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ASL Veteran

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Everything posted by ASL Veteran

  1. Who is sponsoring the discharge petition? If it's a Democrat I wouldn't put too much into that - it's possible it could go through, but every Republican who pushes this forward is basically torpedoing the speaker's authority and he would then become ineffective at moving future legislation going forward (the Speaker of the House must be able to get his caucus to agree to different things to pass legislation and if his authority is undermined then he would be ineffective). So that basically means the Republicans would need to find a new Speaker. I'm not sure how many Republicans want to go through that again just to pass this (as important as this is to some here, the US has a lot of big issues to tackle). Besides, none of us on this board know what's going on within the Republican caucus - the leadership likely already has a plan / agreement on what to do. There are a lot of Democrats who will refuse to vote for this as well simply because they don't want to agree to anything that sends money to Israel. I haven't seen anyone talking / writing about this Discharge Petition and if nobody is talking about it then I doubt it has any legs - but we'll see. The votes might be there to pass it if the Speaker brings it to the floor, but just because the votes might there for regular order that doesn't mean that a Discharge Petition will succeed. Even if every Democrat signed it (and not every one will) you would basically have to get enough Republicans to sign on and then look for a new Speaker of the House.
  2. In this context my assumption would be that the Russian assets would be used as a form of collateral and since they mention 'Surety' then I would say as collateral vs a form of Surety bond (a bond is a form of loan - when you buy a corporate bond you are essentially loaning the issuing company money in exchange for an interest payment) sort of deal and since they mention reparations perhaps they could demand some form of reparations in exchange for getting their assets returned when this whole thing is finally over.
  3. The Pentagon's budget will need a continuing resolution passed sometime around March 22 if a regular budget can't be agreed upon (which is doubtful so they have to keep passing continuing resolutions to keep last year's budget going). More than likely the Ukraine / Israel / random other stuff aide package will be resolved around that time since it's likely going to be folded into all the other defense spending (that's what I've read anyway and it makes sense).
  4. Shell hunger is nothing new. Some may recall reading about 'We Shall Shell' pamphlets circulated during WW1 while attempts were made to ramp up production. The other half of the equation is barrel wear. I'm pretty confident that these barrels are being pushed to their limits and accuracy must suffer. Also much of Ukraine's artillery is 122, 152, and 130 so when the EU puts the stipulation that whatever they will supply will be domestically produced - well that's mostly going to be NATO standard 155. However, even with every NATO member nation basically producing the same thing they could still only deliver half of what was promised.
  5. I read somewhere that Ukrainian males aged between 18 and 26 can't be mobilized / aren't draftable or something although they can choose to enlist if they want to. I've also read / heard that the average age of a Ukrainian soldier is something like 44 years old - which is nuts. You can't even enlist in the US army if you are older than 35. If true, it sure seems like the individuals that you want most are the ones that can't be had for some unknown reason. I'm with The Capt though - nobody has more at stake than Ukraine and if Ukraine can't even get enough recruits into the service then that's a big issue. There are plenty of fingers that are getting pointed at various political parties, countries, and 'issues', but if Ukraine doesn't even have the willpower to get their 18 to 26 year olds into military service then I would think the biggest finger has to be pointed right at Ukraine. Assuming that information is accurate.
  6. When you revive the deleted unit is it still associated with the same VPs. In other words, are all units associated with the same VP 'group' and when you delete the units that are part of the group are they still associated with the group as before? Also, if the reinforcement hasn't arrived yet then I don't think you get the points for it - it would only be for units actually on the map at the time the scenario ends. I'm not certain that I'm following exactly what you are describing though so hopefully I'm not misunderstanding anything.
  7. Don't know if anyone already posted this but I thought it was interesting
  8. My impression is that Ukraine is attempting to replicate how western nations attack enemies through air superiority, but they are doing it with missiles and drones instead (and less effectively than the US air force would be doing it). The target choices though do resemble what the US hits with the various air campaigns over the years. Air Defense systems and installations. Russian naval targets. Interdiction of supply depots and lines of communications. Command and control centers. Individual leaders. Artillery systems through counterbattery and rocket fire (HIMARs). Russian artillery is primarily being used to support the front lines from what I understand, and the Russians don't seem to have the same targeting priorities as Ukraine does. This seems to be a traditional Russian approach to warfare. Even in WW2 The Germans said that Soviet air and artillery was primarily focused on targets within twenty miles of the front lines. German troops could move with near total freedom beyond that distance unlike in the west when movement was interdicted at almost all distances from the front lines. Sure, Russia does do some coordinated and large scale missile attacks at Ukrainian strategic targets, but they don't appear to be very effective at it. Ukraine doesn't need to gain full air superiority, but if they want to launch a successful offensive at some point, I think they will need to keep the Russian air force and helicopters at bay at the point of attack through a combination of F16s and modern Air Defense systems.
  9. I haven't been following this thread too closely recently, although I have tried to keep up with current events as best as time allows. From my perspective, Ukraine was at its weakest and Russia was at its strongest (relatively speaking as compared to each other) on day one. Every day since day one has Russia getting weaker relative to Ukraine overall. Russia has fewer armored vehicles of all types than at the beginning of the war. Ukraine has more, and better, armored vehicles, artillery systems, and various other equipment than at the beginning of the war. I believe that currently the forces in the field are roughly equivalent in terms of overall numbers. Up to this point Ukraine hasn't been able to leverage their strengthening position relative to Russia, but Russia hasn't been able to replicate anything that they accomplished in the first month or two of when this whole thing started, and it doesn't look like they are capable of doing anything close to that in the foreseeable future. Sure, Russia can grind out 'Victories' by WW1 standards, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for the Russian army to cross the Dnepr River again, or even occupy all of Ukraine east of the Dnepr River (or capture Kiev for that matter). To this point Russia, somewhat surprisingly, hasn't gained air superiority over Ukraine. I am also of the opinion that a lack of air superiority holds Ukraine back. It seems to me that the biggest advantage the US military has over all their modern opponents, probably even dating back to WW2, is air superiority (or even supremacy). Once you have air supremacy everything else becomes a lot easier for a variety of reasons since air supremacy, to a large extent, gives you the ability to dictate the terms of the conflict. With that in mind, it seems to me that the biggest factor in how things will play out will be how Ukraine can expand the capabilities of their air force and whether or not deliveries of F16s, and other modern aircraft can influence the outcome along with the Leopards, Abrams, and artillery systems, etcetera. If Ukraine can gain some form of air superiority, even temporarily over a specific sector of the front lines, I think it could have a very big impact on whether or not Ukraine can conduct a successful offensive. Trying to break through Russian fortified lines and exploit a breakthrough to good effect without owning air superiority seems like a tall task to me. Russians throwing waves of infantry and armor at various points of the front lines and gaining a few meters of ground each week is almost irrelevant to me. If Russia decides to stop attacking and just sit on the defensive, then if Ukraine hasn't gained air superiority I think it's time to worry about the outcome if you are hoping for a Ukrainian victory. So long as Russia keeps attacking like it's the Somme all over again then, by all means Russia, have at it.
  10. Given the stats at from the Blitz, overall I'm satisfied with the results. There is only so much we can do to fine tune scenarios. There generally isn't sufficient time for anyone to play it head to head before release so we mostly have to test vs the AI from each side and tweak from that. Feedback can also be difficult since it can be 'interpretive'. One person could say that it's completely unbalanced in favor of one side, and then once it's released it turns out that it's unbalanced to the opposite side. It's much better to watch YouTube videos of the scenarios because you can actually see exactly what the player is doing and tweak from that, but we won't see that stuff until after release. It's just too difficult to balance something for any specific player or match between two specific players. All we can do is hope that the aggregate of all the games played works out such that each side has a reasonable chance of victory. It takes a lot of games against the AI as well as a bit of luck and intuition. Sometimes it works out great and sometimes we produce a big turd. It just comes with the territory.
  11. It's possible you didn't miss a thing. The part the Germans seemed to struggle with is they are forced to hit the crest of the hill (and I don't think there is a wall directly on the crest so they are mostly out in the open while you are behind walls if I remember right) and if the German doesn't hit the crest all at once, then the full firepower of the Canadians is on just the Germans on the crest (if the Canadians advance up a wall or two) so it really depends on what the German player did. I think the Canadian wants to be positioned on the wall closest to the crest that they can reach and then just blast the Germans off the crest as they arrive.
  12. Head to head results from the Blitz. 14 games registered Gaming Records 1st Side Player 2nd Side Player Result Score LuckyLlama vs. Captain K Canada Tactical Victory 54 18 weta_nz vs. Singapore Sling Draw 36 36 para bellum vs. kadursahl Heer Major Victory 60 12 weapon2010 vs. raz_atoth Draw 36 36 Safetyman vs. A Canadian Cat Canada Total Defeat 6 66 Panzer Lehr vs. TeddyA Heer Minor Victory 48 24 Guardsman vs. speedyninja Heer Total Victory 66 6 Panzer Lehr vs. a1steaks Draw 36 36 BletchleyGeek vs. Duff Draw 36 36 Spatenknecht vs. Fusilier9 Heer Total Defeat 6 66 Fusilier9 vs. Spatenknecht Canada Major Victory 60 12 BrosifBallin vs. miller41 Heer Major Victory 60 12 Duff vs. a1steaks Canada Major Victory 60 12 Mad Mike vs. Jpratt88 Heer Total Victory 66 6
  13. From what I remember the smoke rounds that show for off map artillery is counted as a subset of total rounds. In other words, if you have 50 rounds and 10 smoke, then you can either fire ten smoke and 40 HE or you can fire 50 HE and no smoke because the smoke rounds aren't separate things from the HE.
  14. yes, body parts everywhere and the seat soaked in blood. Not sure that I would be too thrilled to remove the body parts and sit in a pool of blood to take over the driver's position when the enemy is still firing at my tank.
  15. Switching around isn't what they would do and taking more time to do it wouldn't make it more 'realistic'. if the driver were killed but the tank was still functional the crew would bail out. If another crewmember was killed and the driver was still functioning the tank would retreat off the map. Basically any time a crew member is killed in a WW2 tank that ends the fight for that tank.
  16. I think games are still being reported on at the Blitz. Index - TheBlitz
  17. I don't know what BFC Elvis did with them so I can't really answer that question.
  18. I just want to correct some of the above. The Battle Pack does include vehicles from the Vehicle Pack. In fact, I think it might even be necessary to have the Vehicle Pack in order for the scenarios in the Battle Pack to be played. If I recall correctly, the whole point of the Battle Pack was to create scenarios using the Vehicle Pack. I also made two scenarios specifically for the Steam Release of CMBN that included vehicles from the Vehicle Pack. I redid Colossal Crack and Surrender Invites Death - although I'm not sure where those two scenarios are included exactly in the Steam Release. All I do is put them on the internal server file location thing and BFC Elvis takes them from there. I believe they are named Colossal Crack SR and Surrender Invites Death SR or at least that's how I named them. BFC Elvis would have to say where those remakes were included and perhaps even indicate whether my memory is correct or not - he's the one who does all of that sort of stuff.
  19. I seem to recall that LOF to the upper floors of buildings will show as blocked when the ground floor is obstructed. In this instance the blockage would be the building sitting directly in front of the building you are drawing the LOF too. However, the TAC AI will still spot units on the upper floor as well as fire at them on their own. You just can't manually area target those floors of the building. At least that's what I remember someone saying about these types of situations.
  20. I don't know if someone has already posted this, but I ran across this and thought it was pretty funny. I had no idea the UK's arms shipments to Ukraine were causing such hardship.
  21. You should know that the color of the LOS line gives you information. It even says 'No Line of Sight' which indicates that the issue being shown is not a spotting issue, but rather that the LOS is being blocked by 'something'. In this case the dark blue is where your unit can see, and the pink part is the distance remaining to the target and is blocked. Therefore the LOS is being blocked at the point where the dark blue line meets the pink portion of the line. In this case those 'two trees' appear to be blocking your LOS to the target vehicle. Visually you may say 'it's just two trees, just look at them', but for the game whatever those two trees represent are sufficient to block your LOS to the target.
  22. Yeah, price controls - that's the answer lol. Just let the government set the price of everything. No, there is no actual history of what happens with price controls to reference there - nope - that's definitely the answer to everyone's problems.
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