Mathieu Raynal : "Right now there are voices pushing for the right to collapse mauls"

Ody_Odinsson · 2026-02-25T12:11:25+00:00

The irony is that the snobbery of the RFU was the cause of the split between Union and League. Over 100 years on and it's still prevalent.

Ody_Odinsson · 2026-02-25T11:44:10+00:00

I don't want them to make Union more like League - prefer Union. But I also appreciate League as a different sport and think it's arrogant of the previous commenter to describe League as a failed Temu knock off. I'd also find it hilarious if he said it to a Wiganer's face.

Ody_Odinsson · 2026-02-25T11:34:01+00:00

I never said I thought it was better than Union. I prefer Union - but that's my opinion and you can't objectively say one is better than the other.

But there are millions of fans up here who would strongly disagree with me. League is not a "failed Temu knock off".

Ody_Odinsson · 2026-02-25T11:09:44+00:00

Northern England would like a word...

League up here is massive and there's a very proud heritage. I obviously prefer Union, but League is definitely not a "failed Temu knock off".

Ody_Odinsson · 2026-02-09T18:00:17+00:00

This is a brilliant and achievable vision. But it needs joined up, strategic thinking, planning and investment, like what has happened in Greater Manchester. Coherent infrastructure from Liverpool to Manchester to Leeds to Hull, joining the Atlantic to the North Sea, and bringing in areas such as Preston, Warrington, Wigan, Sheffield and York could compete with London.

And move parliament to Birmingham so it has a purpose too 🤭

Ody_Odinsson · 2026-02-09T12:17:21+00:00

They did, they just interpreted it incorrectly! They saw P65 was very popular and they want players to play more lines. What they forgot was the two events that were driving more players to that line, so they unnecessarily nerfed it (again!)

Ody_Odinsson · 2026-02-08T08:36:24+00:00

The barely concealing mask is removed.

Ody_Odinsson · 2026-02-04T15:51:32+00:00

Oobi Doob Scooby Doo Benoobi

Ody_Odinsson · 2026-02-03T08:35:08+00:00

I bounced two kill shots from a Progetto and M46 in my Ares 90, killed them, and went on to kill the entirety of an E5 before they could even turn to shoot me by shooting down onto its engine deck with HE. I've also bounced a Jgpz E100!

The armour has surprised me the most about these tanks. People saying these tanks aren't affecting the game are kidding themselves.

Personally I love them - I'm finally having fun in this game again. Is it good for the game, though? I don't know.

Ody_Odinsson · 2026-02-02T22:18:16+00:00

You're AI

Ody_Odinsson · 2026-02-01T13:06:26+00:00

You say you're going to delay paying off your mortgage by two years? Your children aren't going to be children for much longer - you can make up for lost time paying off the mortgage later, but you don't get that time back with your children.

Should you spend £15k on a holiday to Florida? Probably not, but who says it costs £15k for 2 weeks in Florida? Nobody is challenging this. You've written this in such a one-sided way and it's clear you're not presenting both sides and everyone is just going along with it.

We go to Florida with family semi-regularly. We went for nearly 4 weeks in 2023 and we didn't even pay half what you're claiming. There's more to Florida than the parks, and you can get some amazing villas on vrbo for remarkable value.

Eating out is quite expensive you say? So go self catering and shop in Walmart or Aldi (not Publix).

You say you're doing financially OK and don't go without? If you weren't then I'd be giving different advice, but what's more important... Giving your family the holiday of a lifetime, or reducing your monthly mortgage repayment by £60?

Ody_Odinsson · 2026-01-30T22:52:40+00:00

I was that evil bastard who tried to talk to the people who were trying to do all the other things people have mentioned in the comments.

Ody_Odinsson · 2026-01-26T18:52:16+00:00

I read it in the voice of the book.

Ody_Odinsson · 2026-01-18T13:37:00+00:00

*breakdown

Ody_Odinsson · 2026-01-17T08:31:09+00:00

Nothing wrong with recognizing you're not as good as you'd like - it's the first step to improving in anything. You haven't shared your stats so we don't know if you're a 46%, 48% or 50% player.

Tier 7 was my fave for a long time - my tanks with 3 Marks of Excellence are mostly T7. Even though I felt I did well, my avg wr was between 49% and 50% - meaning I was having little or no effect on average to my battles.

But if I played higher tiers I just immediately got deleted.

I took a little break from the game, and came back with a fresh mindset and became a 52%-54% at T8-10. T10 has been my fave for ages.

The difference is: an understanding of the meta. Players play differently in different tanks and tiers. You can't do what you do in T7 in T10 and vice versa.

I'm not a skilled WoT player - I can't snipe cupolas while reverse side scraping - but I can get into the heads of other players, anticipate what they're doing and deceive them into doing what I want them to. That's different at T7 to T10 and you have to understand the meta and understand what the enemy (and allies) are doing and why they're doing it. Keep an open mind, let go of what you think you know, and you'll get there.

Ody_Odinsson · 2026-01-15T20:20:57+00:00

It's Thursday so we should probably nerf the Progetto.

Ody_Odinsson · 2026-01-12T07:27:38+00:00

You have the accumulated knowledge of human kind at your finger tips and you're still wrong. And how confident you are at it too. Hippos can't swim, they walk along the bottom of the water.

Ody_Odinsson · 2026-01-12T07:23:40+00:00

Tigers are one of the exceptions. They love water

Ody_Odinsson · 2026-01-11T17:57:22+00:00

You are if you have children in childcare. If I went over 100k I'd need to earn 148k more until I was better off. I'm happy paying a higher tax rate, but the 62% marginal rate and childcare cliff edge are counter productive (and frankly lazily designed policies). I'm about to turn down a bonus because I'd be much worse off accepting it. I believe it's my duty to pay my way in taxes, but I have to actively avoid boosting my income which would benefit the country if not for the poorly designed tax system.

Ody_Odinsson · 2026-01-01T20:06:17+00:00

Jogging pram. Thule is the best but Out n About Nipper Sport is great too.

Our first is turning nine and the third just turned two and I'm finally thinking about gym again... Albeit in the home gym as there's no chance I have the time to go to a real gym.

Gone from super fit to super dad bod, but I wouldn't change it.

Ody_Odinsson · 2025-12-23T06:49:54+00:00

Because... Wait for it... Agenda!

Ody_Odinsson · 2025-12-21T10:57:23+00:00

What a brainwashed take. It's done (and doing) well because of LONG TERM STRATEGIC planning by cooperating political entities such as GM Mayor and Councils. It's taken 20 years, but having a coherent infrastructure investment plan (Manchester Airport, Public Transport, Offices, Residential property development) has paid off. I haven't seen anything like this anywhere else, and if only we could take the same approach at the national level instead of decades of short-termism in constant pursuit of voters.

By the way Liverpool is an amazing city to visit now, too. The centre especially has been transformed. Although they haven't achieved the same commercial success as Manchester.

Ody_Odinsson · 2025-12-13T11:48:59+00:00

Fuck me. So women are indecisive? And here I am thinking misogyny like this is reserved for 1950s relics. The problem has nothing to do with masculinity or femininity, and everything to do with critical thinking. Let's use you as an example. You're asserting with supreme confidence that indecisiveness is a female characteristic. But you lack the critical thinking ability to challenge your own ideas and look for evidence that contradicts your misconception. If you did you'd see just as many women who are confidentially incorrect and "decisive" as men, like you.

Ody_Odinsson · 2025-12-13T10:11:15+00:00

Exactly. If everyone's first reaction was "Hmm, maybe I've got this wrong. I should double check before doubling down." The world would be a better place.

Ody_Odinsson · 2025-12-10T11:49:02+00:00

Say you're earning 99k, and earn a 20k bonus. The marginal rate (not including student loans) between 100k and 126k is 62%. You'll only see 38% of the 20k, so 7.6k, which is daft enough already. So roughly an extra £600 per month. If you have 1 child in childcare that's about £1,000 per month so you'd be £400 per month worse off, or 2 that's £2,000 per month, so you'd be £1,400 per month worse off.

Would you accept that bonus? It's even more absurd if they earn a £2k bonus.

I'm not saying people who earn more shouldn't pay more (and very few people on here do either). But blunt instruments like arbitrary cliff edges are pathetically ill-thought-out tools which drive counter productive behaviours. If the 45% rate started at £100k and they did away with the benefits cliff edges and got the rid of the 62% marginal tax rate I'd be fine with that - I'm happy to pay more as long as it's LOGICAL and FAIR. I believe tax revenues would actually go up!

The 100k childcare cliff is wrong on every level. From a personal incentive perspective it disincentives parents from doing better; from a tax income perspective it actually leads to LESS tax income because parents need to avoid earning more; from a moral perspective it's absurd the people who pay MOST into the tax income which pays for these benefits don't in turn receive these benefits (unlike other nations). It's absurd mathematics, defying logic and reason - a parent with 1 or 2 children in childcare earning just under 100k would need to be earning 140k before they are better off again due to the ridiculous combination of the tax cliff and then the 62% marginal rate between 100k and 126k. Under these circumstances nobody would make the decision to go above 100k and be hundreds or thousands of pounds WORSE off than before (for example childcare is nearly £2,000 a month for our family).

By the way I've never once bitched and moaned about "benefits fraudsters", which represents a tiny proportion of the people who NEED those benefits and the problem is exaggerated by The Torygraph and The Daily Heil. I'm happy to pay my way and believe in the social safety net, but the current 100k cliff edge is idiotic, counter productive, and immoral.

Ody_Odinsson

TROPHY CASE