u/Bytor_Snowdog

OK! Been wrestling with this for a bit since I heard it was possible to do this. Current situation is this:

* PC has Dune (via Steam) and all three DLCs, plus Dire Wolf game room signed in

* iPad has Dune (base only) plus Dire Wolf game room signed in and open

Supposedly, from what I've read, I should be able to play Dune with the xpacs on my iPad (through DW game room) because I purchased them on another platform. But every time I go into Dune on my iPad, I only have the option to start a base game. Am I missing a step? Or am I hosed because I bought all the stuff through Steam originally on the PC?

Which of the D:I + Ix leaders do folks think are worth adding to a game where the decks (Imperium and Intrigue) are mostly Uprising + Bloodlines, but with some of the less interesting cards removed and some of the more interesting cards from D:I + Ix + Immortality added? Gameplay to be Uprising/BL boards (with CHOAM contracts and tech) only for now -- no Ix shipping/tech/DNs, no Immo maze/track; Immo probably to be added sooner rather than later once the salad gets proven out.

Persuasion cost spread is the same distribution as Uprising + Bloodlines with (IIRC) -1 4pt card and +1 8 pt card (CHOAM Directorship), so Armand and Helena would work "as intended" -- insofar as they would work with Uprising + Bloodlines in the first place.

My thoughts were:
Armand (though trashing's easier in Uprising, it's still good for him, a couple of unload cards/assassination mission made it in for the princess, and his ring now has better targets)
Ilesa (ugh, I'd have to pack my Foldspace cards, but I like her a lot for some reason, don't know why)
Tessia (probably a little less of a monster out of the gate but still quite strong)
Leto (a solid leader all around, but paying Solari doesn't seem quite as common in Uprising as D:I + Ix)
The Beast Rabban (on the fence here)

I'm looking for someone to talk me into including the Baron, but with Hardy Warriors gone, Masterstroke seems nearly impossible to pull off barring Heighliner or the right Imperium/Intrigue card.(Edit: I was reminded it's two troops at Research Station.) I could houserule it to be four units so he could use deep desert. OTOH, that's four more pieces of cardboard to pack in an overstuffed box if I include him.

There's a passage somewhere where Tolkien is describing a town or city as a 3rd person omniscient narrator, all the bustle and activity for a couple of paragraphs, it's very dramatic, and he even exclaims "Rivendell!" (Except it's not Rivendell, I'm pretty sure, from my quick searching.)

Does anyone know the passage I'm talking about and/or can give me a reference? Or was this a fever dream that I'm half-remembering?

I've only played DIU on TT a couple of times, but like a weak-minded waterfat offworlder I couldn't control myself and bought the Uprising xpac on Steam yesterday. I know I've got to play it a couple of times just to get the hang of things, but any recommendations for (1) a strat guide for folks coming over from Dune:Imperium and (2) a general DIU strat guide? Written preferred to YouTube, but didn't see much in my Google search, so I'll watch YouTube if need be. I just don't know who the best commentators are.

Thanks!

I somehow managed to get into Starfleet Academy, even though I'm not very bright, because my competition on the planet where I live was a Pakled, a Gorn (and the exam room was super-chilly), a Bajoran, and a Cardassian (and the last two got disqualified for brawling in the middle of the exam).

My high school guidance counselor is a drunk and has been absolutely no help. Not synthehol; he's got some connection to get Romulan Ale, the real stuff. Hell, if I did, I'd go through life blitzed out of my gourd too.

Is the security track at Starfleet Academy is like majoring in "Liberal Arts" (not a liberal art, like History or Economics or Philosophy, but "Liberal Arts"), with courses like Music Appreciation ("clapping for credit") and Intro to Geology ("Rocks for Jocks")? Is it THE blow-off major?

But if so, do so many security personnel die because the nature of the role is so dangerous, or because they all had 2.1 GPAs and didn't know what to do when the chips were down? (Cs get degrees, after all.)

I basically want the extra holodeck time that you get from being in Starfleet, but I don't want any extra danger. But I don't think I can make it in Command, Engineering, or, avatar of sentient fellowship now that we've evolved past religion forbid, Science or Medical. What's my best course to get through the Academy?

I’m looking for a full beta read of my novel (I’ve already had two alpha readers) to provide me with detailed reader reactions, plus of course as much feedback as possible on any weak points that stand out. I have links to five short questionnaires scattered throughout the novel, and would also like a summary of findings after finishing the book.

I’m absolutely willing to critique swap, and suggest we exchange the first 10K-15K words of our works first to ensure that we’re compatible. Blurb, content warnings, and excerpt follow.

How much can one person stand to lose in war?

Conflict rages across the stars. Only Ground Corps prevents human settlers from being overrun by the Cetans at every turn.

In one of these many battles, Lance Corporal Tabor “Tab” Novak fights with such gallantry he is selected into the elite HAMMER powered armor unit. Yet, here he finds he no longer surpasses his peers, but struggles to keep up with Ground Corps’ finest – which spurs him to greater successes.

However, HAMMER demands much from its members: physical, mental, and emotional. Humanity is threatened everywhere, and Tab is first to fight, enduring loss after loss both in and out of combat. In doing so, he risks his health, his relationship with his family, his morals, and the love of his life, all in the pursuit of valor.

How much will he choose to sacrifice on the altar of victory? 

Soft Target is the first novel in a series featuring the page-turning action of John Scalzi’s Old Man’s War cycle and Marko Kloos’ Frontlines books tempered with the sensibilities of David Drake’s stories and the moral complexity of John Haldeman’s The Forever War.

Content Warnings: Wartime graphic violence, language, consensual adult sexual situations

Brief Excerpt:

The stench: the alien Squibs living in their ramshackle domos, atmo reeking because they need traces of sulfur, their so-called food cooking out in the open, tendrils of prismatic smoke coating noses and lungs, the pungent residue of SSX explosions, the chemical snaps of accelerator bullets, the ozone flashes of rail-assisted rounds, the goddamned murky stagnant water, and the burning, oh God, the burning of who knows what trash and biomatter in the squat little fires spread among whatever dryish ground can be found on this mudhole. Thank Christ my visor lid’s down and intact.

We’re deployed on Erato IV, a mucky, wet, slimy swamp of a planet. Again, I’m stunned: how can there be so many fires on such a wet shitpile? And what sin did the Muse of, I want to venture, erotic poetry commit to earn the punishment of having this hellhole of a joint settlement détente planet named after her? (I can never remember which Muse is which, except Terpsichore: dance and chorus.) Green and brown land and murky water and sumpy mud and mire and marsh stretches as far as the eye can see. That’s until you reach the dingy plascrete blocks ringing the settlements, whether human or Squib, the ramshackle fencing that bounds the pastures (and whatever can graze here, I don’t want to eat), or the few solid roads that usually double as the demarc lines crisscrossing the dreary terrain, sectioning off the settlement zones of the two races.

Intel has gotten word a large weapons cache is hidden within the messy, muddy Squib village in front of us. Now, the weird thing about their settlements? They’re quiet. Sure, they’ve got their flitters and machines and whatever, kids scream and play, but the adults, they’re usually communicating telepathically and/or pheromonically. (And the latter adds yet another delightful top note to the cavalcade of scents.) So, there’s minimal talking, and when you do hear it, it’s in that pulpy blip-dool-poolp language of theirs. You don’t know whether the old farts are gabbing about Squib dominoes or how they are getting ready to duck because the insurgents have a bomb ready to blow your ass to hell.

I bought a house that has a Monte Carlo Tuscany ceiling fan (model 4TUR52RB), but Visual Comfort (which now owns the brand) does not have any more remotes, the model is discontinued, and the house, unfortunately, did not come with a remote for the fan. The wall switch for the fan (if indeed it is the switch for the fan, but we don't know what else it could be for) doesn't turn it on, so it must have been turned off before the remote was lost.

How can I tell what sort of DC kit is needed for the fan? Sorry, this is out of my wheelhouse and I have no experience here.