Capitaine Vengeur

The bigger balls you proudly own, the more it hurts when you bang them into the table... The table always prevails...

On 6 April 1917, the Congress of the USA approved the declaration of war against the German Empire - and prepared to take an active part into the most terrible war Europe had ever known then, far away from the coasts of Western Atlantic. Except for a few small-scale operations before (Mediterranean, Philippines...), it was the first time that this young nation, seemingly so isolationist and stuck to the Monroe Doctrine, planned to commit large numbers of troops out of the North American continent. Almost untrained and unequipped at that time, the Doughboys finally took a decisive part in the conflict by the sheer numbers of fresh and motivated troops they brought onto an exhausted Old Continent. This gave to President Wilson a prominent role in deciding what new Europe should look like. A quarter a century later, the States were as isolationist and the US Military (Navy excepted) as understrength and unprepared as they were in 1917. Yet 1917 had been a decisive precedent, and a first milestone in the USA taking an ever growing (somehow intrusive) interest in the rest of the World.

... And long life, 7th Cavalry !

At the moment, a lot of Elite Dangerous (do spacesims count?). Occasionally, some First Eagles 1, SF2:Israel or SF2:Desert Storm.

Movies for "Silent Hunter" afficionados like me: Operation Pacific (1951), and Run silent, run deep (1958), good interiors and aspects of everyday life inside the US subs of the Pacific War; The enemy below (1957), same thing about life and combat action aboard the US Navy escort destroyers during WW2 - yet poor job regarding the German sub: prefer the classical Das Boot (1981). Movies about the Sengoku Jidai era (I'm playing much "Shogun 2: Total War" at the moment, too much I think): Kagemusha (1980), Ran (1985) - and other older classical gems by Kurosawa of course, but colour is really a must for this era's scenogrphy. Movies about the American Civil War I'm also fond of: Gettysburg (1993) and Gods and generals (2003), linked to each other - too bad they did not made the last part of the planned trilogy about the last months of the Confederacy. My favourite book ever about war seen from very close range: The forgotten soldier by Guy Sajer (1965), autobiography of a French-German conscript in the Grossdeutschland division between 1943 and 1945, who took part in some of its most terrible battles and deeds: Kursk of course, but also the apocalyptic crossing back of the Dniepr, agonizing Russian winters, partisan warfare with destructions of villages, naval evacuations on the Baltic Sea in 1945 with terror on heels... The book is said to be on the recommended reading list of the US Army Command College. The author later became a very prolific and one of my favourite comic book artists, producing of course several books about war but also comical series ironically located in the Soviet Union's gulag (a fate he escaped narrowly on several times).

Among my very favourite comic books of the moment is a French series, "Les Sentinelles", sometimes nicknamed "Robocop in the trenches": super-soldiers during World War One. I name this series here for matching with the theme: "Early 20th Century military steampunk / retro sci-fi", and because according to several articles in 2014, it was once planned to develop an anim film after the books. Yet by the end of 2016 things seem to evolve in a different direction; either delayed or cancelled, too bad anyway. The couple of dark paintworks below were actually studies for this project. The pitch, characters, and events... A few years before WW1, a fringe experiment by loosely supported elements of the French Army, known as the Sentinels Project, tried to take a decisive advantage from newly synthesized and still highly secret Dexynal, a powerful, yet very addictive steroid increasing immeasurably strength, stamina, reflexes, and painlessness. Some testers just received injections, but the first tests often had human guinea-pigs turn murderous or suicidal (or both). Other testers, never more than one at a time, combined Dexynal with a battery-powered endoskeleton enabling them to carry super-heavy armor – as well as the terrible weight of the batteries themselves. All of these super-soldiers in turn were given the same generic name of "Taillefer" (Ironcutter), and were tested during colonial minor operations. The most critical flaw was that even carrying 400lbs in batteries, the battery life was ridiculous, and the "super"-soldiers ran out of energy in the middle of the battlefield. The Project was terminated with drastic consequences for its promoters. On the eve of WW1, the Sentinels Project could get a second wind when a young and brilliant scientist, Gabriel Féraud, develops a very light radium-powered battery, with virtually unlimited life. Yet Féraud is a pacifist and refuses to sell his invention to the military. As the War breaks out, Féraud is mobilized, and critically wounded during the first fights. The promoters of the still unofficial and unsupported reborn Project manage to recover his carcass and extort from him the secrets of his battery, in exchange for the promise that they will rebuild him. He ends up cheated, for after long and painful clandestine surgical operations, he comes back to life as the new Taillefer: a mechanical monster. Now that's a trauma – for he is no Robocop: the body is Taillefer's, but the mind is still the pacifistic man of science's. Meanwhile, the Féraud family has been informed that Gabriel has died for his country. He knows he'll never try to see them again. Taillefer has four artificial limbs, an artificial spine, and a full endoskeleton supplying him with Dexynal. His almost complete armor, full-face helmet included, is bulletproof at any range; he can lift guns and throw trucks, he once fires heavy artillery at shoulder like a bazooka (quite badass!); his hydraulic hands can tear steel, his feet can crush concrete. Féraud is now a living lethal weapon, and he hates that. Still a pacifist at heart, he tries whenever possible to neutralize enemy threats and protect friendly troops without loss of human lives. Yet he sometimes lets him fall into the ambient madness; it then takes time for him to recover from this new trauma, and to accept what he has become: Taillefer. The second, chronologically first Sentinel, Adjudant "Djibouti" (real name unknown), is a career NCO who took part in the first tests of the Sentinels Project. A steady supply of Dexynal had turned him into a junkie, and he was dropped by the Army when the Project was aborted. Deprived both of Dexynal and of his only family, Djibouti once fell into dereliction and morphine addiction. Reincorporated as the Project was rebooted, he first acted as Féraud's guardian angel then Taillefer's mentor. Not wearing any prothesis or armor, his body just receives constant supply of Dexynal that keeps him a beast of war. Even without steroids, Djibouti is a natural-born warrior with innate tactical sense he proves more than once. Physically, with his Goliath build, heavy yet sharp profile, scars and ugly grin, he rather looks like Marv in "Sin City". Djibouti is nicknamed after the first place where he "wasted dudes" (there were lots of other such places thereafter). The latest-arrived Sentinel is an aristocrat pilot whom Taillefer and Djibouti met during the Battle of the Marne. A loud patriot, young Baron Hubert-Marie de Clermont can't refuse when offered a way to serve his country more efficiently. He becomes Pegasus, a kind a Rocketeer, with a removable solid propellant jetpack fixed directly to his spine. Strengthened with Dexynal, he is able to blast enemy aircraft like a human shell. IMHO, Clermont is a highly improbable yet quite interesting mix of Cyrano de Bergerac and Sonny Tuckson: a bombastic and big-sounding red-haired dwarf with a musketeer goatee, he is steeped in patriotic, aristocratic and chivalric values that appear more and more outdated along that War. His disillusionment, in the layers of gas at Ypres and in his own exhausting runs at Gallipoli, gives him a more human dimension. Djibouti uses to mockingly refer to Pegasus as "Robin". During the Battle of the Marne, the Sentinels have the same catalyzing effect as Vasily Zaitsev in Jean-Jacques Annaud's "Stalingrad". At first, we see a hopeless army, where demoralized soldiers just seek to get out alive of an irretrievable disaster. A lost cause… The Sentinels, with but limited action by themselves (a still non-violent Taillefer as a standard-bearer marching resolutely through storms of bullets to dumbfounded German machine-gunners), prove a formidable morale boost to the soldiers around them, enabling a local success that proves pivotal for the decisive victory on the Marne. The new heroes are loudly praised by the propaganda papers, stopping the rot. Of course, war is an arms race, and the Sentinels soon have to face an enemy response to the threat they represent. Übermensch is a German officer willing to avenge his sons killed by the French super-soldiers on the Marne. Steeped in old values, he hates this dishonourable new kind of war, but wants to chastise the French monsters with their own inhuman weapons. Injected with massive doses of German-made Dexynal obtained through espionage, he soon becomes much more powerful than Djibouti or Taillefer, able to swing a terrifying heavy mallet – but also much more addicted, forced to permanently live into an over-armored airtight suit filled with a gaseous form of Dexynal. Übermensch confronts the French trio at Ypres in 1915, but as a first raw response, he's finally no real match to them. Landed at the Dardanelles (Gallipoli) with the ANZACs, the Sentinels are to face a much more dangerous opponent, the Ottoman super-soldier Scimitar, equipped with German technology: heavy armor, jetpack, and two firesabers using the same solid propellant, able to cut in Taillefer's armor, and which can be turned into close-range flamethrowers. Also dressed with style, he is actually my favourite super-soldier. The propaganda artwork at the bottom illustrates the usual distortion of facts at war, as Gallipoli is wrongly depicted as a victory. True, the French supermen enabled the last ANZACs to re-embark alive against all odds, making theirs an Aussie wisdom in original language: "It's not over until it's over". Yet the three of them were unable to overcome Scimitar, who dominated the confrontation. Voilà. Four books at the moment. An amusing point, somewhat referring to media coverage in films like Paul Verhoeven’s "Robocop" and "Starship Troopers", is that each book ends with a few old newspaper-looking pages of propaganda, praising the feats of the Sentinels. Touched up black and white photographs, watercolored lithographies. Very immersive, very steampunk.

File Name: Medals Pack for SF2: WW2 Finland File Submitter: Capitaine Vengeur File Submitted: 01 January 2017 File Category: Menus This pack is intended to complement The Dev A-Team's all-inclusive mod Strike fighters 2 WW2 Finland, dedicated to the aerial campaigns over the Gulf of Finland and the Barents Sea during the Winter War and Continuation War. You are given here extensive lists of awards with related medals and citations, and a handful of minor assets (alternative lists of ranks, counters, etc). Of course, all of this work could also complement ShrikeHawk's mod about The Continuation War, available at CombatAce's downloads for SF2. Three Medals lists have actually been designed for the Finns, the first one related to the Winter War (1939-40), the second to the first part of the Continuation War (1941-42), the third to its last part (1943-44). The earlier lists grant much more lenient criteria to be awarded the same distinctions you could also receive after 1942 spending more sweat, but above all prevent you to receive awards unavailable before they were established. For instance, besides harsher requirements, the 1943-44 list adds the Order of the Lion of Finland, established by the end of 1942, and also makes a few German decorations available when the Nazis at bay tried to forge closer ties with their loose co-belligerent. In the same way of thinking, two Medals lists are provided for the Soviets, 1939-42 and 1943-45 (several older designs before 1943, many new orders established mid-42 and awarded by 1943, harsher requirements for awarding after 1943). Of course, the WW2 Soviet packs could be used with The Dev A-Team's all-inclusive mod for SF1 Wings over Russia, and for any mods involving the Soviet Air Forces during WW2. You’ll just have to juggle with national Medals Lists according to the period of the War when you plan to start your campaigns. Regarding these lists, everything has been especially designed, when swapping files during an extensive career, for the decorations you were awarded with an older list both to be preserved with original look and citations, and not to be awarded a second inappropriate time thereafter. Don’t worry, everything is meticulously explained with several examples in my notes. As you can notice on the screenshots, I chose to have the citations display the decorations’ names in original language without subtitle. Who can read Finnish here, raise your hand? Be easy, the awards you deserved are still announced in English on the Debrief Screen, and listed in English on your pilot’s Medal List Screen. Finnish Air Force Mannerheim Cross (2nd Class) * Order of the Cross of Liberty (2nd, 3rd & 4th Classes) Order of the Cross of Liberty (2nd, 3rd & 4th Classes with Oak Leaf) * Order of the White Rose of Finland (Knight & Knight 1st Class) Order of the Lion of Finland (Knight & Knight 1st Class) ** Medal of Liberty (1st Class) Campaign Commemorative Medal [either one single of Winter War or Continuation War available] German Iron Cross (1st & 2nd Classes) ** German Pilot’s Badge ** Soviet Air Forces Gold Star Medal of Hero of the Soviet Union (2 possible awards) Order of Lenin (2 possible awards) ² Order of the Red Banner (multiple awards possible) ² Order of Suvorov (3rd Class) ** Order of Kutuzov (3rd Class) ** Order of Alexander Nevskiy ** Order of the Patriotic War (1st & 2nd Classes) ** Order of the Red Star (2 possible awards) Medal For Valor ² Medal For Combat Service ² Campaign Medal [either one single of Leningrad or Transarctic Theatres available, or just an unofficial certificate for the Winter War, lacking a better option] Membership of the Communist Party Wound red stripe (multiple awards possible) ** * Available by 1941 only ** Available by 1943 only ² USSR : older design before 1943 also available HAPPY NEW YEAR 2017 !! Click here to download this file

Bonne Année 2017! May your wishes come true... and your resolutions come true as well!

So sad. I have always loved this choir's outstanding performance. When I think that the soldiers who found themselves carried alongside these artistic celebrities (true artists I mean, contrary to 90% of those usually called celebrities) may have thought: "Wow, how lucky I am today!..."

And now they put up roadblocks around every Christmas Marketplace, in Berlin and elsewhere. Before the tragedy it was not worth the cost, as those who know better than we had decided that nothing would happen. Now it's too late, and it's but a farce to reassure gullible suckers. It's just like clenching one's butt after soiling one's pants! Congrats, those who know better than we! Now leave the place and change your stinky pants, please!

This day, ich bin ein Berliner! In Berlin, Weihnachten this year shall be a little more a night of Hope in a better World. My pain for those crushed to death, my condolences for their families, my hopes for those wounded, and my solidarity for those shocked. Yet naught of this for Merkel, UE's greatest Trojan Horse breeder for years; this woman is beyond any hope of redemption. About the murder of the Russian ambassador, it seems that Erdogan may have put thousands of Turkish citizens under arrest, yet not the ones who were a real threat for civil peace - just the ones who were a political threat to him. I suppose there won't be many voluntary applicants in Moscow to fill the empty seat at Ankara. No worry still, as Putin shall "waste the terrorists in the Turkish toilets"!

Priceless! Infidel pagan target #1 for the Ottoman Air Force over Bethlehem! It reminds me of a Christmas episode of The Simpsons, with a dogfight inviolving this weird crate (young Grampa Simpson vs young Mr Burns)... Happy holidays to all of you !

Old "Magnet Ass" has finally survived Yuri Gagarin for nearly 50 years. An impressive life, indeed. Now rest in a deserved peace...

The itinerant funeral of Fidel Castro this week, on the paths of his revolution, reminded me of an old joke. A very old one indeed. - - - - - - During the guerilla warfare in the Cuban mountains, a CIA agent tries to infiltrate a Castrist camp. Dressed as a guerillero, he furtively joins the last ranks of a column of Castro's famous barbudos marching across the mountains. But at the camp's gate, all of the guerilleros, in turn, point their wooly beard before the sentry, saying "¡Barbudo!" as a password. Problem for the spy: he's totally beardless! Yet he chooses to risk his all, marches to the sentry, points his smooth chin, and says in a loud voice "¡Barbudo!". Then discretely opening his zipper, he lets a quick glimpse of his hairy pubes and whispers: "Secret service!"

Seemingly: 0 dead or missing. It says much about the quality of organization and skilfulness of emergency teams. Thank Yahweh, Hosannah, this did not happen in the heat of summer - when besides many other Med countries would have been busy with their own fires. I don't remember there was much to be burnt down South of Galilea and Jebel al-Druze, but it seems that the green lung of Israel has gone brown. Note about the article of Times of Israel: I'm always pretty amused when reading Arabs called anti-Semites. They are Semites, they feel Semites, for they were long before Mohammed and have always been, while they feel that the immigrates landed from Poland, Romania or Ukraine after two millenia of exile, with European trousers and hats and no Semitic words in their mouth but a handful of prayers, were not Semites.

A democratic country always gets the leader it deserves. And surely this new leader is telling about today's America. He even embodies the best of American History, as in one single man we can find: the sophisticated education of Harry Truman, the prudish monogamy of JF Kennedy and Bill Clinton, the honesty and reliability of Richard Nixon, the charismatic leadership of Ronald Reagan, the emblematic respect for human life of Bush Sr, the extraordinary foresight, cleverness and open-mindedness of Bush Jr, etc... Next topic to come: the Federal trial for high treason, The United States of Trump Incorporated versus Bitch Hillary Clinton. Yes, yes, he promised... I wonder if the Saxon equivalent of Trump, UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, will resign rather than shaking hands with his nemesis, now the new POTUS?

The Galactic Empire of Walt Disney seems to have ended George Lucas' policy of positive discrimination towards the aliens. What, in all of the SW products before, all of the teams of heroes systematically included one non-human: a Wookie in the good days, an Ewok or a Gungan at worst. Here, we have an all-humans suicide squad, except for one droid; and same remark for 'The Force awakens'. Aliens, stand up for your rights!

Everything is always perfectly carried out when you are just a few weeks to a very important electoral contest and no Federal authority wants to be blamed for a tragical failure. Much more than when you live in New Orleans just AFTER the elections took place and nobody gives a damn...

I just hope you shall overcome this challenging moment, Raven. Don't add stress to other negative factors, just rely on the people who really care for you. Best wishes for an extensive future.

On many occasions, the SW EU developed excellent ideas, concepts and scenarios, much above the poorly botched, unimaginative and cliché-rich scenario of "The Force awakens" - which should actually rather be renamed "The Force misses the alarm clock - and also fails to notice it has soiled the bed"... New Order of the Space Nazis, oh yeah, what a brainwave! When Disney plunders the EU, it's for the worst and only the worst. The design for villain Kylo Ren is clearly the same, exactly the same, used for Revan, legendary character in the RPGs "Knights of the Old Republic" + KOTOR 2 + SWTOR. Yet while Revan was a fascinating and ambivalent hero, a Man of Destiny, Kylo Ren has been made but a neurotic child and a pathetic low-bred imp just deserving a few couples of slaps. It's appalling, just appalling...

Marines, Army, Navy, Air Force... And no usual joke about the Coast Guards veterans? "And who's running the poor-excuse desk-job? Coast Guards, of course!"

I knew them very well, and had always been amazed that no big Hollywood Jerry Bruckheimer's CGI movie about them had ever been made in the 21th Century. Yet I did not know 'Only the brave', I may give a try. In the Vosges, there was a famous story about a 'lost battalion' relieved by the 442nd (can be found on any 'lost battalion' search). Daniel Inouye, former officer disabled and MoH, had been actually "senator for life" for Hawaii 1963-2012. The most incredible, and a shame for the States, is that when these 'second-class American' heroes wrote to their families, the adress was usually some internment camp in Nevada... I don't remember the actual English words, but an unofficial motto of the Nisei was something like: "We believe in a country who does not believe in us."

Some weird French slang on early WW2 fighters was "Manette dans la poche" (i.e. "control lever down the pocket") to mean "full throttle" - as on French-designed aircraft, the control lever had to be pulled rather than pushed to reach full throttle. It seems that some aces kept on using this slang later, even while flying British- or American-designed fighters.