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The Old Hack

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Posts posted by The Old Hack

  1. Posted

    On a related note, the anti-war pro-Putin faction in Denmark has come up with an amazing new argument.

    One side effect of Denmark sending as much gear as possible to Ukraine is that when we replace it, it is generally with newer and better materiel. I mean yes it is not great that it is old stuff the Ukrainians are getting but at least they are getting it right away. But Denmark still needs vehicles and weapons of its own and replacements obviously tend to be more modern.

    The Putinists are referring to this as 'stealth mobilization' and is warning that this will lead... to Denmark taking a more aggressive stance against her neighbours.

    ...

    ...dafuq?

    Denmark is literally the smallest nation in all of northern Europe with the possible exception of Luxembourg. I don't think we've waged a war of expansion since the 17th Century, and the ones we fought in then did not end well. Well, yes, Luxembourg is smaller than Denmark but I do not quite see the Danish Army beat aside the Germans and the French on our way there. I swear to God, the Putinists have lost control of their single brain cell and it is desperately hiding from them now.

     

    (In my teens I did once formulate a plan for Denmark regaining control of southern Sweden, but it involved airdropping large amounts of Schnapps and beer over strategically important junctions and then moving in with truckloads of more booze we would hand over for free. I figured we would be greeted as liberators because of Sweden's near-Prohibition level control of alcohol sales. Sadly, my plan never gained much traction, though my military acquaintances did say it was a lot less likely to lead to mass casualties than conventional warfare.)

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  3. Posted

    On 4/27/2023 at 7:11 PM, mlooney said:

    not in D&D, where we should get a "copyright and trademark lawyer" class.

    Seems to me that Wizards and Hasbro themselves could benefit from a "how to not s*** ourselves in public advisor" class.

  4. Posted

    There's a lot of current discussion as to whether the drone attack on the Kremlin was actually Ukrainian or a Russian false flag operation. Right now we cannot determine which it is as we are missing critical information. It might be a Russian false flag op, but it is not possible to be sure it is as the Kremlin hasn't denied it as yet.

  5. Posted

    4 hours ago, ProfessorTomoe said:

    I got up to take a shower prior to heading out for a lab test this morning. Headed down the hall, and the walls started tilting on me. Whoa. Shower and lab test postponed.

    As a result, I wound up sleeping solid from noon until around 11pm. No breaks.

    Prior to that, though, the clinic called back and asked me how I was doing. They were worried that my anemia was acting up. I'm supposed to call them if it happens again, even if it happens after hours.

    That sounds more than a little frightening. I am glad nothing bad happened. I am also glad you got some obviously badly needed sleep.

    Please take care.

    Darth Fluffy reacted to this

  7. Posted

    On 2/26/2023 at 10:38 PM, Darth Fluffy said:

    It appears that he went out of his way to earn that.

    I liked him during the 90s. It deeply saddens me to see what he has become. It was bad enough when he went all in for Moldy Tangerine back in 2016.

  9. Posted

    On 3/5/2023 at 2:35 PM, Darth Fluffy said:

    They should also know that callous disregard for civilians just pisses off the population and makes them more determined, but no one ever seems to get that.

    Especially militaristic states and dictators tend to forget that. They think of the general populace as helpless sheep that will knuckle under after a few demonstrations of force. But in most cases this kind of behavior merely causes the resistance to grow ever more embittered and hardened.

    Police state terror can sometimes work, but it requires a population that is either mostly complacent or indifferent. It is much simpler to attack and terrorize a minority of the population, especially if/once it has been demonized and isolated from the rest. That way you can get lots of informers and stool pigeons to happily do your work for you. But once the vast majority of the population has been alienated, the equation shifts. Then you literally require an army to keep the population pacified, one that has been trained for the task and is constantly on guard. And any and all informers are suddenly taking their lives into their hands, for if they get found out, they are very likely to have some sort of fatal accident happen to them. This reduces their enthusiasm a great deal.

    Militarily conquering a nation is the easy part. Keeping it subdued is much harder and can consume many years. Once you have angered a population so much and it has grown embittered, you may be looking at constant guerilla warfare against you for a very long time. Even if Putin somehow successfully occupied Ukraine at this point, he would be up against a population that utterly despises all things Russian, with massive numbers of weaponry still loose in the general population and a sizeable remnant of battle hardened veterans. And the force he has down there at the moment isn't even big enough to lock down on this sort of guerilla opposition. This war was a profound mistake on his part and at this point it has failed on every level. Ukraine will break Putin if it hasn't already done so.

  11. Posted

    On 2/26/2023 at 10:12 PM, mlooney said:

    Problem I have with that is my gaming group plays D&D, not Pathfinder or any other type of game. Another reason for sticking with D&D 5e is that one of our players is math challenged.  She has trouble with the limited amounts of math in 5e.  No way she would be able to play "Mathfinder" 

    I'm holding off on swearing off of WotC until I see what the 2024 books are like and how they do the SRD for them. It wouldn't take much for me to drop then granted

    I absolutely respect that. Your reasons are valid. I am more fortunate in that I am less tied to game systems.

  14. Posted

    On 2/2/2023 at 5:50 PM, Darth Fluffy said:

    A mechanism for infrequent 'you succeed in spite of lack of skill' and 'you fail in spite of great skill' adds an element of interest to the game. It has to happen rarely to not devalue skills, but it means that anything risky has actual risk.

    I remember a game where we were more or less doing "CSI: Forgotten Realms" in one scenario. We were investigating some mysterious thefts and a possible murder. At one point my character, a guard sergeant, got asked if it was OK if they took the corpse away. The player group wanted to see if we could learn more from the corpse; due to me having the highest Healing skill I got picked to do the honours.

    I looked at the corpse -- a hapless beggar from the slums -- and crit failed. I said aloud, "Clearly dead from a drug overdose. Not of interest to our case. Go ahead and take the corpse away."

    My DM actually gave me bonus XP for creatively screwing myself over. ^_^

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  15. Posted

    On 2/5/2023 at 6:01 AM, mlooney said:

    Yeah, kobold is just German for goblin or hobgoblin, as a mine dwelling creature.

    As I recall it their myth came into being due to the presence of cobalt in mines. Since cobalt at the time had no practical use, miners found its presence extremely annoying and created the myth of mine dwelling troublemakers who left cobalt around solely to make the life of miners harder. Hence 'kobolds'.

  17. Posted

    I saw someone who overreacted so much to the spy balloon that he called it "USA's new Sputnik moment". I mean honestly. This sort of thing was more or less a constant during the entire Cold War. Literally everyone who was anyone did it. Bollocking Denmark did it to East Germany and we are not exactly a world power. I mean what was the guy excited about? A balloon technology gap? I won't worry about it until I see examples of formation flying Chinese balloons shoot down F-16s and F-22s, presumably doing so with their superior speed and maneuverability.

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  19. Posted

    15 hours ago, Don Edwards said:

    I have driven in ice storms in three states. I don't recommend it - if you have a viable alternative, do that instead.

    My firm preference is to shelter in place.

    15 hours ago, Don Edwards said:

    3) Ice at 31.5 degrees Fahrenheit is much slicker than ice at 0 Fahrenheit.

    So much this. These things happen rarely in Copenhagen. When they do happen, the entire city becomes a bollocking skating rink.

  22. Posted

    Why in the world do people never learn? Who thinks it is a good idea to release extremely classified material on a game internet forum? I just don't get it!

    You'd think the idiot leakers got slapped down so hard that eventually others tempted to do something so mind bogglingly imbecilic would realize that this was not their best idea. Or are they just not able to find them?

  23. Posted

    On 1/9/2023 at 3:02 PM, mlooney said:

    The "legal" (according the the CFE treaty) definition of a tank is "full tracked, heavily armored vehicle with a main gun of over 75mm designed for direct fire weighing over 16 tons".  Self propelled guns aren't heavily armored and their guns are not made for direct fire.  Most modern SPG have their guns in turrets, but not all of them.

    The Panzer III is sad now :(

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