Napoleon Total War 2018-06-21

Still continuing the historical battles on NTW, after many attempts I have beaten Austria and Russia in the battle of Austerlitz. Just like the actual battle, the allied forces came down from the high ground to engage my Grand Armee. The trick is to contain the allied cavalry whilst the infantry does its job. 

After winning this battle, the game has unlocked the battle of Borodino for me and again, I play as the French.

Napoleon Total War 2018-06-16

I have played a few historical battles in Napoleon Total War and I am quite impressed. Like Empire Total War, there is a great attention to detail in the uniforms and in the weapons used. Where it improves on Empire Total War is that the AI is better in the battles. In NTW when there is a line break by the CPU player, the CPU forces press on and take full advantage of the line break. This did not happen on ETW. So as a player, all breaks in the line need to be dealt with swiftly by putting units in to seal the gap.  Another thing I noticed is that CPU is always trying to outflank your line in NTW. This adds to the challenge, so far I have only played the battles on normal difficulty and they represent quite a challeng.

Napoleon Total War

Hello all, sorry I have not been blogging for a while so I hope to make up for it for the near future. I have installed Napoleon Total War to my PC, it was part of the same package as Empire Total War which I bought nearly 2 years ago.

This is a stand-alone game rather than an add on to Empire and it follows Napoleon's various campaigns. I have just started playing the battles and one feature I noticed is that some of the historic battles such as the battle of the Nile needs to be unlocked by reaching certain targets. This is a new feature on the Total War series.  Another thing I noticed is the quality of the CPU tactics in the battles is better than Empire which makes for more of a challenge.

Futsal referee exam passed

Before the Chinese New Year festivities I found out that I passed my futsal referee exam, now I need to register with the Hong Kong Football Association in order to start refereeing my first matches. These first few matches will be under the watchful eye of an experienced referee who will mentor me.

Becoming a futsal referee

Here is a video where I share my experiences in training to be a futsal referee.

Passed my first aid exam

Today I found out I passed my St John's ambulance society first aid exam. I am considering whether to attend further courses in order to enhance my skills.

running

For the past few weekes I have been running 10km once a week. I have been running on a near daily basis since 2013. Then until last April it was 1.6km most days a week.  Since last April I have been running 4km per day most week days and on weekends I ran 8km per day.  Now I have upped it to 10km once a week.  Even though the increase from 8 to 10km is slight it still represented a great physical and even greater mental challenge.  The first time I tried 10km, I hit the "wall" at 8km when my body was telling my mind to call it a day. However I persevered and completed the full 10km.  I still hit this mental wall every time I run 10km but the effects are getting less and less.

Futsal referee course

Very recently I have signed up to a Futsal(five a side football) referee course with the Hong Kong football association.  Before I can be accepted on the course I, along with all applicants, had to pass a colour blindness test and a fitness test.  Both of which I have passed. 

The fitness test consisted of running 20m in less than 3.6 seconds and also do a change of direction test in less than 11 seconds over a 10 metre course. 

I was easily the oldest in the class but it meant I had the least amount of pressure on me to pass the fitness test. The actual class is due to start week after next.

St Johns Ambulance first aid course

Before the Christmas break I attended the Hong Kong St Johns Ambulance basic first aid course.  It was a very intensive course that lasted 4 full days in its headquarters in Mid Levels, Hong Kong island.  The course was in English and it was aimed at expats and non speakers of cantonese.  I was very impressed with the content and delivery of the course. 

The course included CPR, bandaging, how to deal with certain medical conditions such as strokes and heart attacks.  In particular it dealt with issues that are likely to happen in Hong Kong such as heat stroke, heat exhaustion and snake bites.

After the course we had an exam which included CPR, bandaging and also a written exam.