Capitaine Vengeur

Excessive friendly fire should be punished by Lord Vader himself (for the Republican side, driving Chewbacca angry would be the worst option).

Don't get me wrong, I was talking about the defeat of Spain, forced to admit the Mexican independance in 1821, i.e. before Mexico really became the state of Mexico. The French indeed faced the legal government of Mexico, i.e. the state of Mexico, as the puppet Mexican Empire of Maximilian was recognized by very few nations. You're right on this point. But I would not really called it a defeat. The French withdrew their expeditionary force and removed their direct military support to Maximilian, instead of being defeated on the ground. Before that, they had dominated the middle part of the War. The defeats in the last part of the War were suffered by Imperial troops, i.e. Mexicans. It can be compared to the US withdrawal from Vietnam in 1973, before South Vietnam standing alone faced successive defeats at the hands of its Northern counterpart, down to its final doom in 1975. Ow, finally, with such a comparison, it's true that it rather sounds a defeat...

Ahah! This one is a good kill... Yes, the Spanish defeat was to the Mexican insurgents, not to Mexico. But when it comes to our modern humiliations, at least we surrendered Indochina to a surprisingly trained and motivated army - while Britain surrendered India to a surprisingly nonviolent and vegetarian ascetic !!

About their part in the fall of Napoleon, the English use to boast a lot about Trafalgar and the many other victories of the Royal Navy, about the Peninsula War (which was not always an one-sided campaign, see my link above), and of course, about Waterloo. Well, all of that is true. But don't forget that the most prominent and enduring role of Perfidious Albion was to indefatigably raise one coalition after the former one had failed, by shamelessly bribing the advisors and favorites of the absolute monarchs of Europe, and by cold-bloodly subsidizing the masses of Germanic and Slavic cannon fodder repeatedly poured on the battlefields. Sounds much less glorious, does it? A common saying at that time in Europe was: "England will fight to the last drop of Prussian, Austrian and Russian blood." Also don't forget that at Waterloo, the British were only one third of the Allied army that began the battle (i.e. more than simply supported by Germans and Dutchmen), and thus much less than one quarter after the Prussians began to arrive en masse onto the battlefield. Add that among these "British", at least one third were actually Irishmen, the poorest part of the Kingdom in this army of social outcasts led by flogging and bullying. In the same way, the Brits in the Peninsula were heavily dependant on a large proportion of foreign troops (also useful when Wellington needed someone to put the blame on when defeated). The Redclads in Spain could never have made a safe step forward without their Portuguese light troops, among the few ones in Europe able to challenge the swarms of French skirmishers. And the moral of Waterloo? A tyrant down, and then? A "tyrant" who had instituted the most advanced code of laws in Europe, and who won? Freedom? The winners on the one part were the absolute despots of Europe, Prussia, Russia and Austria, the gravediggers of Poland, all of them still resorting to medieval serfdom. At least, a page of History had been turned, and those anachronistic realms were by now doomed to progress or die. The other more pernicious winner was the London model of society of speculator ploutocracy, destined to spread all over the World the social misery it had established within its own kingdom, by its insatiable colonial appetite. Yet it is still possible to reconcile the British sword with the French pen. Give a read again at the account of the battle by Victor Hugo in his most famous Les Misérables (Volume II, Book 1). Full of inaccuacies and writer's pure inventiveness, but God! it sounds like an ancient epic! BOOK FIRST.—WATERLOO

Oh, well so? Rather try the comparative study down here: serious research over basic bias. Enjoy. http://napoleonistyka.atspace.com/bayonet_battles.htm

Two views that generations of immigrants remembered to their deathbed were their last sight of Europe where they were to never go back, and their first sight of America. And this first sight was most often this iron dame - an ambassadress of Europe on the shore of the New continent.

Priceless ! Directly down to my archive files ...

-- Miami is the first submarine and nuclear-powered ship to be lost in a U.S. naval shipyard, and the second warship lost in a U.S. naval shipyard after the loss of the steam frigate Merrimack in 1861. [Wiki] Some warships in History met a more humiliating way to see their otherwise honorable service ending in advance. But not that many. At least in this occasion, it happened without loss of life. Anyway, USS Miami should have deserved a better fate.

The US Military seems to have chocolate medals for pretty damn everything. Is there one for that kind of service to the Nation? Or for rescuing some G.W.Bush tripping over the carpet or inadvertantly smacking into the closed door?

Sorcerer Saruman and Count Dooku shall stay for long in the Top 10 of the evilest bearded villains on screen...

... And you hardly ask to fill a jointly agreed accident report when facing four skinheads with camo suits, guns, and "We-are-a-team" attitude...

3D is a must for this one. The beginning is rather clumsy I find, but next it runs on the sands like blood over oil! Quite predictable framework and events, but dynamic making, mind-blowing like hell, with the expectable batch of grimacing mugs in close-up, kamikaze barbarians, acrobatic motorbikes, armored and spiked hulks crushed by armored and spiked war truck, chains, guns, and metal racket... (yes, hurrah from the flamethrower guitar!) I may keep an eye on the development of the video game to come.

You are right: I just cannot believe it... History really showed no Mercy to poor Arizona.

File Name: Modern Ukrainian Medals Pack - October 2015 Update File Submitter: Capitaine Vengeur File Submitted: 24 May 2015 File Category: Menus This mod provides quite a complete panel of the awards available to the Ukrainian military by our 2010s. It is mostly intended to complement other works (campaigns) that YOU modder would like to design, using PFunk’s Black Sea 2.0a map covering Crimea and the Sea of Azov, and the tragically rich events of Year 2014 there (and plausible prospects of even more tragic moments to come). Such hypothetical campaigns could explore various kinds of conflicts involving NATO forces, from a frantic all-out war, to local operations to recover Crimea or clear the Southern Donbass area, to a latent conflict limited to aerial skirmishes and incursions over some NATO-enforced no-fly zone, etc... The complete list of your available decorations is displayed here : Ukrainian Air Force Gold Star of Hero of Ukraine (2 possible awards) Order For Merit (3 Classes, each one awarded only once in turn) Order of Bogdan Khmelnytskiy (3 Classes, each one awarded only once in turn) Order For Courage (3 Classes, each one awarded only once in turn) Order of Daniel of Galicia Medal for Military Service to Ukraine (multiple awards possible) Defender of the Homeland Medal Honor and Valor Distinction Appreciation For Valiant Military Service to the Fatherland Appreciation For Achievements in Military Service (2 Classes, each one awarded only once in turn) Pilot's qualification wings (4 Classes, each one awarded only once in turn) Beware, none of these awards did exist in 1994 when Ukraine was still a newborn nation, so this awards panel should not be suitable as is for your installation of the SF2NA: Black Sea Crisis campaign. Fortunately, I have also enclosed alternative citations with postponed dates of awarding, that makes this panel acceptable for campaigns set in 1994/1996. October 2015 Update : adds air & ground counters, new medals (Order of Courage 1st & 2nd Classes, Distinction of the Ministry of Defense, pilot's qualification badges...), and completely reshuffles criteria for awarding for better realism and accordance with the Russian medals pack to come soon – with citations rewritten accordingly. Click here to download this file

... !?!!?! ... "Are they edible for us?" would be the second question coming to my mind. The first one would be "Are we edible for them?"

If I remember well, the photographer was killed in the moment when he took that picture. Too close. Well, I would not exactly title this one "The right place, at the right time"...

"Such a tragedy. They will think this was their victory. So this will become an American war. And the end will be the same, except for the numbers who will die before we get there." - "We were soldiers", prophetic words by the Viet colonel at the end of the battle at Ia Drang, 1965, 10 years before...

Happy birthday Derk !

Browsing forums, it seems that I am not the only one who noticed overwhelming similarities between new hooded and masked villain Kylo Ren (with the cossed lightsaber), and older hooded and masked villain Darth Revan, starring role in the classic video game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Some could could excuse that as a tribute; I call it a shameless copy. Such lack of imagination and botched design are insulting towards fans.

Happy birthday to you !

Probably with poor overaged Harrison playing the same role as poor overaged Sir Alec in "A new hope": the old nut rambling on about the feats and marvels of his youth, "An elegant weapon for a more civilized age", with some young adventurer asshole around calling him an old nut...

The week 150 years ago was fertile with two among the most depicted events in the iconography of the quite short History of the United States. On 9 April 1865, 150 years ago today, General Robert Lee surrendered at Appomatox Courthouse the remnants of the main Rebel army, just one week after the fall of the Confederate capital city of Richmond that Lee had failed to screen. His Army of Northern Virginia numbered at that time one third of the strength it had at its apex, fighting now at 1 to 4 against Union forces in full supply. General Grant's fairness at Appomatox showed there the seeds of the national reconciliation he wished for post-war. Just re-elected President Lincoln, who had grown much more older than the 4 years the War lasted, did not live enough to see it fully extinguished. On 14 April, he was mortally shot by a Rebel fanatic, beginning a dramatic list to 1981 of US Presidents shot by dissatisfied morons.

How many screens would you need to get a complete hemispherical geode? Collecting exam papers in 10 minutes...