Emp_Palpatine

What the prequels lack is a Han Solo. Obiwan Kennobi doesn't fill the void quite fully. I concurr with the Vongs, they are awfull.

Smiling for the camera

Kinda fun, but they ruined (for me) Darth Vader. He went from a dark middle-aged character to a whinny bratty teen. I really loathe Christensen/Anakin. I even find that Anakin's character is far better in the Clone War animated series than in the film. I kinda like him in the animated series. Simple enough: Christensen isn't there. Jar jar Bings is a train wreck too. The rest is quite ok. What's awefull, though, is all the current editing in the original trilogy: - Greedo... - New songs at Jabba's palace, - Christensen as a force ghost, - The "nooooooo" of Darth Vader, ruining one of the most powerful scene of Return of the Jedi. (When Palpatine is force-lightning Luke and the audience sees Vader in his silent dilemma: my son? or my fatherly figure? Now, Vader whinnes like a bratty teen again. )

Dogfight on the Rhine

Very, very close call...

By the way, and old quote from Lucas himself: "People who alter or destroy works of art and our cultural heritage for profit or as an exercise of power are barbarians [...]." ―George Lucas, 1998.

I've been here since 2005, that's not yesterday. I was a student back then. Since 2005, I changed of town six times, and I changed of flat even more. Women will be women, but a few crossed my path and nothing serious ever emerged after a few years. I graduated in 2009 and took the crisis in the face, leading me into awfull years of unemployement. I've started to get back on my feets and advancing since two years. Nowadays, I've started a new career as a teacher of French for foreigners (quite far away from my studies in political science & international relations) and I am enjoying it. I've moved into southern France (me... a stalwart notherner) and quite frankly like it. And in those 9 years, I've came and went here, depending on my time and ability to play the game. I've enjoyed myself thanks to you guys, as most of you are great fellows, and even more thanks to the awesome work the modders do. They are the best. It's also something to think that time as flown so much...

My intervention was more "if you want to do a what-if plane but with an historical paint scheme, then...". I wasn't rivet counting, I like very much your what ifs. :)

I've a very bad feeling about this sort of reboot. Abrams butchered Star Trek. He'll maul Star wars. And the worse isn't even the cast of the new films or Disney's acquisition. It's the annoucement that all the Expended Universe is hereby forgotten. They are murdering a whole universe, just like they did with Star Trek, to create piss-poor teen-oriented movies. There are huge piles of crap in the Expended Universe, that's right. But you can't delete Thrawn. You just can't. If there were one thing to save, that would be it. They are killing Star Wars. Some things are meant to stay the way they were, what's with the current way of making reboots and stuffs? Did they lose all their imaginations in Hollywood? Come one, there is even a new spiderman movie whereas the last one is like what? A few years old?

Of course it is allowable! :)

Weren't the Croix de Lorrain roundel worn only on the side, whereas the wings sported the standart ones alongside the Croix de Lorraine? Interesting, though, and not far stretched given the fact France ordered a big batch of Liberator during the Phoney war. They were supposed to enter front line service in late 1941-1942 and wreak havoc above Germany.

I like both. Well, actually, I love SF2:Vietnam with the Combatace expansion thingy. I like SF2:NA. It depends on what you expect. If you want WW2-like naval battle, then SF2:NA it is. In Vietnam, carriers are nothing more than floating airstrips. But yeah, get both.

Cold warrioring

You can win. Pretty much what has been said, beware of late IR missiles. Use your gun wisely. And watch fuel. You should be able to withstand the gun-armed "knife fight", but the danger zone is when you will be fleeing home. That's when the sidewinders are the most dangerous.

Guillotine would be quite well suited here. And regarding Islam, well, I know enough of that creed, having lived in a muslim country for some time, and I've read enough of their "scriptures" to recognize the antithesis of my civilization when I see it.

As long as the carriers aren't sunk (it does not seems to be the case), it's not a "real" issue.

By the way, I noticed the strangest thing: sometime, a stray wide weasel plane attacks... the carriers at Yankee Station! I've seen a couple of time, using F-12, some A4 or F-105D using their HARM missiles against them.

It's a what if, indeed. Still, as a frenchman, seeing a french bird with the german crosses is strange. Not a "bad" strange, a "funny" one. :) You know, world wars and stuffs.

That feels... strange.

"Il n'y a pas de fumée sans feu". (No smoke without a fire) Comme mon compatriote: il y avait mieux.

R 530 hitting something, now that's something new.

Well, I am not that surprised about the whole anti-semitic thing. Just have a look on some pro-russian stalwarts here at CombatAce. Said guy talked about some jewish plot in Ukraine, or whatever. Come solitamente con li "anti-imperialisti".

I concurr with the history lesson, such attitudes havn't been seen since 1930's. Putin isn't Hitler of course, but his foreign policies are as agressive as the former's ones. Regarding weakness: the U.S. might not be weak. Well, it depends, they are not now what they used to be. Thanks, to some extent, to B.H. Obama. But us Europeans... Gods, I am so ashamed. We might not be world powers, but even secondary powers can have credible forces. Forces strong enough to be a deterrent. Twenty years of budget cuts have left our forces in a decrepit state. The British army wouldn't even fill a full stadium. Same for France. We wouldn't even be able to mount a "falkland-like" operation if some country invaded our oversea territories. Heck, we are struggling (and exhausting ourselves) in ill thought and planed operations in Africa. Who cares about Centrafrique? Who cares about Africa? They are failed states since 1960. And now, we aren't even able to stabilize the CAR. Back in the 1970's, we could mount a drop of paratroopers in Zaire in a few hours and kick the bad guys asses in a few hours. We are basically with our pants on our ankles, weaponless and unwilling to fight, even for other europeans. I am both ashamed and afraid for the future. BTW, my english written skills are slowly dying because of my lack of practice. I do apologize for all the mistakes and bad grammar.

Nothing in international politics is only about the topic at hand. It's far greater than Ukraine. Ukraine is lost, it was a strong probability since Crimea, it's obvious since tuesday and its ridiculous attempt to fight back. When your own army does not respond, you are doomed. Still. It's not about war, or Crimea, or eastern Ukraine. It's about sending messages. The whole world is watching, and the whole world is seeing the western powers being humiliated two time in a row. Without a single show of force. I don't think Peking or Teheran missed that. That's a huge and massive prestige blow. And prestige do counts in international politics, as well as fear and credibility. Putin will do it again and might deal an even worse humiliation in the baltic states. Other will try their own cards elsewhere in the world, we are now seen as what we are: weak.

Baltic states are not the problem, yet. But they are obviously on Putin's to do list. Remember the 2007 or 2008 massive hacking coming from Russia against Estonia's electronic infrastructures? Sounds like a rehersal. There is sizable russian minorities in these three states, dating back from the soviet era. And that's Putin's tactic: 1/ I want to restore Russia's greatness; 2/ Find some "russian" minority or majority outside the borders; 3/ Stir some unrest and use special units to have so-called self-defense militias pop up; 4/ Intervene, watch the reaction of western powers, annex. Rince and repeat. What we showed, what we show now is only perceived as weakness. And weak we are indeed. Politicaly, moraly and military. I am not even sure we would intervene if Russia was to molest a Baltic State. Hell, we might again threaten them with "sanctions". I am not calling for war, of course. But I am calling for a show of will and of force. That's enough to draw a line in the sand for next time.