Agiel

I'm a bigger fan of the European tradition of comics (my view of American superhero comics can be adequately summed up by Pat Mills and Kevin O'Neill's Marshal Law and Garth Ennis' The Boys) and have recently discovered Izneo, which means I no longer have to wait an agonizing couple of daysto receive my comics ordered through Amazon.ca. Of late, I've been finishing up Monsieur Mardi-Gras Descendres (the first two volumes of four have been translated into English by Heavy Metal, though the last issue it appeared in was published in 2008). It's about a cartographer who dies (slips on his son's toy car in the bathroom and breaks his neck on the edge of the bathtub) and ends up in Purgatory where everybody walks around as a skeleton. Humourously, the Kafka-esque bureaucracy of the afterlife puts down on his death certificate that he perished in an "automobile accident". Have also looked at Enki Bilal's latest, Julia et Roem. This being Bilal, the story is quite impenetrable at first reading (though my only three years of high school French has something to do with this), but the art is still to die for:

Those rockets aren't too far-removed from the Katyusha rockets from the Second World War. Even then (as well as with its immediate successor, the BM-21 Grad), their conceit was volume of fire and mobility rather than accuracy.

The same "technological superiority" that makes them go to war in Georgia with incomplete GLONASS (basically the Russian home-grown GPS network) coverage and generals using mobile phones (which went through *Georgian* cell phone towers, meaning the Georgians could have easily intercepted Russian communications) to give orders to their troops because the radios weren't working? I believe Russia had been slated to sell SA-10 derived SAM systems (equivalent to, and in respects better than the American MIM-104 Patriot) to Iran at one point, then when the UN sanctions on weapons to Iran went into effect the Russians welched on the deal (I'd be lying if I said I didn't derive some perverse delight from this that makes me want to shake PutinMedvedev's hand that this happened after Iran's cheque to Russia had cleared). Iran later claimed they had purchased a similar system from Belarus, even parading the "TELAR" at one point. However, a defense analyst took a closer look at the erector and determined it to actually be 55 gallon drums welded together and mounted on a generic heavy lifter truck.

A bit optimistic thinking here, but hopefully everybody can win (or at least, everybody who matters in the short run). Russia can keep its naval base in the Mediterranean if they can make nice with the rebels, and Iran is deprived of its only state actor regional ally, which would really put the screws in the clerics when UN sanctions are doing a number to their economy (not to mention Hezbollah potentially being de-fanged to boot). However, my biggest concern if the rebels win are pogroms against Shi'ites and Alawites in Syria, and whoever takes over would probably put Syria's more than half-century long project of taking back the Golan Heights by force into overdrive.

I suppose an early death may have been a blessing in disguise for the former Chavez and other neo-Bolivarian leaders in Latin America. I suspect had the deficit spending continued to grow unabated, Hugo Chavez would later face the prospect of having to make cuts in the very programs he pushed through and would be remembered for the austerity protests that had also plagued Greece and Spain rather than a martyr of socialism.

While the Russians have been clawing back their old Soviet military glory and the Chinese are catching up with the West at a pretty rapid pace, by most reasonable estimates North Korea is laughably under-equipped. While the Russians did have some great Cold War tank designs (the T-80 was actually better than what many western analysts at the time had given the Soviets credit for, and older designs like the T-64 found a new lease on life with upgrades), they typically exported downgraded versions to other Warsaw Pact and Soviet client states. These versions, called "Monkey Models" usually lacked some of the modern bells and whistles enjoyed by what the Soviet army uses, like composite armour (virtually every exported T-72 uses cast steel instead of composite armour), turret stabilisation, and fire control systems (Soviet client states had to make do with obsolete coincidence rangefinders). The latest tanks the North Koreans received were T-62s, again lacking things like stabilisation and laser rangefinders. This model was christened the "Chonma-ho" (no doubt North Korean propaganda claims this to be a a completely original design). Though North Korea notoriously holds its cards close to its chest, we can make several educated guesses based on experiences the US, Israel, and western proxies had against "Monkey model" equipment used by former Soviet client states like Syria, Libya, and Iraq. For instance, Iraq did also receive monkey model T-72s from the Soviet Union, and copied the design for their own Asad Babil, or Lion of Babylon tank (which mind you, uses a higher velocity 125mm smoothbore gun over the 115mm rifled gun of T-62-derived tanks). However, given the results of rather one-sided tank battles like 73 Eastings and Norfolk, the effectiveness of monkey model tanks should be made self-evident. Couple that with the fact that by all accounts Iraq was better equipped, better trained, and the troops had hot food in their bellies before going off into war and the KPA ground forces' odds of re-uniting the peninsula under the DPRK banner are basically zero. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, China has given North Korea some token pieces of equipment (some newer electronic gadgets and exported Russian 125mm smoothbore 2A46 guns to mount on North Korea's newer tank "designs", though given that even the latest in Russian penetrators will only barely penetrate the frontal armour of the K1A1 at combat ranges, it's unlikely this will be of much help to the Norks), that said, China prefers North Korea to be strong enough that the Combined Forces won't steamroll their strategic buffer in an afternoon, and weak enough so that the KPA doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of pushing the CF back to the Pusan Perimeter (South Korea is one of China's biggest trading partners after all). The North Koreans do have the benefit of hindsight though, and seeing Desert Storm and Allied Force, and understand that no matter what the United States will own the air. Memories of B-29s bombing North Korea back to the stone age (Curtis LeMay said he only stopped sending strategic bombers towards the end of the Korean War because there were literally no more targets left to bomb) means the latest aircraft in the North Korean inventory, the MiG-29, are dedicated more towards defending Pyongyang rather than in support of ground troops. The MiG-29 is still a very good aircraft (it took a long time before the west was able to have a comparable capability to the helmet-mounted cueing system of the MiG-29), but for reasons mentioned before, finds itself outclassed in beyond-visual range engagements (not to mention that it hasn't seen the upgrades the Russians have been conducting on their own MiGs, lacks the complex Ground Control Interception and AWACS network the Russians would enjoy, and that the North Koreans are in sore need of fuel, and thus their pilots only have a fraction of the amount of flight time and training as pilots of other air forces). The North Koreans have heavily invested in ground based IADS, though that mostly comprises of equipment that has long since been phased out of service with Russia and the former SSRs like the SA-2 Guideline, the SA-3 Goa, and SA-4 Ganef and are vulnerable to modern jammers and anti-radiation missiles. However, I have read a statistic where if all the shell-based air defense guns in North Korea were to fire a single shell into the air at the same time, the combined weight of all the shells expended would roughly equate to the displacement weight of an Iowa class battleship.

Strictly speaking, the J-11 (about comparable to the F/A-18E/F Superhornet and the Su-35) and PL-12 in service with the PLAAF are reverse-engineered Su-27s and AA-12 missiles respectively. For the former, the external airframe and and flight handling characteristics were fairly easy for them to copy, they simply put in their own indigenously made avionics, radar, and other electronic guts into it. I should also clarify by what I mean by "lack of reliable engines" The engines part is a bit of a problem for the J-11 because that part wasn't as easy for them to copy from the Su-27 (and now the Russians know better not to sell them more stuff to copy, so the Chinese must either pay exorbitant costs for the actual engines, or make do with the ones they have). As for the latter, due to the Russian's lack of funding for newer toys, equipment like the R-77/AA-12 didn't see significant updates since their introduction (and that's only one part of the equation., the bulk of the Flanker fleet hasn't been upgraded to "talk" to the "Adder" so to speak, though Russia in recent years has been trying to correct this problem). And so, the Chinese having purchased some of these missiles said to themselves "Well, if the Russians don't want to upgrade them, why don't we?" That said, the Chinese have managed to field very competent aircraft designs of their own design, such as the supermanueverable J-10, and their stealth "fighter" the J-20 is a fairly novel design. My guess is the latter isn't necessarily a multirole "fighter" as the rest of the world understands it, but an IADS penetrating deep strike bomber/maritime attack aircraft and a supersonic long-range interceptor similar in concept to the proposed (and unfortunately named) B-1R.

I'm honestly a bigger fan of the aesthetic direction of Numenera. Don't get me wrong, my love of Arcanum (warts and all) will keep me chomping at the bit for Eternity, but the shades of Enki Bilal I'm seeing in the concept art for Torment has me psyched. Backed.

First read the news that Chavez bought it in Le Monde. Checked the comments section and it does give you a sense that the wide spectrum of attitudes towards the man also permeates the rest of the Western world. There are comments that "the world has lost a great socialist" as well as ones that compare him to Mao and Stalin.

Good luck when the current fleet of Eagles, Vipers, Hornets, and Rhinos can shoot down the entire fleet of Su-27s and MiG-29s faster than you can say "Pitbull" due to a lack of a missile comparable to the AIM-120B/C AMRAAM by non-NATO aligned countries (the AA-12 "Adder" hasn't seen significant upgrades since its introduction in the mid 90s, and sees wider use by the Indians than its own native air force), Even in Flaming Cliffs 3, developed by a *Russian* company, the Su-27S and the MiG-29 are severely outclassed in BVR engagements. Actually, the Chinese Air Force is a more formidable opponent these days due to being able to field AESA radars, being at the top of the game in avionics, and the PL-12 ARH missile (said to be at least as capable as the AIM-120B). Their only Achilles heel being a shortage of reliable engines.

One in a thousand incidents like that hardly impact morale, especially in the face of countless other instances of tanks like the Abrams and the Challenger enduring hellish amounts of punishment (both use 3rd generation Chobham composite armour and DU inserts). Even in the event of penetrating hits, the Abrams enjoys outstanding crew protection due to the fact that the ammunition is stowed in a separate compartment of the turret and also boasts a sophisticated fire suppression system. While it isn't an "invincible tank" (not that anyone was claiming otherwise), its fearsome reputation is quite well-deserved. As yet, you haven't provided any citable sources more valid than those by Lakowski. That said, my favourite tank is the French AMX-56 Leclerc; its got the world's most sophisticated fire control and ballistics computer, a battle-management data link giving it unparalleled situational awareness, and the latest and greatest autoloader capable of firing 12 aimed shots a minute (a machine gun in tank gun terms).

Find it easier to believe documentation utilising sources both western and former Warsaw Pact for a piece of software also used by modern militaries for gunnery training and platoon to battalion level armour and mechanised infantry tactics instruction and practice. Same vulnerabilities present in the T-72B series and forward. Rear half of the side is not covered with ERA bricks, as well as a spot on the top of the turret to make way for the infra-red searchlight for the T-80U and forward. Coax ports, driver's hatch, and the turret ring are the traditional weak points of a tank, and tanks using ERA are no exception. Attached is said documentation. Be warned, it makes for incredibly dry reading, such that even a semi-hardcore simmer like myself glosses over a lot of it, especially the maths part (major in studio art). ArmorBasics.pdf

From Steel Beasts Pro Personal Edition armour documentation - RHAe: Ammunition penetration chart from the Steel Beasts wiki: http://www.steelbeasts.com/sbwiki/index.php/Ammunition_Data For reference, the 120mm M256 is mounted on the M1A1+, the 120mm L/44 on the Leopard 2-2A5, and the 125mm 2A46 on T-64s and on. In the pure protection department, Challenger 2 currently holds the title of most well protected. However, as the British were quite adamant they retain their capacity to fire HESH rounds from their rifled 120mm guns, the British sabot suffers in penetration power compared to comparable rounds fired from smoothbores. That said, the Challenger 2's turret does have provisions to mount the Rheinmetall 120mm gun and derivatives.

The F-35 is still a very capable stealth BVR fighter, the big problem that remains is reining in the final flyaway cost so it has the export potential and "bang-for-your-buck" the F-16 had (the F-35 is supposed to be to the F-16 what the F/A-22 is to the F-15). When it does enter full production, it will move the 5th-generation fighter goalposts because virtually every non-NATO aligned air force still lacks a proper response to 4th generation jets with the AIM-120B/C AMRAAM.

Out of the blue I remembered this one FedEx commercial, then looked high and lo before finally finding it. Enjoy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rf6E72_6gY&feature=youtu.be

Soviet tanks were small, which did make them harder to hit and gave them good power to weight ratios. At the cost of that, the composite armour was generally inferior to NATO tanks (many pre-T-72B models and derivatives still use cast steel armour) and the turret elevation and depression was far more limited than their western counterparts, which made them even less suitable for both urban operations and fighting in a defensive hull-down position. Western tanks are also far less susceptible to catastrophic explosions and ammunition cook-offs, unlike the later Soviet tanks that used an auto-loader (hence the nickname given to T-72s, "Jack in the Boxes"), something that is also exhibited in that image you gave.

I don't know about the worst nurses. What I do know is that I'd let the ladies from the Bundeswehr's tank corps take care of me. Especially one who could load those sabot rounds into that 120mm Rheinmetall L55 gun like nothing. Reeeowww... mein frauleins.

"Looks like you watch Fox TV to much." Le Monde, Associated Press, and Reuters actually. Way more credible than Pravda.

Actually look up Operation Rimon 20. It was *Soviet* flyers in MiG-21s (in the 70s, still a very competitive fighter when the MiG-23 and MiG-25 had barely entered into service).

I do hope he goes full pelt mage so he can laugh his ass off when he has to jump through the hoops to hop onto a train (if he doesn't already know about it). And hopefully he doesn't get to a point where he can't use the train period before he manages to get the Teleport spell.

July 30, 1970, the War of Attrition - Operation Rimon 20: "Elite" Soviet pilots flying MiG-21s, then the backbone of Warsaw Pact air power are trounced by Israelis flying F-4E Phantom IIs and Mirage IIICs, losing five Fishbeds to no losses on the Israeli side. August 1996, the First Chechen War - Battle of Grozny: Advancing into the town without infantry support (as you have said before, tantamount to suicide in urban warfare), Russian armour gets slaughtered in the dozens by Chechen rebels, including several of what was then considered among the cream of the crop of Russian armour, the T-80BV. September 2004, Beslan, North Ossetia: In a show of, to put it mildly, disproportionate application of force in resolving a hostage crisis involving women and children, Russian armed forces resort to using tanks and thermobaric weapons to neutralise the hostage takers. Tragically (and rather predictably) 385 hostages lose their life and a further 783 are injured. Entebbe, Lufthansa Flight 181, and the Iranian Embassy in London this ain't. I can own up to the West's share of military blunders since the Cold War began (MacArthur's idiotic decision to push to the Yalu river despite ample warning from the PRC, LeMay's single-minded focus on strategic bombing which would stagnate Air Force doctrine until Chuck Horner and the AirLand Battle concept came into the picture). However, I won't stand for it if someone thinks his country's armed forces is above something as concrete as human fallibility.

It's relatively inaccurate to refer to North Korea as a communist state; the Juche philosophy coined by Kim Il Sung that has supplanted Communism as the country's leading ideology is as far from orthodox Marxism as can possibly be imagined, and the reality is that the current political state of country more closely resembles Korean-branded Nationalist Socialism (one of the lines fed to its populace to instill fear of "American aggression" is that black American troops stationed in South Korea are "liasoning" with their South Korean brethren and breeding "half-breed mongrels", even pregnant Korean women with their children sired by Chinese fathers are given abortions, if this isn't propagating the idea of a "master race", I don't know what does). Their current constitution at best has token references to Marx and Lenin and many won't hesitate to attribute their writings to the "Dear Leader" himself (who mind you, is still the President of North Korea despite being dead for almost two decades; as Christopher Hitchens said, a "thanotocracy, or a "necrocracy"). As for their economic state they also have themselves to blame. Juche, no matter what school of economic thought you abide by, is equivalent to economic suicide (remember the saying: "No man is an island"?). Rather hypocritically, they relied highly upon Soviet and Chinese investments during the Cold War, and with the collapse, those funds dried up and having built a dependency on their former allies their indigenously-built infrastructure was ill-prepared for the long agony of the nineties. As for their military, well, 25% of their GDP spent on defense doesn't count for much when the ROK's military budget alone is equivalent to the North's entire GDP.

Would like to see this. Here's what think of when I think of a melee capable mage: Eldar Farseer. Screenshot courtesy of Warhammer 40000 - Dawn of War II: Retribution.

The problem is that North Korea's conventional power is still enough for them to ostensibly hold the world economy hostage. While the KPA hasn't a hope or a prayer of pushing the combined forces of the US and the ROK back down to the Pusan perimeter like they did in '53 without Chinese help (the Chinese are more liable to oust Kim Jong-un themselves before letting that happen), the North Koreans have enough tube and rocket artillery pieces lined up on their side of the DMZ to devastate Seoul, one of the main economic hubs of the world. It's an attitude of "If we can't have it, no one can" which is downright reckless and monomaniacal, not to mention childish, that makes their antics worthy of more attention from the world.

My most memorable playthrough of of Arcanum was my third (the first was blind, the second trying to get the most optimal of outcomes with all the knowledge I had from beforehand) where I roleplayed as a haughty walking techbane elf pure mage who was quite racist, though not one from any genuine malice or spite but because of her upbringing (you know the type, the one that constantly defends him or herself saying: "Don't get me wrong. I've got plenty of orc friends and they're all very pleasant!"). Basically, Princess Clara from Drawn Together. Needless to say, she got herself in her fair share of scuffles due to that mouth of hers.