[Pred the Penguin]

I never really got into Rome. Somehow games just dragged on for too long, then again it's great fun slaughtering barbarians with Roman legionaries.

[NGTM-1R]

So 13-year-old CVA guy in EVE trying to lecture me on the nature of roleplaying got both barrels.

"Mother****er, I was roleplaying when you were in diapers! I have over twenty game books for systems that predate your birth!"

[Scotty]

I never really got into Rome. Somehow games just dragged on for too long, then again it's great fun slaughtering barbarians with Roman legionaries.

Indeed.  I'm a little over 70 turns in at this point.  70 turns has yielded me 16 territories.  Just barely more than 30% of the victory condition.

Truth be told I'd rather be playing as Parthia, but I had to start my first campaign as a Roman faction.  I got good at killing damn near anything with those horse archers and Persian cavalry.  On Medium difficulty, I held a bridge against nearly 2000 hoplites and more than a hundred Seleucid cavalry with one Eastern General unit and four units of horse archers.  Total size: less than 300 riders.  Killed 5000 assorted infantry and cavalry on that bridge over the course of six battles without being able to leave for retraining.  Needless to say, they were probably the most experienced riders in the world at that point (less than 20 turns in).

[StarSlayer]

I just stowaged up my M36B1 platoon, three of which got the sandbag treatment on their glacis plate.  Since I was already rolling I ended up going back and sandbagging four of my M4A3E8s.  Below is a picture of what I manged to replicate with greenstuff...



on 1/285th scale microarmor...

I'm truly a madman, but they do look the business.

[NGTM-1R]

...how?

[Pred the Penguin]

Indeed.  I'm a little over 70 turns in at this point.  70 turns has yielded me 16 territories.  Just barely more than 30% of the victory condition.

Truth be told I'd rather be playing as Parthia, but I had to start my first campaign as a Roman faction.  I got good at killing damn near anything with those horse archers and Persian cavalry.  On Medium difficulty, I held a bridge against nearly 2000 hoplites and more than a hundred Seleucid cavalry with one Eastern General unit and four units of horse archers.  Total size: less than 300 riders.  Killed 5000 assorted infantry and cavalry on that bridge over the course of six battles without being able to leave for retraining.  Needless to say, they were probably the most experienced riders in the world at that point (less than 20 turns in).

haha, yeah horse archers can seem overpowered in Rome when used properly. I remember time where every army I had on the map had at least a few horse archers in it.

[Klaustrophobia]

provided it doesn't rain, i take my skimboard for its first session tomorrow.

[CommanderDJ]

Happy birthday, General Battuta. May your is-destroyed-delay SEXP never return true.

[Marcov]

Why does everybody play Rome: Total War and almost nobody plays Shogun: Total War?

[StarSlayer]

...how?

It's actually pretty easy.  I basically just needed some thin styrene sheets, modeling putty and a bit of aluminum foil, well and some wire.  The wire was looped around a screw driver for shape and used to make turret rings for the M4A3E8s because I felt the stock turret seemed a little squat compared to the genuine article.  I did the entire company one night a week or so ago.  As for the stowage I cut the styrene into various tiny box shapes for the various crates and other sundries.  The aluminum foil was cut into little squares to be used as tarps and the putty was formed into little ruck sacks and bags.  These I arranged in various piles on the rear deck of the Sherman hulls.  As for the sandbags I again used the putty, rolled it into a long millimeter thick tube that I cut up into tiny sandbag shapes and arranged haphazardly on the glacis plates of a few of the Shermans and Jacksons.  Done assembly line style it probably only took a couple hours across two nights to do all twenty tanks and it does add a lot of individual character to the vehicles. 
For my next trick I might cut up some infantry models to use as crew in the open top M36B1s.  Then I can wash the M-26 platoon, various softskins, halftracks and the 105mm battery and get to work assembling and customizing them.  Then it's on to paint the OD paint scheme should be fairly easy and I've looked over some good tutorials on the web.  Assuming they come out looking good and I can find a camera with decent macro I'll post some pics of the final products.

[Pred the Penguin]

Why does everybody play Rome: Total War and almost nobody plays Shogun: Total War?

Many fans of the TW series think that Rome was the best barring a few issues... I may be wrong though.

[Scotty]

Shogun was also earlier, and by extension, Rome is more refined.

Also, legions.

[Mongoose]

My brother loves the Medieval games himself, especially 2.

[lostllama]

Just discovered that there was a USN attack squadron named after the Cylons: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=121312653013&v=info

Also my stomach is making noises.

[StarSlayer]

Kendo tonight got some bruises from working with some rookies as they learn Do strikes and they managed to hit where the armor isn't but hey being all banged up is pretty badass so black and blue here I come. I also had a great sparring session with the instructor it was quite a bit of fun.  We were planning to see Green Lantern tonight but there was road construction on the highway and traffic was screwed up; that compounded with the slew of negative reviews was more then enough for me to save my dinero.  Hopefully we might opt for Super 8 next week.

I also picked up a slew of Osprey Publishing books on Allied Armor.  I've copies for the M4 (76), M24, M26 and the M36 which covers all my current AFVs and I've been pouring through them.  I want to put off using the Pershings for now and am focusing on how to employ my M4A3E8s, M24s and M36B1s to maximum effect.  Even with 76mm HVAP ammo my Easy 8s are not going to be able to penetrate a Panther's front glacis at any range but I have a chance against the mantlet at combat ranges and I can swiss cheese the flanks and rear.  Looking at the damage tables I think HVAP might be able to crack a Tiger I though, its got 100 mm front plate and 120mm on the mantlet, HVAP should punch through 175mm at 0 degrees at 1000m.  Tiger Is don't have much in the way of sloped armor so I figure I might have a chance.  Unfortunately given the shortages of tungsten I'll be lucky if I have one or two rounds of HVAP per M4 and the standard AP round's performance is pretty meh.  At the very least the 90mm on my M36B1s should be able to duel Tiger Is so I'll need to husband my TDs as much as possible.  Course German guns can pretty much murmaider everything in my arsenal at any range so I'm going to have to really craft my tank tactics if I'm going to survive.  It's pretty obvious US Army command was not on the friggin ball when it came to tank development and the threat modern German armor was going to pose.  Quite a few Generals had their heads crammed far up there rear orifices and Allied tankers paid dearly for that FUMTU situation.

[NGTM-1R]

Depends on how you look at it. Engaging tanks is the province of your TDs according to doctrine of the time. The prototypes of US tanks to fight Panthers and Tigers (T20/T23) were ready in late 1942, but it was believed the Panther and Tiger were too expensive for mass production and they'd be fighting Pz IVs. The 76mm-armed Sherman was sufficient for that.

They were right about the Tiger. Not so much about the Panther.

[StarSlayer]

Depends on how you look at it. Engaging tanks is the province of your TDs according to doctrine of the time. The prototypes of US tanks to fight Panthers and Tigers (T20/T23) were ready in late 1942, but it was believed the Panther and Tiger were too expensive for mass production and they'd be fighting Pz IVs. The 76mm-armed Sherman was sufficient for that.

They were right about the Tiger. Not so much about the Panther.

The problem with the TD doctrine was that it was formed as a reaction to the 1940 blitz on France and while it might have been useful in the defensive posture it was designed for it was useless for offense which was pretty much the point of the ETO.  The US was pretty much the only nation to use this FUBAR approach and it was pretty obvious as early as Tunisia that it was made of fail.  Unfortunately the fools in charge of shaping design and procurement A) had some silly ideas about armored warfare and B) worked on a battle need reaction policy.  So they actively tried to stomp the proto Pershings out and by the time battle conditions finally stopped them from dragging their feet it was to late to finish development in time to make a difference.  All in all in the end the M4 was still a war winning tank but the Germans had battle winning ones. 

[Scotty]

I made this.

It's probably the least ****ty thing I've ever drawn.

[Pred the Penguin]

Oh my gawd my eyes!

[Snail]

I made this.

It's probably the least ****ty thing I've ever drawn.

Scotty are you feeling alright