Mord

That's why they invented Risk, for the free weed and beer nights. "Hey, just move all those guys right there into Madagascar and roll twenty dice!" So easy a stoned drunk can figure it out. LOL. Mord.

Ah, now you went and clashed with one of my personal theories! LOL. I have always thought that war was built into us by nature as a checks and balances sorta thing. Like it knew we'd evolve into super predators and the only way to keep our populations stable, seeing that no animal (and as yet disease/virus) could, would be to instill in us a penchant for killing each other on a mass scale. We'd in fact have to cull ourselves because nothing else could. I always thought it was a cool theory. No science behind it, just 49 (almost 50!) years of observation. You'd think after two world wars, mankind would've retired the idea by now! Now, imagine for a second where the Earth's population would be right now if you subtracted every death that has been caused by armed conflict since 1900 until yesterday. Would we have reach critical mass? Mord.

Yeah, it's a mod. I haven't seen it before, though. I only use one vehicle mod in SF2. I took MikeyD's Shilka from SF1 and threw it in. Like the green better than the stock tan. Mord.

Yeah, the placement would be completely off even if it worked. But it wouldn't. Mord.

LOL. Yeah, hard to believe it was 14 months ago! Man. I switched hosting sites so you should be able to find these next year! They seem to be (imgur) much better than where those originals were hosted. My pics weren't even making it a month. Jerks killed a great meme! But hey, what is time when you have a chance to piss in Emrys' Cornflakes? Mord.

Oh cool. Thanks. I didn't know he did any for the Talonsoft versions. I thought he only did Squad Battles. Mord.

Funny idea but it probably wouldn't work very well, least not in the way you could tell who the person was. The Brit tanker above has three faces involved in his making. Some faces are actually parts of real humans and some are taken from action figures. It's really strange how different they can all end up looking. The Brit with the goggles on his helmet, I thought for sure was gonna suck. The face I used was a lark, it was overly red, blotchy and just didn't look good, but when I fitted it over the base face, eased back on the transparency, and threw some hue adjustment in, you can't even tell he wasn't always like that. Then you can have a perfect face but once it's shrank down to the portrait size it'll look like complete crap. It's definitely trial and error working within that 51x57 pixel box. Mord.

I like it! I'll tell ya, this mod has been a PIA. I've been working off and on on this MFer since August and I still haven't finished it. However, I had two really good days this week that managed to knock out 8 portraits. That's 7 more portraits than I did in the last two weeks. Mord.

I can vaguely remember sleep inducing discussions on Brinell charts(?), brittleness and tungsten. LOL. That's about it. Can you believe that there are threads on this site that are 20 years old? Mord.

Yeah, there's nothing that can be done about that would translate into the space I have for the pics. It's really a non issue because I highly doubt you'll ever have a scenario with more than an armor portrait and mech/infantry etc. But looking right now you have one guy with goggles on his helmet, one guy with sunglasses and one guy without glasses, so that would be enough to differentiate between them. Mord.

Ok. I did a quick search and found these right off the bat. I didn't read completely through them but I think they start with the idea that his research was at least partially flawed. http://ssi.armywarcollege.edu/pubs/parameters/articles/03autumn/chambers.pdf Mord.

I'll have to do some research but I swear over the last year I ran into something that was stating that they began to see his study as very flawed yet it was still being cited as gospel, like the Stanford Prison Experiment. Mord.

LOL. I GET IT! Trust me. I actually bought the original versions of the WWII games from this series back in 2000 and just couldn't deal with it after playing CM at the time. I saw a bunch of let's plays on Youtube last year and it rekindled my interest. It looked fun and this version was exotic. Once I wrapped my mind around approaching it more as an advanced board game than a simulation it was easy to swallow. But I totally understand! I am that way with squares covered in NATO symbols. You want to put me to sleep, show me any kind of game that involves a NATO symbol plastered on a square. I despise them! If that was all this game had we wouldn't even be talking right now. LOL. The little guys and vehicles saved it for me. I totally understand. THAT was my number one gripe with CMBO and BB. And the NUMBER ONE thing I wanted them to change in CM2! Thank (insert your favorite diety here) they did. I can deal with abstraction in a game like the above, but not one as "zoomed in" as CM. It's a different kind of reality. Yep. Gotchya. The only saving grace for this game in that department is that they do show destroyed vehicles. But I'd go one step further and say bodies tell a story. That's something I love. At the end of the battle you can tool around the battlefield and study the spots where the intensity took place, the corpses, the damaged terrain and buildings, the wrecked tanks and IFVs. You relive it vicariously through the aftermath. It was one of the reasons I wanted hit decals so badly—for the stories the shell holes tell. So, I completely get everything you said. Absolutely! Mord.

I thought that that SLA Marshall study has been found to be highly flawed? If so it completely dismantles this guys opening premise if he's basing it on the book. BTW I like this dude I watched him one day for about an hour talk about a "white cannibal". He has interesting vids. Mord.

I love helping noobies. I always figure the more you help them the more apt they are to get bit by the CM bug. Plus, I enjoy when we get one of those rare guys that are super enthusiastic about having discovered CM. It breathes new excitement into the game for me, experiencing it through fresh eyes. Mord.

I spy decals on zee tank! Nice! Mord.

I was! Nope. It was an old hex based IGUGO game that is at the platoon level plus teams. The hexes are 250 meters, I think it is. You can play with counters (YUCK!) or with little guys and tanks and stuff. It's pretty fun. They updated the old Talonsoft WWII version and then the Middle East version with lots of wars from 1948 to 85. The ME version is more advanced. They are going to eventually do all of WWII under this upgraded engine, after Vietnam. They put out updates adding new features when it's feasible to get them working under code that's so old. Click the pics and you can zoom in. It's not CM of course and takes some getting used to but it's pretty fun if you allow your imagination to engage. There's quite a few cool orders you can give, from digging in to laying mines/IEDs, clearing LZs for helicopters, building bridges to cross rivers, building barriers. There's civilians, helicopters, planes, ATGMs, etc. I guess I kind of approach it as an electronic boardgame as it plays much different than CM or Total War. I'd really love to see a game made like this but with 2019 graphics among other things. I like the scale and some of the maps look neat, like the ones in the screenshots, and it's a nice change of pace from games like Combat Mission and TW. The biggest attraction was the exotic battles it covers. They've got everything from the British and French to Israel and Egypt. I think they are gonna eventually release some DLC on the Iran Iraq war. So, I am looking forward to the Vietnam game. Mord.

That's a VERY good point. The individual. The only time that concept came into play was when the "individual" was the guy with the power. Everyone below him was a cog. Grist. The idea freed us and maybe softened us at the same time. Mord.

Yep. Most hunters I've known are very aware and respectful of the animals they take. And I'd argue that it boils down to the fact that they are intimate with the process of killing and harvesting the meat. With killing, dressing and such they get that a life was given so another life could benefit. I don't think I've ever met a dude that said he be happy to have to shoot a deer twelve times. they want to bring it down with one shot, ideally an insatant death following. I can see that. It's partly what I meant about the aftermath. They walk up and search the bodies and/or confirm the kill. But I'd still argue it's gotta be much worse on your psyche if you say went one on one with a guy. The trauma has to be ratcheted at that point. I mean think about the difference of being in a fire fight, even say at 20 yards compared to, the VC just over ran your foxhole and it gets down to your shovel and his bayonet. Much more (savage) intimate. The adrenaline dump after surviving that situation has to be like a transformer blowing. Oh, yeah. LOL. From the second we can speak (or even before), we are told don't hit, don't bite, don't kick, don't kill. It's pounded into your brain from birth basically. Then as you go into the world it's reinforced by your peers, church/synagogue, school, neighbors, family, laws. Then along comes a war and the military and they proceed to teach you the opposite. Then you go forth and do exactly what you've been told not to do since your were filling your diapers. It's quite a contradiction to come to terms with. And I imagine it's those quiet moments, years later when it's all done, when you truly start reflecting on it and struggling with it. My guess is that it was probably easier the less personal it was. The closer to home the closer to hurt. Kinda like now but much more casual than our modern minds could fathom. I mean executions were a family event. LOL. Grab some popcorn and let's watch them disembowel Alistair the Counterfeiter. Or pop down to the local fighting pit and bet on some death sports. Then you look at slavery and what those lives were worth. Life was pretty cheap from the inside looking out. When we hear about a man being killed say, in another state, we can at least sympathize, back then, it probably didn't even register unless you knew the dude. Hard to say, though. Oh and here's the link Bulletpoint PMed me. It's an interesting little read. http://www.historiamag.com/roman-ptsd/ I watched that way back when it first aired. It's pretty good. He did another one on surviving war too, I believe. Mord.

Then we'd both have lopsided jockstraps 'cause so would I! * The guys a Matrix are making Nam for their upgraded John Tiller's Campaign series. That's about as good as it's gonna get in the near future. I'll be getting it. @benpark frequents that board occasionally I believe. Mord. * I don't use them anyway...

@Combatintman It's your lucky day! They are out of print, though. Who knew Emrys' complete and utter (and embarrassing I might add) ignorance on all things halftrack gunnery would lead to the fastest sell-out in Stackpole's storied publishing history. They were so appreciative of his knowledge deficit which lead to my best selling series, they put a plaque with his name on it above the urinal in the executive bathroom! And of course my fame within the Halftrack Gunnery community has never been greater! Thanks, Emrys! Mord.

Oh, I definitely agree with that but I'd also add, as a slight counter, that death was very much a common part of life back then even in the civilian sectors. By that I mean, by the time you were ten (if you made it) you'd probably have seen hundreds of dead people, due to disease, pneumonia, birthing fatalities, sport, work accidents, starvation, crime, etc, let alone war. In modern culture, at least Western societies, we have been sheltered from a good deal since about the 50's onward. It's not as common place in our day-to-day, I guess is what I am trying to say. Epidemics are rare, modern medicine keeps a broken leg, severe cut, or flu from becoming a life ending event, modern food production staves off starvation, extreme crime is usually relegated to specific areas, babies and mothers are more likely to survive pregnancy than not, etc. I am not saying that is 100% the case for everyone, but as a whole, I'd say the majority of us don't live with tragedy month by month or even year by year. To put it in perspective, I didn't see my first dead body until I was 22, and that was at my grandfather's funereal. I've known people that were murdered but they were on the periphery of my life and I never witnessed it. But I will check out that book. I am gonna put it on my Amazon wishlist so I don't forget it. I agree and disagree at the same time LOL. On one hand our ability to destroy humans is on a level never imagined. Then on the other hand, it seems to be distant and removed. I mean most soldiers probably don't see up close the act as it happens, considering some of the engagement ranges, it's usually the aftermath. But four or five hundred years ago you were right in a dude's face, nothing but your axe and his sword to decide who was gonna eat breakfast the next day. And the guy who didn't, well you sure saw, smelled, heard, and felt the effects when you ended him. I think it boils down to that Stalin quote (paraphrased) "The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of a million is a statistic." Yeah, that's the part that I think can really screw with you even if it has nothing to do with war. That survivor's guilt thing. Why him not me? Or conversely, where I've had a couple incidents where I almost got myself killed or seen someone killed and that twisted me the hell up for a few hours with all the what ifs. Made me feel surreal. Yep it sure is. I've always been a morbid and macabre person (intellectually) so it's right up my alley. But I don't like violence in reality, if that makes sense. I have a book on the history of execution and it's one of my favorites. But man, LOL if I saw any of it in real life I'd puke and run screaming like a three-year-old girl. Mord.

I've brought this up with my brother, before. That a big difference in modern war is that there's a huge random factor thrown in the mix. No matter how elite your training, no matter how experienced you are in battle, there's a much greater risk of being killed by something completely outside your ability to counteract with combat skills. The WWII memoirs I have read are replete with examples. One I can give is where an officer was found dead after a shelling that was fairly benign comparatively speaking, possibly a few wayward mortars or something to that effect, as memory serves. Basically, his training and their position should've kept him safe. At first they couldn't figure out what happened to him. He was in a pristine state. Later a pinhole sized wound was found in his head where a minute sliver of shell had pierced his brain. As far as I remember no one else was even wounded—just a bad random dice generator. So, yeah, I can imagine that the chaotic randomness of battle could also play a major factor on the modern mind and especially conscience. Why did I live unscathed and that guy next to me in the foxhole got blown in half? Bulletpoint sent me a link on Roman PTSD that pretty much reaffirmed my thoughts on my semi-rhetorical questions above. Mord.

Try really reading some of the threads. Go back a few years. There was a cottage industry of guys (especially on Gamesquad) that all they did was slag Steve, the boards, and the people on them and circle-jerk about the demise of Battlefront. There's a huge difference between "legit complaint" and the complete @**hollery that they participated in. There are plenty of guys out there that get off on being negative and toxic. Mord.

I always wondered where all that Live Aid money went... Mord.