs have been pretty aggressive again, but doable. In between running from a bonfire to a bonfire, I have visited the Belfry Sol for Mad Warrior Bell Keeper Covenant grind, which is needed to be leveled to rank 2, due to one spell needed for Platinum Trophy is available only by this means. Pretty boring grind... And what makes it even more boring is, that you cannot predict when he spawns, so you have to run up and down the ladder like a clown, until it spawns. On PS3, you can hear the Blu-Ray spinning loud every time, he spawned, so all you need to do, was to spawn Rest at Bonfire button until you heard a loud noise. Not anymore on other platforms Anyway, Old Iron King has been defeated on second try with the help of local summon, due to me typically dropping to lava due to losing focus for a second or two Congregation on the other hand, has been defeated on first try of course. The only issue were the Falconer Guys running and sniping around first bonfire, which are new in SotFS version of the game, and me forgetting how to spawn Bernhart of Jugo for his quest. So I had to backtrack a lot a clear the road to the boss room few times, before I could finally enter the fight. I have also picked up few of the loots around the second bonfire at Tseldora, and asked Blacksmith Ornifex to craft my first boss weapon - Dragonslayer Spear, whih I loved to use in my DS Reamster walkthrough. Unfortunately, I will probably not be able to wield it this time, as it needs much much more Dexterity to use, and I am investing more into Strength and Faith this time around But we'll see. Lightning Heide Lance+4 is fine substitute for now.

In Mali it is about two or three Gold Mines, which Wagner/Russia directly controls.

According to this commentary, the situation after the departure of French deteriorated even more, due to the behaviour of Wagnerites and their low numbers. https://www.rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/commentary/mixed-picture-how-mali-views-wagner-group And here is an insight into how things played out in Mali. To no one’s surprise the culprit behind spreading anti-french sentiment were Russian troll farms, and few guys, who emerged out of nowhere, with deep ties to Russia and their money, which in the end, staged the coup https://hrf.org/russias-influence-in-mali/

Yes you remember it correctly. I had an encounter with it already, and I am now a proud owner of a Ring of Blades+1

These were part of Azawad rebels who are trying to get their independence from Mali.

Three more bosses down. The Rotten, Najka and Smelter Demon. And I have experience again the biggest flaw (from my POV) to the SotFS version of the game compared to the vanilla one. First The Rotten. As always, Black Gulch is an area, which I try to avoid as much as possible. Again, few comedy wipes, especially one, after which I have cleared almost whole are from the statues for Lucatiel summon not be poisoned, just to be eaten by one of the "grabbers" hidden in on of the tar ponds But all in all, the experience was more positive than the one, which I had in The Gutter . Because it was already to late at Saturday evening, and Lucatiel needed to stay alive, I have decided to go for a comedy kill, and have summoned two more available summons It went as expected, despite Lucatiel getting a lot of beating. But in few minutes, The Rotten has been "clubbed to death" in a few minutes. Next one was Najka. The area of Shaded Wood is the same as before, so I moved as slowly as possible through it, with one or two wipes, while learning, that using a Spear without the ability to lock to "ghosts" is not my forte. After changing to Mace, I moved through the area, picking up all loot like a breeze. The next area after the next bonfire has been changed for better in SotFS, compared to vanilla game, so I have not spent a lot of time trying to get through, as I have used to. I have bought a ring to talk to Manscorpion Tarkus (or what's his name), and moved to Najka. I have found on my way to the fog gate another summon sign, so I have used it, just for the giggles, but this turned the Najka fight to laughable level, so I was not very amused. But yeah, one more boss down. Next one was the Iron Keep. And this is the area, which they IMHO changed for the worse, even though, they put less archers in there. But the same as the Gutter, they made the melee mobs aggro range into ridiculous levels. My face spent a lot of time eating the ash, so I have decided to go for more relaxing area and try to fight the big rat there. Doors of Pharos. Area is OK, but I am definitely under-leveled or my melee build is sub-optimal for my skills (or more for lack of them ), and I got destroyed instantly in less than 10 seconds. So I had to pass this boss for now after two attempts. That meant, that I had to go involuntary back to Iron Keep. I brought as much patience to the keep as possible, and after few unsuccessful attempts, I have finally found out a way, how to deal with the new mob setup and their new aggro management, and was able to get to fog gate, just with the use of two Estus Flasks. I have summoned Lucatiel again, and in third phase, I have messed up, as I have forgotten one of Smelter Demon's moves with flaming sword, so I have been defeated. But this gave me another chance to test out my tactics for beating the trash mobs, and it worked again. So hopefully in NG+ I will be more confident about going into this area. Second attempt on Smelter Demon was this time successful, despite me making few stupid mistakes again But the end result is what counts in the end Deathcounter has increased from 59 to 79 during the travels in areas around these three encounters.