Calax

Anyone heard anything about Tera? I've heard that it's exciting but dont' know personally anyone who's playing it.

Waterloo was after the Prussians had been sent running again, (props to Blucher for countermanding Gneisenau's full on retreat order once he got back in the saddle though) and with an almost entirely scratch anglo dutch army. Boney might have won if he'd still had Davout as a field commander instead of Grouchy but then again the allies might have won easier had the Peninsular veterans been available- it's all historical conjecture. Eylau, Friedland and Borodino would be the largest one-on-oneish set piece Russian French battles. Generally the Russians fought as parts of coalition armies and under their command- as at Austerlitz where the battle plan was Austrian and carried out against Kutuzov's objections. It wasn't so much that they won, but they made the French pay heavily even when they lost, and when they got a chance to kick the asterisks out of the French they took it in emphatic style. I don't think it is fair to criticise them for using the winter (especially since the autumn was actually unusually warm and the French were in total disarry even prior to the snows really setting in) as one of the basic tenets is to use local knowledge and terrain to your advantage. Napoleon was certainly a bit of an idiot, but then people don't tend to downgrade Hannibal/ Nelson/ OKW by saying that Varro or Villeneuve or Gamelin was a bit of an idiot. The story would probably be different if Karl had followed up Aspern-Essling and starved the French out on Lobau, but he didn't and then lost Wagram and the war a few weeks later. I'm not a big Napoleon fan though. If he'd stopped in 1807, OK, but he didn't. He made mistakes and more importantly didn't learn from them (see Egypt and Russia in particular), fought unnecessary wars and ultimately got huge numbers of people killed for no net gain. The big thing for the Russians in the Napoleonic wars was the rediculous level of logistics the Russian forces demonstrated. Seriously, they had a supply train that rain deep into France, and were able to keep their armies supplied that far in. I'm gonna have to re-read my book "Russia against Napoleon", but basically the only reason that Napoelon lost was because A) his logistics failed him, and B) he lost a LOT of his vets in the Russian winter battles, which were irreplaceable, while Alexander's forces kept earning more soldiers and vet's that were shuffled during the breaks between fighting to make sure the fresh forces would have somebody to look up to in their squad.

Are there any Stuarts left? You never know, if the Scots vote for independence they may need a new monarch. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Stuart My history teacher showed off some folks who claimed to be of stuart decent, and claimed the british crown last year in class, but wiki wants to tell us that they died out in the 1800's, with house being back as royals becuase princess Di was a Stuart. Personally Three Kingdoms era China, the Sengoku era of Japan, and the Napoleonic/Russo war in 1812ish are all EXTREMELY interesting to me. It's slightly hilarious to see what Aleander I did to propagandize against Napoleon (declaring him the anti-christ among other things), only to do a bit to reverse it so that he didn't have his serfs going nuts during a time when a truce was on the table.

officially moved, got my internet back up and running just now... don't have a place to put my arm and mouse and keyboard.... kind of annoying, will probably fix it with boxes. God this is expensive.

The only thing that I have to fight with tw2 is "deus ex" syndrome. That is to say that I start it up, know I'll love it later but get frustrated at the brick wall that is the three tutorial fights (ballista, gate battle, and the dukes henchies). It would be nice if they set up an me3 level of c&c (before cupcake colors ended that) so that you had Adda or shani show up

Finished my campaign as the Brutii. Basically I attacked east and took all the way to Sainai before considering my options. Realized that with my industrial and financial base in the Greek Archipeligo, I could easily take on the other houses in rome and spent the next six years shifting over four legions (for kicks I call my RTW stacks that) to the italian peninsula. and then was the time to strike. Managed to take the peninsula within 2 years, and expanded to include gaul, and much of the former dacian territory before victory was declared. Installed Medieval 2, started the grand campaign as Britannia. First order of business was the elimination of the Scotts. Quick and easy. Control of the isles was mine alone, and I moved my forces south to attack out of Caen. Managed to cut my way south taking Caen, Rennes, Angers, and Bordeaux with papal sanction. before they sued for peace. Admittedly the peace didn't last long as Milan decided to flex it's muscles and attack from it's northern provinces (it's been cut in two by the HRE). As I fended off the Milanese, the French decided to try for round two and lost their last four provinces (Tolose (to a crusade), Paris, Rheims, and Dijon). Almost as soon as I finished off Rheims (and thus France), I had war declared by the HRE, and a full army appeared near Metz, with a fleet blockading Tolose. Oh and the danes declared war but have done nothing because of their treaties with the now-dead French.

Dag nabbit. I specifically told those drug cartels "el tiene ningun dinero." My spanish is rusty, but that should translate to "he has 9 million dollars!" I thought it might translate to "he's got a ninja with guns!"

I was just pointing out DS9 because JMS went to paramount to make Babylon 5 in the first place, but got turned down, and DS9 is very superficially similar to the concept (right down to being based on a station)

There's too many similarities between Mass Effect and Babylon 5 for it to be a coincidence. Deep Space 9 sucka

Moving from school housing to actual apartment. I get a kitchen, bathroom, family room, 2 bedrooms.

New Apartment, get the keys tomorrow at Noon!

That's all normal.

I don't think so... the things I learned are baaaad.

You forget the fact that Gold is a non-renewable resources... so the money supply is limited to how much is coming out of the ground at any time. That's one of the reasons that the advent of credit in the early modern period was so important, nations were no longer beholden to their supply of gold to buy and sell things and the currency could grow far beyond what it used to.

Got drunk with several of my managers at work.... This is an odd feeling because last night and tonight are the first times I've been drunk.

Spent 5 hrs comforting and carting around a friend to docs offices for back pain.

http://jalopnik.com/5905240/meet-the-two-guys-behind-the-greatest-craigslist-car-ad-in-history an interview with the guys who created the grand am ad that I posted before.

Adam Sessler is gone from Xplay.... and apparently so is Xplay (I think)

A few surprises in there. Hard to imagine "Scotty" as anything but the engineer,,, and Dolph Lundgren the genius??? He's a chemical engineer... I think that the way somebody put it on here when I brought it up a year or two ago was "He will break you... on a molecular level" sincerely craigslist.

Got a 97 on an exam! And used "Fear will keep the local systems in line... Fear of this battlestation!" as part of that!

There's a small amount of that, and it mostly goes to disorient than anything else. The only major thing I remember from Dead Space was the fact that you were basically performing surgery to kill a punk rather than actually shooting him (you chopped their arms, and legs off, and then could cut them in half etc... rather than shooting)

So basically while Mitty is winning (officially) all of the races, there's a suggestion that Ron Paul might be able to sneak enough delegates under the wire to get a fighting chance at the nomination.

Tigs has me interested in Crusader Kings... although I'm not sure I'd be able to get into it as deeply as rome

Well they need the help

Video embedded in the article, but David Gaider, Chris A, Ken Levine, and a Kotaku guy discussing over story and plot http://kotaku.com/5904279/designers-behind-bioshock-dragon-age-and-fallout-spill-their-game-writing-secrets