All Activity

Everyone would buy this game

As shown in the sinking? of the Sergei Kotov, which was guarding the straits and bridge, threatening Kerch brings out Russian forces to defend it. Not that I’m saying focus on the bridge is essential , but I won’t be surprised if the bridge is the site of further attacks.

Preferably with some real news.

Not a great fan of alternate history such as the above. Paddy hasn't seen my mum growing up, and needs to get home sharpish.

We have a village just a couple of miles away called "Loose". Most people pronounce it "Lose". Although there was a Ladies Morris side who called themselves "The Loose Women". Meanwhile after only managing a Minor Victory with my Jocks in the Wald, cuz I'm rubbish. I'm just embarking on "Spearhead".

I have no doubt that the US has staged quite a bit of stuff inches and minutes away from being in Ukraine (metaphorically speaking of course!). But what I was talking about is how long it will take to get to the frontline, which is different than how long it takes to get into Ukraine. A couple articles I was reading seemed to think it would take weeks or months and what I as point out is that they haven't been paying attention. Now, as to what the impact of all this good stuff will be... I fully agree that the most likely scenario is returning the front to where it was in 2023 where Russia loses big ticket items on a regular basis and finds it very difficult to get its offensive activities to do more than provide war porn for us in the West. As I said several pages ago, for the short term the threat to Ukraine is in the Donbas and not the south. The Kerch bridge has only an indirect relation to the Donbas, therefore it shouldn't be a high priority for Ukraine. It won't have redundant "all of the above" strike capabilities for some time to come. So pull HIMARS back and whack stuff in the Donbas as Priority 1 and neuter Crimea's ability to stage air and naval forces as Priority 2. Kerch is not the key element to focus on for Priority 2. Far better to sink a couple of ships or take out a bunch of aircraft. Steve

If he really was an agent for a foreign power someone has lost an important source. Of course it is quite possible he simply stole something in a way someone more important found inconvenient.

I rather like the idea of an alternate-history campaign starting with 11th Armoured Division capturing the Lauenburg railway bridge intact and racing to Berlin from there. In large part this would be an excuse to test the Comet against substantial German armoured formations under varying conditions.

I've reached the outskirts of Cologne in Spearhead (I'm girding myself for that little fight). Thus far, it's been one of the most enjoyable campaigns I've played in any CM title.

That is my impression from afar as well. I think digging in and preserving manpower and destroying Russia’s oil assets and war machine is the best strategy. If Ukraine cannot muster enough manpower to hold the line, assuming the west provides sufficient weaponry, then obviously it’s a moot point. The real question is can Russia continue like this for more than a year, especially if all refineries and oil depots and substations within 500km of Ukraine are destroyed.

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 .