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Cool, thanks guys. I lucked into some wave 1 stuff at an FLGS but there's no way I'm paying Ebay prices for any of this. (Especially when the selling point is good plastic models for cheap.)
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Sep 9, 2021 18:03
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The new models are also (slowly) getting metal reprints made at Iron Wind Metals.
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Sep 9, 2021 18:52
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The new Thunderbolt is a great sculpt, though I wish they'd prioritized some others. The reseen Thud is one of the best designs of that batch. I wish they'd focused on getting new minis out for the ugliest ones. *Angrily shaking fist at IWM's Valks and Crusaders* Defiance Industries fucked around with this message at 18:57 on Sep 9, 2021 |
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Sep 9, 2021 18:55
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moths posted:Force packs go on sale November for people who missed the KS, right? November or December was the estimate. But it was only an informed estimate, trying to take into account shipping shenanigans. And too far into December and you might as well say January.
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Sep 9, 2021 21:26
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Picked up my parcel from FedEx today, my randoms were a Mad Dog, Summoner, Shadow Cat, and Morgan Kell (Archer). Between the salvage boxes, lance packs, Beginner Box, AGoAC, and Clan Invasion, I count 29 mechs, two points of Elementals, and one aerospace fighter, with only a single pair of dupes (two Wolverines). Now I just need to learn how to paint.
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Sep 10, 2021 07:55
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Drama alert that I need to offload: I'm kind of increasingly bothered by the right-winged bullshit from some of the prominent people in Battletech, especially with how one of the authors Pardoe uses his platform to air his batshit crazy reactionary political drivel. It's leaving a pretty bad taste in my mouth and it's more and more difficult to ignore, imo. Then we recently had that nazi guy from the Warhammer fandom that even Games Workshop disowned show up to talk with Tex, yet he got defended by one of the Battletech youtubers called renegadehpg, who also went on to defend that far-right-winged author Pardoe back when he threw that temper tantrum about the fact that transpeople exist. I don't like drama and I know it's a military sim universe so it attracts certain elements on the political spectrum (usually right-winged white dudes who love guns and the military), but as long as politics don't really surface, Battletech's fandom is easier to stomach. Yet the last couple of months with that author and his far-right drama, and that whole nazi warhammer guy being defended just really bothers me and has brought out some bad elements in the communities, imo. Either I am seeing fascist supporters or meek white nerds who prefers quiet negative peace and who won't stand up against bullshit bigotry in the online fanbase. It's just uncomfortable to think about the fact that there are some prominent elements in Battletech with their brown shirt fans who despise your existence if you're a racial or sexual or gender minority (or are of the opinion that poor people don't deserve to die). Catalyst wrote a facebook post last year about how they support Black Lives Matter and how they should listen to marginalized perspectives, yet they pay and work with a massive racist prick and let the cancerous elements in the community fester. It's gross and their actions basically tells people who don't fit the category of being a god-fearing, gun-loving white american dude to gently caress off. I don't expect CGL to do anything, because they're a niche company. Oh, and Catalyst's Brent Evans has started up a company with Pardoe. I'm sure other people like Randall Bills mean well and Harebrained Schemes were really good about their politics in the universe, but the increasingly louder reactionary wing of the creators and fans in Battletech are worrying. I don't think there's much I can do about it, I can just tell that it's negatively affecting my enjoyment of a universe and game I love and have played for almost 30 years. Should I change my mindset? Abandon the universe? Stop being social online with regard to Battletech? I definitely am less inclined to spend money on it. Sorry for ranting, I just needed to get it off my chest. Nashira fucked around with this message at 02:25 on Sep 11, 2021 |
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Sep 11, 2021 02:23
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This is the only place I talk about Battletech and I feel good about it.
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Sep 11, 2021 02:30
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Nashira posted:Sorry for ranting, I just needed to get it off my chest. How much did you like the Federated Suns getting its rear end handed to it repeatedly, from 3067 and onwards? For me, it was just cathartic.
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Sep 11, 2021 03:18
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The lead uh…designer I think? on HBS Battletech was a trans woman (and I think maybe the first person to call out JKR as a terf) so I’m sure she played a big role in that game getting a lot of things right. The MWLL community has definitely struggled with some pretty lovely people in the past, one of our devs is uhh definitely Nazi-adjacent and gets all his opinions directly from YouTube, but we’ve managed to build a really strong core community of queer/trans/ally/at least not totally awful people who at least get the rest to shut up (including said dev). Worst comes to worst we can always pretend Battletech fell from a hole in the sky 
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Sep 11, 2021 03:24
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This is basically the only place I read about or talk about Battletech even though I mostly lurk. I listened to Tex for a bit but unless something changed he's a cop lover and I got no time for that poo poo.
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Sep 11, 2021 03:43
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TheKingslayer posted:This is basically the only place I read about or talk about Battletech even though I mostly lurk. I listened to Tex for a bit but unless something changed he's a cop lover and I got no time for that poo poo. Also, his videos have gone from <20 to >90 minutes long - I literally got no time for that poo poo.
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Sep 11, 2021 04:26
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Some time ago, he made a weird rear end joke about Soviet tactics (read: the Hollywood, taken-from-Nazi-memoirs version of Soviet military tactics) while describing a 'Mech and that was a bit weird. Now the Arch video makes a bit more sense lol
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Sep 11, 2021 07:52
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Nashira posted:Drama alert that I need to offload: I'm kind of increasingly bothered by the right-winged bullshit from some of the prominent people in Battletech, especially with how one of the authors Pardoe uses his platform to air his batshit crazy reactionary political drivel. It's leaving a pretty bad taste in my mouth and it's more and more difficult to ignore, imo. I got banned from the Everything Battletech discord (along with a shitload of other people) for criticizing tex on that. He specifically told the server to @ him if anyone else was "intolerant" in this manner, so that entire community is a complete dumpster fire. It kept me from investing further into Battletech but holy piss quote:Some time ago, he made a weird rear end joke about Soviet tactics (read: the Hollywood, taken-from-Nazi-memoirs version of Soviet military tactics) while describing a 'Mech and that was a bit weird. Now the Arch video makes a bit more sense lol He has no real solid foothold into WWII history, since his Madcat video he states that the Nazis were a highly efficient and insanely technologically advanced faction which is its not true
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Sep 11, 2021 08:37
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long-rear end nips Diane posted:This is the only place I talk about Battletech and I feel good about it. The problem is that when both the "influencers" and creators in Battletech proudly proclaim their garbage reactionary viewpoints about how amazing white supremacy is and how horrible women, black people, LGBTQ+, socialists, etc. are and deserve to die, while coddling up to neo-nazis, it becomes a widespread problem that destroy the fiction and lore, the communities and the people in them, and it alienates and pushes away a lot of nice, heartwarming people who simply don't want to deal with a bunch of insecure white supremacists. It also means that Battletech becomes associated with a sci-fi universe for fascists. It just makes it impossible to avoid being faced with these horrible people. And like, it's *all* the BT influencers who are either right-winged cop-lovers who listen to Tucker Carlson or meek male nerds who don't want to speak up against the crazies. The problem is that there aren't really any opposition against them. General Battuta posted:The lead uh…designer I think? on HBS Battletech was a trans woman (and I think maybe the first person to call out JKR as a terf) so I’m sure she played a big role in that game getting a lot of things right. Yeah, HBS was one of the companies who pushed for being inclusive and diverse. This was also reflected in the people who were developing the game (Mike McCain, Jenn Ravenna, Kiva, Aljernon Bolden, and so on). I was pretty happy about how much all the insecure manbabies threw a temper tantrum over selectable pronouns back in 2017 when it released lmao. And good to hear about the MWLL community, that's precisely the kind of atmosphere and standards of social interaction that should be applied across the various online communities. No room for racism, fascism, sexism, transphobia, etc. Ridicule any attempt at promoting intolerance and white supremacist fever dreams. I wish Catalyst were as well-managed and compassionate as HBS. I'm afraid that the fascist rot is festering more and more and if they don't do something about it, it'll just become an alt-right haven in the various online BT communities.
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Sep 11, 2021 12:35
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Nashira posted:I don't think there's much I can do about it, I can just tell that it's negatively affecting my enjoyment of a universe and game I love and have played for almost 30 years.
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Sep 11, 2021 13:08
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When the Tex/Nazi guy video came out, someone linked it in the btech reddit and it was immediately flooded with, I assume, Nazi guy fans that upvoted the video and each other and would frame any criticism of Nazi guy as "why do you hate tex?" to the point that people would specifically say they have nothing against Tex, hate Nazi guy, and get mass down voted. It was interesting to see Nazi guys fashy little fans creating the problem in real time and the tack they would take against pushback from Battletech fans aware of who and what Nazi guy is. The mod of that reddit wound up locking a bunch of posts and laying down a blanket "no real world politics, nothing not about Battletech" rule that seems to be working.
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Sep 11, 2021 14:20
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I mean I guess it's working but making being a Nazi exactly as unwelcome as saying Nazis are unwelcome isn't a good strategy for keeping Nazis out.
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Sep 11, 2021 14:45
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I wish I'd known about the scale difference with plastic elementals before I bought 60 of the metal ones. I feel like a blanket "no politics" when ruthlessly applied will eventually frustrate the nazis and drive them to more fertile territory. It's not ideal, and often requires more moderating than mods are willing to put in, but there's no good playbook here. "No politics" often has an unspoken "... that I disagree with" which shows up when a chud becomes mod, too.
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Sep 11, 2021 15:02
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Is there any chud or fash bullshit around the Death From Above guys that I should be aware of?
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Sep 11, 2021 15:47
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moths posted:I wish I'd known about the scale difference with plastic elementals before I bought 60 of the metal ones. Sometimes they take the mask off and just go with "no politics I disagree with" though I don't know if cpsam or dnd mods are considered chuds
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Sep 11, 2021 15:50
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moths posted:I wish I'd known about the scale difference with plastic elementals before I bought 60 of the metal ones. "No politics" is both a privileged stance and a false stance - nothing exists in a vacuum, and oppression given license to take root will do so. A lack of active opposition is tacit approval, and that's the issue. Also, is there any source on Tex being a coplover or whatever that I'm reading here?
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Sep 11, 2021 16:07
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General Battuta posted:I mean I guess it's working but making being a Nazi exactly as unwelcome as saying Nazis are unwelcome isn't a good strategy for keeping Nazis out. This. It's absolutely a win for the Fash.
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Sep 11, 2021 16:35
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Darius099 posted:"No politics" is both a privileged stance and a false stance - nothing exists in a vacuum, and oppression given license to take root will do so. A lack of active opposition is tacit approval, and that's the issue. This is true to a degree, but I don't think it's enabling to tell nazis that your fly-fishing Facebook group isn't the place for "race realism" or whatever. The problem with allowing / encouraging political "debate" is that it will inevitably overtake the scope of any channel.
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Sep 11, 2021 16:51
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This is the only Battletech community I am apart of. I was following a big BT Facebook page, but then the mods and a bunch of users on it got into a discussion about how dating teenage girls was cool and fine, so I nope'd out of that quickly.
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Sep 11, 2021 20:05
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Darius099 posted:
Seconding the request for this. Tex and Mr Shy are the two guys I’ve been watching for Battletech stuff. Tex has a bit of a sardonic, dry sense of humor that can touch at fringes of things like mid-20th century comparisons, but I never got the sense he was doing so in positive lights. He also had a big thing after the Arch interview where he came out and said he was unaware of Arch’s political leanings and apologized for doing it. I didn’t listen to it because Arch, but apparently they stayed wholly within the scope of Battletech and never ventured into ideological topics. If genuine, ignorance of a nazi YouTuber that’s unfortunately popular enough to appear credible from a completely different game sphere is as good and forgivable of an excuse as any. I was inclined to give Tex the benefit of the doubt there. If there’s more to it, I’d appreciate the pointers.
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Sep 11, 2021 23:09
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koreban posted:Seconding the request for this. Tex and Mr Shy are the two guys I’ve been watching for Battletech stuff. Tex has a bit of a sardonic, dry sense of humor that can touch at fringes of things like mid-20th century comparisons, but I never got the sense he was doing so in positive lights. He said he didn't know was arch was known for specifically but he knew Arch had controversies. Honestly if you listen to his patreon message it's very much a "I was bullied by meanies, how DARE you call me a nazi for hanging out with a guy that I knew 100% pissed off a shitload of people" and not at all a "I hosed up, I'm sorry."
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Sep 11, 2021 23:35
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What is Arch going by now?
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Sep 12, 2021 01:08
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Got my hands on Shrapnel #5 and Hunting Season novel that just got released. Shrapnel continues to do real well, I think Battletech short stories are where the fiction really shines. There was a cool short story at the very beginning about the Republic Ghost program , it features the future Ghost Paladin, who seemingly got completely forgot about for the last few years in the fiction, but back when he was just a Knight. Has him going and raiding a Capellan 'Re-education facility', with the help of Nova Cat spec op elementals who just have a lot of fun destroying Capellan forces. He also tries to off the current Ghost Paladin who is amoral monster, guy named Dove, but doesn't have the chance before Dove offs himself. Overall, it's sad all these cool Republic stories are coming out after they axed the faction. Hunting Season, despite being a novel where 99% of its secrets were already spoiled by a Sourcebook, is pretty decent, and it's nice to read about the FWL again since that's one of the more exciting parts of the Inner Sphere at this point. Was hoping for more Clan Protectorate stuff, but we got 2 or 3 scenes so that's a lot given that for last 8 years we've had maybe 2 tops. EDIT: I will say one thing though about Battletech novels in general. Can the whole "Mystery assassin who did it and we're never going to reveal who!" thing stop? This is the 3rd or maybe fourth Battletech novel I've read with an assassin who they just leave up in the air. I get it, that sort of thing happens, but this is a story, I'd like an answer. Crazy Joe Wilson fucked around with this message at 22:18 on Sep 12, 2021 |
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Sep 12, 2021 17:17
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Not sure if this has been brought up yet here, but Death From Above Wargaming has developed a set of rules that allows you to take the Mechwarrior Destiny combat system and adapt it to something that can be played on a map like traditional Battletech. It's a nice in between the simplicity of Alpha Strike and the crunch of Classic. It's currently only up on their patreon, but they're hoping to finish the beta and release it for public consumption, and they have a multitude of gameplay videos on on their channel demonstrating how it is played. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6cVOAOWCow7xkF84grPXDIQr2DyeCfbP Overall, I have been checking it out and I rather like the adaption, plus if you sign up on their Patreon, you also get access to their Destiny Card generator, which lets you take files from MegaMekLab and directly convert them over to BT Destiny record sheets, with little to no fuss. Check it out if you're interested.
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Sep 13, 2021 00:20
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According to tracking information, i'll finally get my Battletech Wave 2 stuff tomorrow, it'll be two weeks in transit.
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Sep 13, 2021 06:31
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That's about how long mine took.
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Sep 13, 2021 06:32
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Has anyone had any luck negotiating with QM Logistics about damaged product? They offered a $5 credit on the CGL webstore for a damaged model, and I'd rather they replace or allow me to exchange the box. Haven't gotten a response in almost two weeks.
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Sep 13, 2021 14:26
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Serious question, what makes SAFE so terrible at intel and Maskirovka so good? How do all the Inner Sphere intel networks rank compared to each other? I'm guessing it goes like this; In terms of intelligence gathering: Maskirovka ISF/O5P LOKI/Heimdall MIIO (Davion intel) SAFE In terms of organizing terror attacks Mask/LOKI/ISF MIIO SAFE Is SAFE just where the FWL puts all its losers?
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Sep 13, 2021 14:27
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Managed to convert the Bull Shark MAZ and M3 over to Classic Battletech. The MAZ was an easy conversion using Clantech with an IS Thumper Cannon, but I had to make concessions with the M3. Dropped the speed down from a 3/5 to a 2/3, and had to use a Light AC5 instead of a regular AC5 since it's not possible to squeeze an Inner Sphere AC10 and 5 in the same arm. Could have also done it using Improved Autocannons, but that defeats the purpose of the M3 since it was meant to be an Inner Sphere version of the design without the Clantech.
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Sep 13, 2021 14:34
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I think I summed up the issues with the Free Worlds League, at least in 3025, with a post on Reddit ages ago: "House Marik is pleased to inform you that their most vile archenemies, House Marik, will no longer be a problem thanks to an alliance with House Marik that will ensure a prosperous future for the FWL. House Marik expressed concerns at these developments, and could not be reached for comment." House Marik is at war with themselves as often as they're at war with anyone else. I'd imagine those issues perpetuate down into their intelligence agencies, too, with them being focused on internal politics as often as external threats.
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Sep 13, 2021 14:35
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Crazy Joe Wilson posted:Serious question, what makes SAFE so terrible at intel and Maskirovka so good? How do all the Inner Sphere intel networks rank compared to each other? They're very good at domestic spying and have a solid track record clowning on the Maskirovka and to a lesser extent LOKI. The real reason why SAFE has a reputation for being "bad" at spycraft is because they believed the the Smoke Jaguars used a nuke to destroy Turtle Bay, rather than a WarShip bombardment. And that's actually a pretty reasonable assumption to make! House Marik has a greater fear of nuclear weapons than the other Great Houses, they're absolutely terrified that the day when everyone goes back to lobbing nukes at each other again, in large part because it just so happens that one of their big internal hotspots, Regulus, has a lot of nukes at their disposal and isn't afraid to actually deploy one or two any time the League puts too much pressure on them. Coupled with the fact that WarShips were an out-of-context problem in 3050 (nobody had any, so any stories of WarShips could be discounted) and it's easy to see why they'd jump right to the 'nuclear weapons' conclusion. Especially since: The one thing the ISF does better than anyone else is asset protection. The fact that SAFE managed to get "Hohiro Kurita survived the destruction of Turtle Bay" out of the Draconis Combine at all actually shows their field agents are remarkably competent. The Smiling One may have let that information out intentionally, but I find that really unlikely. The ISF is like a food-aggressive dog when it comes to information, they're just constitutionally unable to let anything go (without at least a double-digit body count). SAFE's issue is that they're historically not very good at intelligence analysis. They jump to conclusions too quickly and they're a little too credulous / too willing to believe the first piece of information that crosses their desks. This is almost certainly due to long-term ComStar sabotage since they'd made had huge inroads into the League even before they put the Fake Thomas Marik on the throne. But, is SAFE incompetent? No. Especially if you're in FWL territory. Crazy Joe Wilson posted:Is SAFE just where the FWL puts all its losers?  Not counting ComStar (because they cheat by reading everyone else's mail), every agency has something they're "best" at. I'd say it's: LIC - Creativity Loki - Terrorism Heimdall - Counterterrorism Maskirovka - Infiltration O5P - Information Gathering (they probably have the Maskirovka beat at Infiltration, too. Maskirovka infiltrated the ISF, O5P infiltrated ComStar) ISF - Asset Protection / Counterintelligence SAFE - Domestic Security MIIO - Information Analysis The Watch - Dying of Old Age as a Clanner / loving Up PoptartsNinja fucked around with this message at 18:23 on Sep 13, 2021 |
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Sep 13, 2021 17:44
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Most of the SpecOp stuff is pretty solid across the board with the main difference being "Agents care if they die", and even then the groups that supposedly don't do such still have suicide operatives.
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Sep 13, 2021 18:12
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PoptartsNinja posted:SAFE's issue is that they're historically not very good at intelligence analysis. They jump to conclusions too quickly and they're a little too credulous / too willing to believe the first piece of information that crosses their desks. This is almost certainly due to long-term ComStar sabotage since they'd made had huge inroads into the League even before they put the Fake Thomas Marik on the throne. They also seem to be fairly bad at keeping their foreign agents hidden, since the ComStar War came about largely because SAFE's agents in the LC and CC were almost all flushed out at the tail end of the 1st Succession War. But yeah, their inability to come up with anything to disprove the fake documents Jeanette Marik gave her brother torpedoed any possibility of a lasting peace on the Lyran-Marik border, which is definitely a stain on their reputation. Not that Thaddeus Marik is blameless or anything, since his big plan was just to fight ComStar openly. quote:LOKI BTW - Loki is a regular-case word and is a subordinate branch of the Lyran Intelligence Corps, not its own agency.
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Sep 13, 2021 18:18
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I couldn't remember, so I erred on the side of it being an acronym. I will say the LIC probably has everyone else beat in terms of sheer creativity. They've worked really hard remain "the good guys" in the eyes of the Lyran public despite being Loki's parent organization.
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Sep 13, 2021 18:22
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Oh that Loki, always going rogue. What a card!
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Sep 13, 2021 18:28
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