Gorth

The reason being an army made up of thugs, simpletons and general "rabble" armed with automatic weapons and cannons and led by corrupt, incompetent officers. The same mix that is is the reason for the callous brutality is also the same mix that prevented Russia from winning the war outright in the first 14 days of the war (which any even medium competent army would have done blindfolded and with their shoelaces used to tied their shoes together). Main difference in February was a) better quality material humans in the Ukrainian army and a lot of material support from the west. The Ukrainian army was not significantly better at the fighting part during the first days of the war. Motivation (defending your home vs. being conscripted and shipped off to a war at gunpoint) as well as a lot of new high tech toys that doesn't kill a crew even with a glancing hit does wonder for morale. Just about any other army than the Russian (with a similar size) would have marched up against the Polish border within a fortnight and asked the Europeans if they want fries with their LPG.

Yes First paragraph is a response to Xzars post (and the nature of the videos) and the second paragraph is me musing over the irony of Ukraine still being a country for the same reason a lot of the atrocities take place.

Your dad wasn't the only one 😇

I've seen the second video (and no, it really doesn't belong on these forums, so thank you for not posting it 👍). It all leaves you with that feeling, that the bulk of the Russian army is made up of uneducated thugs led by slightly educated but rotten to the core, corrupt crooks. Hence why you get all the seemingly unnecessary cruelty and brutality. Those young men didn't want to be in a war but got issued a gun and shipped off to a war zone. No leadership or direction (militarily or ethically), so they take it out on anything. The Ukrainian army, the Ukrainian people and each other too. It's a two edged sword, because if they had been a well led and well motivated force, Ukraine would not have suffered a lot of the civilian casualties, but they would also long since have been part of the Russian Federation again (even with Russian obsolete, meme worthy hardware).

I'm *not* saying Putin is right (that wasn't the question). I'm saying "The West" is a bunch of hypocrites for not treating aggressors by the same measuring stick (and apply the same consequences). Edit: Added the 'not' because I hit submit before proof reading 😛

No referendums in any of the cases.... a few links https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_annexation_of_East_Jerusalem https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golan_Heights_Law (Trump being the only one recognizing the Israeli "de facto" annexation of part of Syria after military conquest) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annexation_of_Tibet_by_the_People's_Republic_of_China (to quote the wiki, China called it the "Peaceful Liberation of Tibet") My argument being, that Tibet being occupied by various Qin Emperors for a while is no more a legit reason for invading and occupying a country than the Russian attempt at doing the same because Ukraine was occupied by various Russian Czars in the past. The similarities are hard to overlook. The differences in response and sanctions are easy to overlook.

I think Israel and the occupied territories, including East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, muddles the whole UN and territorial integrity/legitimacy thing a bit, making it harder for the rest of the world to keep a straight face while making grand claims.... Edit: Last time I checked, the country of Tibet was still occupied wholesale by it's larger neighbour (after China invaded it in 1952) without a lot of the same, self-righteous countries doing much about it. Edit2: My way of saying some countries are acting rather hypocritical about the whole thing, applying different standards to different autocrats and their megalomaniac tendencies. Which means it's impossible to have any respect for statements or claims made by leaders of western countries until they get consistent in their support and condemnation of territorial transgressions.

i still haven't made up my mind if I want to keep the ring Daeran gave me or just sell it for the 15k... 🤔 My main character doesn't really have room for it and he's the one with the boots of freedom of movement, because he's such a hero... well, a frothing at the mouth, lunatic barbarian and the largest damage dealer in the party to boot (pun unintended).

I think a remake of BG1+2 in the Unity Engine that OwlCat uses could be "viable" (from a gaming point, not necessarily from selling/commercial point).

Ahahhh! A recent acquisition indeed (it was driving me crazy). Thank you

It was a collaboration with a Brazilian activist (according to the Patreon supporter email I got)

That reminds me of one of those old Gulf War memes about war contributions... The US brandishes its sword and yells 'Charge!'. Germany brandishes its credit card and yells 'Charge!'. Old, but still applicable 😝

I seem to have acquired a Shadow Demon somehow. I only just noticed it after venturing out of Drezen (first departure since leveling up my party). Not objecting to it's presence (it's an awesome tank, immune to physical damage), but if it's not linked to my main character, I think I would prefer to keep the party member behind it in my party. That is, if I knew which one 😖 On a positive note, had a lengthy chat with the Story Teller, who converted some of my old junk (and took all the old elven notes off my hands) into nice magical items. I need more Cold Iron Ingots though 🤔

@InsaneCommander this one's for you (fresh off the press a few hours ago) 😁

If you strung them all together in a tv drama series, it would probably be as long as the infamous Brazilian Soap series 😝

@Katphood stay safe mate 👍

Continuation from previous thread...

Sadly this thread looks like it's going to need more incarnations...

I don't remember exactly what took place (I was probably more focused on any dragon swooping down any moment and getting some payback for the ambush I set for it earlier). I'm just restarting the game. Need to level up my team then visit the place (it's close to Drezen after all) Edit: Ok, this time I chose the dangerous pass (I probably picked the easy pass previously) and got one of those text based multiple choice adventures. Arueshalae could beat the mobility checks easily and Gorth could pass the athletics checks easily. Now I'm at the tower again the the mission log has updated... Edit2: This time the dragon was there. A pushover just like the previous times (because you have all the time in the world to pre-buff). It was chatting with an old man (the Story Teller which I seem to remember from one of the previous two acts) I was just about to start cringing and preparing indignant outburst of protests when the dragon flew off again to the upper landing, thinking it was going to lead me on a merry goose chase all over the map, but it just flew up the stairs. Finished it off for good and deciding whether or not to pay the money for a not so interesting dwarf party member was a hard decision. In the end I went with the minimum amount for having him stick around.

Well the there was a tower. Marked as part of the dragon hunt quest, showed up on my map after the first blood trail location just outside Drezen. If it's a bug, I'll just ignore it for now. A bit lost where to pick up the dragon trail then Passed the time today by visiting the north west part of the map instead and robbed some dragon burial ground as the next best thing. I suspect the crazy archeologist I left at a sealed door is up to no good 🤔

Hehe, no. Not that brave. The game suggested 'Normal' in my first play through, so that is what I'm sticking with. I went to the blood trails and the next stop a bit south was some tower. Artists Tower? Other than a bunch of man eating plants, I didn't find anything there. I'm sure I'm missing something (I do have Greybor in my party in case he's still needed) 🤔 I might just give the dragon a miss for now and go explore other areas and quests, then return to it later. Doesn't seem to have a timer per se associated with it . Edit: The tooltip says further south, but I didn't spot any obvious destinations on the southern parts of the map.

An old song by my favourite Faeroese songbird

Full mobilisation is effectively today a reality. Even if it's called "partial". Because lets face it, their military infrastructure sucks and half their hardware is repossessed by Ukrainian farmers (minus the stuff at the bottom of The Black Sea) https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-62984985 "Mr Putin said the partial mobilisation was necessary to ensure Russian territorial integrity. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said it showed Mr Putin wanted to drown Ukraine in blood - including that of his own soldiers. The announcement applies to 300,000 military reservists." Edit: So, a quarter of a million more men to be sent to the front (if we deduct the expected 50000 deserters)

Not yet... but then I'm only partway through Act III. Ambushed the dragon that Greybor wants as a trophy over his fireplace and next step is to follow the blood trails. Too me forever to find them on the map 🙄 That said, a Tricksters army has some interesting elements to it 😂 Not to mention the spell selection 😁

Ah yes, I was thinking of the floating skull guy you had to fight 👍