Capitaine Vengeur

What about an early war against Japan in 1938 (facing A5M, Ki-27, Ki-21... models existing in Il-2), from the hypothesis of a bilateral non-appeasement policy after the USS Panay Incident in China?

May all the bodies be recovered, and then RIP.

Thank you for sharing.

I have just installed and tried AdAstra for a while. It seems to be quite a attractive and deserving game. Sure, some of the ships designs seem to have been conceived by a junkie attacked by a flock of gooses while under LSD influence. But the stellar systems are really interesting, and most of the classics of the explore-fight-trade open spacegames seem to have been kept or enhanced. Viper, thank you very much for the link. I enjoy spacefights, provided I have the biggest ship by far, and the Death Star Superlaser. No yells, no blood, no traces: Deep Space is a so clean place.

Really doesn't sound like "The Axe of Good" Trademark. Is the next step collecting embalmed heads and collars of ears and fingers, and the following step... Colonel Kurtz's way? But on this special case, I can admit particular circumstances and a necessary initiative. After all, why can't those freaky irregular warriors decide to wear identity discs?

I can imagine messages from a speaking RWR: - Second 1: "You have been targetted by a Raytheon laser weapon. Thank you for choosing Raytheon." - Second 3: "The weather is getting hot, isn't it? Open the canopy for fresh air." - Second 6: "You are boiling. Any prayer?" - Second 8: "You are perfectly cooked. Serve with onions and vegetables." In a quite recent album of the French-Belgian comics "Buck Danny", an USAF F-16 pilot flying over the Korean DMZ was trapped and blinded by a North Korean red laser beam aimed at the cockpit. His navigation computer having been sabotaged by a South Korean traitor, his waypoints led the plane deeply in NK territory for him to be captured. A NK operation of propaganda.

I would trade any M61 Vulcan for such a laser gun aboard a jet fighter. No need to aim before the target, as your shot has the speed of light. The dream weapon for high-deflection shots !

I had formerly focused on pretty agile fighter aircraft, but the most beautiful and majestic ever, I think, is the B-29 in silver painting shining in the sun over the clouds...

Is it just me? I haven't heard any one single vuvuzela for some days. Now I almost miss them. Frightening.

I think too that the poll should be divided in technologic eras. I'm usually more fond of WW2 props, and as an "IL-2" fan, my favourite would be the Yak-3 (not on the list), pretty, balanced, easy to flight, and very elusive in a close dogfight near the ground. Some of them were nicely decorated by the Soviets (bright red noses, large mottoes in Cyrillic, that sort of think), and I like the design of the French squadron Normandie-Niemen with the long white lightning of 303th IAD. For the Western planes, I would have voted for the F-4U (not on the list either), in the same time physically impressive, powerful and tough (contrary to the pretty P-51 I find quite fragile) - and identifiable enough at long range to avoid friendly fire. Concerning WW1 birdcages, I would choose the SPAD XIII who has a very intimidating aspect (the P-47 counterpart for WW1), but I usually prefer to fly a more balanced plane with no real weak point, like the S.E.5a or Fokker D.VII. Concerning jets, I would say F-86 or Super-Mystère B2 for early ones, and F-18 for later ones. Unfortunately, none of them are on the list. So, no vote.

A bullet-chewer ! Even Chuck Norris would say: "Respect!"

More threads to come about the most critical days of the Battle, I think (Adlerangriff, Adlertag, first bombings on London, BoB Day...). After all, you're not 70-year-old every year.

I know that a French pilot, and later his squadron, used an emblem picturing a long-walking white skeleton handling a scythe. Actually, the same picture that you can see in the movie "Red Baron" misused as Lance Hawker's emblem, painted on his SE5a (what a goof!). Unfortunately, I don't remember Which squadron it was.

At the French, Alfred Heurteaux has led since November 1916 the Escadrille N3 (later SPA3, the best of the best) as a simple Lieutenant, while there were in the Squadron five Capitaines higher in rank than him. That shocked the French hierarchy, not the frontline pilots who respected skillfulness above everything else.

At least in Uk, it's still legal for anyone to lick the Queen's back... when pictured on stamps, of course.

Then came the 250lbs police officers, then the police cars with especially reinforced chassis, and so on...

I still regularly play X-Wing Alliance. Still a great game. Always so brilliant to have your A-Wing deposit your space bombs at point blank. But indeed, some progress in the graphics would be welcome. I'd particularly enjoy some spectacular cinematic explosions with dynamic lights in your cockpit. Something close to the movies. Freelancer suffers from an arcade-style third-person space fight, very limited (say, symbolic) potentialities in interstellar trade, an imposed very restrictive script, and moreover, you embody an insipid poseur. But it had nonetheless some good points: amusing universe inspired from the mourned Earth, amusing settings, and intermittent at will cinematic sequences of physical interaction from biped to biped: you don't have this horrible impression of being a hermit crab never leaving his shell you could feel in X3 or Elite. I had a special relation to that game: in 2004, I played it very intensively for two weeks, mostly long into the night, playing nothing else, and soon reaching Level 17 or something. Then I suddenly gave up, and never came back to the ongoing adventure, and rarely to the game. I have never been really passionate about X3, and never began a real immersive campaign. Oh sure, many potentialities indeed, splendid graphics, extensive universe with large freedom, but... On the other hand, in my early 20s, I've spent countless evenings on Elite 2: Frontier, playing the nice guy (that is, smuggling slaves and drugs, attacking smaller ships, and assassinating for cash while flying my favourite Imperial Courier). I liked the way you really felt flying a spacesoap in the vacuum, prisoner of your own inertia, rather than flying an arcade spaceship. Sometimes very frustrating, always very amusing. Von Paulus, thank you for the link. This JJED3D reminds me of ancient sensations. But a last word for ending: ELITE 4, RIGHT NOW !!!

"...And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in airGave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there..." Yep, strange way to commemorate July 4, but it's a free country.

You can lose worst than a claim form to bureaucracy. During WW2, the Italian ace Adriano Visconti had a recommandation for a Silver Medal for Valor (second-highest award for bravery) lost to the infamous Italian bureaucracy (date for the work to be done: "Domani mattina", tomorrow morning). Fortunately, he earned four others (instead of five), plus two bronze ones.