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#31
Current Events / Re: Baltimore Bridge Collapse
Last post by Gusington - Yesterday at 01:40:30 PM
'Sad' is a great way to put it.
#32
Current Events / Re: Baltimore Bridge Collapse
Last post by ArizonaTank - Yesterday at 01:27:22 PM
Quote from: Gusington on Yesterday at 11:24:26 AMThe actual conspiracy theories floating around out there are crazy.

It is very sad, but probably inevitable in today's climate.

The conspiracy theories I have seen are crude and sick attempts at political "pokes in eye," to put more points on the board for one political tribe or the other.
#33
Computer Gaming / Re: FREE --> 3 DLCs for Hearts...
Last post by Tanaka - Yesterday at 11:50:49 AM
Quote from: Ian C on March 26, 2024, 10:00:32 AMJust to hijack this thread for thoughts on a mod. Bear with me...

I recently started playing the Black Ice mod and it is by far the best and most realistic experience I've had with any WW2 global strategy game, ever. This is a mod made by a team that know history and wargames.

If you like HOI4 and you can handle the extra depth, I highly recommend it. In my recent play through as the UK I went through experiences that matched the Battle of Britain, Blitz, the U-Boat war and now I'm up to 1942 and the Russo-German war and Japanese war is in full swing.

To give some idea of the scope: The Luftwaffe was hammering the RAF over the UK from the fall of France up to 1941 and I was hanging on by a thread. My production of Fighters wasn't enough to fill the losses and literally every single tech gain and percentage of help proved decisive (as it does elsewhere in the game). When the U.S. Sold me Fighters I literally breathed a sigh of relief.
My industry was being bombed away. Black Ice has separate factories for air production, tank production, etc. and strategic bombing can individually target these.

The AI does a great job. There are U-Boat attacks all over the historical routes and they are difficult to defend against so far. Air, Land and Sea combat behaves very realistically, both in means and pace. 

Too many things to list here about how much fun and how dramatic this mod is. The way units are composed is accurate. Combat and supply feels realistic. I found myself really using espionage and cryptography, air power and other factors as combat in North Africa was at a stalemate until I realised I was just playing casually like I do with the base game. Once I started taking small factors into account, using air supply, breaking cyphers, air recon, etc, the battle shifted in my favour. These are things that don't really impact too much in the base game, but they really count here.


There are some drawbacks. The mod is really deep. Research, production and other areas are massively expanded. If you find these areas boring or a struggle in the base game, you won't like the mod. It also requires some knowledge of the history of the time, in order to make appropriate choices. It requires more attention and it is definitely exhausting in places, but, as a simulation of world war two, for me at least, this is the realism and drama of it. I would highly recommend that the game is run at a maximum of speed 2 while at war, maybe 3 in the quiet moments. It is easy to miss something really important. Once again, this game takes a lot of concentration and planning. You can't go in lightly.

I took my eyes off the Far East while fixating in North Africa and Japan took Ceylon. From there they threatened East Africa and Southern Arabia. Again, the AI is very surprisingly good. I was blaming ahistorical AI on this before I released I'd let them have Ceylon through negligence and neglecting my naval presence there. The island is strategically important because from it, the Japanese can project naval power into the Indian Ocean and Arabian areas and I completely missed it because I was used the base game's AI. I've cowed the German Kriegsmarine and there is little chance of them launching any invasion as the Germans are bogged down in Russia, so I'm sending the majority of the Home Fleet over to the Indian Theatre to stop any more Japanese advances.

I'm tempted to restart, as it's my first proper game with Black Ice, but I think I'll stick with it and accept my mistake and recover from it.

In summary, this is the best HOI 4 experience I've had so far, but it's deep, difficult, historically realistic and unforgiving.

LINKS TO MOD:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1137372539
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=842834893

Wow great write up. I abandoned HOI4 a long time ago but you have now made me reconsider it. Just wondering have you played SCWAW and how do you compare?
#34
Current Events / Re: Baltimore Bridge Collapse
Last post by Gusington - Yesterday at 11:24:26 AM
The actual conspiracy theories floating around out there are crazy.
#35
Current Events / Re: Baltimore Bridge Collapse
Last post by Windigo - Yesterday at 11:07:49 AM
Am disappointed, came here for the conspiracy theories...

RIP, the bridge work crew.
#36
Current Events / Re: Baltimore Bridge Collapse
Last post by Tripoli - Yesterday at 10:01:49 AM
There is a suggestion that it may have been contaminated fuel that caused the power loss. I'm not sure I agree that is a likely reason.  My reason for this opinion is that the presence of contaminated fuel should have been detected both by the port (if the contaminated fuel was brought onboard) or by the crew before ever departing port.  At least in the USN, we did fuel quality checks (going off of memory here) every 12 hours underway, and it was part of the checklist before any restricted maneuvering situation (such as entering/leaving port).  The checks are not that difficult, and I'm sure that doing the checks would be part of the regulations for merchants.   https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/baltimore-container-ship-crisis
#37
Current Events / Re: Baltimore Bridge Collapse
Last post by Redwolf - Yesterday at 07:30:44 AM

Here is (in German) a report on the bridge with comments from one English and one German structural engineers. Basically they echo what was said above. You wouldn't build the bridge like this anymore, but in 1977 that was OK.

https://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/baltimore-warum-ist-die-bruecke-eingestuerzt-und-was-weiss-man-ueber-das-containerschiff-a-a9b0409f-b823-48cc-830e-f1a3c34d265d
#39
Enigmas of the Mystical / Re: More Pix For A Laugh
Last post by Staggerwing - Yesterday at 05:34:28 AM
Quote from: GDS_Starfury on March 26, 2024, 05:35:32 PM
Quote from: W8taminute on March 26, 2024, 03:17:43 PMInteresting.  Surprised to see NYC is not listed.


thats the whole point of the meme.  no NYC, no Chicago  :buck2:

No New Haven...