@justinpykehistory
MA in History. Studies intelligence, sea power, air power, and the Asia-Pacific War. Researching U.S. intelligence assessments of Japanese air and sea power, 1919-1941. Andor appreciator, PC gamer, mediocre miniature painter, and musician.
It really does. The stream is soothing to listen to, genuinely. I'll always be cautious when it comes to historical Total War given how long its been since they produced a good one, but this is a massive step in the right direction.
The end result looked similar to a casual observer, but was a fundamental shift in how Total War battles functioned. Simulation in the old games wasn't perfect of course, but the move toward unit stats over simulation has led to serious issues with tactical battles in recent games.
Testudo in Rome 1 worked because the unit physically moved its shields into position and those shields organically blocked missile fire at a higher rate than if the unit wasn't in the formation. Testudo in Rome 2 worked because it decreased missile damage and increased unit missile block chance.
They're talking about bring the simulation back to battles, which is huge if they follow through. There was a fundamental shift in Total War's design from Shogun 2 -> Rome 2. Shogun 2 and before relied on unit simulation more than stats. Rome 2 and beyond moved to game stats first and foremost.
www.totalwar.com/news/total-w...
"First, the progression from mustered levies to professional armies. Our intention and the current functionality is that there are no 'standing' (or permanent) armies early on in the game."
Honestly, I'm really enjoying the openness on the development of Total War: Medieval III. Lots of really cool ideas. Some radical proposals for army recruitment too in the recent blog post.
www.youtube.com/live/6tqz2td...
The Japanese held their own in the air tactically throughout, but it didn't matter. The US hit it again and again and again in strength, shrugged off any losses, and eventually the Japanese were spent. The demonstration of power was remarkable, and this was just a regular US effort by late 1943.
Every once in awhile when I read something in detail on part of the PTO the overwhelming power of the Allies, predominately the Americans in this specific context, really floors me. I recently finished Dunn's coverage of the neutralization of the major Japanese airfield of Buin (Kahili).
This sounds super cool! I still have to read Rise and Fall (soon), but anything dealing with starfighter pilots has my attention.
2/ My first book, “Territorial Natures: Imperial Japan and the Mongolian Question,” is coming out with @uchicagopress.bsky.social this August 2026.
You can find it here: press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/bo...
Yeah, he was a blast! I really enjoyed Baelor Targaryen as well. It's nice to see a totally reasonable, well-adjusted Targaryen show up. Probably why I enjoyed Viserys from HOTD so much.
Finished A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. It was good! It wasn't the best thing ever or anything, but a solid watch. It helps that it was six short episodes, so it wasn't a huge time commitment.
If true - this is first documented use of rocket boosters in combat.
I have seen only one photo of RATO devices on any IJN aircraft - see below. And that's B5N2.
D4Y3 and D4Y4 definitely used rocket boosters, but those were mostly for speed bust for final dash and were located under fuselage.
Same
Some of the strategic elements are best in series. Like diplomacy. I bounced off the game overall due to the battles though.
I haven't seen a photo myself that I can recall. Maybe @eugenpinak.bsky.social has?
Probably going to start A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms tomorrow since people have been raving about it. I know I'm in the minority in thinking season 2 of HotD was great, so the season 3 teaser looks interesting too. I'm not super hyped or anything, but I hope it's solid.
IJN Heavy cruiser Aoba
Date: February 27, 1936
Location: Osaka Bay
Photo:
Situation: Ground forces dispatched to Osaka City in preparation for the February 26 incident
static.ow.ly/photos/origi...
of how the air war was ultimately won. Guadalcanal was massively important, but more as an explosive transition period of the air war rather than an end point for Japanese air power. It sells short what the Allies accomplished through the second half of the south Pacific air war.
This is why studying the 1943 PTO air war in detail is essential. It's where the Japanese were beaten back onto the defense and methodically ground down. Glazing over this period in broad narratives, often skipping from the height of Guadalcanal in Aug-Nov 1942 -> June 1944, harms understanding...
Rabaul wasn't bombed in daylight for nine months after a single abortive attempt early in 1943. Japanese night fighters drew blood as well. The northern Solomons were safe from major American daylight operations for four months after a couple days of disastrous operations in February 1943.
The US heavies would often bomb from lower altitudes, meaning they would at least hit airfields more often when they did bomb them, but offensive American strikes against major Japanese airfields were rarer than you'd assume through most of 1943. Things gradually ramped up through the back half.
Wish I knew this when I was doing the four-engine bomber video. Granted, the backdrop to this is that horizontal bombing by such aircraft on both sides rarely did meaningful damage against airfields in the South Pacific. Heavy damage from such raids were unicorn events. Light damage was the rule.
The February 26 Incident of 1936, which happened on this day ninety years ago, was modern Japan’s most serious coup attempt and led to four months and twenty days of martial law.
The path from clicking on a Star Wars video, to recommendations for videos complaining about women existing in Star Wars, to recommendations for videos complaining about women existing in society is a straight line of shockingly short length in an uncurated feed.
Very true. I have multiple right-wing coded hobbies and interests, so the YouTube algorithm goes absolutely nuts trying to push me into gateway content for various incel and far-right trash. My recommended has been mostly OK for a few months with manual curation. A lot of people won't do that work.
"An interesting aspect of this mission is that the number of B-24s involved and the number of 100 Ib. bombs dropped indicate that some planes dropped more than twenty bombs. The standard bomb rack accommodated just twenty 100 Ib. bombs, which was the most common ordinance for airfield attacks. Thus, a B-17 or B-24, with the ability to lift a much-heavier bombload when attacking an airfield, delivered just twenty 100 Ib. bombs (2,000 Ibs.). A Japanese Type 1 land attack bomber typically dropped a dozen 60 kg (132 Ib.) bombs or about 1,600 Ibs. in airfield attacks. American heavy bombers, with four engines, a larger crew, and less range but more fuel consumption, could drop a weight of bombs in airfield attacks only about 20 percent more than the twin-engine Type 1 bomber. As this mission illustrates, that was changing. Local modifications to bomb racks permitted them to carry forty 100 Ib. bombs. As the campaign progressed, many bombers were equipped with the modified racks. This was primarily accomplished with local resources, engineering, and skill."
This isn't something I knew, interesting. The context for this is an August 1943 raid against Buin (Kahili).
to digital journals owned by near monopolies like Taylor & Francis rather than enabling access to obscure academic tomes that are long out of print and of which only so many copies exist out there in library systems. Like... modern academic journals are digital. There's no actual scarcity here.
I know UCalgary cut a bunch of access in the last round of budget cuts, so there's a lot that I have to rely on interlibrary loan to access. A lot more than when I was still a student. ILL is amazing, but increasingly feels like its being used as a crutch to retain at least some access...