Beth's Poll

Beth says:

I think if any nation should feel unjustly done by its the ESU which
sits
amongst, or below, the smaller nations - I guess the grit and "I'll
stand
here until I'm damn well dead" Russkies I think off (OK I play
Napoleonics)
isn't something that goes with the navy?

I reply:

No, they all stood there and died thus (in Darwin's world) eliminating
that
set of traits from the breed. 

Seroiusly, the critique probably extends in a generalized sense to the
ESU.
There are probably ships populated with those kind of Russian stoics.
But
the ship may be poorly maintained due to a poorer overall economy. The
crew
may be a little poorer, despite attitude or experience, due to a lack of
formal training (though in my view, the vast number of actions the ESU
fight
would probably leave a good core of excellent soldiers with "guns hot"
experience - worked for the Soviets in WW2). And the centrally directed
nature of their geopolitics is bound to influence their military -
probably
make them more likely to make cautious decisions and to call upstairs
for
directives than to strike out boldly on their own initiative. That
behaviour
too probably got bred out by the modern ESU equivalent of the NKVD or
KGB. 

Thomas Barclay
Software UberMensch
xwave solutions
(613) 831-2018 x 3008