Posts made by dinosaur

Remember that we didn’t know about radiation poisoning before we used the bombs on Japan.  Also, reflect on what the US did with the Marshall Plan after the war.

I am sure if Germany used mustard gas or some other chemical agent we would have dropped it on them in greater quantities and with more effect.  I can’t imagine what we would have done during the middle of the war if we had truely understood the conditions in the German POW camps.  War is about winning.  Please don’t moralize about it after.

We already had WWIII.  Russia collapsed and we won.  Subsequently we helped minimize the consequences of the Russian collapse.

I fear we are headed for a WWIV.  I am not sure if we will expereince it due to a pending economic collapse or some other cause, but I see things as having fallen out-of-balance.  I doubt it will be put aright and we may descend into a second Dark Age.

I prefer grey.  I voted for option #3.  I don’t know if I could afford two sets, but I am going to make sure and get one complete set.  First I want to support this FMG project.  Second, I think these pieces will make A&A games more enjoyable.  My son is almost old enough to want to play this game seriously for the win instead of just playing around.

I believe to get the Marine bonus, you have to be conducting an amphib attack also.

Another consequence of this rule would be to reduce the erratic dice results that can happen in smaller battles.

Glenn Miller, Maynard Fergueson, Count Basie, Spyro Gyra, Chicago, Steely Dan, Chuck Mangione, Aerosmith, Yes, Leonard Skynard, …

Guys,

These pieces should be whatever color FMG wants to make them.

I like the idea of FMG raising the bar and using his dice to set the new standard.  Let Wizards match him, not the other way around.

A quality Go game consists of a single thick piece of wood wit the grid engraved and painted on one face.  Sometimes the large block of wood is made with small feet.  The block measures about 18 inches x 18 inches x 8 inches.  The pieces are small stones, black and white sets, polished.  The grid is 19 x 19 and has eight heavy dots in the four corners at position 4,4 and along these same lines midway between the corners.

Having said all that, I recommend you pick up a cheap cardboard set and see if you can understand the rules and find someone that wants to play.  Otherwise, you will have a very expensive coffee table extension.

I had to give up Go when I was learning chess because there wasn’t enough room in my head for both games.

@frimmel:

@dinosaur:

Go is better than chess, but you will have a hard time finding folks that know this game.

Go is an insanely difficult game.

I’m glad to see other folks know what Go is.  It is not an oriental version of chess.  The rules are pretty simple, but the tactics and strategy are amazingly complicated.  You have a big grid and the two players take turns putting stones on the grid to outflank their opponent.  Against even a “good player” I am making mistakes before move ten.  I can often play GM quality chess past move ten.

You fellows need some more of the classics.  Check out anything written by Issac Azimov.  There was another series of books I read (I think there were five in all) which began with the Foundation Trilogy by Azimov.  Tolkien and C. S. Lewis are also great authors.  I enjoyed the Dragon Lance series and read them through the first twenty or so books before I moved on.  I eventually became tired of the evil magic user’s brother failing to see what he had become.

You fellows need to locate an old computer game called Command HQ.  They had four or five scenarios.  The first one is WWI, with only ground units, transports, subs and destroyers.

The second scenario is WWII, and they add aircraft carriers and planes.  The third is a sort of WWIII scenario.  The fourth is a random scenario where you just start with one city as the capitol and you opponent has only one city as a capitol.  This is  the basic “expand faster than your opponent” game.

This was one of the first RTS war games ever written whre you can play a human on another computer.  It was clearly inspired by Axis and Allies.

So if they backed off on the pigs, how do they balance elephants?

I ran over my opponents in almost every battle, with kill ratios that were hard to imagine, except when I faced elephants.  They were too crazy.  As the Julii, I took over all of Europe.  As the Brutii I took over all of Greece, Asia minor and Palastine and kicked butt on the Egyptians (all without using War Dogs).  As the Gauls I took over Europe and wiped out the Julii, and took all of Italy including Rome of course.  I did the same thing with the Germans.  But I never could get a good roll going as the Scipii (only tried once) because of the elephants.  I had to use Pigs and Velite <sp?>to fight elephants.  Triarii were good too but I never had enough of them.

Rome is an awesome game.  The depth with the retainers, and the family members traits was supurb too.</sp?>

I’ll play you till they lock the thread.

Dinosaur vs. UD Turtle
Corr. April 2010 - ??
1.  e4  ??

UD Turtle vs. Dinosaur
Corr. April 2010 - ??
1.  ??

your moves UDT
remember, no computers, and no friends, but you may consult books.

Go is better than chess, but you will have a hard time finding folks that know this game.

How can you even compare the two?  Checkers is a dead draw every time.  How about comparing chess to Go?  I can’t even get started with Go, and I can play a competent game of chess.

I think Rome Total War is awesome.  I haven’t played all the factions yet, but I expect to play at least half of them.  In order to give the game balance, I have had to not abuse the abilities of some units.  For example, I don’t buy War Dogs and I leave them in the rear on guard duty if I am awarded them.  Some units ruin game balance.

The second version of Medieval Total War looks pretty good and is much like what they did to improve Rome from the first version of Medieval Total War.  The units move instead of jump from territory to territory, and there are “followers” for the leaders to improve the abilities.  I haven’t played that much.

I hear there is a version of Napoleonic War coming out too.  That should be a good game.  I think the Total War games are worth the money.

So what is the carrier used in Revised for the Soviets?

I like the long bayonettes of the Japanese, so I hope the new soldier piece still uses that.  The officer/commander piece should have a sword, too.

The Zero is already OOB, isn’t it, so we should look for another fighter.  I believe the TAC plane needs to be a Naval plane, I guess a dive bomber since the torpedo plane would be silly attacking Calcutta.  For my part, I wouldn’t mind having a “land based” TAC plane and a navy TAC plane, but that will have to be discussed later.

I also don’t think we should duplicate any OOB ships.

I’m still trying to get my head around a Japanese Tank and Mech Inf unit.  You just don’t think about that much when you think of the Japanese war machine.

Wouldn’t it be great to have a special piece for Kamkaze attacks, such as a small plane on a stand in a shallow dive with a smoke trail?

I will make something for you at half the price (or less) but it won’t be made of fine wood; just an oak dowel and a pine push/pull face.  Is three feet long gonna work for y’all?

$75!!  What are they smokin?  Something imported, clearly.

I am not very well educated on the specific accomplishments of the generals but my own opinions are similar to the others above.  I believe Jackson and Lee were exceptional but even that is difficult to prove.  The Southern Generals were fighting on their ground and had assistance from the population the Union troops and leaders didn’t enjoy.  Also, for most of the war, Lee didn’t face a first rate tactician, so he may appear better than his true capability.  Jackson did run wild against union forces, but his knowledge of the terrain may have been more of an advantage than most can quantify.  Jackson taught at VMI so he was certainly very well acquainted with the geography of the Valley.

The Union generals have no qualities to recommend them.  The few that achieved success were either facing little to no genuine resistance or had such resources that even when squandered would produce some positive results.  Sherman would be a war criminal even only 80 years later, and much more by todays standards.  Grant would have been reviled for his unnecessary losses.  He could not have been elected president on his war record with the media we have today.  Burnside, McClellen and others had some good qualities but there were no top ranking Union tacticians I can note.

It is unfortunate that Lee’s men didn’t take the ridge at the first opportunity (Gettysburg) for the purpose of giving him a better rating as a field general.  On the other hand, I know only few that truely wish the Soulh had successfully succeeed from the Union.  If the South had a significant victory at G-burg, all history may have changed significantly.