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#1

Off the Record / Re: Russo-Ukrainian War 2014-2...

Last post by The Minsky Moment - October 06, 2025, 05:27:29 PM

I think you may be downplaying the effort it took to transforming the US manufacturing base into something that could turn out that many bombers.

It was done pretty quickly.  The US obviously had a lot of underutilized industrial capacity.

I concede it isn't a real apples-to-apples situation; even the more heavily armed long range drones are a lot cheaper than medium bombers.  But the idea of facing a strategic situation where the adversary has the means of conducting lots of deep penetration strikes that could be tough to reliably against was definitely on people's minds in the 1930s and as it turned out with some good reason.

#2

Off the Record / Re: Refractory Gauls, or the F...

Last post by Zoupa - October 06, 2025, 05:01:30 PM

Ensemble+Les Republicains has 189. Left (Greens, LFI, Socialists, Communists and a bunch of small ones) has 178.

#3

Off the Record / Re: Refractory Gauls, or the F...

Last post by Josquius - October 06, 2025, 04:44:07 PM

Actually nvm, they're not the biggest group, as the presidential coalition has more seats.

I'm seeing 180 to 159?

#4

Off the Record / Re: Russo-Ukrainian War 2014-2...

Last post by crazy canuck - October 06, 2025, 04:34:40 PM

No, to damage the enemy at range required costly investment in the manufacture and development of bombers.  The opposite of what is occurring now.

Sort of?

Germany had over 1500 bombers when the war started. By '42 Britain was producing about 5000 bombers a year.  US produced about 50,000 heavy and medium bombers during the war.

The airframes weren't that hard to build.  Finding good pilots and crew is another story; drones have an advantage there.

I think you may be downplaying the effort it took to transforming the US manufacturing base into something that could turn out that many bombers.  It was only after that was done that finding crews to man them became an issue.

#5

Off the Record / Re: Refractory Gauls, or the F...

Last post by Zoupa - October 06, 2025, 04:21:18 PM

Actually nvm, they're not the biggest group, as the presidential coalition has more seats.

#6

Off the Record / Re: Refractory Gauls, or the F...

Last post by Zoupa - October 06, 2025, 04:19:32 PM

Looks like we have a French Liz Truss.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cewn9k0w9rxo

So...finally give people the socialist they voted for?

I'm assuming you mean the left's coalition. They received 25% of the vote, with 178 elected out of 577 seats. It's the biggest group in the assembly, but nowhere near a majority.

#7

Gaming HQ / Re: The Miscellaneous PC & vid...

Last post by Josquius - October 06, 2025, 03:29:30 PM

I've been playing a game of normal stellaris for the first time in a while.
Went quite well. Almost too easy despite picking the unplugged hard start.
Main challenges were early with consumer goods shortages. Even now late in the game automation doesn't seem to be working well. Not much being build on my planets. I wormer if I've missed turning something on somewhere.

Anyway.
Khan horde forms and goes on a rampage.
They're located in the galactic sw and I'm in the se so they screw over some neighbours letting me sneak steal a few systems.
They meet their end smashing into my citadel system on the border.

L gates open. This is new. And it's friendly nantes. Almost a shame.


Late game and the unbidden show up in a remote corner of my empire. In a completely random system rather than the one with lots of black holes. Hmm.


They look.... Scary. I thought I was strong. I am not. They've so much more fleet power than me.
I'm one or two advances short on the optimal weapons to kill them too.


But.... Rather than advance into my empire around them they head in one direction, take some of my useless border systems and then go straight into the empire next door.
That's good. Gives me time to try and prepare properly. Rebuild ships to kinetics and missiles. Get a titan up and running.

I make plans of where to make my stand. They will eat through this se empire to where on the other side of it I have some territories too. Or maybe loop up to my core worlds?

My star fortress systems connected by gateways should do it with my fleets. They beat the khan.
But.....
The unbidden just keep heading into this other empire.... They leave their portal bordering directly onto my systems and totally undefended.
With all their fleets several jumps away I send over my fleets and close the rift pretty sharpish.


I've still got to mop up those of them who are here.
But they make another unexpected move that makes this easier - they send a bunch of fleets through an l gate. Wipe out the gateway system there but lose their fleet in the process.

Eventually 2 of their fleets does hit one of my fortresses.... It's quite pyric. My star fortress is destroyed and my fleets take heavy casualties. But we win.

#8

Off the Record / Re: Dead Pool 2025

Last post by Sheilbh - October 06, 2025, 02:28:15 PM

Another Dame - RIP Dame Jilly Cooper Rivals was one of my surprise TV joys last year (and a useful reminder of why Harold Pinter said Danny Dyer was the actor of his generation).

#9

Off the Record / Re: Russo-Ukrainian War 2014-2...

Last post by Valmy - October 06, 2025, 02:25:23 PM

But the end result whether it's a big air battleship you can't shoot down or a constant never ending swarm of drones... Same same.

Heh. Kind of reminds me of the Incan Torpedo Boat thread.

#10

Off the Record / Re: STAR TREK

Last post by viper37 - October 06, 2025, 02:20:04 PM

So. 4 1/2 vulcans.

So changing species is just that easy.... And this is never done again?

And vulcan behaviours being genetic rather than something learned?... That flies against canon.

changing species, they keep doing it in all trek series, but it's usually cosmetic surgery.
This is an evolution of the old trick.

Why did La'an go Romulan though. All this time are Romulans not just ancient vulcans but actually vulcan augments?

I'm guessing all the characters behavior is a reference to your previous point, genetic vs learned logic.
Without proper training, logic becomes flawed.  That's why La'an becomes so militaristic, so Romulan, in a way.  She has trouble integrating Vulcan logic with her own emotions.

Flawed episode, like so many this year.

I've read they struggled with the strike this year, had trouble adjusting to the pace.