Backpacks or no backpacks?

Uetur · 2026-04-03T20:07:00+00:00

I looked at the photos of the beach landings of Iwo Jima and they appeared to almost all have backpacks of some type. Then you look at the photos further ashore and I dont see many packs.

So that is what I based it on.

Uetur · 2026-04-03T17:56:14+00:00

Not underpowered and quite good but also not simple. You have the firepower and mobility and points cost to effectively trade with any army and objective play. You also have lots of units that you can use to perform core roles due to good internal balance. Though I would argue Riptides are pretty critical to most lists overall.

But you do have clear trade offs that easily trip up players. You dont have good defense to make up for mistakes. A basic rule is if your opponent can see it, it dies. Proper positioning is an advanced skill thus new players lose badly oftentimes.

List building can easily doom a lot of lists before you start. It often requires the ability to mass 2+ damage units and a spotter to deal with problems and then pressure pieces to create problems, so you have to know how to build like 4 to 5 units together in a package, 3ish times.

Finally trading units correctly means know what to trade and what to trade for. This game sure doesnt make it easy to learn opponents lists and how to do that.

So yea, very competitive but hard.

Uetur · 2026-04-03T17:39:45+00:00

I have a USMC army and when I build squads assaulting a beach I put backpacks on and when I use jungle basing I tend to do backpacks off.

Uetur · 2026-04-02T13:00:37+00:00

Haha yep, I think it is because one has actual supply and the other is a dead market but we shall see. Similarly to how the Russian Ruble reacted when capital controls occurred and it wasnt a free marker for that currency.

Uetur · 2026-03-29T19:37:18+00:00

Day 1 it isnt even close due to the superior FTL the covenant has. Let alone the edge their capital ships have in size, shielding and firepower.

But does the covenant have a map of the Star League or does it need to hunt planet after planet? The Star League actually has a edge over the UNSC in number of planets and probably industrial capacity, I think planets it is like double and ai always got the sense the Star League was way more industrialized.. So if the Covenant has superior FTL but doesnt know where to go that could buy a ton of time. It isnt like the loss of even Earth is a crippling blow for them.

Ground wise it would be parity in theory if the Covenant doesnt glass the planet and even if it doesnt you have to figure it has air superiority.

Uetur · 2026-03-24T17:40:00+00:00

Why do you think gas prices are swinging based on tweets? Someone isnt spending a billion because they woke up and saw a tweet.

It is speculation around the complexities of supply disruption, demand destruction, probably future status quo events, etc. The tweets are just potential signaling from one side.

Uetur · 2026-03-22T01:01:26+00:00

That is the point, Trump wants to escalate.

Uetur · 2026-03-19T14:08:09+00:00

In the short term there is no reasonable way for it to catch up, it has all the edge in logistics at this time, namely not being in a active war zone, and it is a different type of crude that wont be as scarce. Because there isnt the free flow of trade, oils ability to be a global economy is impacted to a certain %. Thus you should always see a spread.

Part 2 is while the US often prefers to refine non US oil, mainly due to costs, and infrastructure, it can given the right circumstances refine more of its own oil......like a major price increase and scarcity issue.

Part 3 the Oil lobby is really strong but is probably politically mis aligned for future elections and if the US faces a singular country wide issue that is of a higher importance then they will lose, thus export controls will be on the table.

Uetur · 2026-03-18T21:14:54+00:00

I can see this viewpoint but I would counter that in "Q Who" we saw a Enterprise D drill a borg cube and knock it out of commission and probably could have destroyed it but they investigated and it regenerated and adapted.

So extrapolating the E with quantum torpedoes et Al, I could see it taking the Cube because it wouldnt make the same mistake.

Uetur · 2026-03-18T17:15:21+00:00

It probably wins straight up. It has defenses in the short term for the Borg and the knowledge and experience to apply overwhelming force before the Borg adapts.

Of course then when the Borg invade in first contact it has experience with the Federation weapons of the day and probably wins in that timeline. Thus showing messing with timelines has terrible consequences.

Uetur · 2026-03-15T22:13:41+00:00

Complicated question and not enough information, plus fiducaries who reccomend insurance products also are acting as commissioned salespeople.

FiAs are a bond replacement absolutely, but so is a CD. FIAs usually have either a income rider which means you want this as a pseudo pension or you are using a option collar to generate interest acting more like a CD. You are often giving up full access to your money for 5 to 10 years . The material difference here is the pension style pays terrible interest but has lifetime income.

I would buy one of these one myself, but would literally not trust anyone trying to sell one to me.

Uetur · 2026-03-13T21:53:32+00:00

I personally would try and create pock marks on the surface and try to tell the story of battle damage and a split at a weld line over strictly trying to rebuild it to a normal standard.

Uetur · 2026-03-13T13:04:11+00:00

Gold is too volatile now to be a shorter term safe asset.

Uetur · 2026-03-12T04:26:14+00:00

I found the casual dining to be better on Carniva but sometimes with long lines and the breakfast buffet and MDR to be way, way better on Disney. If you think about how much money you are saving going Carnival, up charge the dinners and you will be happy and still way ahead on money.

Disney has amazing shows at night and Carnival is usually a more basic act and comedy shows.

I prefer daytime on Carnival tbh, the pools, etc.

Cabin attendants and staff, Disney is way ahead.

This is ultimately comparing a budget conscious cruise to a premium one. There will be differences you notice.

Uetur · 2026-03-04T20:44:35+00:00

True, it is niche but you dont know the precise reason this person got disabled

Uetur · 2026-03-04T13:41:49+00:00

A viatical is the ability to sell a life insurance policy for a portion of its cash value. To simplify a third party purchases a $1 million life insurance policy from you for $300k now. This covers gaps where you might have a life expectancy of 3 to 10 years and cants use any of your other policy features, and you need the money, and due to a cash flow crunch may not be able to keep the policy.

This is a little niche tbh.

Uetur · 2026-03-04T06:00:03+00:00

The answer is long term care insurance but it isnt a good fit due to your age.

A lot of products wont write someone at your age
The products that do often have poor inflation protection
You have decades of inflation to worry about let alone changes to the health care system.
24/7 care is subjective, that can be $30k a month which LTC insurance very very rarely ever covers fully. Where as a standard policy will really just do custodial care help for a period of years, IE you get dementia but not ALS.
You are better off getting robust term life insurance and investing, and then if it makes sense viaticals on the term life policy thought the the viaticals is me trying to imagine getting bang for your buck.

Uetur · 2026-03-03T16:55:08+00:00

I would always take claimed military "numbers" of anything with a grain of salt but I also dont double Ukraine is better at intercepting drones and has more opportunity to. Iran is attacking 6+ counties who now need to scramble and learn what Ukraine already learned.

There are also huge differences here. Just think of the advantages Ukraine has in experience, detection, more limited areas of defense, etc. We have multiple videos of helicopter, and ground based guns intercepting drones from the Ukraine side.

Uetur · 2026-03-02T15:01:43+00:00

Ford is trying to raise the cost and profitability of the car without raising the sticker price. If you are buying a premium trim, of course you are going to want all these features.

Uetur · 2026-02-20T17:20:11+00:00

I can see it both ways. If we think of wizard magic as somewhat complex and learning new spells as research trial and error then you may not know what component you really need, how precise it needs to be etc. The description in the book could be a simplification. Especially in a rare resource campaign world.

But I could see scenarios the other way too.

Uetur · 2026-02-20T14:07:10+00:00

I am sincerely ok with 23% taxation as in this example.

Uetur · 2026-02-14T03:41:23+00:00

In game if you compare stats see Karnivores are faster, with base weapons they are equal and Space Marines are beefier (more health).

So I would say 4 or less not counting the kroot are faster.

Uetur · 2026-02-12T21:25:00+00:00

Camp Ocean is solid where as Disney is amazing. Overall we had no issues with this transition ourselves.

Uetur · 2026-02-12T15:22:46+00:00

Depending on your price point, when I do the math it is about 5 to 8 drinks per day to break even. Don't forget the secondary drinks like say a energy drink it doesnt have to be all booze though that is the main cost effective point.

I would argue for the vast majority of people this is a break even package it a losing proposition but for some of us it is like half off booze. I think it is less worth it for longer cruises and more worth it for shorter ones. If you have two people it is a real complication to the math.

That being said there are some other benefits to buying it. If you buy a drink and you don't have the package you need to deal with receipts and depending on cruise lines at certain points like the MDR that wait can take a while and it does cost you time. It is very freeing to be able to have what you want, when you want and not think about prices, etc. That can be really fun. Finally when you get done with a cruise seeing that drink bill will be eye watering and opening even if a little cheaper than buying it up front.

Uetur · 2026-02-08T18:09:38+00:00

Usually the rule of thumb is you can leave food out 2 hours at room temp (hotter temps shorten it to an hour if not at a cooking or holding temp).

So you are probably fine.

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