barrbaric

From Golden Kamuy S3

Only 4p, sadly, because one guy dropped out to go on a date (valid, but incorrect). Rather short game, ending on turn 5, after ~6 hours (with meal break). Disregard the flipped over objective cards, we just wanted to see what they were post-game.

HS1 is Sol, HS2 is Xxcha, HS3 is Hacan, HS4 is Ghosts of Creuss:

Winner was the Federation of Sol, played by yours truly, because the others more or less forced me onto Mecatol Rex and once in position my ability to drop in infantry squads made me impossible to shift. Also got very lucky with my secret objectives lining up with the publics (2 unit upgrades + 2 faction upgrades, which are the same for Sol, and own 4 planets of any color + own 4 Blue). They let me score Imperial twice which is way too many. Nobody made an attempt to dislodge me until Turn 5, too worried they'd be backstabbed, which, in fairness, was probably accurate for every player but the Xxcha. EDIT: Sol has a rep as being overpowered, so we nerfed it by reducing its starting fleet by 1 carrier. This did not seem to be enough, and it is now on the ban list, along with Jol-Nar.

Ghosts in second with 7 points because both other players gave him Support points in exchange for him suiciding into my invincible army on Mec Rex (not knowing that the game was already over unless they took my home system). This player is generally the weakest in the group, and failed to secure their slice until way too late, leaving them with little to do.

Hacan and Xxcha in third with 4 apiece. Hacan didn't really do much interesting, just spent infinite money to build up a giant fleet but that was no help with invasions, and was too late anyway. Xxcha built a fucking wall of PDS (6 total in a ring around Mec Rex, plus the flagship for 8), which prevented me from reinforcing with ships, but I think made taking it too dangerous for anyone else to consider. He also really fucked over Hacan early, blocking his movement with a cruiser move T1 onto tile 27.

Meatball Ron should be [actionable threat]

Technically it was done a while ago, but now there's a comm for it! The hull gun on the front is magnetized and can be swapped out for a laser, and the sides are magnetized as well so I can put sponsons on if I ever get around to having some 3d printed. The turret-hull connection is just a giant circular hole so it pops off real easy and I have taken to blu-tacking it in place for transport/games.

The actual name for the model is "Mars Alpha Leman Russ Incinerator", and I run it as an Executioner in 40k.

Behold, the warm glowing warming glow of the turret gun (which I'm still not really happy with even after like 10 revisions):

The last thing space fascists see before being run over:

Youtube, twitter, and reddit have obviously been in the news a lot recently, but every day business applications also seem to just keep getting worse. Got new PCs at work which means version updates, and pretty much everything we use (autocad, adobe acrobat, and ms office, mainly) all seem to run much slower, despite the computers having substantially higher specs. Love that I can't use any old versions or alternatives because they refuse to grant me admin access.

I love capitalist innovation! Why make things better when you could just make them worse and charge more?

And I think it's overrated. I have many thoughts on the show, but I'm having difficulty organizing them, so here is a wall of points (MASSIVE SPOILERS BELOW probably):

• The core message of the last episode, that "democracy requires the people to be engaged politically to survive" is a good one, though the series is deeply lib and only once vaguely mentions "profit" as a possible problem. The economies of the rival powers are never discussed, which you think might be important for a century-long galaxy-spanning war.

• Despite the length of the series and the number of subjects it covers, few are given any real detail, which leaves many things feeling arbitrary. This is especially bad for the fleet battles, where there are many instances of "genius" tactics that fall flat because either they were incredibly obvious, or the audience has no reason to suspect such a thing is even possible.

• Ironically, some of the subjects that are given detail are ridiculous. Why is the Empire themed after 19th-century Germany, for instance? Oh, because the first Emperor was a larper (to the point that they worship Odin) and a racist who only appointed germans as nobility.

• There are simply far too many characters, and especially near the end of the series, this begins to show. When you have Admiral Whatshisnuts dying and every character is mourning because this will be a crippling blow to their side but the character has only been mentioned by name maybe twice in 60 episodes, it doesn't land at all for the audience.

• The show features many child soldiers (Karin is a fighter pilot at fucking 15!), especially on the "democratic" side, but this is never really addressed, as I recall.

• The depiction of women is thoroughly boomer. Every female character ends up married to a more prominent man, and the ones who are actually capable and not simply forced into the background react like anime schoolgirls to romance.

• The laser-focus on the officer class really does a poor job of representing war. As I recall, the only time an admiral mentions the suffering of regular troops is also the first time he's ever thought of them in his life, never mind civilians which are entirely an afterthought.

• Is the depiction of the Phezzani merchant elite as working with a secretive religious cabal to take over the galaxy anti-semitic?

• The series reminds me of that Marx quote about men making history but not as they please, but kind of ridiculous. A focus on the legality of eg annexation preventing a ruler from doing what they might want, but that same ruler rose to power through a blatant military coup.

• Most of the main characters (especially Imperials, but also von Schenkopp and Poplan) are toxically masculine, but I think they're meant to be "cool" rather than pathetic. Oh yeah, very proud of you to refuse to apologize and pointlessly kill hundreds of thousands of your subordinates in a civil war, good job Reuental.

• I did like how characters were killed off, especially the old emperor dying of old age, or Konev dying off-screen in a dogfight then going unmourned because he's not important to anybody but Poplan. Yang stumbling around half asleep before getting shot was a mood.

• I'm torn on Reinhard's death. On the one hand, it fit the theme of him not belonging in the new era of peace, which is mirrored with people like von Schenkopp. On the other, you know who doesn't? All the fucking Imperial admirals. You're telling me that Bittenfeld is going to be able to transition out of a wartime mentality?

• On the subject of Bittenfeld, I actually loved his small character arc. Very few characters get any growth, and his was a pleasant surprise.

• The hypocrisy of the "democrats" choosing Frederica as their new head of state by a vote held only by the military elite is never addressed.

• The Earth Cult's strength is whatever the plot needs it to be at any given time. Sure, they can assassinate Yang or cause a civil war, easy. And then the next day there are only 5 of them left.

Curious if anyone else has watched it, and what their thoughts are.

Someone tell me what it was about. In particular, what does all the various symbolism mean, what are we supposed to take away from Mikage's arc, what's the deal with Kozue, and why did Nanami turn into a cow that one time.

Impossible difficulty: explain Miki's stopwatch.