alanschu

Speaking of them, the Siege of Canton has gone on for many, many days now. By my estimate, it seems like 240k chinese versus 120k Japanese. The one bad thing is that if Japan decides to shore bombard this city, I'll probably be in a world of hurt. Some Chinese bombers are getting in airstrikes however, to help with the attrition. I'm still just doing bombardments however. I wouldn't dream of fighting in a town with full fortifications with only twice the soldiers. The airlift of supplies is finally starting to payoff, as most units seem to be meeting their supply requirements, which will help them fight more effectively. I also got a bit lucky in Burma. I noticed one of my bases were bombed out of a strike from Mandalay, so I switched some of my bombers (that were softening up the cities at the line) to do an Airfield attack on Mandalay. The result was a 4 pronged attack, including 48 LB-30 Liberator Heavy Bombers, and it resulted in around 30 damaged airplanes on the ground alone, plus a few fighters that tried scrambling and were cut down by a combination of defensive fire from the bombers, as well as the P-40 escort. While many planes were damaged, not a single one was destroyed on my part. A severe blow to Japanese operations in the Far East theatre.

Was Aragorn really "chosen?" Was he really anything more than the decendent of a king? Why does the heroism and courage that he display somehow become tainted and less enjoyable because he has a bloodline that contains royalty, whereas Frodo is of a special race that allows him to hold the Ring of Power without being immediately corrupted. Is Luke Skywalker really "chosen?" Because he was skilled with the Force? No one else other than Luke would be able to do what he did? You also talk about Cloud, the Baldur's Gate series, and so on, which are arguably the most popular and successful RPGs of their respective styles. So what exactly is the significant difference? That they are "normal" and display courage? And furthermore, as I stated in my original question, is the game really more enjoyable otherwise.

KOTOR 2 and NWN2 would probably have been underhand lofts Maybe Obsidian is like that fastball player that struggles in slopitch!

An on June 18th, 1942, the Allied Armed Forces in the Philippines have officially capitulated to the Japanese Aggressors. Unfortunately, it means those 80k japanese troops in that area are going to be going somewhere else instead. A valiant effort.

Unless you happen to be playing for some friends in a slo-pitch game and don't really understand the rules since you're used to playing softball. I guess then, to apply the analogy, it still counts as a strike, but your company will never fold.

Fate played a large part, simply because he was a hobbit. Besides, what you just described is not what you were in Oblivion either. Though it was a bit of a mistake on my part, because I typically associate "Chosen One" with being "PC is big and bad and ultimately stops great cataclysm." Is a game about saving a kingdom really, deep down, significantly different and more enjoyable if you are just "some guy" that saves it, or someone "chosen" to save it. Again, it's nice, and I wouldn't mind either (I don't really like it when plots stop and wait for the player), but you will still get people complaining about it.

A foul ball is a strike.

So what exactly do you do then? Do you make the PC completely uninvolved in the actual conflict? Because either you're solving it, or you're doing what you can to help. Do people not like, for instance Aragorn, even though his contribution to solving the problem is essentially just trying to help buy Frodo the time he needs?

Exactly. It's not like you were off and about doing your thing, and suddenly Martin wins the game while you're off doing something else.

It's funny, because people will complain about being the big chosen one who does everything, and then at the same time, complain if their role isn't always the primary role. I don't necessarily mind it if the PC isn't the big solution to the problem, as long as the PC is involved with it.

It was more a question along the lines of whether or not reading Mein Kampf would have lead people to resist the holocaust. I was hoping you'd be familiar with it and could provide some insight.

A brief history of time was an excellent book. Admittedly I have not read Mein Kampf, but would reading it have lead to the holocaust not happening?

Well, those Ruskies and their 3 bullets per soldier made things difficult.

Jung was a crackpot

Which sections of the Qur'an would this be? Seems like a pretty bold claim. That's a rather simple outlook. There were indeed anti-Semites that were able to recreate Jesus as a fighter against the Jews, in what is called Positive Christianity. This particular Christian outlook is what the Nazi Party sought to impose in Germany. It is a myth that Nazi Germany was anti-Christian. They just had a different perspective on the religion, and like had been experienced in the past, someone was trying to use religion to influence the people. They used it to fuel anti-Semitism. The whole persecution of the Jews was religiously motivated. Your statement also overlooks the rather obvious fact that Hitler was exceptionally charismatic and very persuasive. I doubt reading the Bible would have made a significant difference, because they probably were reading it. Or at least some form of it. The statement is also shakey because in the predominantly Christian South, Blacks were persecuted. There's the idea that Hitler used this as an example of how he can persecute the jews.

Skinner was big on all of our actions being because of some type of previous learning. Even the seemingly completely random, because whatever we "randomly" chose to do, we still chose based on something.

Victoria: Revolutions has a scenario set up to mimic The Great War. And not too surprisingly, it's a big giant war of attrition in the West, and a War of "We're better trained, better equipped, and just plain better than you" in the East.

Yup, the Yamato was one such ship. The biggest in fact. Has 18.1 inch batteries that could shoot 42 km! I have been fortunate enough to have NOT encountered the Yamato so far, though I would love to put a torpedo into her side! I remember reading an assessment between the two big boys, the Yamato and the Iowa Class Battleship. It seemed as though the Japanese still used radar assisted visual spotting for where the shells were landing, and it was suspected it would not fare as well in a long range naval battle, as it could not accurately tell where the shells were landing relative to the ship. The Iowa on the other hand, had a superior RADAR, which could also be used to train the guns, and it could also accurate detect the tops of the splashes from long range shells falling over the horizon. For it's time, it sounds like a pretty impressive boat. In fact, the Americans were pretty smart with incorporating radar assisted fire control for both their main batteries, as well as their AA guns. I'm an Iowa fanboy, and I get my first one in 617 days! :D

Each hex represents 60 miles, so I think it'd be pretty good to shoot 60 miles :D The big 18.1" guns on the Yamato I believe have a range of 30-40k on them, not that hitting anything would really be possible (outside of a shore bombardment) given the curvature of the Earth.

My first time was always my favourite, because I didn't think to crush him in the doors, I just used it as an alternative way to get around. Having him chase me all over, including the mad dash to the Gondola, was intense!

That's always the case. When I worked in a restaurant, it was particularly hilarious. The dishwasher bitched about how he was alone in the dishpit, and had to deal with dirty dishes and whiny waitresses saying they need clean cups or whatever. Waitresses hated dealing with people, and even though they only had a small part of the restaurant, they had to deal with customers multiple times (the cooks just had to deal with each customer once), had to put up with annoying people, and had to do damage control whenever anything goes wrong. And if anything went wrong, it was taken out of their tip. Cooks had to work in the hot kitchen, put up with annoying waitresses who think the world centers around them and their tables, cook food for virtually every table, in addition to take out and delivery orders. They had to deal with waitresses allowing bizarre customer requests, as well as allowing customers to order something that was on the menu 12 years prior to the most senior person on the staff. And if someone screws up an order, they have to try to deal with making a rush order on top of everything else. As someone who was a cook, and then a manager, it was all rather entertaining.

The Troika games were hardly perfect. I really enjoyed Bloodlines, but annoying memory leaks and potential game breaking bugs can be rather irritating.

If they don't profess it openly, how can we be certain it's so popular?

Not that I can tell. You can only attack targets in the same hex it seems. Though I still hold New Guinea at this time, so it wouldn't be an issue. Was it possible to actually shoot artillery across into new guinea?