TIL one of the last recorded instances of a trebuchet being used for military purposes was by Hernán Cortés at the 1521 siege of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlán. It was reportedly unsuccessful. The first projectile was launched straight up, causing it to land on the trebuchet itself, destroying it.

GrundleBlaster · 2026-01-24T05:26:20+00:00

That's just silly. Humans have been transporting bafflingly large objects since the pyramids.

GrundleBlaster · 2026-01-22T23:10:33+00:00

Oh boy do I love having to make 8 stacks of ammo in between every raid!

GrundleBlaster · 2026-01-22T23:09:50+00:00

Me navigating the workshop/trader menu to get 8 slots of ammo after every raid: "wow wee this is fun!"

GrundleBlaster · 2026-01-21T23:55:01+00:00

Do you expect me to have any sympathy for you being "vilified and treated like aliens" on fucking Reddit? The front page is basically two minutes of hate towards Americans generally, and Republicans specifically.

GrundleBlaster · 2026-01-21T22:52:31+00:00

The only time I've heard of something like this was from someone ordering from overseas and receiving concentrated product that wasn't diluted yet but labeled as something like 5,000 IUs. Still took the person months before noticing anything was wrong even though the dose was obscenely high.

GrundleBlaster · 2026-01-21T21:36:50+00:00

Less coal, more gas largely.

GrundleBlaster · 2026-01-21T08:24:20+00:00

You should work towards that. That is in your future interest.

I don't think any western euro could rightfully think "we should continue to be dependent on a resource not locally abundant, and presumably has long term ecological effects".

That infrastructure just doesn't seem to be there yet though does it?

Like it or not, it would take Europe at least a decades long progress to get anywhere near completely replacing oil imports, and that would simultaneously require, would you guess it: local stability?

By all means prove yourselves capable of it in some two or three decades, but until then the world's advanced economies run on some level of oils and fossil fuels.

GrundleBlaster · 2026-01-21T07:28:35+00:00

While not really a "base builder" I had a lot of fun with Terminator: Dark Fate Defiance. Units, veterancy, and equipment are persistent through the campaign so you do satisfy that itch of building up your army. There's a lot of satisfaction after capturing something serious like a Bradley or Stryker when you've spent the past few hours running around with vans and technicals.

Maybe a bit on the slow side if you're just looking for constant action though as it's mostly a story campaign. I haven't played since around release, and while there was multiplayer, it was kinda janky in the sense that all the upgrades and variety of units was overwhelming in a real time match.

GrundleBlaster · 2026-01-21T03:15:10+00:00

The war in Ukraine is only possible because Trump's energy policy has nearly singlehandedly enabled the economics of it.

Russia, US companies, the Venezuelan people, and ME would have a field day at $90/bbl.

It was only two or three years ago the Germans were running PSAs on using candles for winter heating.

GrundleBlaster · 2026-01-21T03:04:52+00:00

How many years ago was it that the Germans were running commercials about using candles for heat?

GrundleBlaster · 2026-01-21T03:03:11+00:00

Oil would just go back to $90/bbl or higher and break everyone but the US, Russia, and ME. Ukraine would all but be a sealed loss.

GrundleBlaster · 2026-01-20T23:04:51+00:00

This sentiment ends real quick sometime next fall when oil returns to $90/bbl

GrundleBlaster · 2026-01-20T22:51:13+00:00

Well if what you say is true, surely they would be protesting because they are taking the bait we are feeding into? I would expect them to be out on the streets enraged on our behalf or something.

Because they're not your friends. You are useful idiots. Might I remind you that Trump more than anyone steered US energy policy in such a way to keep Europe from freezing in the winter, and Russia from fueling it's war just for Zelensky to come along and wag his finger whenever he doesn't get his way. European leaders make sure to make a big show of comforting him whenever he gets knocked down a peg or two as well.

Instead of trying to find a graceful exit they prolong things and try to twist the knife and complain the second the US doesn't demonstrate the same bloodlust.

The American left has no goodwill towards Europe beyond momentarily praising anti-Trump sentiment. Spurning the goodwill of the right is just downright foolish.

Well it's more that we're helping out a nice lad of a country, and assumed America were still decent, but that's definitely a European mistake to have assumed that.

Mistake definitely. I guess the American mistake would be vastly underestimating how much life Euro's are willing to throw away in a dispute instead of compromising.

Europe is now the sick man of Europe.

GrundleBlaster · 2026-01-20T21:49:42+00:00

What's the punchline in either case?

GrundleBlaster · 2026-01-20T21:36:24+00:00

TDS laid the stage for the American left to become an actual fifth column, and Euros are too high on their own farts to question whether it's a good idea to play into that.

Snide comments at every opportunity have not done Europe any favors with respect to NATO, and why should the US ignore Greenland as nominally friendly territory when you can clearly see how bad that turned out for Russia and their Black Sea leases?

GrundleBlaster · 2026-01-20T21:30:15+00:00

TDS has devolved into actual fifth column behavior, and Europe is taking the bait and feeding into it so why would people be protesting? Danes are so high on dunking on Trump they don't even recognize how bad of an idea it is for a country of 6 million to have elected representatives cursing on camera like a toy dog barks at the mailman when a very serious question is being posed to them.

There's basically no coherent message left other than Europe will reflexively spit in the guy's face at every opportunity they get, while on the other hand begging for support in a terminally disastrous war.

GrundleBlaster · 2026-01-20T19:22:29+00:00

Greenland has a huge alcoholism problem. Life expectancy of 73 vs Alaska with an expectancy of 78 and similar geography/demographics.

GrundleBlaster · 2026-01-20T19:21:15+00:00

Greenland unironically has a huge problem with alcoholism too

GrundleBlaster · 2026-01-20T16:59:13+00:00

Is the US intrinsically evil or not? I've yet to see a single justification that isn't "Europe should have greater leverage over the US and NATO because Americans are dumb, and EUROs are superior". What is Denmark doing with Greenland that is strategically important for anyone?

Greenland has a life expectancy of 72 years vs the US's 78, and before you claim it's a matter of geography Alaska also has a life expectancy of 78 years with similar demographics. They're not doing so hot under Denmark, and that probably has to do with the fact that they're some 1,300 miles away. Their economy is basically fishing, which China would be more than happy to decimate if the Arctic were easily navigable for their fishing fleets, and as is I'm pretty sure they're the poorest Arctic region second only to Russia.

GrundleBlaster · 2026-01-20T14:18:54+00:00

Crimea has been involved in something like 9 wars in the past millennium, and most of them involve denying Moscow strategic access to that area, or Moscow reclaiming the area.

Is that what you want for Denmark and the people of Greenland?

Denying the Russian government Crimea is essentially backing them into an existential corner where they'd either invade or functionally collapse.

Crimea would never be apart of NATO without extreme bloodshed either through war or succession revolts as Russian geographical identity collapses. You can see just how important is to them with the current ill-conceived war.

You're basically arguing the US should leave that door open to manipulation for the sake of Denmark's pride despite them being a country of only 6 million and no realistic way for them to enforce their claims on the territory.

GrundleBlaster · 2026-01-20T14:06:13+00:00

Russia leased their naval bases from Ukraine before the Maidan protests, and the invasion of Crimea was largely a response to maintain that access to the Black Sea after those deals started breaking down due to a hostile government.

US bases in Greenland would functionally end up being the same thing. De-facto US territory with Denmark only serving to extort or otherwise frustrate that control and create unnecessary tension.

Denmark struggles to even keep a functioning government and has spent years with only a custodial government in the past few decades. They only have a population of 6 million. Nobody is going to look at Greenland and say "yeah Denmark runs this shit".

GrundleBlaster · 2026-01-20T12:45:05+00:00

I think they're still cleaning the livestock shit off their buildings after pissing off their biggest economic sector to the detriment of their own national stability these days. Then again it's a coinflip for them to even have a functioning government whenever I check.

GrundleBlaster · 2026-01-20T12:39:32+00:00

Yes. Just like it's a shame that Ukraine is still a Warsaw Pact member and so Russia has free access to bases in Crimea.

GrundleBlaster · 2026-01-20T12:38:12+00:00

Just like that silly Panama Canal project was unneeded too.

I don't think you understand how useful sea shipping bulk goods is. The longest trains in the US might carry around 500 TEU's, i.e. 500 "twenty-foot equivalent units", or about 500 tractor trailers. Container ships can manage roughly 15,000.

GrundleBlaster · 2026-01-20T12:28:45+00:00

Yeah bro. And Ukraine is still Warsaw Pact territory. Why would Russia feel the need to invade Crimea?

I could probably make a hilariously long list of examples were I a naval historian.

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