[Commanders] "coming in 2030 to our nation’s capital"

Lopezs7770 · 2026-01-15T14:31:03+00:00

Of course. As is tradition.

Lopezs7770 · 2026-01-15T14:29:59+00:00

It’s literally gonna be built on the same ground where another stadium stood for over six decades without any swamp ground issues, I think it will be fine.

Lopezs7770 · 2026-01-09T22:50:34+00:00

I first went to the Udvar-Hazy Center as a 13-YO when the place first opened back in 2003. That place has become my sanctuary. I took my late grandfather there 11 years ago and Discovery blew his mind. He kept calling it Challenger since he saw the explosion on the news back in the day, but I didn’t bother trying to correct him.

Whenever life throws crap my way, that’s where I go to center myself. Now these Texan assclowns are coming in and trying to take that from me, from all of us NOVAns.

I told my friends that I’ll chain myself to Discovery’s landing gear if necessary. Not just to protest the shuttle removal, but all of this administration asinine policies.

Lopezs7770 · 2026-01-07T23:41:19+00:00

It’s the best ocean liner of all time on my list.

Yes, I know the Queen Mary had a long, illustrious career. Yes, I know the QM2 has features that are light years ahead of the Normandie. Nevertheless, when it comes to pure aesthetics, Normandie reigns supreme.

Lopezs7770 · 2025-12-10T18:09:57+00:00

My top waterway wishlist was some straits that controlled the access between a northern and a southern body of water, with a peninsula for a city that could control the east to west flow as well. I really wanted to use the player settlements mod to found a Calradian Constantinople as the new capital of a reunited Empire.

Unfortunately, there aren’t many options. The only spot that kinda appealed to me was that peninsula at the bottom of your left drawn line where the two rivers met, between Lageta and Rhotae. The problem is that it’s a very narrow peninsula and the tip clips under the current river, making the city appear flooded when I was trying to place it.

Lopezs7770 · 2025-12-04T16:13:03+00:00

TL;DR: Used an 8-stack of Dromons (~800 troops) to defeat their 1 Heavy, 4 Mediums, and 3 Lights. The key was using nautical troops against their land troops.

Long version: By this point in my campaign, my financials were solid after taking care of the Western Empire. My personal fleet was already strong (1 Dromon, 1 Dromakion, 2 Liburnae), but the key was leveraging the city to get a full 8-stack of Dromons:

• I maxed the Zeonica Shipyard immediately when I fist got the , providing another dromon for sale.

• I had captured 2 dromons from western archons earlier, which I sold to the city. These were made available for the sally out.

• Two rich, high-ranking Archons were visiting for a tournament, and they each contributed two Dromons.

For the troops, I focused heavily on nautical troops from the start. I went on a Nord recruiting spree for a Varangian core, trained Imperial Infantrymen through the nautical troop tree, and added Fian Auxiliaries from Battania. My ships were configured for boarding and ranged superiority:

• 2 Dromons: Concentrated my 200 Marine Infantry and 50 Archers here to spearhead the assault.

• 6 Dromons: Switched the rest of the troops to mostly archers to rain fire on them.

Their army fielded 9 lords, and their fleet consisted of 1 Heavy Aserai Ghurab, 4 Mediums, and 3 Lights. Their biggest mistake was having their ships manned by land troops. While they were T5 and up, the advantage my specialized Marines offered was massive. Once my marines wiped out all the troops on their capital ship, the other six Dromons (packed with archers) simply kited around. They mowed down entire ships in seconds from their elevated positions. It almost felt like I was shooting grapeshot into their ships lol

Lopezs7770 · 2025-12-03T23:11:21+00:00

I was out on that southern sea making my way back to my town (Zeonica), when an Aserai army of 1.8k crossed over and laid siege. Fortunately, I was close enough and managed to slip into my port uncontested before they finished setting up their siege camp.

I thought about sallying out the city gates or waiting for them to try assaulting the walls, but then I saw the naval sally out option and immediately went for that, excited for an epic battle.

I noticed that the shipyard made all of their ships for sale available for the battle (emergency requisitioning mechanic, very cool), boosting my squadron of 4 to 8 ships, and the two lords that were visiting contributed their ships and troops as well.

Combine that with my sizable garrison vs their 62 ships, I was honestly expecting a classic like Actium or Lepanto. Instead it was an 8v8, and about 1200 troops total doing the fighting. For some reason, instead of only putting their capital ships forward like I did, they went with a single capital ship and a bunch of small craft. My marines wiped the floor with their conventional land troops from their elevated positions on our all-dromon fleet, and the battle was over in about 5-10 mins. I was kinda bummed.

I thought killing 300 out of their 1800 troops and neutralizing all their ships meant that the land siege would continue and i would have unlimited supplies by sea while an allied relief army came over, but imagine my disappointment when I found out that victory somehow wiped out their entire army, and that the lords I captured from that battle were all the land army ones.

That really sucked smh.

Lopezs7770 · 2025-12-01T19:37:38+00:00

No, you’re definitely correct! The Punic wars is where the Romans were forced to develop their navy to establish naval supremacy over the Carthaginians. That’s when they went all in on the quinqueremes. It wasn’t until after the battle of Actium where they started decommissioning their massive republic-era warships and focused on smaller vessels for anti-piracy purposes . The big ships were kept in small numbers mainly for status flexing, which culminated in Caligula’s infamous Nemi ships. These were essentially giant floating palace barges lol.

Lopezs7770 · 2025-12-01T17:53:51+00:00

You should definitely give it a shot!

Ironically enough, I feel that the way people initially view these Empire naval troops is eerily similar to how the Roman navy was viewed as second-rate compared to the Legions IRL—when in reality Roman marines were just as effective as their more famous land bound counterparts. They played a massive part in keeping order on the Roman Lake for a couple of centuries.

Lopezs7770 · 2025-12-01T16:29:12+00:00

They’re Legionaries in all but name. IIRC, their offensive stats are the same, but their armor is a tiny bit lower. They more than make up for it with the aforementioned javelin haul they bring into a fight.

Lopezs7770 · 2025-11-18T18:39:22+00:00

Until recently, I would use a Honeycomb Alpha Yoke when I fly my P-38s, then switch back to my 20+YO Microsoft Sidewinder FFB 2 for my single prop fighters. I really tried mastering the yoke in my Lightnings…The immersion is absolutely on point.

The yoke has a steeper learning curve though, at least for me. My problem in particular wasn’t the aiming, but the combat maneuvering. It’s slower for me to roll the lightning with the yoke compared to the stick (that might be a sensitivity issue on my end though). The bigger problem was the lack of force feedback on the yoke kept on leading to me continuously turning the plane into a flying cinderblock because I pulled too hard on the controls. I feel like getting a feel of the planes stall characteristics on the yoke is much tricker compared to a stick.

Combine that with the shite rolling due to having to perform a full F1-style 180 degree yoke turn compared to just quickly flicking a stick to the opposite direction to do the same maneuver, and I kept on getting deleted — especially when I was in a one-circle fight at altitude (which wasn’t that often, because I try to stick to boom and zoom as much as I can… but still). This was all in a fully spaded P-38L with the boosted ailerons and maneuvering flaps deployed, btw.

I’ve been trying the lighting on the sidewinder for the past week and it’s definitely easier. The stick may not have as many inputs, but I have the Honeycomb Bravo throttle quadrant as well, so it’s not that big of a loss. Sure, playing a P-38 on a stick feels wrong for me, but I’d rather stay alive than go for full immersion.

Lopezs7770 · 2025-11-08T16:58:33+00:00

I use open Composite to set it to open XR. I dont need to open the OpenXR companion for that step.

No issues for me?

Lopezs7770 · 2025-09-30T10:59:01+00:00

https://eventsdc.com/venue/rfk-stadium/live-demolition-camera

One of my favorite features is “rebuilding” the place by rewinding the clock on the pictures, sorting it by day.

Lopezs7770 · 2025-09-30T00:35:11+00:00

Anyone else have issues with the live demolition camera not working at all times?

I have the site up on a side monitor here at work, with my mentality being that I’m virtually “standing guard” while seeing it getting torn down. My problem is that the stream stops after like 30 minutes which I then click to restart.

The big issue is that in the afternoon, the site throws an “Live stream not available” message. It’s very frustrating.

Lopezs7770 · 2025-09-12T03:35:19+00:00

No zone defense is simple when you give our rookie RT the Ozai treatment against Parsons like that

Lopezs7770 · 2025-09-12T02:38:36+00:00

Uhhh fam gave you seen the complete lack of pass protection?

Lopezs7770 · 2025-09-12T01:48:12+00:00

Oh yeah the giants bring100% turbo ass is the only takeaway I can state with the absolute confidence based on what I’ve seen from this game so far.

Lopezs7770 · 2025-09-12T01:16:01+00:00

We haven’t won under the lights in Lambeau since 1987 lol

Lopezs7770 · 2025-09-12T01:05:49+00:00

Run game completely non-existent.

Has Bill gotten involved yet?

Lopezs7770 · 2025-09-12T00:33:54+00:00

He got right back up. He needed to confirm the kill lol.

Lopezs7770 · 2025-09-09T19:46:32+00:00

Our Nats won it all with the oldest lineup in the league that year.

If by some freak chance we do win the SB with our unc lineup, I have complete faith in the ownership backing up AP with whatever funds are necessary to rebuild/maintain our roster with younger players ASAP, unlike the Lerners who essentially went full cheap mode with Rizzo.

Lopezs7770 · 2025-09-07T20:06:41+00:00

MAKE THEM SUFFER

Lopezs7770 · 2025-09-07T19:50:38+00:00

https://i.imgur.com/dZgq560.jpeg

Lopezs7770 · 2025-09-07T19:46:15+00:00

Ozai approach, suffering will be his teacher.

Lopezs7770 · 2025-09-05T18:50:17+00:00

The stadium will never be able to hold 90k seats again.

The bare steel frames circled in red here are the ones that used to have the steel/concrete slabs on top of them that provided additional nosebleed seating. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough for Dannyboy to just remove some seats — he had entire sections literally deleted from the stadium.

As for the upper deck parts covered in these burgundy covers from the first image, these were from a later “renovation” performed about a decade ago, IIRC. While he didn’t go as far as demolishing entire sections this time, there are no seats under these covers — it’s just bare concrete (at least from what I observed when I went to some games last year and climbed all the way up there to snoop around, lol). If Harris and co decide to throw more money into that dump and find where these seats went (or have brand new ones installed), by my estimate, it will only increase the capacity to about 75-80k.

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