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No. Johnson is a weak speaker with weak convictions presiding over a weak majority that has strong factions whose only unifying element is that they reject whatever Democrats want. Any three loons can stall and sidetrack legislation and often do. That is slowly translating into a more or less coalition government as Democrats over time become the essential element in keeping Johnson in office.

This makes me think, that the idea behind Johnson's obstruction was to delay the Ukraine aid for so long, that once he stops stalling, he will be allowed to present it as "Johnson's plan" and will actually take political credit for it. That would be a really devious plan. Macchiavelli could not hold a candle to him.

I read it the same. No need for any more personal 'digs' but I am ever the optimist.

Not to dispute the general direction of this post, but I have to set some things right: - no one is using solar panels instead of fences in Germany. But some people have installed solar panel as(!) fences. That did occur, but is very rare - Germany has willingly killed her own solar industry herself about 10 years ago. Mostly by ****ing up subventions which went to China instead of European manufacturers. Germany basically paid for the creation of the solar industry in China, and we lost 5-figure jobs here. Thanks to the ignorance on the side of the Merkel government which believed that solar (and wind) had no future Now China owns the market and the US is paying immense subventions for solar factories so that companies relocate there. Currently, it is pointless for Germany (and Europe in general) to push money in that direction because that would only end in an economic fight with the US & China. OTOH if China would embargo solar panels that would be annoying but would mostly hurt China itself. The biggest market is the West.

I can see that being a bit of an issue in some circumstances

Ha, I thought of tagging you in as well Dave .

I'm not sure I understand your question? A) Are you saying you've played 2 hours and nothing has happened? The scenario is 2 hours long total, and I'm pretty sure there are AI plans for both sides.. There is a 105 battery at the start along with a bunch of on map mortars, and you get more in 40 minutes, plus a 155 (which is actually medium artillery, and 105 is light artillery but that's just words. All artillery is good). For the ones currently available I was able to select any of them with a HQ unit. B ) Same comment. Selecting a Tiger tank, for example, no fire support available. Select a HQ and I can call from a number of mortars and a 105 battery. [edit] There are AI plans for both sides. I went back and checked the play testing notes, because I only played this one from the Soviet side. Dave

Make sure that you become familuar with your (and the enemies) equipment...It's difficult to come up with a good plan if you don't know what your various tools strenths, weakneses and limitations are... I find it useful to test these things by playing QBs in hotseat mode against myself...This will allow me to see what effect my fire is having on the target.

The good news is that there is no inherent problem with running CM in Sonoma. I've been doing it since it came out as a beta, including CM beta versions and everything works great. In fact, on my M2 MacBook Pro, everything screams right along, even the biggest scenarios. Dave

what a goddamn useless sham, 2 months of waiting for literally the same version as the Senate bill.

"How reliable was the swingfire and striker?" Swingfire, if I recall correctly, had a quite long minimum range. It was fired upward then had to be gathered into the LOS. So a Swingfire missile could be halfway down a standard CM map before the gunner got proper control of the missile. Wiki says minimum distance is 150m. That would be arming distance, it could be 700m or more downrange before the gunner got the missile in the crosshairs.

The one thing that the US is indisputably great at is logistics. I would say "days".

Also in wider context SPW pzgr unit is s combined arms unit at company level it has mortars, HMGs and mobile 75mm cannons. At battalion level it has more of the same which can be tasked managed to support a unit. A SPW unit would work in concert with attached, be attached to, AFVs. An armoured SPW unit was a pretty valuable asset. They were kept for appropriate tasks where their mobility, firepower and armour could best be used. So using em well would mean deploying them to a mission where some info re enemy was most likely known about. The unit commander would then do their own tactical recce prior to their mission - check routes etc once committed they’d do combat recce but again likely point unit commander dismounting and peeking over next rise to see what exactly was ahead. All done with some sort of overwatch as platoon/company and battalion level.

Hiya geezer. Open a Help Desk ticket. There are tools that I will send you that will clear this up.

I think MikeyD has a point

There's a CM saying. When playing Russians send a platoon where you'd normally sent a squad, send a company where you'd normally sent a platoon, and send a battalion where you'd normally send a company. That advice applies more generally, as well. Brit and German mech infantry both have smallish squads/sections. Individually they're not very flexible. Flexibility comes from using multiple squads in a coordinated manner. Two panzergrenadier squads equal sixteen men with four lmg Considerably more useful than a single squad. I'm reminded of those robust 13 man Marine squads in CMSF2 that nobody can stand up against.

Thought my ears were burning! So there are some hard wired CM game engine limitations- I highlight some of these in the designer and briefing notes. Re ‘scouting’ well as others had said there is a big depends. A platoon might be tasked to recce - could be a tactical recce or a combat recce. Within the framework of the platoon the PLT CO will also decide how best to conduct the mission. In CM terms there are lots of options. In RL sending one vehicle off on its own would be frowned upon. As if the vehicle breaks down you lose it. So principle was always two vehicles. These in turn would have two squads. The manual shows the squad and the team operating in concert even on a recce. But the squad leader may choose to scout using a small element going just ahead within sight and sound of the squad; the squad in turn would most likely be over watched by the second unit - again depending on the situation they may or may not dismount. Having em out the vehicle = more MGs as base of fire 3 vs 1. So what size of element scouts does depend on RL and in CM. There’s no exact answer and in game as in RL it would be more a judgement call based on various factors within the context of the situation. Ie it depends.

I hereby swear that if M Johnson actually allows for big aid package to Ukraine that I will not call him any more bad names. Until the next UKR aid package he blocks. UKR needs this so badly. I wonder how long before US 155mm & patriot ordnance is actually on site at the front?

Hi, you need the 'wonder of the world' that is @BFCElvis. He'll be along shortly I'm sure...

Yes, but not out of direct support of each other. Usually the platoon would be tasked with a mission which the squads would move and fight in concert with each other to achieve, so the opening post of "Panzergrenadier squads are awkward because a squad can't scout for itself as it moves to contact" means it's handled incorrectly in my opinion. Even if you could detach 2 man scout teams from their squads without lumping the remaining 6 men into a single team, that'd be a poor choice. 2 men scout teams are basically "there's a X% chance that those two will get rinsed by the first shots, but at least that'll give the rest of the unit time to fight back". That's a ratio which makes sense if they're scouting for a whole platoon (or larger units)... but if they're just scouting for their own squad? That means that you're putting 25% of a unit at risk of becoming casualties in the first few seconds to protect the rest of it. I'd say that that's just too large a risk to call sensible: mathematically it would be like using two entire fireteams or an entire squad bunched up in a single action square to scout for a platoon. If those two scouts become casualties and the rest of the squad survives intact (unlikely), that means you're now left with just 6 men to carry on with a mission. That's not effective. I think my main argument is that Panzergrenadiers aren't dismounted infantry. Landsers can have scout teams moving ahead of them into the attack, but Panzergrenadiers should be attacking well established objectives mounted up (preferably alongside Panzers). If something needs scouting in that scenario it should ideally be a platoon/company commander or someone else with shiny things on his shoulder peeking up above that rise before mounting up again. That's quite different from a two man scout team marching ahead of its squad or platoon as it moves to contact and on foot. @Centurian52: true, I rephrased that part to be clearer/more accurate. Ta!

The formations aren't parade-ground rigid. Intervals and alignment are flexible in order to take advantage of the terrain. But they do fight in formations, of which a literal line is one (in fact it is the default formation for engaging an enemy to your front). The best you can do to mimic squad formations in Combat Mission is to break the squad into teams and arrange those teams into a line, column, or wedge (there are never enough teams to form a diamond unfortunately). A better representation of formations is on my wishlist for future improvements to Combat Mission.

Greetings All; After my iMac Quad (mid 2011) dying last year, I replaced it with a Mac Mini M2 pro, now running iOS Sonoma v14.4.1. I’ve managed to get one game up & running (via Rosetta??), Red Thunder v2.12, game engine v4. I seem to recall using my v4 key to unlock it & seems to run just fine after a few Quick Battle tests. However I can’t seem to activate any of the rest of my collection. For instance; launching Fortress Italy v2.11 it gives me the Combat Mission Error Handler stating that there is a ‘Finger Print Mismatch’, error code 209. None of my keys seem to work. Am I going to need a new key(s) to activate each one of my collection? Thanks In Advance; Tankgeezer