StrelaCarbon

Sparks is the gift that keeps on giving. I thought the whole point of bicycle infantry was that it was a cheap way of getting your troops to move faster.... Kinda hard to imagine the Japanese Army racing down the Malay peninsula on bicycles like they did in '42 when each of the soldiers has to tow a trailer loaded with god-knows-what.

This website? That article was my first encounter with Sparks btw, and I think it's just perfect. Repeat misunderstandings of the way equipment was/is designed and employed, endless use of buzzwords only Sparky and his ilk know, insisting that failed shit from the past was actually great and should be replicated today, childish insults and aspersions about actual officers, ranting and raving about moron historians who he knows so much more than, and the inexplicable pictures of women's cleavage at the bottom. But probably my favorite part is when he praises a U.S. Army turretless light tank concept from the 1930s and its creator, only to trash the medium tanks the U.S. Army actually fought the war with in the same paragraph... apparently blissfully unaware that Gladeon M. Barnes, creator of the conceptual light tank, also was heavily involved in designing the M3 Lee/Grant, M4 Sherman, and others. Try reading that article and the other ones linked in it if you want a laugh. Or a brain aneurysm.

You guys already seem to have a concept for the next competition, but an idea for one of these just came to me and I wanted to put it in writing: The year is 1936, and you are an engineer for a private company which is known to design and build tanks or other armored vehicles for select customers (Vickers, Renault, CKD/Skoda, Marmon-Herrington, Krupp, Landsverk, Fiat-Ansaldo, etc.). Alternately, you are an independent madman entrepreneur with an interest in designing tanks, like J. W. Christie or Edward Grotte. Tensions in the far east are rising and the Chinese government, concerned about the threat posed by Japan, has approached your firm to purchase tanks for the impending struggle. While the Chinese purchasing agents would be happy to have some of your existing designs, they feel that it would be better to have a tank tailored to their needs, and have indicated that they would be prepared to offer you a rather lucrative contract to design and produce a tank to their specifications. The specifications put forth by the Chinese purchasing commission are as follows: - Must be as simple, rugged, and reliable as possible. - Cannot weigh more than 20 metric tons, with designs under 12 tons preferred - Must have good cross country performance, and maximum speed on roads should be no less than 30 kph - Should carry a main armament capable of defeating the armor of all current Japanese tank designs [Read: Type 89 I-go, Type 95 Ha-go], plus one or two machine guns - Strong preference given to designs using weapons already in service with the National Revolutionary Army, or ones which at least use the same ammunition - Armor must be able to resist heavy machine guns from any range and angle, and the Japanese 37mm AT Gun from the front at 500 meters - Ability to be disassembled into something that could be smuggled through customs as a "tractor" or "scrap metal," then re-assembled with limited infrastructure is strongly preferred The rules are simple; 1. You must pick a real-life, period-appropriate designer to "represent," and your entry must reasonably resemble their designs, using resources, features and construction methods available which that company preferred and had access to during the stated time period. For example, an entry from Fiat-Ansaldo with torsion bar suspension and all-cast construction would be disqualified. 2. There should only be one contestant for each historical designer. 3. Creative designs will be favored; You could technically draw up a modified Pz. 35(t) LT vz.35 to fit the specifications, but where's the fun in that?

Many seals were clubbed with a C.205 to acquire this plane Edit: Also, how do I get my screenshots from WT to not look so potato?

Yeah, the Wirbelwind is pretty disgusting. At ranges under ~200 meters it seems to be perfectly capable of shredding Cromwells, Valentines, and M10s from the front. What really ticks me off about it (and the Ostwind) though is that so many players will put shrubbery and other camo on the turret, so I'll see a Pz.IV hull and instinctively aim for the spot on the hull where you can get most of the crew with a single hit, only to have the shell go right under the feet of the 3 men sitting high in the turret. The Wirbelwind will then notice me (if he hadn't already), spin his turret around, and spray me with 20mm APCR.

I just bought the Churchill I in WT. God help me.

So what's the consensus on Turbo-Electric propulsion for warships? Good or Bad?

What exactly is this a reference to, might I ask?

Yep, tough cars. And much more interesting than the Priuses that are coming to dominate the taxi market where I live.

Here's a big collection of pictures from several auctions I attended at the James G. Murphy auctioneers in Kenmore, Washington

Since photobucket has locked all my photos on the first page behind a paywall, I'll have to dig the originals up out of my old computer. But in the meantime, enjoy this 1957 Plymouth Fury, photographed in the wild in the vast wasteland of southern Snohomish county. And here's some Volkswagen thing I don't know anything about: And I thought riced-out civics looked bad:

I've been playing a lot of Hearts of Iron IV lately, mostly doing wacky stuff like taking over all of Africa while playing as Portugal and making divisions composed entirely of T92s. Very addicting game though. There's some very nice mods made for it, too.

I must really need to be getting more sleep, because for a good few seconds there I was having quite a time picturing you murdering your computer with one of these held firmly in hand.

Yeah, the "Insider" series started raising red flags for me when the supposed insider kept telling them how they'd gotten everything right. Also the bit about there being different RNG for unicums and employees seems really suspect.

I see what you did there.