[Puke]

yeah, i have always been of the opinion that washington was a fairly lously general. and i'll grant you that improper tactics played a part in our early struggles in viet nam, but it was mainly politics holding us back in the end. i dont think we 'lost' in viet nam any more than the british 'lost' in 1812. it was an unpopular war at home, they didnt have much to gain from a prolonged conflict, so they packed up and left. so did we. similar in korea, we quit because McArthur didnt want to nuke china.

as to training levels though, i think its fairly clear to everyone the importance that it plays. i think training should be as important or more important than it is, but that it should be costly. it takes a great deal of money to keep your military trained during peacetime. i think that to represent this that overall maintainance costs should be increased, OR, training facilities should confer a system-wide maintainance PENALTY.

i also wish experience levels would decrease over time, say 2% a year or something.

regarding starting disadvangage for gassy types, it depends on the game. gassers always have it hard starting out. gas will have it even harder in a 'colonize only own type' games. and unless you can easily steal some 'none' breathers, then races breathing 'none' will have a distinct advantage. not only do they get those swanky moons like they did before, but they can now become uber training and shipbuilding complexes.