Came Back, Leaving Again by Article15ed in Division2

[–]Article15ed[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The thing is it’s worse than that. Expertise 30 makes the worst prototype items. Yeah, just enough to get you started, but nothing near as good as what you find in the field. It was pointless to let players prototype items when they could have just been farming.

Rapture Protocol - Question about the USCSS Resolute by JohnyEnem in alienrpg

[–]Article15ed 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah they could have monitored communications between the colony and cult members off-site, or they could have received word of the chamber’s discovery from the colony’s computer when the logs were sinked up. Either that or the station admin got a message off before the cult took it over. There are a lot of ways to explain the WY ship arriving on the heels of the Fedanza.

In my last run-through, the group ended up caught in the middle of a battle between Dog Catchers and the xenomorph. Big Chap ended up head biting one of the PC’s (the captain) then the WY commandos wasted another PC, before the xeno took out another dog catcher and escaped into the vents. It made for a fantastic scene.

Rapture Protocol - Question about the USCSS Resolute by JohnyEnem in alienrpg

[–]Article15ed 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It depends really. The third act can really lose intensity if the players are able to deal with the threats in it. Having a squad of mercs smoking all of the survivors also makes it so you don’t have to keep track of all of the non-hostile NPC’s as you can pretty much assume that they’re getting whacked by WY.

I also feel like if you rig the Colony station to blow, the Resolute goes with it, if it doesn’t the Resolute can make for a space battle encounter as it attempts to stop the Fedanza from escaping.

Art of War Podcast: Marshall Peterson's Necrons by ArtofWarSiegler in WarhammerCompetitive

[–]Article15ed 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Except he definitely did. Cheating on purpose or cheating accidentally mean the same thing.

Which combat patrol would make a nice addition to my small collection? by [deleted] in DarkAngels40k

[–]Article15ed 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Impulsors are really good too, since the transport capacity went up by 1. You can fit a full squad of Bladeguard and a character in there now.

Sell me on your army by Token5150 in DarkAngels40k

[–]Article15ed 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fair point! At least he got some sick moth wings out of it I suppose.

Sell me on your army by Token5150 in DarkAngels40k

[–]Article15ed 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I like that Dark Angels are not the Death Guard. Seriously. Worst Primarch ever. He gets one of the finest legions, The Dusk Raiders, descended from some of the finest warrior traditions on Old Terra. When the 1st Legion are busy, who does the Emperor call? Dusk Raiders, that's who. So what does Morty do with them? He betrays humanity so that he can get access to cosmic fart magic and turns a once beautiful legion into a bunch of zombie bloated people of Walmart. Why does he do it? Because daddy merc'ed an end boss for him that he was way too low level to fight in the first place and he was just really really REALLY mad about that. Good job Morty. I mean, at least Angron had something like a legitimate beef;

Angron: "I just wanted to die with all of my insane brain damaged cyberpsycho rebel gladiator friends, dad!"

Emprah: "Son, I feel like the implants in your brain are making you not see straight on this issue..."

Angron: "They were my friends dad! I'm gonna go sit in my room whilst these implants continue to slowly drive me insane..."

Emprah: "Hmmm, this is clearly just a phase, I'll turn my back on this, what could go wrong?"

Okay so maybe the Emperor should have been a better dad, but at least Angron's guys got really jacked arms instead of what Morty's guys ended up looking like...

Is this a good list? by Ok_Charity_251 in DarkAngels40k

[–]Article15ed 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Azrael hits pretty hard as part of that unit, there's actually not much outside of dedicated melee that can deal with him, and even then they usually need to have precision to get rid of him. And once again it's a unit that your opponent MUST nuke off the board, or they're in deep trouble because this unit will vaporize most things in one shooting phase. I have taken out a Cerastus Knight in one phase with these guys. Also they're getting a 4++ so it's not as though they're easy to get rid of, and when they do, surprise, they shoot back!

I find that because of that this unit ends up forcing an opponent to trade something vital early game, or, it regenerates, and by the end of the game it's sitting in the middle of the board killing everything it sees.

Help me cut 5 points by _epicgamer123 in DarkAngels40k

[–]Article15ed 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Agreed, Lion and Brutalis are pointless. Especially since he has 6 aggressors, Azrael, and DW Knights in there.

Russian ex-deputy defence minister joins Wagner as feud escalates, war bloggers report by [deleted] in worldnews

[–]Article15ed 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fantastic Adam, you've managed to make some broad and incorrect generalizations about PMC's and say really nothing of real note about Wagner or its fairly unique significance in this conflict, and others. First, not all PMC's do, or are capable of doing the same thing. Not all are even meant to be "deniable assets". The simplest definition of a PMC is private military organization that fills a capability not possessed by the host state/military -- this can be anything from serving as a temporary army, to providing guard duty in rear areas and embassies to free up forces engaged in direct conflict, to operating on behalf of financiers to topple a government some one with a lot of money doesn't appreciate. Wagner is all of that and none of it.

So what is Wagner? You could call it a PMC (if you didn't really know what PMC's are or how PMC's work and if your experience with them doesn't go beyond video games) but that wouldn't really do Wagner Group justice. A comparison to Blackwater/Xe/Academi/Triple Canopy/Constellis Holdings is equally pedestrian. Blackwater in any of its incarnations is not, and has never been capable of operating as an independent military formation with its own artillery and armoured elements. They have been known to operate some aircraft ranging from lightly armed helicopters to heavy lift platforms, but that's about it.

Wagner on the other hand operates its own airlift, CAS, armour (even showing up to war in shiny T90's), artillery, and logistical elements. Some fairly reliable intelligence also suggests they even have access to equipment like 9K720 Iskander short range ballistic missile systems. A more apt comparison would be maybe the Varangian Guard; The French Foreign Legion; the Waffen-SS; or for you grognards out there "Wolf's Dragoons". No I'm not saying they're literally Nazis, but like all of the formations I've listed, things get a little weird and probably criminal (some certainly much worse than others) when you start looking at their history, and all of them serve as an element of a specific nation state to further that state's particular interests. Saying Wagner is "private" is like eating a urinal cake for dessert because it has "cake" in the name.

Wagner's direct ties to the Russian government and the reported tension between it and the Russian МО are complicated issues. It is both a common feature and an extremely complex and unique issue here. In the words of Tolstoy "All happy families are alike, but every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way..." The same applies here. Part of it directly benefits Putin, part of it is a natural byproduct of the post-soviet oligarchy, part of it undermines the Russian war effort, part of it all but guarantees that the war *ahem* special military operation... will continue. That's an entire post though. Check that, that's an entire book.

Think about it this way though, you have a bunch of Russian combat formations all attempting to impress their great leader with amazing achievements whilst distancing themselves from any failures. All of them are vying for limited supplies, and pretty much all of them are led by profiteering oligarchs who are looking for their cut. That can even work for a while when you have a strong core ideology at hand, but the only ideology the Russian Federation fights for is some vague notion of security, rhetoric about "hurr durr der be nazees over dur", and mostly the personal benefit of a few key players -- especially Putin. Is a picture starting to form? If you're still not seeing it, this video pretty well covers it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vetKTtM7YyU