Paal_101

Sweet Is he corporate or military?

That is true Michael, but often times it is easier to say to the public that your best combat vehicle, which has almost never taken a combat loss (and I don't believe that any Abrams was lost to enemy fire before this incident, but I'm not sure), was taken out by a brand new weapon that couldn't have been planned for in the initial design stage of the tank. All this when in fact it was taken out by the same old RPG-7 launcher with a slightly more expensive warhead that the Russians have had in their possession for some time and Iraq was too cheap to buy. Iraq had hundreds of thousands of RPG-7 projectiles in store at an average cost of $20 apiece. Many were manufactured in country and since they were fighting the Iranians at the time, high quality rounds were not required since they were all driving old tanks that couldn't stand up to the older RPG-7 rounds to begin with. Now in Iraq insurgents are getting their hands on high-quality Russian projectiles which greatly increase lethality at a small increase in price. Your still looking at a projectile of no more than $50 taking out a $4 million tank... Plus the RPG-27s and 29s are starting show up over there, which ups the vulnerability of Abrams even more. Did not know you had a similar interest Jan What's your main focus? I focus mostly on small arms (hence my rant on the RPG ), although I have a keen interest in air combat and surface forces.

No problem at all Fascinating topic is it not? What is your degree?

I too am of Balkan stock, my dad was born in Croatia As for the Macedonians, they are included with the Hellenes as that is the closest group we could fit them into for Part I. The goal was to have 6 playable civs that branch. Macedonians can obviously be considered Hellenic in a general sense so they were shoved in there. Ideally I would love to make them their own side with branches into the Alexandrian and Diadochi armies as options. But that may happen through expansion packs, who knows? Thebes would also be an impressive addition to the Hellenes, as they are my favorite Greek city state. Cultural elements like Athens, yet highly militarized like Sparta. Unique combination I would love to do the Illyrians, Scythians, and Thracians as addon races. It would add some depth and unique viewpoints to the game. However we have to get the six we have in there already

Actually I'm a solid Haplogroup I, which has lived in the Balkans for the past 25,000 years and makes up the bulk of Croatian and Bosnian DNA. So I'm a fellow Illyrian for certain Good chance I also have some Sarmat blood to boot.

Hit it pretty much on the head Illryian One unit is not in there and another one is slightly different. Yet another one may be dropped. As a hint currently there are five standard Roman units plus super units and heroes.

Hey Illyrian! Thanks for your posts. I'll answer some of your questions Sarissa - easily exlained. For gameplay purposes at this point we are playing around with sarrissas of this length. They may be lengthened in the future, but for ease of use at the moment they are remaining at the current length. In addition the sarissae of Philip's and Alexander's time were a bit shorter at roughly 13 feet. The 15 to 19 foot sarissa become more common during the times of the Diadochi. Phalanx - the screenshots do not show actual complete formations, they are premade, preposed formations. At the moment there are no formations ingame yet, but there will be. Testudos and pila are in Impossible to have Romans without them. Germanic wedge formations are absolutely in my sights looking ahead to Part II. Siege towers (Helepolis anyone? ) are in, as are walls. Hope those answer your questions fully.

Indeed, and evidently the US dollar is sitting on the edge of a potential 40% drop in value. One good thing, they will take down China at the same time, since the Chinese governement holds massive stocks of unconverted US cash for use in international trade. If the US dollar dives, the Chinese economy goes at the same time.

That being said, we are not ready for a beta any time soon, although we are moving ahead at a good pace You'll know when the beta is ready

Hehe, actually where do you think the name Romania came from? Do a Google on the Dacian Wars I'll say it again Jonathan, man I'm jealous Awesome trip and I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Indeed, with the B-2s still being paid off it gets pretty expensive. Add to that the F-35 purchase, and the F-22 just coming online it will increase. Don't forget the ongoing conversion of four Ohio SSBN to guided missile subs, plus the procurement of a new .45 calibur side arm (most likely a new design) and the failure of the XM-29 OICW program, and the purchase of the Stryker armored fighting vehicle. Plus the new Seawolf-class subs were cut short at three boats, spawning the need (and consequent R&D) for the Virginia Class SSN, which cost $2.6 billion per unit, with 30 on order. Not to mention the CVN 21 series of nuclear aircraft carriers that start arriving in 2008 As for the TAPS, with 8,800 Abrams in service with the US Army and Marine Corps the total comes to another $2.64 billion. And this does not make the tank invincible. It still hasn't been proven if the system can actually take on multiple warheads at once. Definately increase survivability. But frankly, that is a lot of money for extra weapons. All with a 2006 budget defecit of $371 billion, and a trade deficit that requires $1 billion dollars of external financing per day, and a national debt owed to foreign banks of $8.4 trillion Good days for the US defense industry, but as an accounting student it makes me cringe. That being said, I do find military technology fascinating and the TAPS system intriguing.

From my previous post

LOL Yeah that was a lot of fun to do. Have to say that I haven't messed with it in a very long time and I'm starting to forget most of it. What happens when one starts to grow up That is an interesting site, have to say I've never been there before.

Great work on the history of the factions I am greatly impressed. If you ever get tired, let me know, I'll find you some work here

Actually, the forcefield is media hype. The so called "forcefield" is actuallya kill zone around the tank created by a shotgun-style weapon known as Trophy Active Protection System (TAPS for short) . When an RPG is fired at the tank, the TAPS picks it up on radar. The countermeasure mechanism includes a small turret on top of the tank, which turns and shoots a cone of shrapnel, if you will, at the approaching RPG or ATM, which detonates it at range. It gives the sense of a forcefield as the shotgun fires to detonate the weapon at a particular distance from the vehicle. Quite an impressive defence Combined with reactive and Chobham armor, it should give Merkavas and Abrams a huge boost in combat effectiveness. As for forcefield? Not in the sense of an energy barrier. It just sounds high-tech and advanced, mostly to impress opponents and you, the American taxpayer, who will soon be purchasing this fabulous technology at a cost of $300,000 per vehicle And it is not the first system of its type developed, as the link below explains. More info: http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htarm/art...s/20060418.aspx On an aside: Man I hate Fox, what a bunch of idiots! "Top Secret Countermeasure", give me a break. "RPG's - crude weapons".......trust me, with the newer projectiles RPG-7s are far from crude. New anti-armor versions are capable of punching through 300 mm of armor, roughly 12 inches. Cheap, not crude. Plus I dare them to ask any tanker if the RPG-22 is a crude weapon. Simple, but far from crude. The report gives the impression that the US Army does not use similar weapons. Obviously they have never heard of the M-72 LAW One thing they did get right: RPGs cause half of all US casualties in Iraq. All in a weapon that costs roughly $200 (even $100 in some places) for the launcher and roughly $30 on average for each projectile. And a $200 RPG-7 is more than capable of taking out a $4.3 million M1A2 Abrams MBT. Plus check out some of the new RPGs showing up in Iraq and even Fox would not call these crude. http://www.strategypage.com/gallery/articl...tos_2004614.asp

Wow, very impressive Amazing work!

Indeed, welcome As you can see we are all divided it camps here

Hehe! This almost sounds like that scam with the "African prince" having to get rid of several million dollars to avoid prosecution and just started e-mailing random people. All that was required was to turn over one's account access and all would be taken care of

Sweet stuff Thanks for the info! Funditor is a new one for me, never heard that before, thanks!

Indeed me to. Always wanted to see Megiddo, Masada, and Jerusalem. Way too much history to comprehend

Welcome Evan! Let me be the first to welcome you to our humble home on the Internet Are you a member of the Red Cross? I used to volunteer with that organization and have only good things to say about the people I had contact with. As for learning, this is a great place and it is most definately okay to watch, but don't be afraid to jump right in We are always looking for new points of view and ideas. Again, welcome!

We have chosen to represent the Roman army as seen during the 3rd century BC to roughly 100BC when the Marian Reforms kicked in. There are five major eras of the Roman army one could portray: Pre-Punic (hoplites, Etruscan influence) Punic War Marian/Caesarian Imperial (Dacian Wars, Invasion of Britain) Late Roman (4th to 5th centuries) Obviously we can't do all of that and it is unlikely we would make all of them, but plans are in place for the Imperial Romans and a good chance for Late Romans in Part II. Obviously this is all dependant on Part I being released.

That's a good point. The police must cringe though.

Okay, I came across this video a while back but just found it again recently. It is a montage of the 2003 Northern Arizona Machine Gun Shoot. And when they say machine gun, they mean squad and heavy machine guns. Pete Sake, some of these weapons were mounted on aircraft. Off hand the weapons present include: M-2 MG-42 VZ-26 M1A1 Thompson MG-34 Vickers Lewis M-60s MAC-10 ..... in addition to a couple of surprises Unreal amount of firepower at this convention, combined with obvious consumption of alcoholic beverages. Yeah.......Sounds safe....... Especially considering that some of these weapons have rates of fire reaching 1300 rounds per minute. The boxes of 7.92mm ammo at the beginning had me gaping. US lifts the ban on assault weapons and things get a bit out of hand http://www.spikedhumor.com/articles/15114/...ng_Contest.html

Carthaginian names are in place, unfortunately I cannot spell them Aviv set us up with some amazing stuff. He could tell you more but I believe he is serving his stint in the Israeli Army atm if I am not mistaken. As for units, each civ has its own basic stats which are somewhat standard among all the units. I.E. Celts are faster than Romans, Romans are tougher than Celts, etc. That should cut down on clone units, but obviously testing will tell.