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felassan · 4 years ago

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Dragon Age development insights and highlights from Bioware: Stories and Secrets from 25 Years of Game Development

Some really tasty factoids here.

Cut for length.

Dragon Age: Origins

The continent of Thedas was at one point going to be named Pelledia, a name initially floated by James Ohlen

“Qunari” was a temporary name that ended up unintentionally sticking, much like “Thedas”

Mary Kirby wrote the Landsmeet. To this day, nobody understands how it works, except possibly her. If she’s “really really drunk” she can explain how it works. There’s as many words in it as Sten’s entire conversations put together

Concept art for Thedosian art - as in in-world art - draws heavily on Renaissance-era portraiture, the Art Nouveau movement, religious styles and media like stained glass, and favorite pieces from the golden age of illustrations in the early 20th century

Andrastianism in-world (art-wise) is depicted in wildly different methods depending on who in-world made the art in question. “One religion, 3 different lenses”. There’s the Chantry take, the Orlesian take and the Fereldan take; each with its own different interpretations, different mediums and different stories

The stained glass images were drawn by Nick Thornborrow for DAI, to decorate religious spaces in that game “and beyond”

irl Viking art influenced Ferelden

Greek and Italian art influenced Orlais

The book also had other insights into and anecdotes from the development of DAO, but I’ve transcribed them recently as they’re essentially the stories DG has recently been relating on the awesome Summerfall Studios DAO playthrough Twitch streams. (On those streams he provides dev commentary while Liam Esler plays through DA. The ones with DG are currently once every two weeks. Check them out! Here’s a calendar where you can check when the next one is) Instead of repeating myself I’ll just provide the link to the first transcript. From there you can navigate to the subsequent parts. Note these streams are ongoing. At this point I will also point you to a related post which is cliff notes of the Dragon Age chapter in Jason Schreier’s book Blood Sweat and Pixels.

Dragon Age II

DAO had the longest development period in BioWare history. In contrast DA2 had the shortest

Initially DA2 was going to be an expansion to DAO. A few months in EA said “Yeah, expansions like these don’t sell very well, so let’s make it a sequel.” So it suddenly became DA2 and they had to make it even bigger, although they still only had 1.5 years of time in which to do this

Production of DA2 officially lasted only 9 months, and at the time the team was still supporting live content for DAO! They finished development that January after the design team crunched all the way through the holiday period that year. Then it went to cert 9 times

The limited time they had is why the story takes place mostly in and around 1 city, and over 7 years (so it was temporal, rather than over physical distance, because a more expansive world would have taken more irl time to make)

They had no time to review even the main plot. Mike Laidlaw pitched the idea of 3 stories taking place at different points in the PC’s life, tied together by Varric’s recollections of events. DG rolled with this and made 1 presentation on the idea. This presentation was then approved and off they went

As they were writing DG realized that there was going to be no oversight and that everything was going to be a ‘first draft’. “Because nobody had time.” He sat down with the writers and said “Look, here’s the conditions we’re working under. A lot of what we’re putting out is gonna be raw. We’re not going to get the editing we need. We’re not going to get the kind of iteration we need. So I’m going to trust you all to do your best work.”

Looking back, DG has mixed feelings on DA2. “A lot of corners were cut. The public perception was that it was smaller than DAO. That’s a sin on its own.”

Despite this he thinks DA2 has some of the best writing in the series, especially character-wise. The DA2 chars are his favorite

The pace with which production progressed may in some ways have helped. “When we do a lot of revision, we often file away [as in buff off] some of the good writing as well. Somehow DA2′s whirlwind process resulted in some really good writing”

The pace meant chars landed on the writers in various stages of completion. For example Isabela was fairly defined due to appearing in DAO. In contrast Varric at the start was just that single piece of widely-shown concept art

Varric was conceived as a storyteller not a fighter. His skills are talking and bullshitting. Hence the question became, so what does this guy do in combat? The direction was to make him as different as possible to Oghren, so not a warrior. He couldn’t be a dual-wielding rogue in order to differentiate him from Bela. But you can’t really picture this guy with a bow. “For a dwarf, it would probably be a crossbow. We didn’t have crossbows, or we only had crossbows for the darkspawn. And they were part of the models. We didn’t have a separate crossbow that was equip-able by the chars. They had to like, crop one off a darkspawn and remodel it. And that became Bianca” (quote: Mary Kirby)

“Dwarven mages are exceedingly rare.” [???]

If DAO was a classic fantasy painting, DA2 was a screenshot from a Kurosawa film or a northern Renaissance painting. (Here Matt Rhodes was commenting on art style)

John Epler: “In any one of our games, there’s a 95% chance that if you turn the camera away from what it’s looking at, you’ll see all kinds of janky stuff. The moment we know the camera is no longer facing someone, we no longer care what happens to them. We will teleport people around. We will jump people around. We will literally have someone walk off screen and then we will shift them 1000 meters down, because we’re fixing some bug.” John also talked about this camera stuff in a recent charity Twitch stream for Gamers For Groceries. There’s a writeup of that stream here

Designing Kirkwall pushed concept artists to the limits of visual storytelling, because it has a long history that they wanted to be present. It was once the hub of Tevinter’s slave empire, so it needed to look brutal and harsh, but it also then needed to feel reclaimed, evolved, and with elements of contemporary Free Marches culture

The initial plan was for DA titles to be distinguished by subtitles not numbers, so that each experience could stand on its own rather than feel like a sequel or continuation. (My note: New PCs in each entry make sense then when you consider this and other factoids we know like how DA is the story of the world not of any one PC). Later, DA2′s name was made DA2 in a bid to more clearly connect the game to its predecessor. For DAI they returned to the original naming convention. (My note: so I’d reckon they’d be continuing the subtitle naming convention for DA4)

DA2 was initially code-named “Nug Storm”, strictly internally

The Cancelled DA2 Expansion - Exalted March

This was a precursor to DAI

It was meant to bridge the gap between DA2 and DAI

It focused on the fallout from Kirkwall’s explosion, with Cory serving as the villain

Meredith’s red lyrium statue was basically going to infest Kirkwall and it would end up [with what would end up] the red templars taking over Kirkwall and essentially being Cory’s army

To stop him Hawke would have recruited various factions, including Bela’s Felicisima Armada and the Qunari at Estwatch, forcing Hawke to split loyalties and risk relationships in the process

It was meant to bring DA2′s story to an end and end in Varric’s death. DG was very happy with this because all of DA2 is Varric’s tale. The expansion was supposed to start at the moment Cassandra’s interrogation of him ended in the present. “And we finished off the story with Varric having this heroic death.” It tied things up and would have broken many fan hearts, something BioWare writers notoriously enjoy. But between a transition to the new Frostbite engine and the scope of DAI, the decision was made to cancel EM, work any hard-to-lose concepts into DAI, and in the process save Varric’s life. DG has talked about the Varric dying thing before

Concept art for EM explored new areas previously not depicted in the DA universe, with costumes that reflected next steps for familiar chars. Varric was going to war, what would he have worn? With Anders, if he survived DA2, the plan was to present a redeemed Warden

A char that vaguely resembled Sera in DAI was first concepted for EM. This fact was mentioned near this concept art (see the female elf) and this concept art of Bethany with the blond bob

The writers sketched out plans to end it with Hawke having the option to marry their LI. This included alternate ceremonies for party members like Bethany and Sebastian if the player opted not to wed. There was even a wedding dress made for Hawke. This asset made it into DAI (Sera and Cullen’s weddings in Trespasser). The dress can also be seen in DAI during an ambient NPC wedding after completing a chain of war table missions

The destruction of a Chantry was explored in concept art as it might have happened in EM. This idea ended up carrying over to the beginning of DAI. (My note: Lol, the idea that DA2 could have had 2 Chantries being destroyed in it 😆)

World of Thedas

Sheryl Chee and Mary Kirby started with “a disgusting little dish called fluffy mackerel pudding”. In the middle of DAO’s busy dev period one of them (they can’t remember who) found a recipe online for this, scanned in from a 70s cookbook. “I don’t understand why it was fluffy. Why would you want fluffy mackerel pudding?” MK says. “We loved it so much we included it in a DAO codex.”

This led them to create more food for Thedas, full recipes included, like a Fereldan turnip and barley stew from MK and SC’s Starkhaven fish and egg pie. The fish pie became Sebastian’s favorite. “To me it made sense for it to be fish pie because a lot of the Free Marches are on the coast”, SC says, “It was something that was popular in medieval times, so I thought, let’s make a fish pie! I looked at medieval recipes and I concocted a fish pie which I fed to my partner, and he was like ‘This is not terrible’”

For WoT the whole studio was asked to contribute family recipes which might have a place in Thedas. SC adapted these to fit in one Thedosian culture or another, including a beloved banana bread that localization producer Melanie Fleming would regularly bake to keep the DA team motivated. “Melanie’s banana bread got us through Inquisition”

DAI

It says part of DAI takes place in or near the border with Nevarra [???]

This game was aimed to be bigger than DA2 and even DAO in every conceivable way

The first hour had to do a lot of heavy lifting, tying together the events of DAO and DA2 while introducing a new PC, new followers etc in the aftermath of the big attack. DG rewrote it 7 times then Lukas Kristjanson did 2 more passes

DG: “Our problem is always that our endings are so important, but we leave them to last, when we have no time. I kept pushing on DAI: ‘Can we work on the ending now? Can we work on the ending now? Can we do it early on?’ Because I knew exactly what it was going to be. But despite the fact that it kept getting scheduled, whenever the schedule started falling behind, it kept getting pushed back... so, of course, it got left til last again.”

“The reveal of the story’s real antagonist, Solas, a follower until the end, when he betrayed the player”. “Solas’ story remains a main thread in Inquisition’s long-awaited follow-up” [these aren’t DG quotes, just bits of general text]

Over the course of development they had 8 full-time writers and 4 editors working on it. Other writers joined later to help wrangle what ended up being close to 1 million words of dialogue and unspoken text. While many teams moved to a more open concept style of work for DAI, the writers remained tucked away in their own room, a choice DG says was necessary, given how much they talked. All the talking had a purpose ofc as if someone hit a bump or wall in their writing they would open the problem up to the room

As writing on a project like DAI progresses, the writers grow punchier and weirder things make it into the game. This is especially the case towards the end of a project (they get tired, burned out)

Banter and codexes require less ‘buy-in’ (DG has talked about this concept a few times on the Twitch streams) from other designers. DG liked to leave banter for last as a reward because it was fun. Banter begins as lists of topics for 2 followers to discuss. These may progress over time or be one off exchanges. One banter script can balloon to well over 10k words. “The banter was always huge because we were always like, laughing, and really at that point, our fields of fucks were rather barren, so we would just do whatever”

The bog unicorn happened pretty much by accident. It was designed by Matt Rhodes and was one of his fav things to design. They needed horse variations and he had already designed an undead variant which was a bog mummy [bog body]. irl these are preserved in a much different way to traditional mummies. When someone dies in a bog their skin turns black and raisin-like. The examples we know of tend to have bright red hair for whatever reason. It’s a very striking look and MR wanted to do a horse version of this as he thought it’d be neat. 5 mins before the review meeting for it he had a big ‘Aha!’ moment, quickly looked up a rusty old Viking sword, and photoshopped it through its skull like that was how it died. “And I was like, ‘I just made a unicorn. Alright, in it goes!’” It got approved. “So we built the thing. It fit. It told a little story”

With the irl Inquisition longsword, one of the objects they tested its cleaving ability on was a plush version of Leliana’s nug Schmooples

The concept art team explored a wide variety of visuals for the Inquisitor’s signature mark. It needed to look powerful and raw but couldn’t look like a horrific wound. In some cases, as cool as the idea looked on paper, they just weren’t technically feasible, especially as they had to be able to fit on any number of different bodies

Bug report: “Endlessly spawning mounts! At one point during development, Inquisitors could summon a new horse every time they whistled, allowing them to amass a near infinite number of eager steeds that faithfully followed them across Thedas. “You could go charging across levels and they’d all gallop behind you,” Jen Cheverie says, “It was beautiful.” Trotting into town became an epic horse siege as a tidal wave of mounts enveloped the streets. Jen called it her Army of Ponies”

The giants came from DA Week, an internal period when devs can pursue different individual creative projects that in some way benefit DA. They also had a board game from one of these that they were going to put in but they didn’t have time. It’s referenced though. It was dwarven chess

Josie’s outfit is made of gold silk and patterned velvet, with leather at her waist. She carries “an ornate ledger” and she has “an ornamented collar sitting around her neck, finished by a brilliant red ruby, like a drop of Antivan wine in a sunbeam”

Iron Bull’s armor is leather. His loose pantaloons and leather boots give him agility to charge

On DAI in particular, concept artists took special care to make sure costumes would be realistic, at least in a practical ‘this obeys the laws of physics and textiles’ sense. “While on Inquisition, we thought about cosplay from a concept art perspective. Given how incredible a lot of [cosplays] are, I now am not worried about them. In fact in some cases in the future I want to throw them curveballs like, ‘All right, you clever bastards. Let’s see if you can do this!’”

2 geese that nested on the office building and had chicks were named Ganders and Arishonk (it wasn’t known who was the mom or the dad). Other possible names were Carver Honke, Bethany Honke, Urdnot Pecks, Quackwall, Cassandra Pentagoose, the Iron Bill, Shepbird, Garroose, Admiral Quackett, Scout Honking, HChick-47 and Darth Malgoose

Bug report: “The surprising adventures of Ser Noodles!” DAI was the first time the series had a mount feature, meaning this had a lot of bugs. A lot of the teams’ favorite bugs were to do with the mounts. There was a period of time where the Inquisitor’s horse seemed to lose all bone and muscle in its legs. They had a week or so where all quadruped legs were broken. It was a bit noticeable in things like nugs and other small beasties but the horse was insanely obvious. “The first time we summoned the horse [for this] and started running around, the entire QA exploration room just exploded with laughter.” Its legs flapped around like cooked fettucine, leading testers to lovingly nickname it Ser Noodles. At galloping speeds the legs almost looked like helicopter blades, especially when footage was set to classic pieces such as Wagner’s Flight of the Valkyries

For DAI the artists were asked questions like “What would Morrigan wear to a formal ball? Can Cassandra pull off a jaunty hat?”

On DAI storyboarding became the norm. John Epler: “Cinematic design for the longest time was the Wild West. It was ‘here’s a bunch of content, now do it however you want’, which resulted in some successes and some failures.” Storyboarding gave designers a consistent visual blueprint based on ideas from designers, writers and concept artists

Quote from a storyboard by Nick Thornborrow (the Inquisitor going into the party at the end of basegame sequence): “Until Corypheus revealed himself they could not see the single hand behind the chaos. A magister and a darkspawn combined. The ultimate evil. So evil. Eviler than puppy-killers and egg farts combined.”

A general note on concept art:

In the early stages of any project, before the concept artists are aware of any writing, they like to just draw what they think cool story moments could be. It’s not unusual for the team to then be inspired by these and fold them into the game as the project progresses

– From Bioware: Stories and Secrets from 25 Years of Game Development

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cerastes · 6 years ago

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wyrmmaster: *takes over AR squad* *becomes SOP's mom*

RO’s not fucked around a single day in her life:

Has a command module. The only other known command module-equipped T-Doll is M4A1, and the only other known command capable (not know if she has module or not, as it is implied they are simply rogue) T-Doll is UMP45.

Reassures the team she led during her test ride (Chapter 4 Midnight: One Week Team), Palette Squad (RO, Type97, Sten MK II, AAT, and Makarov) that they are Homies For Life and that her being in the AR Team currently doesn’t mean she’s not still a Palette. They promise each other to have the other’s back whenever they need it. Palette Squad proves essential during Chapter 7 Emergency: Retrieval.

Straight up says she won’t take shit from humans who think T-Dolls exist only to follow orders.

Is a command unit, and thus, should stay out of the battlefield to calculate strategies and, in case a human commander is absent or escapes, take command of the operation; takes to the frontlines herself to ensure her teammates’ safety and because she’s an elite operative and T-Doll regardless of her supposed armchair role.

Apparently has some connection to the AR Team prior to the plot, especially to AR-15. AR-15 left a recording specifically for her, and her explicit motive for returning to G&K is “vengeance”.

Can handle SOP.

Has drinks with M16 and they shoot the shit together.

Prepared a countermeasure for Jupiter (Sangvis Ferris’ super-artillery unit) and has survived numerous encounters against it without losing a single T-Doll.

Local Woman Actually A Bulldozer.

#wyrmmaster

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aliansiair · 3 years ago

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Akademi Militer Pacet II

Beredarlah kabar di kalangan intel Belanda jikalau ekstrimis memegang senjata itu dan semakin membahayakan. Patroli rutin yang dilakukan Belanda dari arah Mojokerto ke Pandan dan Mojosari ke Pacet melalui Pandan melibatkan dua peleton pasukan yang berbeda home base. Mengapa selalu melalui Pandan dan ke arah Pugeran Gondang?? Karena di situlah jalur air dari Jubel Pacet yang menyuplai Mojokerto serta Mojosari yang harus diamankan. Pasukan belanda dari Arah Mojokerto-pugeran sejumlah 2 peleton menuju centong akan melewati pandan. Pasukan belanda dari arah Mojosari-pandan sejumlah 1 peleton menuju centong akan melewati pugeran. Sudah menjadi mental Belanda jikalau selalu panik dan takut. Berbeda jauh dengan Pasukan Jepang dan Inggris. Inilah yang dimanfaatkan oleh Pasukan Pimpinan Mayor Moenasir. “Jam 21.15 Siapkan 3 orang, dengan sten rampasan (Sten MK III) kemarin. Tembakkan dengan cara membabi buta. Setelah itu langsung masuk ke sungai pakai rakit yang sudah disiapkan. Sampai desa Ngembeh buang semua senjata dan atribut ganti dengan baju petani yang sudah disiapkan, naik kembali ke Pacet untuk bergabung dalam kesatuan Condromowo.” Perintah Mayor Munasir. “Dar… Dar… Dar…” Sten MK III ditembakkan ke arah Mojosari oleh 3 orang anggota Batalyon Condromowo. Pejuang kita segera masuk ke dalam sungai dan menyelamatkan diri sampai desa Ngembeh Dlanggu. Pasukan Belanda dari dua arah yang berbeda panik dan secepat kilat tanpa berpikir membalas tembakan. Kedua belah pihak sama-sama belanda tetapi karena kegelapan malam dan panik jadi saling jual beli tembakan. 9 orang tewas seketika dan 3 lainnya luka parah. Sampai komandan memanggil lewat radio sehingga tembakan dihentikan. Sayangnya, aib ini tidak dibuka oleh Belanda. Untuk meghormati kehebatan Batalyon Condromowo atau Batalyon Munasir, jalan ini dinamakan Jalan Yon Munasir. Pelajaran yang kita petik adalah, pada saat itu bulan September yang merupakan puncak musim kemarau. Air memiliki peran yang sangat penting kala itu. Maka dari itu mari kita pelihara dan lestarikan sumber air.

#aliansiair #air #water #lingkungan #savewater #gogreen #sejarah #history #environment #AirdalamSejarah

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tcnvault · 3 years ago

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Denix British Sten MK II Non-Firing Prop Machine Gun

British Sten MK II Non-Firing Movie or Training Prop by Denix

About:

The Sten MKII is a British 9mm sub-machine gun used by the British forces during WWII and the Korean Wars. STEN - Shepherd and Harold Turpin and Enfield were the chief designers of this historic weapon.

This is a 1:1 non-firing reproduction of the historic STEN; which features a working bolt action, original weight and size.

The Gun Features:

Black Finish

Workable parts

Metal body construction

Removable Magazine

Non-firing 1:1 Replica

Overall length: 30.0 inches

Weight: 8.0 lbs

Made In Spain

Produced by Denix

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firearmdump · 3 years ago

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pedroam-bang · 6 years ago

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Allied (2016)

#2016 #gif #film #movie #WWII #Allied #Robert Zemeckis #Marion Cotillard #Marianne Beausejour #Brad Pitt #Max Vatan #Casablanca #Morocco #Sten Mk II

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mechagalaxy · 4 years ago

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Sten Hugo Hiller - 627184: War of `63. Second day, last clashes.

(By Sten Hugo Hiller - 627184) War of `63. Second day, last clashes. During the dark hours the fighting became more a kind of hide and seek than the stand-up pondering usual during the day. But as the dawn drew nearer and visiblity once more let the eyeball mk 1 discern what was terrain and what was enemy formations the fighting rose to a fever pitch, -at least in some cases. Many fights had been decided long since, but even among them some last blows were landed. Then there were the battles that still hung in the balance, and desperate charges were made to try and change the outcomes. As in the first battleday, not all tries were successfull, but two battles saw a late turn of fortunes. As the fighting ended, the scores stood: Div 1 Warlocks HQ 164 - 4 Spirit of Bunny The Bunnies claimed a last win, but the Warlocks crushed them better than twoscore to one. Nemesis 64 - 20 Brotherhood of Arcane Dragons A last dozen skirmishes took place. Nemesis won all but one of them, and had a success rate above 75%. Round 3 Matchup: Warlocks HQ - Nemesis Brotherhood of Arcane Dragons - Spirit of Bunny Div 2 Northwind Dragons 126 - 3 Slaughter House 5 The Dragons hammered the Slaughterers some more and had better than ten dozens additional wins when the light flashed. M&L Team Banzai 26 - 93 Death Dealers The Banzai`ers knew they would loose, but fought grimly on. At least they refused the Dealers a 4-1 victory rate. Round 3 Matchup: Northwind Dragons - M&L Team Banzai Death Dealers - Slaughter House 5 Div 3 Avengers of Bunny 11 - 33 Star League Both sides seemed to be satisfied with their performance for the day, so no further fights were seen. T.B. BlackWatch 54 - 0 M&L Black Cats 13th Armored Division BlackWatch managed to catch two additional handfuls of Cats and blasted them as well without getting more than a few scratches. Round 3 Matchup: Avengers of Bunny - T.B. BlackWatch M&L Black Cats 13th Armored Division - Star League Div 4 B.S.L.R. 57 - 9 P.F.U.D.o.R. The Rangers managed to find and bag one last Unicorn before their hunting season ended. Death`s Collerctors 64 - 25 Heroes Both sides were pretty exhausted. But while the Heroes was unable to continue the fight the Collectors managed to claim a last half-dozen objectives. Round 3 Matchup: B.S.L.R. - Death`s Collectors Heroes - P.F.U.D.o.R. Div 5 Death`s Disturbed Asylum 15 - 45 Death`s Revenge The Asylants managed to claim a few additional wins, but the Revengers hammered them sufficiently to get a 3-1 win. Black Star Bandits 61 - 8 Smurf Platoon The Bandits put one last nail in the Smurfs coffin. "Raging Vengeance" 108 - 26 P.F.U.T.C. Some sporadic fighting was seen, and when the scores were tallied R.V. had outscored the Unicorns better than 4-1. Mad Scientist.7 16 - 38 Ronins The Scientists started a tactical withdrawal, so the Ronins only managed to claim a short handfull of additional wins. Probable round 3 Matchup: Black Star Bandits - Death`s Revenge Death`s Disturbed Asylum - Smurf Platoon "Raging Vengeance" - Ronins Mad Scientist.7 - P.F.U.T.C. Div 6 ARMORED CORE 2 - 41 Diamond Dragons A.C. was unable to claim additional wins, but the Dragons landed enough additional blows to claim a 20-1 win. Chess Dragons 19 - 0 ***Raging Vengeance*** R.V. might have made what looked like a threathening move, and the Dragons more than doubled their number of wins as a result. Heroes Ranger Raccoons 39 - 27 today and tomorrow t&t managed to get a halfway decent offensive going toward the end, but when the Heroes launced a riposte it fizzled. Death`s Disciples 53 - 56 M&L of B.o.P.S. The Disciples and the Smurfs tore wildly into each other as the grains disappeared from the hourglass. In the end Smurf tenacity managed to wrest the win from the Disciples hands. Probable round 3 Matchup: Chess Dragons - Diamond Dragons ARMORED CORE - ***Raging Vengeance*** Heroes Ranger Raccoons - M&L of B.o.P.S. Death`s Disciples - today and tomorrow Div 7 Renegades 34 - 13 T.B. 1st Kearney Highlanders A last handfull of clashes were seen. The renegades won most of them, as well as a solid twofold victory. Behemoth 20 - 21 Sacrificial Lambs This fight suddenly got intense with the leadership going back and forth. But like in the first battleday the Lambs managed to claim a deciding last minute win. MurderMechs 42 - 16 Heroes Light Brigade MurderMechs took off the velvet gloves and started hitting the Heroes in earnest. They took some losses, but won by a decisive margin. JC`s Rowdy Bunch 61 - 35 M&L A.R.S.E. The Smurfs tried to sneak closer, but the Bunch suddenly pulled all the stops and hammered home enough wins to leave no question as to who had won the battle. Probable round 3 Matchup: Renegades - Sacrificial Lambs Murdermechs - T.B. 1st Kearney Highlanders Behemoth - JC`s Rowdy Bunch Heroes Light Brigade - M&L A.R.S.E. Div 8 Major Steel 57 - 61 **Raging Vengeance** The Steelers finally launched a massive offensive. But despite their success the counterattack R.V. threw in their face was barely enough to give R.V. a narrow win. Death`s Hecklers 52 - 8 Ronins 2 A last half-dozen skirmishes were seen. The Heclers won all but one of them and outscored the Ronins better than 6-1. Karma II 73 - 16 I.N.A. While the Alliance tried to figure out how to beat Karma, Karma launched a massive strike that gave them a descisive 4-1 victory. Mad Scientist 1 17 - 62 Jagdstaffel 2 The Scientists were still reeling from the strong Jagdstaffel attack when an even stronger one carried the Jagdstaffel far out of their reach. Probable round 3 Matchup: Death`s Hecklers - **Raging Vengeance** Major Steel - Jagdstaffel 2 Ronins 2 - Karma II Mad Scientist 1 - I.N.A. Div 9 Karma 14 - 0 Cold Dead Hands Karma managed to get a couple more unopposed wins. D.H.o.t.A. 72 - 5 Borg Collective The Horsemen hit the Borgs some more and won by an overwhelming margin. RED AXE 28 - 7 House of Gowron As no further fighting took place the Axemen got a solid four to one victory. Banditos 8 - 0 Kongregate HG No further fighting were seen, and the Bandits won the least violent battle of the day unopposed. Probable round 3 Matchup: Karma - D.H.o.t.A. Cold Dead Hands - RED AXE Borg Collective - Banditos House of Gowron - Kongregate HG

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breakingnewsalert1 · 5 years ago

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D-Day at 75: The Guns of the Allies at Normandy (PHOTOS)

About half of the Allies that hit the beaches and landing zones in Normandy on D-Day were American, while the British and Canadians made up the other half. (Photo: British National Army Museum)

Operation Overlord on June 6, 1944, along the French coast of Normandy during World War II was very much an Allied operation, and the guns they carried were varied and interesting.

While the Americans were detailed to hit two of the five invasion beachheads– Omaha and Utah— their British and Canadian allies were tasked with taking out three beaches of their own– Gold, Juno, and Sword. For both Commonwealth allies, the primary infantry rifle was the Lee-Enfield .303.

Canadians boarding a troopship for Normandy, June 5, 1944. Note their No. 4 Enfields, complete with breech covers to aid in keeping sand and mud out. Of note to sci-fi nerds, among the Canadians on Juno that day was James Doohan, who later went on to portray “Scotty” in Star Trek. On D-Day he caught a six bullets from a German machine gun and lived to tell the tale. (Photo: Library and Archives Canada)

First introduced in 1907, the original version of this bolt-action classic was the Short Magazine Lee–Enfield Mk III, or just plain old SMLE MK III. When mounting a giant 22-inch Pattern 1907 sword bayonet, this was the rifle that the British Army first took to France in the Great War to fight the Kaiser. Using a 10-round detachable box magazine that typically was never detached, British military doctrine of “Ten Rounds Rapid” delivered by a trained body of infantry could lay down an often deceptively large and effective volume of fire when arrayed against Mauser 98-armed opponents.

This beautiful BSA-produced SMLE MKIII (in the 1920s reclassified as Rifle No. 1 Mk III) up for grabs in our Vault dates to 1911. This rifle design, in slightly modified format, was still carried by the British and Canadians in WWII. These rifles originally cost around £3 or about $15 to make in 1907.

While many British Commonwealth countries, such as Australia, continued using the SMLE Mk III pattern rifles through the 1950s when they were replaced by the inch-pattern semi-auto FN FAL, Canada, and Great Britain in 1943 moved to an updated version of the Lee Enfield, the Number 4 Mk I. This rifle ditched the “hog nose” front cap of the older rifle, switched out the sights and used a stronger action that had the side benefit of being faster to make.

This Canadian-made Long Branch arsenal No. 4 Mk. I in our Vault has had its rear sight replaced in later years by an aftermarket Weaver scope mount, however, the rest of the rifle is largely correct for WWII– including rack marks on the stock. The Canadians still use this series Enfield in their Army’s Ranger program in the country’s remote polar regions, although it is finally being phased out by new Sako C-19s in .308.

Besides the Enfields of various makes, both the British and Canadians were seriously augmented with submachine guns in assorted flavors. The M1928 Auto-Ordnance Thompson SMG in .45ACP had been provided as Lend-Lease from the States early in the war.

British Royal Marine Commandos move inland from Sword Beach on D-Day. Note the Enfields as well as the M1928 Thompson in the hands of the fourth man in the column. (Photo: Imperial War Museum)

In addition, the much simpler STEN sub gun, which fired at 500-600 rounds per minute from an open bolt, was more commonly issued to sergeants, paratroopers, and specialists.

Easy to mass produce, over 4 million STENs were cranked out during WWII. The 9mm burp gun was a simple blow-back design that used a 32-round box magazine that inserted horizontally. the STEN Mk V, seen in the above image of British 6th Airborne Division paratroopers in Normandy on June 7, 1944, was the more refined version of the gun that included wooden furniture. British and Canadian paras jumped with a STEN and seven magazines. (Photo: Imperial War Museum)

Another sub gun used by both the British and Canadians at Juno, Gold and Sword was the Lanchester Mk. I, an unlicensed copy of the German MP28/II. These were issued to naval personnel working the beaches themselves. Chambered in 9mm, these 10-pound SMGs were made by Sterling and accepted the Enfield sword bayonet. (Photo: Canadian War Memorial)

In the rare color footage from the Imperial War Museum, below, you can see British troops coming ashore in a second wave at Normandy equipped with No. 4 Enfields, early pattern STEN guns and BREN light machine guns.

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When it came to handguns, the British and Canadians had a difference of opinion. The Brits went for a pair of break-top 6-shot revolvers, chambered in .38/200, which is comparable to .38 S&W.

The Enfield No. 2 was easy shooting due to its heavy weight and anemic round. This example, an Mk2 “Tanker” variant shown with a Pattern 37 holster, 1943 British Army clasp knife and BREN gun accessory tin, was DAO while the standard Mk1 was DA/SA and included a hammer spur. (Photo: Chris Eger/Guns.com)

The other British revolver used at D-Day and throughout WWII was the Webley Mk IV .38/200. With more than 500,000 of these produced by Birmingham-based Webley & Scott, they were the most common British wheel gun of the conflict.

This Webley Mk IV from the Guns.com Vault is ready to add to the collector’s armory.

As for the Canadians, while they went along with the Brits on rifle and SMG choices, they broke with London and looked to America for their revolvers. Having purchased Colt 1911 .45ACPs and Smith & Wesson 2nd Model Hand Ejector wheel guns in .455 during WWI, in 1939 Ottawa selected the Smith & Wesson Military & Police series in .38S&W as their primary handgun, eventually buying nearly 120,000 of them.

The Canadians bought Victory series Smiths, which were later known as M&Ps, chambered in .38S&W, which allowed them to use the British .38/200 cartridges as well. Smith later updated the M&P after the war as their Model 10, like this iconic six-shooter we have in the Vault.

One thing the Brits and Canucks could agree on when it came to handguns was the Browning Hi-Power. Made during the war by the John Inglis Company of Toronto with a little help from Belgian exiles, the so-called Browning-Inglis was produced in quantity, with over 150,000 made. The Canadians and British each took about a third while others went to Allies such as China. As a D-Day legacy, Canada still issues these WWII-era guns to their military today.

In all, across the British and Canadian sector, some 83,000 troops landed on Gold, Juno, and Sword while another 8,000 went in with the airborne troops, making up about half the Allies in Normandy on June 6. Allied casualties on the first day of Operation Overlord numbered over 10,000.

For more information on the British and Canadian efforts on D-Day, visit Library and Archives Canada, the Canadian War Museum, Imperial War Museum, and National Army Museum.

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