Gorth

There is a long history of attacking vulnerable targets if it weakens your opponents economic base. None of those on the receiving end did anything to the attacker other than being part of an economic base. From the razing of farms and complete depopulation (i.e. butchering the villagers) of villages during the hundred years war to "pre-emptive" actions like Mers-el-Kebir to make sure you don't have to fight a potential adversary later. Real-politik has no morals, only objektives.

Trump: "Mission accomplished. Nobody talks about the Epstein files right now" Netanyahu: "Mission accomplished. Nobody is talking about my corruption charges and looming prison sentence" Russia: "Mission accomplished. Oil and gas prices are sky rocketing" ... Feel free to add to the list. Sad fact is, none of the two main instigators have neither motivation nor ideas how to end the war now. Putin just laughing at the sideline, counting the Petroyuans he is getting

Speaking of Madhouse... picture spam time again Out intrepid heroes have passed the checkpoint to the Northern Plateau and experience level scaling in real time. Starting with little lizards over mountain sized demons they thought were in hills in the forest The risk of being the party's tank (a role referred to as a "front liner" in the setting. For all his fast reflexes, Stark still keeps a close eye on his opponent. Fern decides she needs her boyfriend to pout at for a bit longer No place is safe anymore and getting rest turns into a real problem, leading to days without breaks or sleep "Grab the elf" (slightly paraphrased from an old movie) They eventually find an inhabited house, where they can spend the night. The owner asks a favour of them, as a monster has set up camp nearby and now kills everyone and everything, disrupting trade and travel. The party agrees as they are heading that direction anyway. They run into the fellow as it's busy eating a merchant (with appropriate slobbering noises as it licks the rest of the merchant up) This one is on a different from what they have encountered so far. Using physical weapons instead of magic, supernatural speed and strength, it dodges spells as well as Starks axe Frieren, thinking sniping it from a flying position might be a good idea, stood corrected. Barely managing to put up a protective barrier a fraction of a second before that mantis shrimp blow hits her ...and sends her flying like a tennis ball that just got served by Agassi Fern fares no better, as she now shares the emotional stress of a cricket ball hit by a very large bat swung by a very strong batter Stark, for all his failures when it comes to dating, is still gentleman enough to absorb some of Ferns kinetic energy, before she smashes into a tree. Any cricket catcher would be proud of that catch While the monster was busy playing with the kids, the old lady herself decides to shoot off the monsters right arm which just seems to agitate it even more. Stark jumps the guy and tries to strangle it. Ever the optimist. But, it leaves it exposed in a position where it can no longer dodge incoming shots... death star laser is fully charged Fern seems to already having made her mind up about Stark. He's not going to get away from her... and puts a protective bubble around him, so he doesn't get incinerated by Frieren's attack Stark is reconsidering his life choices 😃 Next up are legendary level liquors and legendary level trolling by bored elves

A few 40k inspired songs Bequins song (she's the "pariah") It is good to hate. Everyone should hate more.

Amen... I spent a full afternoon trying to work out if it was safe trying to roll back my phone to v18 again 😆

US - Australian relations explained...

One problem (amongst many) is, there is no unified opposition. Everyone being against something is not the same as everyone being in favour of something (or someone). The latter being exemplified by how the Shah was overthrown by a unifying figure. Afghanistan being the example of what you end up with when you have a puppet government held up by foreign interests and no popular support. Speaking of Iran, I just saw the Orange Moussolini making noise again. It's Nato's duty to support the US in its war against Iran. You can't make **** like this up 😂 I would have loved linking to the BBC article, but its one of those constantly changing ticket type things, so the content keeps changing

Madhouse went mad 🤯

Is there a sense of irony in there, considering Albania used to be the only European country with close ties to China. Albanian was once the only second language allowed to be taugt in China (after the break between China and the USSR) Money talks I suppose edit: completely unrelated, but the Albanian language is actually a relic from the past, some sources claining it to be 6000+ years old. Basque is older still, but still on the old side

I doubt any of what happens in Iran or Hormuz at the moment benefits the US in any way. There are heads of state, who knows how to play Trump like a fiddle and have no problems making him dance to their tune. Pat him on the head and tell him what a great guy he is and how the world will admire his tough stance. You can almost visualize the phone conversations between Netanyahu, MBS and Trump played out. Netanyahu, like Trump has pending court cases for corruption and a needs a constant state of war to stay out of jail, Saudi Arabia would not miss out on an opportunity to kill as many Shia muslims as possible. Putin has a similar talent for handling Trump like a sock puppet and get him to do Russias bidding. In this case, dismantling Nato from within. The potential for the worst oil crisis since the 70's and the dead bodies of 140+ school girls are a small price to pay for such glorious victories on the world stage. Since his ugly mug is unlikely to fit in with the other four heads on Mt. Rushmore, it wouldn't really be a surprise when the announcement comes, that national guard demolitionists are going to make way for a nice new large (the largest ever, the world has never seen anything this large and this golden!) gilded bust of his royal highness where the 4 old heads used to be

I suppose Trump accomplished an unusual feat in Iran. He managed to get Ayatollah Khamenei replaced with Ayatollah Khamenei as supreme leader 🤔

Dang it... now I'm at that cross roads again. Not really moved much past the character creation screen yet in my current game. At least not far enough for me to not reconsider my choices My first game was a barbarian/trickster/various fighter variations monster doing the legend path to level 40. He came, he saw, he demolished enemies between his butt cheeks by flexing them. I do have this weird fetish for completing a game as a scythe wielding Lich though Edit: In my previous game (uncompleteted game), I turned Camelia into a bard, Fire Dancer. Just because I wanted her to do some hot dancing for me iirc! 😇

I ended up with a Dahmpir Sage Sorcerer. Only made it to Neathholm and I need to do some mental adjustments. Trying to make my old sorcerer fight with a scythe was of course folly (even if thematically cool for a Lich), so not bothering with strength this time. Intelligence, yes, dexterity, some (enough not to shoot my own foot with a cross bow) and some charisma (just for the low bar persuation checks, not because a Dhampir wins any pageants) and the leftover points in wisdom. Not because he is very wise, but for the tiny boost to will saves. Not bothering with physical combat feats either, only things that increses the DC of spells get considered for now. Focusing on Necromancy first (not that the lowbie necromancy spells are useful per se, ray of enfeeblement my butt). I really cant remember what the Lich spell book adds to the table, but I'll sort that out when time comes for spell book merging. Looking forward to having my own pyramid again

Split off from previous thread.... "Then I'll sign it. A pen! Und stratz mit ze uldensackt. I'll sign it! Und stratz mit sei öldensackt, il der, der flutens... , der... , der... , und strippensackt! A pen! I'll sign it. Napaloni, de grosse peanut, de cheesy ravioli. There!" -Adenoid Hynkel

The never ending war for peace prizes continues

If Mimics chewing on Frieren was a running gag in season 1, Frieren chewing on bricks pretending to be bread is a running gag in season 2

You've obviously never lived in Australia 😂 The same game could be almost 100% more when purchased through Steam, if your geo-location was Australia. I think that was when I decided to get a commercial VPN solution. Also, at the time, there was some heavy censorship in games sold in Australia, because and old law forbidding the selling of 18+/R rated games in the country. Every attempt at repealing the law was met by one religious nutcase individuals veto until he eventually was forced out due to age. Aussies can now buy games with boobs and violence just like most other western countries (except Germany where blood is copper based instead of iron based) Arenanet are bastards too when it comes to their cash shop for Guild Wars 2. The cash shop currency, "Gems", has a price that is the same in Euros and Australian dollars. I.e. the exact opposite of Steam. I can buy x number of "Gems" for either 50 AUD or 50 EUR. Guess what my VPN says on the rare occasion i actually spend money there? Hint, 50 EUR os roughly 80 AUD, so I of course chose to pay 50 AUD instead Edit: A different consequence of regional pricing is the existence of cheap game keys from resellers. They get large shipments of otherwise legit keys redirected to them from low income regions and sell them at a markup to high income regions. The keys are valid, but also means low income regions regularly get deprived of the option of buying legit software at affordable prices

There is American Football for the kids, Rugby for the grown ups and for the British there is The Atherstone Ball Game (when Rugby is too mellow and a clue to why women live longer than men)

@Bartimaeus the Drakengard/Nier story spans over lots pc games, a mobile game, a stage play and a raid in ffiv (no kidding). You have to piece the order out on your own if wanting the whole story. Yoko Taro is a bit on the eccentric side when it comes to putting a story together 😀 Anyway, Fern and Stark is about to go on a date. Fern takes it very seriously... Stark is the exact opposite, not thinking at all about his appearance... A very long sequence of socially awkward teenagers raised by a legendary warrior and a legendary priest with little interaction with other people follows. So much cringe in the way they keep stumbling at every opportunity and turns the date into a disaster 💔 At least they have enough presence of mind to ask the obvious question, why didn't it work out when they both had looked forward to it? Which of course was rooted in the previous episode, where Stark had Frieren tell him about places Fern might like. After coming clean about why "it didn't feel like you" The mood lightens a bit and they realized they can actually talk about something other than places Frieren had pointed out, or worse the conversation constantly drifting towards Frierens antics. The keen observer might remember Stark seeing boobs in the cloud formations in an earlier episode He's slow, but he's learning. What is more romantic than pork buns??? 💓 Finallly both can laugh and just enjoy some quality time together, agreeing on life can be nice sometimes (skipping some Stark and Eisen backstory) In the evening, Frieren and Fern are soaking in the hot springs, and Frieren comments on Ferns good mood, asking if something special happens. Fern says nah, but her facial expression says otherwise Queue flashback to Frierens journey with Himmel and the story about the "Date". Turns out it wasn't far off the mark when Frieren called it a date. Frieren asks Himmel how he can be happy enjoying time with her despite not finding the cat they were searching for on behalf of the shop keeper. Frieren gets one of many life lessons from Himmel. Just as the cat is written off and they think Eisen and Heiter may beat them to finding it, a meow causes them to get up in arms and start a cat chase... To be continued

I received some mails from GW, about the discontinuation of the old Black Library website. Looks like they struck a deal with Apple etc. to sell the e-books through the mobile phone providers. Which sucks of course, but then I only ever bought The Old World rules in electronic format (to read on my laptop. not my phone). I just can't read a novel on my phone 😖 Maybe that is the reason 3rd Edition Horus Heresy rules haven't been published in electronic format yet? I don't see myself forking out that amount of money for something that might be as bad or worse than 2nd edition books

Just raising this thread from the annals of history. As mentioned in the what are you playing now thread, I picked up this game again and will probably need more than once to go search for info in this thread. Before I invest too much time, anyone got good suggestions for a starting class to turn into a lich? First game started out as a sorcerer, but I think I would prefer something where it makes more sense to boost intelligence rather than charisma. Maybe playing the Dhampir (sp?) race too for maximum undeadness

That makes more sense. I could not get it to add up in my brain (not the policy part, but his age). Hey, what's wrong with being named Christian or Frederik???? (nevermind that the Queen was Queen Margrethe II, Margrethe I dates all the way back to the Kalmar Union)

I found out, I could access my old Pathfinder Wrath of the Righeous saved games via GOG cloud. Awesome. Installed the game and relized a lot of time had passed since playing on my lich game 🤔 I remember having a nice editor tool for saved games, but I don't remember what it was called. In hindsight, having a spell caster specializing in scythe combat wasn't such a great idea, but hey, it made perfect sense thematically! Started up a new game as a Magus (arcane rider), but till probably drop it again. It was good as a warm up game though. I might do a second take on the Lich path, but with something different than a sorcerer as the starting class. I wouldn't be surprised if magus is a decent choice for the task Edit: It bugs me a bit, that I have a hard time constantly picking evil choises, even if its a roleplaying character.

I'm cheating a bit. My best friend during my university years was from Iran. He survived two years at the front in the war between Iran and Iraq, after which his family had saved up enough money to buy him a fake passport and ship him off to northern Europe. Awesome guy. Even better chef 🤤 He married a Danish girl, had kids, Danish beer and pork sausages was his own favourite food 😅 Shared a lot of stories too, about the clergy, the Shah, and what he knew about Iran from before those times

Iran once had an elected president, Mossadeq. Secular too. He was removed by the US and the UK, because he was more concerned about Iranian interests instead of US and UK interests. He was replaced by Rezah Pahlavi, being a good puppet to control the country. Unlike Mossadeq not objecting to the US and the UK taking ownership of Irans oil reserves. A bit like Allende in Chile. Can't have those elected leaders when people vote wrong! Reza was originally forced from power by the UK in 1941 because he was a Nazi sympatiser. Go figure, better get that guy back in power again instead of the elected one :P