User:Lancer1289

User Page Archive: Archive

About me
I am a huge fan of the Mass Effect Universe, however when I started editing here way back in 2008, I only made around 60 edits or so before the release of Mass Effect 2. After the release of ME2 is when I really started getting involved in this wiki and now I have well over the amount of edits I thought I would have. Even so, I do know quite a lot about the games, the books, and getting better at the comics, so I do know what I am talking about, usually. I will admit when I am wrong so you have no worries there.

As to my schooling I am in college and enjoying it. I live in the suburbs of Chicago and attend the College of DuPage, the best community college in the United States. That is the opinion of many major educational magazines and not mine. As to what I am studying, I am studying Video Game Design and Development and enjoying it. I am also studying for a degree in music, mainly an AFA degree.

Because I wrote a lot of the walkthoughs, or in the process of rewriting them, I take a personal measure to keep them free of spam. I don't remove anything good but if something completely false is added, I will be removing it. Also if there are new walkthoughs, you can probably bet I will be creating the pages or at least updating them after they are up. I can write a major walkthough in about a day, give or take a few hours. So as new DLC packs come out, I will be writing the walkthoughs for them. As to my knowledge of the walkthoughs, I have 20+ completed ME walkthoughs and at present 15+ ME2 walkthroghs.

Also I am one of the Mass Effect Wiki's admins, so if you have any questions, don't hesitate to drop me a message on my talk page. No matter the question I will try to help out if I can, otherwise I will direct you in the right direction, or at least try to. Just a fair warning, if you have a question on the day a new DLC pack comes out, I may not answer right away, unless it's a vandel, as I will be writing the walkthoughs for it if it has missions or assignmets. Otherwise I'll do my best to get back to you ASAP.

Milestones
I put this here because I have a habit of keeping track of dates and things I accomplish. So if this seems like a self-indulgence trip, well it is. This is my user page after all.

Wow, today I hit a milestone, well to me anyway, edit number 5,000. I thought it would take me well over a year to get to this point. Oh well, 5,000 and counting, as I don't plan to stop anytime soon. Ok enough with my self-indulgence trip. Lancer1289 04:19, June 4, 2010 (UTC)

Another milestone today, and on the eve of the release of Overlord of all days. I guess I have to write those guides in the next few days. Anyway, I am doing the math and just a mere 11 days since I made my 5,000th edit. Now I can celebrate edit number 6,000. Man, the last days seemed to drag on, mainly due to summer classes and a massive paper, but I have no intention of slowing down. My goal by the end of 2010 is me celebrating edit number 10,000. Well that is enough of my second self-indulgence trip. Lancer1289 05:13, June 15, 2010 (UTC)

Well I'll have to make this quick, but edit number 7,000. Wow I am really moving along here. Yea. Lancer1289 05:44, June 26, 2010 (UTC)
 * Addendum: I hit yet another milestone today with edit number 7,000. The ironic thing I found is that it is yet another 11 days, almost to the minute but I was off by a half hour, 31 minutes if you want to be exact, since edit number 6,000. I can't believe how fast my edit counter has gone up in the last 11 days, but when I really started editing here I couldn't possibly imagine that I'd be at 7,000 edits in under 5 months. I really made my first edit, when I started contributing heavly, between my spring semester classes on January 28, 2010. Before then I had only made edits filling in armor stats and one edit to the Citadel: Signal Tracking page about how you acquire the mission. If you had asked me when I made those first edits on the Normandy SR-2 page about where Jack was, if I though I'd be here today with 7,000 edits, I'd say you were crazy. I never expected my counter and my contributions to go up that fast, but I guess it did. As I have said, I don't plan to stop anytime soon. Well that is enough of my third or fourth self-indulgence trip, but I like to keep track of these things. Lancer1289 06:27, June 26, 2010 (UTC)

Not really an edit count milestone but a significant one for me and I think a promotion to Admin/Sysop is worth mentioning. Anyway my role just increased and I will still do everything I can to help out and make this place better for everyone. Lancer1289 03:25, July 6, 2010 (UTC)

While it may not be 11 days since my last milestone of 7,000, edit number 8,000. Wow I am really moving along. The last two weeks have really flown by. So yea edit number 8,000. Lancer1289 22:17, July 8, 2010 (UTC)

Well it may have been 16 days, but this makes yet another thousand edits, making my total 9,000. So I am continually moving along here and making this a better place for everybody. Lancer1289 19:40, July 24, 2010 (UTC)

Well it may be a few months yet to the end of the year, but edit number 10,000. I've stopped counting days, nor to I care so anymore, but still I never thought I'd be at 10,000 by now. I thought I'd be here in 2011, not today. Still so much work to do. Lancer1289 20:18, August 9, 2010 (UTC)

Well there is much work left to do, especially with Lair of the Shadow Broker approaching in a little more than a week. However, today I can celebrate my 11,000th edit. Wow, and I know I keep saying this, but I never thought I'd have this many edits, this quickly, or before mid next year. That said, I enjoy editing here and communicating with the people on this site that make this a better place for both users and visitors alike. So edit number 11,000 is just another start, there is still much work that needs to be done. Lancer1289 06:06, August 28, 2010 (UTC)

LotSB just came out, and it was great wasn't it. However I'd like to add yet another 1000 edits to my tally. Well acutally this will 12,004, but I had to take care of admin things. There is still so much more work to do here and making this a better place for anyone who visits here. I have really come to enjoy working on this wiki with everyone that edits here, and other places. So 12,000, yet another point, and it can only go up from there. Lancer1289 20:56, September 10, 2010 (UTC)

Well Wikia is coming out with a new skin and that means a lot of work fixing articles to make them appear the same way. Anyway 13,000 edits is still something to note as I continue. However it is also nice that my Xbox 360 finally came back from its stint in the repair center. Oh Well you have to what you have to do at times. So with the new skin coming out, there will be much work to do as we adapt to it. So yep 13,000 and I can only guess where will the counter go from here. Lancer1289 00:50, October 7, 2010 (UTC)

Well I forgot about 14,000 thousand and I fell asleep at my computer last night so I needed sleep before I could make 15,000 so here one for both. It hs been very busy here since October and with the release of the PS3 version just a few weeks away I predict it will only get busier. Also my goal of puchasing a PS3 didn't come through this Christmas, so I'll have to wait for my birthday or sometime before that. Also with Mass Effect 3 finally announced, hopefully we can get ready for it before the release. Also what happened with the DLC, but at least we have assurances that mroe is one the way. Still a dry spell from September, a little more of a dry spell than I expected. So another 2,000 is more is just further along. At this rate, how long until I hit 20,000... Lancer1289 17:34, December 27, 2010 (UTC)

Almost a month since my last edit here, but yet another 1,000 to add to the score. With the release of the PS3 version came a few headaches, but less than I anticipated, but less than PS3 users are getting. I'm glad the Xbox and PC don't have those problem, but still that is a really bad thing. I really wouldn't want 15 hours of work go to waste in a split second. Oh well hopefully it will be sorted out. Still another 1,000, and more to come. Lancer1289 18:22, January 26, 2011 (UTC)

Just about another month since the last time I updated this, but I add a little more than a thousand this time. A thousand and ten to be exact. I missed 17,000 earlier today, or last night, unsure which. A number of things have happened but there are too many to go into. So let's keep going and we are all now looking forward to a new DLC pack. BioWare, don't assume that something will be invisible. Lancer1289 17:58, February 22, 2011 (UTC)

With the release of the final story DLC pack for Mass Effect 2 just a few days away, and I can't wait for it. However, this marks another 1,000 edits to tally up and I've noticed a number of things since about a month ago. There has been a lot more vandalism in the last month, ranging from eye rolling, to...well words just can't describe come of it. On the flip side of that, there have been more people popping in an out, mainly IPs, with generally good edits to grammar, spelling, and a few other things. Sometimes I can't figure out how some things get overlooked, but then as the old saying goes, no one is perfect and generally it requires a second, or third, or even fourth set of eyes to catch some small things. The biggest thing going on has been the war over the Illusive Man and whether not he is Jack Harper. Is he Jack, more than likely, and I'm willing to bet that he is, but can't we just wait until issue four comes out in a few weeks? Judging by the small war that has been raged over this issue, apparently not. Anyway another 1,000 to bank and more still coming. Lancer1289 21:42, March 27, 2011 (UTC)

Featured Battle
Because I absolutly love military history, every week I will display a battle here with a few detais and a link to the Wikipedia article. I will not add links for every possible thing however, too much typing on my part. Enjoy.

This Week: Battle of Cannae War: Second Punic War

Carthaginian Forces
 * Leader: Hannibal
 * Forces:
 * 40,000 Heavy Infantry
 * 6,000 Light Infantry
 * 10,000 Cavalry
 * Losses: 8,500

Roman Forces
 * Leader: Gaius Terentius Varro
 * Forces:
 * 40,000 Heavy Infantry
 * 45,000 Light Infantry
 * 2,000 Heavy Cavalry
 * 2,500 Light Cavlary
 * Losses: Disputed
 * Sources put Roman Casualties between 45,000 and 70,000 KIA and Captured
 * Only 14,000 Romans Escaped

Overview: Cannae is one of the few examples of what is called a double envelopment, where an enemy is completely surrounded and destroyed. Hannibal, commander of the Carthiginian forces read the Romans like a book, anticipated every move they made, and finally destroyed them. Rome’s strategy switched before the battle and it also didn’t help that the two Consuls commanding the Roman Army lead on opposing days. Unfortunately it was Varro in command the day of the battle.

Background: With Rome and Carthage fighting again, and with Carthage on the losing streak, its greatest general, Hannibal, vowed to take the fight to the Romans by invading Italy from the North across the Alps! This was unheard of but somehow Hannibal did it, he cross the Alps with the vast majority of his troops and twenty Elephants, yes Elephants. The Roman Senate, panicked by this, appointed Fabius Maximus as Dictator and Fabius waged attrition warfare against Hannibal, cutting of his supplies while refusing to engaged in a pitched battle. This angered many Romans, and at the conclusion of six months, the prescribed time for dictators to rule, Fabias’ powers were not renewed and instead they were transferred back to the two Consuls. After a quick election, Gaius Terentius Varro and Lucius Aemilius Paullus were elected as Consuls and were given joint command of a vast army to destroy Hannibal.

Varro and Paullus switch off commanding the army, one day Paullus would lead and the next, Varro. As the Romans tried to figure out where they would engage Hannibal, he struck first by seizing the Romany Supply Center at Cannae, then positioning his army between the town and the fast approaching Romans. Before the battle, Hannibal sent a scouting force to harass the Romans, and while the battle was isolated, it built confidence in the Romans, probably overconfidence. While Varro was pushing to engage, Paullus was cautious, probably well so because he knew what faced him, what Hannibal could do, and he leared that Fabias’ Startegy had worked so far. Paullus wanted the engagement, but first wanted to pin the Carthagininans in place and starve them a little so they would be weak.

The Battle: After the small skirmish two three days earlier, the armies stayed in camp waiting for the other to make a move. The night before the battle he ordered a raid against the Roman camps and against a smaller camp supplying water to the main Roman Camp. He knew this would tire the Romans, and lead to them being weaker the next day. Also knowing that Varro would be in command, and he was the more aggressive of the two commanders, Hannibal ordered his army to break camp and move to engage. While Varro was aggressive, he wasn’t ignorant. Knowing that Hannibal had won his last few victories based on trickery, Varro looked for an open battlefield, but even then he was fooled. The Romans deployed in their battle tested fashion, Hastati in the front line, backed up by Principes, then the Triarii, with their light allied infantry on the wings, called Velites, and the cavalry on the wings.

Hannibal deployed his forces, not in a straight line, which was typical, but in a Crescent Moon shape, with the bulge facing the Romans. He deployed his most loyal, and heaviest fighters in the middle, while lighter troops were on the wings, and a reserve force behind them. He placed his cavalry on the wings, and he had a use for them. When Hannibal finished deploying his forces, he took up position, not at the rear, but in the center with his best troops.

When the battle was joined, the cavalry of both sides went at it, and the Carthaginian forces sent the Roman Cavalry packing. Seeing the destruction of the Roman horsemen, he sent a messagener to his own, telling them to pursue the Romans, but to return at the right time. His horsemen then proceeded to chase the Roman Cavalry from the field.

Meanwhile in the center, it was hit hard, and Hannibal began his plan to destroy the Romans. He lead his center in a fighting retreat, until the crescent in his line was inverted. The Romans had numberical superiority, but Hannibal’s plan negated that to a degree. Hannibal then ordered his uncommitted forces to move up to the flanks, forcing the Romans into the ever tightening semi-circle even more. Varro by this point had lost all control and was just fighting with his men, while Paullus was trying to restore order with the men. However, at this crucial time, where the Romans could have still retreated, Hannibal completed his trap and ordered his African Allies on the flanks, having already forced the Romans into the circle to turn and attack the Roman Flanks. This alone was enough to cause panic, but then Hannibal’s Cavalry returned and attacked from the rear, completing the envelopment of the entire Roman Army.

The Romans were now panicked at being completely encircled and the Carthaginians were know slaughtering them by the hundreds. At this time, a Roman Centurion ordered his unit to attack a point in the line. This attack opened a small hole in which 14,000 Romans, including a humiliated Varro escaped through. Hannibal had to reorder his line to close the hole, but when he did, the remaining Romans were trapped. As the Carthaginians pressed further and further, the Roman forces did just about everything to escape, however no one, not even Paullus could get the men rallied. Once word reached him that Varro had escaped, he knew that it was over. He joined the men and was cut down with them as the Carthaginians pressed. There are rumors that Paullus and Hannibal engaged each other in pitched combat while the battle raged around them, but there is little evidence to support this rumor.

Finally after many hours of combat, the remaining Romans, numbering less than 5,000 at this point, disputed actual number, surrendered to Hannibal.

Outcome: Decisive Carthaginian Victory

This battle lead to several Roman Allies to defect to Hannibal, which they didn’t even start considering until after Cannae. The Senate, embarrassed, stripped Varro of his honors, and Fabias was restored as Dictator, with apologies from the Senate. Hannibal was urged to attack Rome itself, but instead sent dignitaries for peace. Rome refused to negotiate, raised another army, and employed the Fabian Strategy again. Finally, when Hannibal was defeated at the Battle of Zama years later, Rome took revenge on its deserters, mainly by sacking the cities that had deserted them. The battle itself also helped shape the way Rome was to conduct war in the future. However the most lasting impact was this is still one of the few battles where an amry has bene able to completely encircle another. Generals have tried many times to duplicate this, but usually don’t succeed.

Wikipedia Article: Battle of Cannae Next Week we go to the Second Punic War.

Walkthrough ME2

 * Arrival Walkthroughs

ME2 Assignments

 * Illium: Conrad Verner

ME Assignments

 * Double Checking all UNC Assignments

Stubs
With the planet completion project above, I am also going to attempt to eliminate the stub articles around this wiki.
 * Category:Article stubs

Codex Image Cleanup and Add

 * Project 1: Cleaning up the Codex of all non-Codex images, and adding ones where appropiate, when I get back on my PC.
 * Project 2: Double Checking all Codex entries for differences from ME to ME2, we found some earlier so a double check couldn't hurt.
 * Project 3: Fixing any links to Wikipedia.

Current Sandbox Project

 * Possible Weapon page modifications: Weapon Page Modifications.

My Sandboxes
Because a lot of the things I am doing at the moment would alter a lot of articles, I am using my sandboxes to write them first.
 * Sandbox Index Page

Favorite Pages
Not in any order
 * Normandy SR-2
 * Citadel
 * Destiny Ascension
 * Citadel Fleet
 * SSV Normandy
 * Cerberus Daily News
 * Race Against Time: Final Battle
 * Collector Ship (mission)
 * Overlord