Warmaker

QFT big time. The US domestic release of Appleseed back in the early 90s were the very first manga I ever bought and it was awesome stuff. I didn't think too much of the old OVA. The movie? I didn't feel too comfortable with it. Just from the gut feeling I had alone. Sure enough, I was disappointed. As for GITS, I'm not too fond of the movies and to me they were overrated. Keep in mind I absolutely adored the original GITS manga also. I haven't checked the series yet though. My problem with the GITS & Appleseed OVAs / Movies were that they never felt anything like the manga. From the art style to the overall feel of the story. There's a certain way M.Shirow makes his characters look, and I never saw that from the OVAs / Movies. That's a big turnoff for me, since I do love his artwork.

I think they are S-3's, especially with the squadron designations starting in "VS-" Are they phasing out S-3's? Does the Navy have any CV-deployable ASW aircraft slated to replace them? Subs are the "next big thing" for Navies around the world for the past couple years.

Oh, BTW... Happy Birthday United States Marines... 232 years! Drank a bottle of water where I'm at in celebration Semper Fidelis

Some of the Macross 7 designs & variants aren't to my liking. But by far, the VF with "breasteses" in Macross 7 irks me to no end. Kawamori? What the hell was up with that?!?

/BashRobotech /BashRobotechGuy There, we're back on topic!

4 more extra letters to "Jap" wouldn't make it right for the sentence it was used for (Jap Zero). You need 5 extra letters for "Japanese Zero"

Come on, there's this thing called "Anti-Submarine Warfare" Destroyers, ASW aircraft, both rotary and fixed wing can be a bane for submarines. It's a little dance NATO's done with the Soviets for decades, and it wouldn't surprise me if the US Navy and Russian Navy would be playing the game again. I've read in a military journal on how China wants carriers, but there's too many factors to make them useful and effective anywhere in the near future. - Firstly, as you mentioned, COST. Carriers aren't cheap, even on the upkeep. - Inexperience in naval aviation. This is a huge factor here. The US Navy for instance has been toying with the idea since before WWII (same with Britain's Royal Navy?). It has decades of experience in naval aviaton through numerous shooting conflicts (WWII, Korea, Vietnam, etc., etc). I'm not sure how the Chinese Gov't & Navy as a whole want a CV force, but they of course had some admirals really making a push for it, even purchasing one of the old Russian CV's to see a bit of "how it's done."

For the consoles ports of SF games, I've tried the SNES, PS1&2, and of course Dreamcast systems and controllers. SNES I had no problems with. Spent alot of time when SF2 came out on it long ago learning the game. It was also the first time playing ANY SF2. I didn't try the arcade version until after the SNES release. PS1 controllers. This was the meat & potatoes of my SF gaming, namely SFA1-3. I got really good with the PS's great controllers. Dreamcast controllers. As a loyal Sega fan (had Master System, Genesis, and Saturn prior), I loved the Dreamcast but the controllers were like brick gaming pads, the same sentiment I have when I try X-Box redwood-log sized controllers. I bought the SF anniversary and the SFA3 port for the Dreamcast. But despite being a fan of the awesome ports on the Dreamcast, the controllers were brutally awful. Note: As I said before, I had a Saturn also. Back in the 90s I tried really, really hard finding the SFA2 version for it since I heard it rocked like a mofo from various magazines. I played SFA2 alot in the arcades and I wanted it more. But I couldn't find it, so I settled on the PS1 version. I also had a Genesis, but I never bought any of the SF2 ports on it. Between all the SF2 versions put out on the SNES and Genesis, I only liked it on the SNES, despite liking the Genesis alot more.

Dan? Any man willing to wear a pink gi deserves to be a punching bag! Speaking of Tag Team (which I think started with Marvel vs Capcom?), one little feature I had fun with on SFA console ports was having 2 players playing together as a team. It was fun to try this mode with my Sister. I played Ryu, she was kickass with Ken, and we'd blaze through the game. Yeah, it was overkill with 2 good players, but it was fun. For Street Fighter, I think the console ports of SFA2 & SFA3 had it. Back home, my old Sega Dreamcast is still there, along with SFA3. My only gripe are those old big, clumsy controllers. An old school SF memory: When SF2 first came out, nobody of course knew the "canon" names of the moves. Hurricane Kick, Strider Kick (or Flash Kick), etc. But the funny one was Ryu & Ken's signature move. The "All You Can"

Sakura & Karin tag team! As far as Cammy goes, there's also Juni & Juli, also from SFA3. Dan needs to come back also. Everyone needs a punching bag every now and then.

I have one of the 1/72 Bandai VF-1J's also. They're not too bad, but posing could be problematic at times. They're not that sturdy for poses. But if left in jet mode, they look good enough.

I'm going after the YF-19 variant, namely due to the black color. Much easier to modify the scheme than the very bright Macross Plus scheme. I don't like the eye lens color, but that's easy to rectify. The VF-1S really needed a green eye lens also. The model kit version had a built up example with a purplish scheme. I wonder how that would have looked with the 1/48 Yammie.

Yeah, I'd like to see new blood for a SF boss. Bison has been it for alot of SF games already.

I shook the Magic 8-Ball and it says, "Maybe."

Keep in mind that there's still a bunch of us that think the movie *sucked* before it hit the theater and afterwards. Thankfully I didn't pay to see it, but did see it since I had nothing else to do where I was at. Watching a bad movie > Watching sand blow in one's face (Haven't been a TF fan since a kid back in the 80s)

Yet just before Kursk in 1943, Germany still had more than a fair chance at coming out to a "moderate victory" in WWII, despite Hitler's blunders. 1943, IMO, is the last year Germany had a chance of achieving anything close to a victory. Anything that lends towards that is a boon for them, and having some units of jets intercepting the everyday threat of bombers over Germany would help. Especially in 1943!. This was the year Germany was introducing some of the most famous weapon systems that it was eventually famous for. This was the last year Germany's forces were still in very good strength. It's real easy with hindsight to say that Hitler easily lost the war for them. But even by 1943, the Germans weren't quite easily out of the war just yet, since its armed forces were still quite strong.

As for the late introduction of the Me262, there's another larger factor I'd add in: With the onset of the war, Germany, though starting it, did not fully gear for war. The industry wasn't geared for it. Some weapon systems that were close to being ready for introduction or even systems that needed upgrading were pushed back since the conflict would be short. Germany went into war with a definitely technologically inferior Panzerwaffe, though it was the doctrines which made them what they were. The Fw190 as I recall would have been introduced earlier but the focus was on the current fleet of Bf109's. I'm not sure how much earlier the Me262 would have entered if it had more resources poured into it. But an earlier, effective introduction could have made a dent with the Luftwaffe at least still being in strength since by mid'44 it was a shadow of itself. The draw for the 262 would have been Bomber interception. It wasn't made for dogfighting, but it's abilities would have helped tremendously against the numerically strong (and well crewed) Allied fighters... simply by avoiding them. Historically, even the Americans' Daylight Bombing Campaigns have resulted in occasionally horrendous losses. That's with Flak and normal piston engined aircraft. Imagine if there were some units of 262s intercepting while the Luftwaffe still had strength earlier in the war... like 1943? All the Luftwaffe fighter / interceptor force would have to do is inflict massive enough casualties to the bomber force to bring a long enough respite. Like I said, even the large USAAC suffered large losses on single occasions where it questioned the validity of Daytime Bombing. And the Luftwaffe wasn't shabby with nightfighting either (though historically daytime fighting was the core effort). Still, I don't think an earlier introduction of the Me262 would have given Germany a victory in WWII. But it would have made it much costlier to the Allied bomber force. Roughly 10 men go down in each of those 4-engined bombers. Eventually, though, the Allies would introduce their jets to try and even things out. I envision an early, proper introduction of the Me262 giving Germany a bit of respite, but it won't change the course of the war. Germany by mid-43, IMO, had more than an even chance to lose the war... say 60-70%?... by 1944 it was a guaranteed defeat, one way or another. ----------- As for digging out mothballed F4 Phantoms for combat against modern MiGs and Sukhois, I don't know about that Firstly, they will need upgrading for even at least somewhat modern equipment (avoinics, etc). Then they need to be tested, fixed, tested, etc. Then you also need to train up a large number of pilots to even have basic training / flight experience on the platform. How many Phantom pilots are left flying in the USAF, USN, and USMC, fit enough to train the new generation of pilots?... if these older, experienced Phantom drivers aren't retired yet at the onset of a large conflict. Optimally, you'd have a very, very small core of experienced F4 pilots while the rest are highly inexperienced. You're not going to have a sizeable core of Captains & Majors (Lieutenants, Lt Cmdrs for USN) who have good experience, a sort of "in-between" the older pilots and the brand new ones. The big thing will be training. How much time will be dedicated to training these 1k pilots for an upcoming conflict against a supposed enemy air force that's large enough and respectable enough to warrant the US to bring F4's out of mothballs? - Would it be acceptable to the US to throw out pilots in old aircraft and overal very basic training against a modern air force? - Would it be acceptable to the US to throw out pilots in modern aircraft with extensive training against a modern air force? I have always thought that Western / NATO Air Forces had the edge in quality. Quality being gained by good aircraft (which is narrowing to varying degrees now) and most of all, training and experience. Throwing tons of inexperienced pilots in old aircraft, IMO throws these advantages away.

No mention of EA or SOE in that last post there, DukeTogo. And that's a good thing. LucasArts would have the money to put out and promote the game like it should. BioWare I believe has a good enough track record to keep LA from climbing on their backs too much for changes the dev team feels aren't necessary for their own game design. LucasArts had a role with SOE in driving the original Star Wars MMO into the ground, Star Wars Galaxies. From 200k subscribers to maybe 20k. Great move guys! I just hope BioWare can do it their way and still bring a right Star Wars experience.

I've heard it in other occasions in the military, too "All right people, what are you waiting for, breakfast in bed? Another glorious day in the Corps. A day in the Marine Corps is like a day on the farm. Every meal's a banquet. Every paycheck a fortune. Every formation a parade. I love the Corps!" It did help that the guy that played Apone was a former Marine also.

What's still awesome with Aliens is that even my 18, 19 year old Marines know in detail this "old movie" as well as the lines Usually only stuff like Star Wars gets that treatment. "Game over, man! Game over!!!"

Like I said, I didn't see all of Macross Zero yet, just the 1st bootleg disc. As far as Roy and continuity goes, I used SDFM over DYRL? simply because it's more fleshed out as a whole. And we of course see Roy do his thing more in SDFM than in DYRL. IMO, of course. I also will third the notion of Gamlin being "Honorary Cannon Fodder." The plate of his award will read: "For the grievous sin of losing Millia Jenius' VF-1J, a historical piece from the UN Spacy's experience of Space War 1, a mount piloted by a heroine of said war, and Valkyrie long out of production. For your horrendous display of piloting ability, you are hereby awarded the title of: Honorary Cannon Fodder, 3rd Class" Signed, Adm. M.Jenius Commander, 7th Macross Fleet

I said before Hikaru wasn't a CF pilot (after all, he was a major character). I also did not say he was a poor pilot! All I said, was that since eugimon reminded me of how many Valks were lost by Hikaru, his standing among Macross pilots went down in my eyes. Consider the crowd of characters who are at least good pilots he is with in the Macross shows: The likes of Isamu, Guld, Millia, and of course, Roy and Max. (I haven't seen all of Macross Zero, so...) As far as the "best" Macross Aces go: ** Roy doesn't lose a single VF-1, but he gets lined up for a fatal strafe from a Quadluun Rau. But his VF-1S is still in fighting condition to RTB (return to base). ** Max loses 1 VF, his early white w/ blue patterned VF-1A. This was during his rescue mission of his friends aboard the enemy flagship, the episode where he also sneaks around the ship with his "incognito" VF-1A ** Millia does not lose any of her vehicles either. Her Quadluun Rau gets shot up by Max in their fateful duel around the SDF and inside the SDF's city. Despite the attack by Max, her Q-Rau is also in good enough condition to RTB. From the rest of SDFM, she does not lose her red VF-1J when she switches sides (some other schmuck loses her beloved -1J in Macross 7). As far as Hikaru coming in with his Fan Jet and eventually becoming an ace, I bring up a better example: Max! He just signed up, fresh off the street, received basic training alongside Kakizaki, and starts right off becoming an ace, impressing even a veteran like Hikaru (who was flying his VF-1J at this time, IIRC). Remember, Hikaru was already an experienced pilot prior to the first episode of SDFM!

Aliens + Colonial Marines are the s**t! The M41 Pulse Rifle from Aliens is still among the best sci-fi prop made so far. Not bad for 20+ year old props! Some more M41 goodness from some fans. Speaking of Colonial Marines, I recall a little discussion when I was in Marine Combat Training in 1993. During one of our humps/forced marches/unit movements, I was lucky to be near the front of the march. 2 of the squad leaders were talking with our Staff Sergeant, and the discussion went on about the random, future possibilities of the Marine Corps. The SSgt was just rambling on about how the USMC could possibly be something like the Colonial Marines as seen on Aliens. Small, rapid deployment force, lavishly equipped for a myriad of duties especially for small unit actions. The things you talk about when you're bored

No, he wasn't a "CF" pilot, but since eugimon pointed out the sheer amount of Valks Hikaru lost, his standing among Macross pilots has lowered in my eyes

I'd have to agree here. I used to think it was Millia that strafed Roy from his 6, but it's not. That'd make her the "greatest" of the CF pilots since she shot up Roy.