All about the Podcast

I have finally gotten the Podcast page up and running!  In addition, you may have noticed that the newest episode has been recorded!  Godmason and I were live on youtube for the entire 3 hour Rise of the Fiends Set Review, and we got a few viewers and comments.

The big episode required a bigger post than normal, especially with all the extra details and all various places I promote it at.  Indeed, the “back end” aftermath of an episode can take multiple hours.  I convert the file to an MP3 with Fre:ac audio converter, and then upload it to ShoutEngine and Archive.org.  The MP4 file is usually uploaded to youtube, but in this case the live stream took the place of that upload.  Then, ShoutEngine’s feed distributes the podcast to various other podcast sites and apps, such as iTunes.  Then I format the update post with all the links for Miniature Trading, Pojo, BoardGameGeek, and usually reddit.  Sometimes I post it in the main Yahoo group as well, and this time I posted it on r/podcasting and an extra BoardGameGeek thread!  Then of course, Instagram and Facebook.  Whew!   🙂  Lots of stuff to do for every episode!

As I talked about before, I’ve had some serious trouble getting the Podcast page the way I want it here on my fansite.  After almost literally nothing worked, I finally caved and just did a youtube playlist.

A rundown of the issues:

I wanted to have a page where people could play the audio files (only) in a playlist directly embedded on the site.  Such as a ShoutEngine playlist, or maybe Google Play.  However, both plugins I tried failed, and they are supposed to be two of the best and most popular podcasting plugins.  Complicating matters was the fact that they both wanted me to host their podcast with them, but I’m already using ShoutEngine and Archive.org and don’t want/can’t have another feed to iTunes.  Therefore, I wasn’t able to just dump the RSS feed from ShoutEngine into either of the plugin options, which felt silly because it’s the most basic function the plugins should be able to provide.  You should just be able to install a plugin, paste the rss feed, and get your stuff up on the page you want.

Then there were more problems.  Even when I did try to import the existing episodes from ShoutEngine, one of the plugins wasn’t able to connect to the ShoutEngine host!  I even tried manually just uploading the MP3 files, but there were not one but TWO problems with that!  O_O  One problem said “HTTP error” and the other said the file size was too large.  Honestly the whole thing has been ridiculously difficult, and I’ve had it with trying the various (poor) options.  It seems impossible to get what I want, which is a simple audio feed based on the ShoutEngine RSS.  At this point I’m just going to leave the page as-is with links to the audio sites.  I’ve already spent too much time on it, and besides, I’ve promoted and distributed the podcast ALL OVER THE PLACE.  XD  It’s even still on Podiant and Soundcloud to some extent, so I wouldn’t be surprised if you could find the Pirates CSG Podcast on around a dozen websites and apps.  O_O  XD

 

It’s Memorial Day, so enjoy my patriotic video made for VASSAL Campaign Game 3!  😀

 

Deal of the Day: Gone now, but there’s always eBay. This site contains affiliate links for which I may be compensated.

**Disclaimer: I will be using affiliate links with things like this, so if someone buys from it, I could make a few cents.  XD

 

Pirates CSG Card of the Day

Set number: 12 – Fire and Steel

Collector’s Number: 048 – Santa Catalina

Faction Affiliation: Spain
Rarity: U
Type: Ship
Point Value: 9
Cargo Space: 2
Base Move: S+S
Cannons: 3L, 3L, 3L
Number of Masts: 3

When this ship hits another ship, you choose which mast is eliminated.
Flavor:  Once, when the skill of the Santa Catalina’s cannoneers was maligned by an English harbormaster, they demonstrated their ability by firing a cannonball through his hilltop villa’s single plate glass window.

Here’s a basic midsize gunship.  Incredibly basic actually.  Just plop a captain and helmsman aboard and you’re good to go.  No cargo left to do anything else, but she’s a solid budget option with adequate speed, firepower, and a combat ability.

Any game size: Captain + helmsman. (14 total points)  You could add an oarsman for insurance since he wouldn’t take up space.  I’m well aware you could increase the cargo in a few different ways, but there’s really no point, so just keep it simple.

This ship has appeared briefly in at least one of my campaign games, but she’s mostly just a ship to pad numbers with.

Game Piece Rating: 6.5/10.  Nothing special, but not bad at all.  She might be slightly above average simply because she’s not a conundrum like some of the ships Wizkids released – her ability and all of her stats flow together to form a very clear picture of what she is: a midsize basic budget gunship option.

I found this ship on eBay.

 

Picture of the Day

Since it’s Memorial Day, what better time to post a picture of the Americans dominating? (spoilers ahead)  They had a very strong showing in Economy Edition back in 2015, where you can see them about to eliminate the English here.

I played as the Americans in VASSAL Campaign Game 3, which went very well as you saw in the video above.

 

It’s a Pirates’ Life for Me.

Ben