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The state of Ukrainian morale has been deeply tied up with the mess in the U.S. Congress. Now that it has been resolved thank bleep, we need to take a deep. breath and see where everything is a couple of weeks.

And we are back to breaking the Russian war machine. Which of course will take more fighting men. There is no magic technology solution here. They can dig in and hope to attrit the RA enough for the Russians to stall and then shoot for some BS empty peace. Or they can go on the offensive and pay the blood price. The West can supply a lot but they cannot supply fighting troops or the will to resist. If Ukraine cannot muster this then no viable alternatives really exist beyond attempts to freeze this thing, which may very well fail due to Ukrainian “exhaustion”. That is an 800 km frontage, longer than the Western Front in WW1. They can reduce troop density requirements quite a bit but not to zero, not yet. There are no free lunches in war.

With work, I'm not reading as closely on this any more. X going behind the wall didn't help. But warm UKR bodies would seem to be the rate limiting step in executing on this plan. With its current combat cadre worn out from 2 years of high intensity warfare, and in the drone era, probably its last mile support arms as well, UKR just doesn't seem to be up today for training up and manning the '150+ hi-tech Jaeger battalions' that they would need to make this work. Don't honestly know whether it's 'can't' or 'won't', likely a bit of both. Demographically possible, perhaps, if they truly mobilised the entire population 18+, including women, at the cost of what's left of their nonwar economy. But I now doubt that any Ukrainian leader, even a military junta, could execute such a strategy. Simply saying 'you must do it because the alternative are worse' unfortunately doesn't make it happen. My cursory read right now is the Ukes are exhausted and desperate for something, anything that will make Russia quit, or at least halt in place.

We bounced around some ideas a few dozen pages back. So to my thinking the key problem is denying enough space around a minefield to be able to breach it. The range of enemy ISR, UAS and artillery is making traditional breaching ops impossible. So the only way I can see doing this without getting back into jetpacks is to use light infantry to try and infiltrate past the mine belts but send them with all sorts of FPVs and supported by larger UAS. They will need EW and all the C4ISR and layering of indirect fires and deep strike. They will also likely need C-UAS UAS in order to create a space for breaching and larger forces to push through. So basically yes, small groups of FPV teams pushing forward and swarming as best they can and as deep as they can with a steady supply of new FPVs delivered by larger UAS, and supported by everything. Pull all that together along with a deliberate corrosive warfare campaign and basically the RA becomes over-extended by virtue of shaping and infiltration. Do a breach and then send the troops deep. Russians hate this and will fall back to re-draw the line. This is what momentum starts to look like. If the UA cannot do this then we are back to tactical leg humping and symbolic war porn videos of strategic strikes. In fact if the UA cannot do the above re: offensive, then they should simply go firm and dig in. Save all the expensive ammo and bleed Russia white over the next two years when best guesses are the Russians may run out of strategic gas.

When you say use drones offensively, what are you thinking? Small groups of infantry moving forward, and deploying the drones like they would, say, a mortar, and attacking positions with them as part of a combined infrantry-drone assault (along a larger front)?

You got me a bit wrong here. The Kerch Bridge is symbolic for the Russians. Any damage to it is highly visible and forces Russia to use assets to deny that to Ukraine. Its a long bridge that can be attacked by air, land & sea. That means a lot of Russian stuff has to be deployed there and not on the front. That is a non-symbolic win for Ukraine. It is only necessary that the Russians believe Ukraine could attack it.

This does seem like a good reason, unless Russia is playing some form of 5D chess that I cannot comprehend. Why not all of the above? There isn’t exactly a giant missile shortage though, just a shortage of missiles we feel like giving to Ukraine. That said, I do agree that given a finite (but large) supply of missiles, there are better targets until Ukraine is actually in a position to cut the land bridge. Like refineries, oil depots, ports, power plants, factories, locomotives, etc.

Yup.

That is interesting this effects both CFs and surrenders. Ok then, no cease firing and surrendering. Hope everybody else gets the memo. Also I take it my score will eventually get manually corrected?

I would very much like for the Ukrainian strategic strike campaigns to stop being “symbolic” and start shaping the battle space for re-engaging in offensive operations. Symbolism is great but destroying Russian abilities to effectively defend an 800km frontage with a highly degraded military are much better. Further, “symbolism” is not going to keep western support coming…operational gains that push the Russians back will. The thumbnail sketch plan: - Re-establish denial of air and ground. - Hit the RUAF hard and keep them well back. - Hit The RA where it hurts…logistics, enablers and C2. Prioritize artillery and EW. - Hit the SLOCs. Hard military targets that move all that hardware and people to the front and then up and down it. - Solve for offence. Stop using FPVs defensively now that artillery is showing up and use them offensively en masse. Saturate bridgeheads and try bounce crossings at scale. - Re-establish forward momentum and get the RA reacting to them, not the other way around. - Bite, grab and hold….repeat. Eventually, if we are lucky, corrosive warfare will work again and the RA will have to re-set like it did in Fall 22. That is one helluva bill to pay but it is the one in front of the UA and the West to support. Do not waste limited military high end hardware on “symbols”…use it to kill the Russian war machine.

As a Combat Mission player I would have liked for them to release the module. But from a business perspective the decision not to release it was probably a sound one. In any case, it's hardly worth discussing since the key decisionmakers have already made up their minds. It's not like this subject hasn't already been beaten to death over the last two years.

I for one as a customer of BFC totally agree.

Hello @Hello and welcome to the forums. I wasn't going to comment on your post at all but seeing as you've created 3 threads with the same thing I've decided to say sumfink, in the hope of avoiding a fouth....fifth....sixth........ While we appreciate your enthusiasm, the subject is not open for debate or discussion (at least not by anyone at Battlefront.....you folks are free to talk amongst yourselves). And that is why you will not see us engaging in any (including this reply). What we've needed to say on the subject we've already said. I am sincere about our appreciation of your support and I didn't want you to feel like we were ignoring you. Thank you.

Let's hope so .

***NEWS ALERT***** After a lot of testing I can officially say that if a battle is not played out to the end of "in game" allowed time it will not score properly. Both Surrenders and Ceasefires are affected. Those scores will display properly until the Round's time has ended. Then penalties that should not apply are applied. Battles fought through to the end of in game time will display the correct scores. We're working to figure out if it is the severs or the game that is causing this. Until that's sorted out, I strongly recommend playing ALL battles out until the end. Even if it's just clicking the red square each time you get a file. ********* Games that are not completed before a Round is finished can and should have penalties applied.

There have been a couple of articles in reputable publications lately stating that the DoD has been staging equipment in anticipation of a yes vote, so that delivery can be started immediately. I guess that's one result of the delay in approval. The DoD had a couple or three months to get organized so they are ready to go. Dave

It is necessary for Ukraine to attack Kerch Bridge once in a while, so Russia cannot stop wasting resources to protect it. Its high symbolic value forces Russia's hand, no matter what the actual military value is.

So ATACAMS first target was the S-400 complex in Crimea. Guess that answers whether it can intercept it.

I am only slightly guilty of bridge lust, I am simply saying that it gets to stay standing because the U.S. NSC thinks knocking it down will cause more problems than it solves. If they ever change their mind a train full of the appropriate munitions will arrive to announce that decision, followed by some truly excellent video.

I agree with this, but whatever Russia is paying to take a square kilometer is about to at least triple. They haven't exactly been getting a bargain rate the last few weeks, so it is about to get TRULY Pricey. Hopefully Ukraine casualties will go down as well.

I think that it should not matter if the conflict is going on. The defense industry plays "what if-" scenarios all of the time. War is either historical based or something plausible for present or future. Anyone playing wargames understands this ..those who find it negative are almost certainly NOT wargame customers anyway

More likely that we're going to get back to the mid-2023 situation where Russia is no longer able to make incremental gains and Ukraine can push them back slightly in a few places. I'm not expecting anything dramatic personally - just a shift in the media narrative which is currently "Russia is slowly grinding Ukraine down".

Have a feeling with the significant increase in military hardware rolling into Ukraine---the ****'s about to hit the fan. Good.

Hit and its been repaired, im assuming the scenario we are operating on is a hit to the bridge that renders it unrepairable. Drones hitting Moscow has increased internal dissent tho, including hitting gas and oil complexes. I think if we regard the current state of war support for Russia, it is quite high right now. Besides, Russian messaging focusing on preventing German supply of missiles does indicate worry about the loss of the bridge. It is a legitimating factor over Crimea and Ukraine.

But, but, but I want to feel better :-< I say use the new ammo and missiles to mess up as many attacks as possible and hit as many logistics and HQ targets as you can find. Rinse and repeat.